Big Mistake? Week for Points?

[literacylearning Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close literacylearning]

Today we were visited in our home by a representative from Diamond Resorts. We've owned a Sunterra Poipu Point floating annual week for 12 years, which we don't visit very often and frankly are dismayed by it's decline in condition. (We do use our Starwood timeshare points frequently.) We paid $3000 to convert to 10,000 points, but are worried about the value; they will stay the same while the points required to stay will go up. Our week, however, will always be worth 7 days. Did we make the wrong choice? We have 3 days to rescind. Any and all wisdom and advice appreciated.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

We paid $3000 to convert to 10,000 points, but are worried about the value; they will stay the same while the points required to stay will go up. Our week, however, will always be worth 7 days. Did we make the wrong choice? We have 3 days to rescind. Any and all wisdom and advice appreciated.

Are your points connected to anything? In the Bluegreen points system, you "own" a particular week at a particular resort, so those points will always buy that week. Their trading power with the other resorts around at that time will most likely not change, either, however as new resorts or new units come into the system those tend to be pricier. But if your happy with what your points will trade for when you join, you should continue to be able to get into those units as time goes on.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

First, did you just join THE Club (sounds like you did) or did they put you in the Trust (you give up your deed for an interest in a trust)? IMHO, giving DRI your deed to become a member of one of their trusts isn't the best way to go. You have a trust fee of $205 and, if you're also a member of THE Club you have another $255 fee to pay each year.

In our case, we rarely visited our home resort. When they offered us the opportunity to convert our weeks into THE Club for points, we took the offer. It's worked out well for us as we can spend the points on the exchanges we want and we can give away, rent to recover costs, save for next year or use any "extra" points above what we need for any other services offered by DRI. It's worked out well for us because we weren't getting the full value of our two weeks the way we were using them.

Points are flexable, points can be saved and points can be borrowed. Points have a fixed value with Interval International so you don't have to worry about the exchange value of your unit at your home resort. The points program includes membership through Interval with DRI's corporate account and it's a Gold membership. Some will claim the corporate account has more trade value but, I'm not seeing it. DRI points aren't pulling anything my deeded weeks can't see. It's just that the points have a fixed value with Interval and, with a deeded week, sometimes I'm asking for less than what I'm giving. Essentially "overpaying" for the exchange.

So, IMO, if you exchange your week more often than you use it, you'll probably see a benefit to having access to the points program. If you use your own week most of the time it's not such a great deal.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Don't give up your deed

Agreed with Doug - if you have given up your deeded week then it is a BIG mistake IMO. If all you have done is commit your existing deeded ownership to THE Club points based exchange system - but have held on to the deeded ownership - then maybe, if you fel the points will work better for you than the week does, it may be worth worth the cost. But I strongly suggest that giving up your deeded ownership plus paying to get into The Club is a mistake. If you did that and can rescind personally I would cancel that deal. Never give up your deeded rights and the other features - the protection of foreclosure vs simply canceling your paid for membership and the very important voting rights at your resort that you relinquish if you give up your deed.

[literacylearning Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close literacylearning]

Thank you for your reply! We did not give up our deed, and it is "The Club." I am now reading on this forum that some people demand and get a letter guaranteeing them their week for 10,000 points (or whatever they own) as part of their signing up for the conversion. Rats. I want to rescind to take advantage of that. Our salesman implied this was a one time offer; did we fall for that old one, too???

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Since you are still in your rescind period, I absolutely would rescind, if for no other reason than to take time to do more research. If you rescind, you will still have every option still open to you. You can stay with your current deeded ownership, you can join the Club and retain your deed, or you can join the Trust. You will also regain the option to negotiate a 10,000 point "any available week" grandfather clause.

In short you lose nothing by rescinding, but if you don't rescind all of your options are gone.