What to do with "stale" points?

[lookie Member Find all posts View Profile Close lookie]

Bought a "resale" package of 10k points/year. MF and dues come to just under 1000/year (trust E). No "VIP, Gold/Platinum/Plutonium" status, but I think I can live with that.

Has 10k points that expire in July, 2011
and 10k points that expire in July 2012.

Will not be able to use the July 2011 points. Can I "rent" them? What can I reasonably expect to get for them?

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

You can rent them. What you can get for them depends on what you reserve and whether you can find someone interested in renting. Try asking around family and work, and see if anyone wants to go anywhere near a BG resort between now and then. Most people aim at getting nine or ten cents a point, although not everyone gets that much, especially with points that are about to expire. Remember that they are only good for red season or below (i.e., red, white or blue seasons).

Good luck!

[lookie Member Find all posts View Profile Close lookie]

Thanks hobitess.

So even most optimistically phrased, I should not expect to even get my membership and MF back from a "points rental"?

I didn't buy this to make money, so that's not the end of the world, but that kind of surprises me.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Thanks hobitess.

So even most optimistically phrased, I should not expect to even get my membership and MF back from a "points rental"?

I didn't buy this to make money, so that's not the end of the world, but that kind of surprises me.

Well, for many people making 9 or 10 cents per 1K IS making money.
My maint fee on 1K points is about $0.50 so a 10K rental costs me $500 - if I rent it for $900-1,000 this is good.

When u refer to "membership" are you refering to a mortgage payment you have? Why are your fees so high?

[JWKess Member Find all posts View Profile Close JWKess]

reply

$320 + $450 + $129 = $899; just under $1000.

Step 1, get reservation
Step 2, find someone to rent the reservation, determine fee it takes about 8 cents a point to get your maintenance fees back. If you use 10,000 points to make reservation, which needs to be done before the points expire. You could get $800.

It isn't easy but can be done, as a last resort make a reservation and gift a vacation to a loved one.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

$320 + $450 + $129 = $899; just under $1000.

Thanks, I missed the trust fund E part

[lookie Member Find all posts View Profile Close lookie]

Thanks for the replies, but am I missing something? Are Fund "E" fees excessively high?

My general understanding was that funds started at A (don't know where they stop) but that E was on the low end?

If "E" fees are extremely high what fund should I try to roll into if I buy more?

BTW, I figured high ($1000 for fees assuming that they'll go up)

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

If "E" fees are extremely high what fund should I try to roll into if I buy more?

Not to panic. The E Trust fund was at one time the best for people who had a lot of points, and one of the worst for those with a few points -- in other words, the more points you have, the less it costs you per point. I think it's still true that trust fund E is your best bet for larger ownerships, just not by as great a margin as it once was, and at least one person's calculations put you close to the tipping point, close enough anything you're likely to combine with it will take you over. Plus MFs in different trust funds often don't combine, or don't combine well. So any way you look at it, if you buy more points, you'll want to get them in trust fund E.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

$320 + $450 + $129 = $899; just under $1000.

.

At this current rate in trust fund E, you are at $89.90 per 1K for 10K pts.

If you added another 10,000 in trust fund E, your rate would only go up by $450+899 = $1349/20K pts = $67.45 per 1K.

Add another 10,000 trust fund E $450+$1349 = 1799/30K pts = $59.96 per 1K

So you could own 30,000 pts and only double your fee from $899 to $1799.

You just have to make sure the points you acquire are in Trust Fund E.

edit
$450+1799 = $2249/40K = $56.22
$450+2249 = $2699/50K = $53.98
$450+2699 = $3149/60K = $52.48

[lookie Member Find all posts View Profile Close lookie]

Thanks for the responses. I bought this thing resale to see if I like this setup and can get the use out of it to justify buying a larger points package in the future. Considering that, it sounds like trust E is the place to start. If I don't like it, I won't have too much invested and hopefully will be able to "sell" it on e-bay or via a broker.

One other question, when booking, do I need to do anything to make sure that the "oldest" points are used first?

Thanks again.

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

We bought trust fund E with the same philosophy -- although we've found so many ways to "stretch our points" I'm not sure that we'll buy any more, so it maybe wasn't the best choice for us. OTOH, we might have bought more points despite how well our initial purchase stretches if hubby hadn't bought a second house for his business instead.

One other question, when booking, do I need to do anything to make sure that the "oldest" points are used first?

They should use the oldest points first but you can request they do so, and be sure and check that they did so so you can get it fixed if they didn't. Also, in terms of individual resorts, you may or may not want to request this or that. When we go to Harbour Lights, for instance, we want a unit on the Intercoastal Waterway if we can get it. The ones facing the ponds are fine, but we really like the waterway. Most resorts on the beach you pay extra for beach front so you know you have it; at Seaglass, weirdly enough, beachfront and those facing inland are the same cost, so I would want to request beachfront if I were staying there. Etc.

So far, all our requests have been honored, but we usually travel off season, which helps I am sure. Even when we travel in the summer to accommodate my niece's school schedule, we go late August, which is about as slow as the summer gets I suspect. We never have more than one request, though, and are not requesting a particular unit even though we sometimes get the exact one we most wanted.

Hope you end up liking Bluegreen as much as we do.

[JWKess Member Find all posts View Profile Close JWKess]

Oldest Points

BG should always use the oldest points, those that will expire first, providing it is within the rules. For example if you have saved points that expire 1 July 2011. You, if available, can book a resort in white, blue, or red status before the points expire. If you have annual points you can book any season before the points roll to saved, then only white, blue and red until they expire. If you have borrowed points you can use them just like annual points, but they will not roll over to saved points until the anniversery. For example if you borrowed 2012 points and your anniversery is 1 July, you could use the points as annual points until July 1, 2012 when the remaining points would roll over to saved. Depending on when you borrow points, you may be required to pay maintenance fees in advance.

With a few accounts this is not to complicated. If you have many accounts, you may want to make a spreadsheet to stay up with the points and where and when the points are deducted from which account.