what is true?

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

I have been interested in bluegreen for a while. I like where they have resorts but I know that resale is much cheaper. We already own a 2 bd lockout at westgate smoky mountains and 1 bd at surrey grande crowne (branson).
When we went for the presentation we got the first crazy "cadillac" offer, then we got another offer, then we got 10,000 EOY points with VIP bonus time (Is this really for any resortA?) and travelers plus. The price was aprox 12K and they said MF aprox $510 per year and club fees $129. I asked why MF every year if points aren't but never got a good answer.(???) I assume club fees equal exchange fee within bluegreen (since there isn't one with each transaction) and deferred cost of RCI membership. We were told if we spent 5-6K on there credit card per year it would cover our fees.(True?False) We didn't buy because we already have too much timeshare (3wks with no kids, friends or family that ever wants to go with us)They said they could help us sell our timeshare with only upfront money a $39 per deed title search fee, if we are willing to take 50cents on the dollar but it is only for owners. We said we have heard that before (how we got grande crowne). They also told us about an aim program where you keep your property and pay the MF and for a small fee you can get bluegreen points to use as you please, but of course you have to be a bluegreen owner. (is this program worth it?) They were also proud of travelers plus which was only free for the first year. Can you tell me why you would need travelers plus if you can rent all the bonus time you want or get extra weeks through RCI? They also said bluegreen owners can get the best price on airfare but were sketchy as to whether this has anything to do with the travelers plus program.
We love timeshare but also like cruising and vacations where timeshares are not present or hard to get and we can only afford 2 wks vacation per year. Because we pay nearly $1K in MF now, we don't take the "other" vacations because we need to use what we have already paid for. We also generally travel in off peak times (we don't like crowds) but after reading on this forum for a little while it seems that 10K EOY points might make it hard to ever reserve a high demand week which might then make us sorry we bought yet another timeshare.
We did buy a 12K point sampler program ($3500 with 70% applied to a future purchase) with limited travelers plus usage which will then let us try to sell our timeshares using their broker. They felt it would be reasonable to expect 6-8K for our westgate and 4K for surrey. I thought they were crazy but if they can then we could afford the above program. If they don't then we spent a little more than we should to try bluegreen resorts but since we cannot trade into Big Cedar and other resorts because they trade through RCI we can at least taste the good life. ha ha
I would love to hear your opinions about what we have been told and anything else you think I might need to know. TIA. Stacey

[Tom in GA Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom in GA]

Some Minor Help

Stacy,

Welcome to the Bluegreen forum. I don't have all the answers, but I will try to help. BocaBum, our Bluegreen guru, will probably help you the most. He is very trustworthy and honest. He will probably read this and explain it or ask you to contact him directly.

We joined Bluegreen about four years ago after our timeshare condo was reduced to ruble in FL from two hurricanes in a row. We owned it for 22 years. We chose Bluegreen because it was a flexible point system and had many locations for our vacation needs. We are now retired so we 'flex' pretty good now as far as scheduling. You sound like us. We travel and do things while a lot of our friends and relatives don't want to travel (except to grandma's) or can't make up there minds what they wnat to do on vacation until the last moment. For now, we happy Bluegreen owners.

The resale market for timeshares is between flat and awful at this time. Unless these sales people know of a special cookie jar, I doubt that even premium timeshares will bring in much cash in after fees. We bought 5000 Bluegreen points to start and added 6000 resale points a year later after checking things out. We wanted to move to a premier level so we turned in our two deeds, bought 4000 more Bluegreen points for one 30,000 biennial deed (15,000 per year) at the Fountains to attain bronze level. We then added 8000 annual resale points on another deed at the Fountains. That gives us 23,000 points per year to use. The total cost for all this was about a dollar a point. Bluegreen values us at $32,000 while we paid $23,000. Our maintenance fee is $1484 per year. Bluegreen charges an annual MF fee for biennial deeds based on 15,000 points of the 30,000 points purchased. We felt it was good blend of Bluegreen sales points and Bluegreen resale points.

To be effective as far as MF fees and use time, 15,000 points per year is a good base figure. It is important that all your deeds (if buying more than one) be in the same trust. It avoids extra MF for being in different trusts. The Bluegreen charge card may interest us for MF payment, but we haven't taken the plunge yet. I like to hear more about it on the forum before we dive in.

We don't exchange through RCI as Bluegreen and Shell have enough inventory to last us a lifetime. We have heard about some real good expereinces with RCI and also have heard some real horror stories about them. I know they don't do a good job of checking on the quality of the resorts in their catalog. Our old FL resort appeared in their catalog for two years AFTER it was demolished.

I hope this helps some.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Stacey,

Here are some answers to your questions. In the future, if you could provide spaces between questions or number them, it will be easier for us to provide you with answers.

1) If you purchase a Charter Member package, then you will have unlimited access to bonus time at all Bluegreen Vacation Club resorts. It is subject to availability 45-days or less from check in. 48-days if you book online. 90- or 93- days for Pono Kai or La Cabana. It works quite well and people purchase charter member packages just for this feature.

2) Every other year points have maintenance fees billed every year. 20000 biennnial points = 10000 annual points. In other words, a 20000 biennial point package is billed for maintenance fees EXACTLY like a 10000 annual point package.

3) There are NO exchange fees, NO transaction fees, NO housekeeping fees when you use your points for booking a Bluegreen Vacation Club resort (unless you own a Christmas Mountain Village special deed type that comes with points which is highly unlikely unless you buy an old resale package). The annual dues of $129 is to cover the reservation team and owner services. It also gets you a free RCI account.

4) You need to spend way more than $5000-6000 on your Bluegreen rewards card to cover you maintenance fees. Usually, you get around $.01/dollar spent. If your maintenance fees are $500, then you need to spend $50,000 to cover your maintenance fees.

5) Bluegreen refers clients to Pinnacle Vacations to sell their timeshares. They charge $39 to advertise your timeshare on their website. There is no guarantee that it will sell. That is just the advertising fee. If you have a fixed week, there is a 99.99% chance that it will not sell at any price.

6) Yes, the AIM program works well. However, there are some restrictions. First, you must own a Gold or Silver Crown resort, it must be reserved at least 12 months prior to check in. There is a fee for converting it to points every year (I think it is $99 now). And, you must repeat the process every year. Depending on the size and designation of your week, you will get a certain number of BG points. You can only AIM in as many points as you have purchased directly from BG. So, if your week is worth 10000 BG points, you must own 10000 qualified points bought from Bluegreen or its authorized reseller at the right price.

7) Traveler Plus is a great feature. If you purchase a Charter Member package, you get access to Select Connections which is access to about 20 resorts in the Shell Vacation Club. There is a booking fee of between free and $49 depending on your Premier level. You also get access to Hot Weeks, The Grand Yacht Club, RCI Nightly stays and more.

8) Forget airline bookings through Traveler Plus. You get the same price as from Travelocity or from the airline directly.

The rest of your message seems to be a commentary by you about the program. Not sure if I missed any of your questions.

Good luck with your sampler package. It will give you a good idea if the Bluegreen Vacation Club is for you. If it is, contact me and I can get you really cheap points.