New Owners

[gfdengine204 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gfdengine204]

Howdy all. New owner here, a little back story:

Got hit up in a bass Pro Shops for the BG deal. Figured we would go, enjoy the gifts (Water park passes, $50 in gift cards to BPS), listen to their spiel, say "No, thank you", and enjoy our weekend with our 6 yr old daughter. Well, 4 hours later, we walk out of the sale presentation as Blue Green owners. My wife, who was adamant we were not buying anything, said "We can't pass this up, this seems like a good idea". Color me stunned.

Anyway, we got 10,000 pts EOY, plus Charter Certificate, 4,000 anniversary pts, you know, all the perks of new ownership. Paid $10,350. Seemed pretty ok, and my wife is looking at a new job that has bonus-incentives, and one quarterly bonus will pay that off. So, God willing, this will be paid off quickly.

We look at this as a good way to take our lil princess to Disney (most likely thru an RCI transfer: 8,000pts + $179 for a week), every other year. 3 trips and it about pays for itself, according to my math.

I admit, I have tons of questions, and have been reading posts here, and am learning much. I do have some questions about what I have read regarding buying points on eBay.

1. If I buy from an eBay reseller, the way I understand it, we are buying the "mortgage" from someone for just the transfer fee plus the amount of the auction bid, correct?

2. Such a purchase will garner us those points every year (or every other year, depending on the package), just like we have in our initial purchase from Blue Green, right?

3. We can't use these points towards VIP stuff, but are we not already eligible for this as we bought direct on our vacation?

4. If we purchase thru an eBay reseller, we now pay 2 maintenance fees, but only one club dues? And, is there a way to combine these accounts to pay only one maintenance fee?

We are still waiting to "get in the system", so I'm hoping when that happens I will be able to peruse the info there and learn more. As it is, we are pretty excited to be new owners, and look forward to using our vacation time, as well as adding to it until we get it to the level that lets us vacation nicely as much as we can.

Sorry so long winded; guess that's what happens to those of us that talk for a living.

- Kev

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

If you still have time to rescind, do so immediately. NOTHING that you bought directly from BlueGreen (or any other developer) is such a good deal that you can't find it elsewhere on the resale market.

You clearly need to do some homework before buying a timeshare, which will save you thousands of bucks.

[gfdengine204 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gfdengine204]

If you still have time to rescind, do so immediately. NOTHING that you bought directly from BlueGreen (or any other developer) is such a good deal that you can't find it elsewhere on the resale market.

You clearly need to do some homework before buying a timeshare, which will save you thousands of bucks.

Unfortunately, we are outside the rescind period.

[marshalldillon Member Find all posts View Profile Close marshalldillon]

Enjoy tour purchase and use this site to learn how to maximize your points. We love out blue green points and want you to enjoy yours as well. Welcome and happy vacationing. I am also Interssted I. How you can use the exchange for a Disney resort. Any help? Thanks!

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

1. If I buy from an eBay reseller, the way I understand it, we are buying the "mortgage" from someone for just the transfer fee plus the amount of the auction bid, correct?

Essentially correct, however there are some hidden pitfalls to buying on E-bay. Bluegreen points are in various "trust funds", and not all trust funds combine well, meaning you could end up paying a lot more than necessary in yearly Maintenance Fees. The easiest way to avoid that is to keep all your points in one trust fund. I believe the Bluegreen Yahoo group has a chart that will help you figure out what trust fund an E-bay offer is in.

2. Such a purchase will garner us those points every year (or every other year, depending on the package), just like we have in our initial purchase from Blue Green, right?

Correct, however the anniversary dates won't be the same (although there are ways around that I understand), which makes keeping track of stuff a bit more tricky.

3. We can't use these points towards VIP stuff, but are we not already eligible for this as we bought direct on our vacation?

Yep. You can use E-bay points for any reservation you're eligible for. What you cannot do with your E-Bay points is use them toward Premiere status -- they won't apply if you want to go Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

4. If we purchase thru an eBay reseller, we now pay 2 maintenance fees, but only one club dues? And, is there a way to combine these accounts to pay only one maintenance fee?

The real expert here is Boca Bum, who can give you more specifics. But if you add in that points in the same trust fund should combine into one MF, I think you've got the gist. Seems to me you do get more glitches buying through E-bay -- points not combing or people paying double dues -- but those are mistakes rather than the ways things are supposed to work and can be fixed by calling in (sometimes repeatedly ) until things are straightened out.

As it is, we are pretty excited to be new owners, and look forward to using our vacation time, as well as adding to it until we get it to the level that lets us vacation nicely as much as we can.
v

We love our Bluegreen ownership. Hope you do, too.

How you can use the exchange for a Disney resort.

Sign in on the Bluegreen site. Hit the "Using the Club" pull down menu, then click on "Making Exchanges." In the middle of the page that comes up is a button that says "Get Started Now". Clicking on that should get you an RCI page. Click on "RCI Exchange Reservations" once you're there, then the link under "RCI Weekly Exchanges" on the next page. Eventually (RCI is slooooow), you'll get a map and can click on the area you want to go -- Florida, in the case of most DVC. I then click on "Orlando," myself, to narrow the search even further, although if you want to see the Vero Beach resort you could stick with Florida and then scan through the alphabetical listings to the DVC resorts.

Then it's just a matter of (1) having enough points to get the date you want and (2) having enough luck that the date you want is deposited. When we're likely to go, an off-season DVC 1 BR costs about as much as an off-season Wyndham Bonnet Creek 2 BR, even though you get better pools and more space in Bonnet Creek and it's just as close to the parks as many DVC units. Since I've been paying attention (which isn't long), I've seen a fair number of off season Saratoga Springs and Old Key West weeks, and at least a couple Boardwalk or Beachclub pretty regular. Bay Lake Towers is listed as an RCI resort, but no one has ever seen a week offered there.

Disney usually doesn't deposit its newest resorts for a while, so if you have your heart set on BLT, plan on going some years down the road. OTOH, if you can get an Animal Kingdom Lodge unit, according to people who've been watching a lot longer than I have, odds are fairly good you'll have a savannah view. What you won't have is a lot of selection -- if your kids are in school or you're otherwise on a school schedule, staying in DVC using your Bluegreen points may be a serious challenge. Renting points from a DVC owner might be a better way to go.

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

Then make good use of what you bought and enjoy it. The smile on your daughters face at Disney should make the purchase worth it.

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

Great answers Hobbitess

As an FYI, to stay at a DVC property or ANY Florida property thru RCI there is now a fixed cross-over grid. So to stay at Old Key West or Bonnet Creek or Westgate all "cost" the same. All your points need to be 'current' - saved points can only be used in RCI with 45 days

studio 9,000, 1BR 11,000 2BR 18,000, 3BR 22,000 BG points + RCI exchange fee. This is for red season, there is a slight decrease for white/blue but RCI pretty much treats FL as red (except hurricane season)

If you are looking to add to your ownership rather then go thru the hassle/uncertainty of ebay, I suggest you contact BocaBum99 thru this board - this way you know your accounts will combine correctly. He is currently helping a member here who is paying the $320 base fee on 5 accounts - when complete, the member will have saved $1280 per year in maint fees
And you never want to purchase a property that has an outstanding mortgage....there are SO many people that are just giving away their ownerships now.

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

As an FYI, to stay at a DVC property or ANY Florida property thru RCI there is now a fixed cross-over grid. So to stay at Old Key West or Bonnet Creek or Westgate all "cost" the same.

Okay, I see -- the DVC weeks that cost more actually had one day still in August. Ooops. Not used to seasons being cut so cleanly by month rather than by when kids are in school or holidays or whatever.

Interesting. I'll bet plenty of DVC owners would be Most Irked to know that it costs less to trade into a 2 BR Beach Club than into a lower-rated 2 BR in middle-of-nowhere, NY state. And I know some who'd be offended that DVC is going at the same rate as off-site Orlando resorts! Although I suspect that's a reasonable price in the TS community -- while the DVC onsite units generally have the advantage of location and theming, there are plenty of disadvantages to compensate.

And you never want to purchase a property that has an outstanding mortgage....

Second this. If by "mortgage" the OP meant "the yearly Maintenance Fees," as was my initial reading, then that's fine. But you don't want to buy points from anyone unless the original purchase price has been paid -- unless you're doing it as an act of charity.

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

Okay, I see -- the DVC weeks that cost more actually had one day still in August. Ooops. Not used to seasons being cut so cleanly by month rather than by when kids are in school or holidays or whatever.

Interesting. I'll bet plenty of DVC owners would be Most Irked to know that it costs less to trade into a 2 BR Beach Club than into a lower-rated 2 BR in middle-of-nowhere, NY state. And I know some who'd be offended that DVC is going at the same rate as off-site Orlando resorts! Although I suspect that's a reasonable price in the TS community -- while the DVC onsite units generally have the advantage of location and theming, there are plenty of disadvantages to compensate.



Second this. If by "mortgage" the OP meant "the yearly Maintenance Fees," as was my initial reading, then that's fine. But you don't want to buy points from anyone unless the original purchase price has been paid -- unless you're doing it as an act of charity.

Yes, the new "generic" crossover grid has definitely changed the playing field for RCI exchanges - for better or worse depending on what you want to do. You CAN still deposit your deeded week into your "regular" BG RCI account and get TPUs - which for many people would be a better deal. I could get 51 TPUs for my 12,000 BG point summer Myrtle Beach ownership which would get me two 2BR units in DVC at 25 each...

As for your " " - I truly meant your answers were good and complete and on the mark....I was paying you a compliment

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

As for your " " - I truly meant your answers were good and complete and on the mark....I was paying you a compliment

Thank you. My was because I'd thought Bonnet Creek and DVC were different prices, which didn't fit with what you were saying. But in reality I just wasn't reading carefully enough.

[gfdengine204 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gfdengine204]

Thanks all for the answers. I am sure I will have lots of questions as I learn this, so very glad I found this forum and all the nice people here.

[kcbedo Member Find all posts View Profile Close kcbedo]

As an FYI, to stay at a DVC property or ANY Florida property thru RCI there is now a fixed cross-over grid. So to stay at Old Key West or Bonnet Creek or Westgate all "cost" the same.

The DVC resorts also charge an additional $95 Resort Fee on top of the $179 RCI fee. This pays for your round-trip airport transfer.

[gfdengine204 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gfdengine204]

Now this concerns me. When we signed up, we were told to go to one of the Disney RCI places, using our BG points, we would have to use 8K points and pay $179 for a 7 day stay. Was this not correct?

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

Now this concerns me. When we signed up, we were told to go to one of the Disney RCI places, using our BG points, we would have to use 8K points and pay $179 for a 7 day stay. Was this not correct?

It's correct as far as it goes. You use your BG points and pay RCI the standard trading fee of $179. However, in the case of Disney, when you arrive at the resort you have to pay an additional fee of $95 on top of that, which goes directly to Disney and is supposed to help pay for the onsite transportation. It's this fee that explains why DVC was with II for a while -- initially RCI refused to charge that fee, but II agreed to it. Then when DVC switched back to RCI a few years back, the fee came with them.

Whenever you trade through RCI read the fine print -- it will be at the bottom of the page listing availability. Mostly it's stuff like no smoking, no kids, construction dates, etc. Usually if there is an extra charge, it's more in the $5-$35 range, labeled a "utility charge" or "housekeeping charge" or whatever. But every once in a while it's a sizeable chunk of cash, as with DVC. The one other one I've run across is a resort in Chautauqua, New York, that charges hundreds of dollars extra during the summer for the events going on there.

Again, NOT what you usually deal with trading through RCI. But do check before you reserve.

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

Now this concerns me. When we signed up, we were told to go to one of the Disney RCI places, using our BG points, we would have to use 8K points and pay $179 for a 7 day stay. Was this not correct?

8K would get you a studio in white season - see my post above for red season/unit size.
Some resorts such as DVC ($95 per week) and the Manhattan Club ($15/25 per DAY housing fee) and Morritts Tortuga/Grand ($10 day Cayman Island tax) and a host of others have additional charges - it is clearly stated in the exchange fee when u go to exchange.

The BG/RCI interface changed in November 2011....it is always something!