Blue Green--did we do the right thing?

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

Help--my husband and I purchased the Blue Green 20,000 points last week. did we do the right thing? My husband is getting worried now as he reads other reviews. please respond--have you used Blue Green? Any troubles? What are the pros & cons--any information that is not in the fine print would be helpful:shock
thanks

[aliikai2 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close aliikai2]

If you just bought retail, rescind now!!

It is easy to fail under the memorizing spiel of the skilled TSW, the facts all seem to make sense, then... you get home and it hits you. You paid way too much, these points can be bought for next to nothing resale.

Rescind now, follow the instructions, then take your time here and learn, then and only then buy resale.

Greg

Help--my husband and I purchased the Blue Green 20,000 points last week. did we do the right thing? My husband is getting worried now as he reads other reviews. please respond--have you used Blue Green? Any troubles? What are the pros & cons--any information that is not in the fine print would be helpful:shock
thanks

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

Bluegreen is great, but, if you bought from the company and paid more the $1.25 per point, you paid too much.

There are a lot of resorts and programs to offer, but the sales people want too much money for the stuff they sell.

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

If you paid around $1.40 - $1.50 per point, and you bought directly from Bluegreen, you actually did not do too badly. You should be a Silver Premier member which gives you some perks.

In order to get all the perks you got, you would have HAD to pay at least $1.25 per point even buying on the resale market.

As soon as you can get online on the Bluegreen website do a lot of reading there - learn how to use the club.

And read the Bluegreen specific section of this message board.

[vacation_family99 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vacation_family99]

We love BG! We get to take great family vacations! The key is to plan 11 months ahead!

Enjoy! Read here and on the blue green yahoo site.
Amy

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

get ready for over $1,200 in maintenance fees.

[travellover2011 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close travellover2011]

Tradedate,

I have heard a few people talk about extremely high maintenance fees, but I'm pretty sure we were told it would be around $500.00??? Does BG tack on fine print fees that we should be aware of??? I'm scared to death!!!!

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

There are some variables to what the fees actually are and they are based on the trust type (I believe that most now are trust E) and the points owned, but as an example:
Trust E with 20,000 points would be .045 cents/point + $350 base charge = $1250.

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

Does BG tack on fine print fees that we should be aware of??? I'm scared to death!!!!

Trust Fund E points you pay the base fee (calculated according to your points) and also a membership fee (or whatever it's called) that pays for the call center and your RCI membership and is the same for everybody. I think most other Trust funds, the points are calculated differently but it's also a yearly Maintenance Fee and a yearly Membership Fee, and that's it. A couple of specific resorts have additional fees if you stay there, which you can check into with the BG yahoo group or ask about in the BG subforum here.

Most of the ones with added fees are in the middle of the city and you're paying for parking -- the one in New Orleans and the one in Miami have them, for example. And I think Sea Glass in Myrtle Beach (Carolina Grand is also right downtown but has a parking garage built into it). The only non-downtown one I know about is a $5 daily fee at all the Big Cedar resorts (Wilderness Club, the Cliffs at Long Creek and I think Paradise Point), which we have to pay to use the Big Cedar amenities (whether we actually use them or not).

Mind you, we've stayed in eight or nine BG resorts and have yet to pay an extra fee, so they're pretty easy to avoid. Can't remember how many resorts there are now but it's fewer than 10% and maybe fewer than 5% that have the extra fees.

I don't think BG has extremely high maintenance fees -- from what I've seen, if you're counting all fees, they're on the low side of average for a points system. And a lot of the ones with lower MFs have other fees that, for us at least, would kick the cost up right by BG anyhow (although they would be cheaper than BG for people with other vacation styles).

[kntb Member Find all posts View Profile Close kntb]

I had the same question. The wife and I went to a presentation earlier this year, late July, and decided that we didn't want to get into a timeshare right now. They offered us the 2 year package and we wen for that. After getting home and doing a little research on the company I found some good reviews and some horror stories. It made me a little hesitant, but we have not tried booking any trips yet, but want to do one soon. I know you need to book far in advance so we are looking at something for spring/fall. Our summer trip was planned before we bought in. We'll see how the 2 years goes and base our decision to buy on that. I hope we don't have one of the horror stories. Wish us luck.

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

They offered us the 2 year package and we wen for that.

With a Sampler you won't end up a horror story because you'll know what you've got before you buy in. The only people I've seen unhappy with a Sampler purchase either thought they could use it in the summer (usually you can't, and they record your understanding of that), or they didn't reserve early for the only possible time they could use it. If you aren't flexible, you need to reserve A.S.A.P. (i.e., eleven months out). If you are flexible, and especially if you're going offseason (which is spring or fall most places, but there are exceptions like Leaf Season in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, which is a busier time than summer or major holidays), you can dawdle a bit and still get in.

It also helps to have quirky tastes and tendencies, or, if your preferences are pretty average, to be aware of that fact. People who think, "I know! We can go to Walt Disney World for Christmas! We'll have the place to ourselves!" are in for an ugly surprise. If the points price is high, expect crowds, but low points prices attract the savvy so they can sell out early, too, although usually for particular units rather than the whole resort (for instance, 3 BRs at the Fountains cost the same as 2 BRs but are considerably larger -- and are rare, to boot -- so you won't likely see them much).

[kntb Member Find all posts View Profile Close kntb]

With a Sampler you won't end up a horror story because you'll know what you've got before you buy in. The only people I've seen unhappy with a Sampler purchase either thought they could use it in the summer (usually you can't, and they record your understanding of that), or they didn't reserve early for the only possible time they could use it. If you aren't flexible, you need to reserve A.S.A.P. (i.e., eleven months out). If you are flexible, and especially if you're going offseason (which is spring or fall most places, but there are exceptions like Leaf Season in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, which is a busier time than summer or major holidays), you can dawdle a bit and still get in.

It also helps to have quirky tastes and tendencies, or, if your preferences are pretty average, to be aware of that fact. People who think, "I know! We can go to Walt Disney World for Christmas! We'll have the place to ourselves!" are in for an ugly surprise. If the points price is high, expect crowds, but low points prices attract the savvy so they can sell out early, too, although usually for particular units rather than the whole resort (for instance, 3 BRs at the Fountains cost the same as 2 BRs but are considerably larger -- and are rare, to boot -- so you won't likely see them much).

Did not know we couldn't use it in the summer, we weren't told that(unless I completely missed it, going to check our paperwork again). I know we were restricted in where we could go, one of the places my wife really wanted to go was Club 36 in Atlantic City but that is one of the places we cannot go.

Hobbitess, you seem to be a wealth of knowledge, hope I don't get on your nerves with all my noob questions.

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

Did not know we couldn't use it in the summer, we weren't told that(unless I completely missed it, going to check our paperwork again).

Yours may not be; they've changed Samplers since we got ours and maybe they don't block out as much. But when we got ours, summer and some holidays were blocked out. The Sampler contract's pretty simple, so I wouldn't think you would have missed it if that's the case with yours.

Club 36 is in Las Vegas; the one in Atlantic City is Atlantic Palace. Neither one is particularly difficult to get into for a regular owner, however they're both newer resorts (to the club), so they can be points pricy. Club 36 is usually available when they're running the "Friends and Family" deal, and I think Sampler points are also pulled from developer inventory, so I'm surprised if that's not part of the Sampler deal.

Better to ask questions before buying than to buy in and then complain that Bluegreen wasn't what you wanted, right?

[kntb Member Find all posts View Profile Close kntb]

Yours may not be; they've changed Samplers since we got ours and maybe they don't block out as much. But when we got ours, summer and some holidays were blocked out. The Sampler contract's pretty simple, so I wouldn't think you would have missed it if that's the case with yours.

Club 36 is in Las Vegas; the one in Atlantic City is Atlantic Palace. Neither one is particularly difficult to get into for a regular owner, however they're both newer resorts (to the club), so they can be points pricy. Club 36 is usually available when they're running the "Friends and Family" deal, and I think Sampler points are also pulled from developer inventory, so I'm surprised if that's not part of the Sampler deal.

Better to ask questions before buying than to buy in and then complain that Bluegreen wasn't what you wanted, right?

Dang girl, you are on you P's and Q's aren't you? Thanks for correcting me. See, that just shows how much I need to be on this website. It wasn't either of those it was Hershey, Pa that was one of the restricted sites. Now I gotta remember why the wife was upset with either AC or Las Vegas(could be she was upset with me and I just projected it onto whatever I was reading about at the time).

[kntb Member Find all posts View Profile Close kntb]

I checked the contract and it looks like you may be right, there is a clause limiting us as to where we can go during the summer months(june, july, aug). Luckily I think we can go to the ones in Florida, which is where I think the wife may want to go. I got a sneaky feeling she is going to switch from our upstate NY trip this year to a Bluegreen resort.

I'll let you know how THAT goes, wish me luck.