New Owner Need Help

[jo99ix Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jo99ix]

Hi there,

Fiance and I took a 5-day trip to Aruba through Bass Pro's Bluegreen promo. We went to the tour and became owners unexpectedly, very similar to another poster here, gfdengine204. We just could not say no to the very friendly and patient Arubans (we took all day, 11am to 6pm, to finish the contract).

We paid $13,500 for 6000 points for a deed at the La Cabana Resort in Aruba. Maintenance fee is around $750. We got some nice perks as part of the purchase, 4000 bonus points, free RCI membership lifetime, **15** RCI week certificates (this is really what pulled us into this ownership). After some research, I feel that this price is extremely high for 6000 points. Fiance and I will rarely visit Bluegreen's domestic resorts; we primarily want to use the points to trade into RCI week and World Hotel nights.

Could the experienced folks here shed some light into our purchase? We were told there is no rescission policy because we bought in Aruba. We are still within the 3-day US rescission period. Should we try to get out of this contract? My primary concern is this is not the best deal for our money. If we could get similar benefits for less money, it's important we get the most bang out of our bucks.

Please advise! Thank you!

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

Get out while you can! Deals are everywhere; it's always a buyers' market in timeshares--but especially now. You can buy anytime, so if you think timesharing is for you, take several months or a year and learn about the various systems and figure out what would be right for you. You can only get out for a limited time; you can buy forever.

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

There are a lot of great resale offers that will give you more points for a lot less money. It would be best for your finances if you would recind and research Ebay or Pinnacal Vacations (authorized bluegreen resellar) for your points needs.

BTW-I think 7000-13,000 would be a better size purchase based on my past experience. That will get you into almost any resort at almost any week. The 6000 points isn't going to get you far.

I have been an owner since 2002 and have enjoyed nearly every part of Bluegreen except the owner updates.

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

How Much to Buy and How

I agree with the prior posts as far as the money goes and doing research before you buy. We decided to do a blend of Bluegreen and resale points. We wanted to get to a premium level (bronze) to take advatage of some Bluegreen perks, but for more points we went resale (they are very cheap right now). We have 30,000 points per year to use...half resale and half Bluegreen purchase with an average cost of about 80 cents per point. To better use the club, I do recommend about 15,000 points per year. That we give a good selection of villas and be a good balance to the maintenance fees....about $1000 per year for the basic fee. By the way, we started our adventure into Bluegreen with 5000 annual points from Bluegreen at Mountainloft (we actually had a nice salesperson there....not like the dragons we ran into later there). Good luck to you. We do enjoy our Bluegreen vacations.

[Peabody126 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Peabody126]

I dont think you will be happy with the 6000 points - it will not get you far. Boca, the moderator for this site is a wealth of information. As an example, though expensive, we just purchased 10,000 points for 14,500. Boca will be able to answer this better, but I was told that you can no longer blend points (from secondary market purchase) into one account/maintenance fee after June 2010.... Anyone know the truth of this????

[msjack9100 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close msjack9100]

Hi, I have Bluegreen points to offer

I have been to La Cabana a few times. I own 7,000 annual points and unlimited Bonus Time in my package.
Since I travel a lot for work, I'd love to sell this membership!!
I paid 10K for it but at this point, glad to offer it for half or make me an offer?
Annual cost is about 450.00. Really, you can book with this most times every year. I have been doing it myself!
Let me know if you have time to retract?

I got caught in a visit while there too...that is too much to pay so you should [U]do something for sure!!

[jo99ix Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jo99ix]

Thanks everyone, for your reply!

Aruba does not have rescission rules so we could not easily get out of our contract. Nonetheless, I have sent a formal rescission request to Bluegreen via registered mail and plan to fight my way out of it. (We later found out more about the RCI certificates which would make them much much less useful to us. So this really is not a good deal for us.)

In case that we could not get out of this contract, Boca or anyone else, please help me understand how I would be able to buy resale or eBay points and combine it with our Bluegreen ownership? 6000 points a year are too few to spend.

If we CAN successfully get out of this contract, I would be inclined to purchase a resale package and get points for much much less. When I get there, I will come back and do more research!

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

You made an excellent decision. I hope you will be able to get out of the deal. Fingers crossed for you.

Sue

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

In case that we could not get out of this contract, Boca or anyone else, please help me understand how I would be able to buy resale or eBay points and combine it with our Bluegreen ownership? 6000 points a year are too few to spend.

At any time you can buy resale points. The points can be used like any other points to make reservations.

Here are the 'major' differences:
- the resale points will not be "qualified" points - meaning they do not count towards premier status levels
- if the resale points do not belong to the same trust fund as your original purchase your maintenance fees will be higher
- if the anniversary date of the resale points is different than your original purchase you'll have to keep track of that.

Bocabum would definitely be worth contacting whether or not you can get out of the original purchase.