New Bluegreen Owners from NC

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

Hello all!

My Wife and I were "roped in" to a BlueGreen sales pitch on our honeymoon while visiting a local attraction. We have never visited a time share sales spill, but the gifts for showing up was worth a couple hours of our time. The lead generator at the attraction did a good job of talking us into going, saying it wasn't an aggressive sales pitch, etc etc.

Glad to say it wasn't, at all, but it did work! I feel they did a great job of explaining everything, and putting up with me. I'm the guy that reads EVERYTHING before I sign, asks more questions than anybody wants to answer, takes notes during negotiations, etc. Seemed it wasn't an issue at all.

After the initial "presentation" in the room with everyone, we were given a tour. We were thrown in with the group at the end (about 8 of us) as I'm SURE they thought we were not going to buy. We're both 27, EVERYONE else in that room was over 40. After the group tour of the example rooms/yurts/cabins we were handed off to a guy that I guess was not the best closer... kind of reminded me of Walter White from breaking bad... before he became a bad a** meth warlord.

I got the impression he knew from the get go we were not going to buy, so he honestly didn't really try. It was quite nice! Honestly we were kind of sold after the initial presentation but I've got a good poker face and there was no way of knowing it.

We both understood from the beginning that this was something that will present its value in the future... not now. Sure we could just save the money we would be spending on BlueGreen for actual vacations. However once it's paid off, I think is when we will really start to feel good about the purchase.

I have to say after purchasing I immediately wanted to go home and look for a reason to cancel. I found this forum and other sites and was a little relieved to see that we weren't "ripped off" or made a stupid, impulsive decision. From the reading I've done thus far I've come to the conclusion that it does take some learning and education to make best use of the program, and those who don't figure that out, or who took everything they heard from sales people to absolute heart, THOSE are the ones that feel like they were ripped off, and make "noise" about time shares being a rip off.

My parents owned a time share for 20+ years and loved it (conventional style, in Myrtle Beach). I know many people who have both conventional and points based and have no major issues, just the usual maintenance fees, and other things that is just a dead horse.

We don't have the opportunity to vacation much now a days, mainly due to my work schedule. I'm in retail management so this limits my weekends for getting time off, however a mon-thur vacation is easy for us to do. Thus the low point values even for peak times and the flexibility was appealing. We went with 9000 biannual points with the charter... silver charter... whatever its called.

So I look forward to reading more into BlueGreen, as well as how to use the points effectively and to our advantage. They wanted us to go to a new owner's meeting in about a month... you figure they could AT LEAST let you stay in one of their resorts for those 3 days instead of a "select area hotel." Is this really nescessary? After just getting time off for our honeymoon and recovering (financially) from the wedding, honeymoon, etc we don't really want to go if we don't have to. Will it just be another sales pitch to purchase more points/add ons/other "bonuses" or is there a genuine reason to go. I figure it's best to get the info from an independent source such as this forum, vs the guys who sold us the program. It's not in their best interest for us to get the most out of our points. So is there any recommended reading on how to get the best of our purchase? Any good threads on this forum that are a "must read" for a newbie?

Thank you all, look forward to talking with you in the future!

-Jon

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

Timeshare can be a great product if you know how to use it and it fits your needs. In the future, when you add to your portfolio, try to buy resale, so you can get a much better price, but many here, just like you, bought their first timeshare from a developer. BTW, I am from eastern North Carolina. What part of the state are you from?

Bluegreen has a very nice property in Charleston, South Carolina, which is a great place to vacation. Personally, I prefer the independent resort on the beach at the Isle of Palms, but it only has four units and it hard to either find available as a resale or as an exchange with an exchange company. The Bluegreen resort would be my second Charleston choice.

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

Hello all!

We both understood from the beginning that this was something that will present its value in the future... not now. Sure we could just save the money we would be spending on BlueGreen for actual vacations. However once it's paid off, I think is when we will really start to feel good about the purchase.

I have to say after purchasing I immediately wanted to go home and look for a reason to cancel. I found this forum and other sites and was a little relieved to see that we weren't "ripped off" or made a stupid, impulsive decision. From the reading I've done thus far I've come to the conclusion that it does take some learning and education to make best use of the program, and those who don't figure that out, or who took everything they heard from sales people to absolute heart, THOSE are the ones that feel like they were ripped off, and make "noise" about time shares being a rip off.

My parents owned a time share for 20+ years and loved it (conventional style, in Myrtle Beach). I know many people who have both conventional and points based and have no major issues, just the usual maintenance fees, and other things that is just a dead horse.

We don't have the opportunity to vacation much now a days, mainly due to my work schedule. I'm in retail management so this limits my weekends for getting time off, however a mon-thur vacation is easy for us to do. Thus the low point values even for peak times and the flexibility was appealing. We went with 9000 biannual points with the charter... silver charter... whatever its called.

So I look forward to reading more into BlueGreen, as well as how to use the points effectively and to our advantage. They wanted us to go to a new owner's meeting in about a month... you figure they could AT LEAST let you stay in one of their resorts for those 3 days instead of a "select area hotel." Is this really nescessary? After just getting time off for our honeymoon and recovering (financially) from the wedding, honeymoon, etc we don't really want to go if we don't have to. Will it just be another sales pitch to purchase more points/add ons/other "bonuses" or is there a genuine reason to go. I figure it's best to get the info from an independent source such as this forum, vs the guys who sold us the program. It's not in their best interest for us to get the most out of our points. So is there any recommended reading on how to get the best of our purchase? Any good threads on this forum that are a "must read" for a newbie?

Thank you all, look forward to talking with you in the future!

-Jon

Hi Jon and welcome to TS4Ms

I have been a Bluegreen owner for about 4 years and really enjoy the ownership and the flexibility it gives me.
I can reserve and use at all the Bluegreen Resorts.
I can use the Charter Member Benefit - Travelers Plus TP benefit "Select Connections and Prizzma" and reserve at Shell Vacation Club, Raintree VC and soon Grand Pacific Resorts for a low exchange fee- right on the BG website.
I can book Bonus Time at all the Bluegreen Resorts.

And I can exchange thru RCI and II if I so chose.

No, you do not have to attend a new owners meeting in a month, yes, they will talk about your ownership but it is also a sales pitch. Regretfully decline the offer and yes, there will be other offers in the future.

9,000 pts EOY is not very much, my suggestion to you is to try and pay down off your loan ASAP to acquire some more points on the resale market. Oddly enough, having more points is much more cost effective almost immediately.
As you see on this Bluegreen Board, there is a member giving away 11,000 yearly points.
If you added those to your current ownership, your yearly maint fee would only go up by $552.

Maint. Fees are as follows for most BG yearly ownerships
$330 base fee + $0.0502 per point + $129 program fee

At this time, Bluegreen resale market points are almost free. You purchased from the developer initially as many did.

You are correct by booking Sunday thru Friday you can stretch your points...and also the use of Bonus Time for Cash.
Here is a post about how to best "use" your EOY points

I have annual points, so things may have changed since I last paid attention, but when we bought in biennial points worked this way:

You get all your points the first year, and you can use them for any season. At the end of that first year, half of those points will roll over, meaning you can only use them for seasons red and below (i.e. red, white or blue). If you use 4000 the first year, then the 4000 left should not roll over and I think you should not need to have them saved, however the paying to have them saved thing is newish so I could be wrong there.

Since you can use all the points in any season the first year, there is a sense where you get 4000 a year that can be combined, but that isn't how BG looks at it. All the points are connected to a particular week (or particular dates) at a particular resort. You either have the even year at that resort or the odd; when that week comes up, you get all those points.

At the end of two years, all points you haven't used expire, and you get a new set of 8000 points. If annual owners want more than that year's points, we can pay ahead and get the next year's, but I don't know how that works with biennial points or if it's possible. There are other options (temporarily renting points from BG -- which will combine with your owned points -- or from another owner -- which won't), but buying ahead is often the best deal.

Someone with biennial points should wander in here eventually and give you some more authoritative info, but there's a start.

Also, if you bought direct from Bluegreen, you have the option of using "Bonus Time," where 48 days before check-in (if you reserve on line) you can pay cash for units and not use your points. Last time I checked, the rates were pretty reasonable, but the trick is to get the reservation! Bonus Time can be a great deal if you are centrally located and can get to a bunch of different resorts on short notice, or if you can go off season. Otherwise, not so much.

RCI also offers various cash options, or you can trade your points through RCI roughly the same way you can with Bluegreen.

There is a Bluegreen yahoo group that's more active than this one; I prefer Timeshare Forum's layout and there's more information here on RCI resorts and the like, but the Yahoo group has a lot of info. Both boards are useful for a Bluegreen owner.

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

You did Alright. You made a small initial developers purchase. The most valuable part of what you purchased is the Travelers Plus program. I would forget about premier upgrades and just add cheap resale from this point on. Like Pat said, 9000 EOY points are not very many points. basically one week in the older resorts every other year. The 2 bedrooms and newer resorts will require more points per year. I wouldn't wait until I paid off the loan. Now that you have taken the plunge I would go ahead and purchase an additional 15,000 Annual points off of ebay for 2 or 3 hundred dollars at most. (Make sure you can comfortably afford the mntnce fees before bidding. And watch for free closing!) Only bid on trust fund E packages, which I'm sure will match what you already purchased. But call and confirm that you have Trust fund E. There is a new trust fund that has been rumored to be right around the corner, Im 99% sure you will have trust fund E though . You will want to bid on matching trust funds so you will only have to pay one base fee.

I think you will be much happier with 15,000 points annual. That amount will open up more options for you and you will find yourself less limited.

Keep reading and learning.

Best of luck,
Wade

[jerrry94087 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jerrry94087]

You did Alright. You made a small initial developers purchase. The most valuable part of what you purchased is the Travelers Plus program.

I am a bit surprised to see some degree of approval here and no calls like "rescind immediately!".

Is it actually worthwhile to buy some small amount of points from Blue Greens? Travelers Plus is worth it? Those BG points can be had almost free on ebay.

I been to BG presentations few times, never bought, and got the feeling that the least one can pay for some amount of points is around $5000. Hopefully OP didn't drop there much more.

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

I am a bit surprised to see some degree of approval here and no calls like "rescind immediately!".

Is it actually worthwhile to buy some small amount of points from Blue Greens? Travelers Plus is worth it? Those BG points can be had almost free on ebay.

I been to BG presentations few times, never bought, and got the feeling that the least one can pay for some amount of points is around $5000. Hopefully OP didn't drop there much more.

I think "worthwhile" is a very subjective term. I guess it depends on your needs and what you expect out of BG. I am happy I have the developer "perks", do I wish I paid less for them? Yep, for sure.

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

I am a bit surprised to see some degree of approval here and no calls like "rescind immediately!".

Is it actually worthwhile to buy some small amount of points from Blue Greens? Travelers Plus is worth it? Those BG points can be had almost free on ebay.

I been to BG presentations few times, never bought, and got the feeling that the least one can pay for some amount of points is around $5000. Hopefully OP didn't drop there much more.

I think "worthwhile" is a very subjective term. I guess it depends on your needs and what you expect out of BG. I am happy I have the developer "perks", do I wish I paid less for them? Yep, for sure.

The OP was already past the rescind period from the tone of the first post so thre was no point going here.
And yes, BG is one of those programs that buying a small qualified package gives you perks that are worth it for many including me.
You can buy as few as 2,000 points (or 4,000 EOY) from Blueqgreen or even better, from the authorized Bluegreen Reseller Pinnacle Vacations at $1.25 point. You then add resale points on top of this (as suggested by Wade) and enjoy all the benefits of Charter membership.

Unlimited Bonus time at all resorts (with resale purchase you only get them at deeded resort)
Thru Travelers Plus - access to RCI Points resorts, RCI exchanges without depositing first.
Access to Shell Vacation Club, Raintree and soon Grand Pasific Resorts thru Select Connections/Prizzma for small transaction/exchange fee.
Hot weeks - last minute exchanges thru RCI for 3,000 BG points