New Owner with a few questions!

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

Hello to all,

My husband and I just returned from Destin, Fl and we purchased the Wyndham VIP package. We are 27 yo professionals and we take a lot of vacations so we hope this will turn out to be a great financial decision for us. I have been browsing through the forums for the last few hours, and I have already learned quite a bit. I am wondering if some of you experienced Wyndham owners could take the time to answer some of my questions here. Because I am new, and I am blonde, please feel free to answer the questions like you are talking to a 5 year old. At this point, you couldn't make anything too clear or too repetitive!

1. We are flexible in our dates, most of the dates we would want are not prime or high season dates, so does this make us likely to get the dates we want?

2. We just joined this weekend. Will we have only until the end of the year to use our 2008 points? Are next years points deposited on Jan 1 or will they be deposited on our anniversary date of July 19 2009? Basically, how many points will we have on Jan 1, 2009?

3. We are planning to go to Europe this next year using our points. Any suggestions on how to use them or where to stay?

4. Since we are fairly flexible travelers, would it be worth it to us to wait on making reservations since we can get discounts on the points in the 90 day window?

5. How do you get discounts when you are VIP on a reservation that you make?

That's all I can think of for now but I know there will be more. Thank you in advance for help!

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

Welcome to TS4M's

If you have been reading for the past few hours, then you know that someone will tell you to rescind and buy resale. We can't stress that enough. I know there are people on this board who have saved tens of thousands of dollars listening to us just by rescinding on a developer's package.
If you follow the instructions in your contract to the tee and rescind..you could buy the same resale a lot cheaper, probably 10% of what you anticipate paying.

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

Hello to all,

My husband and I just returned from Destin, Fl and we purchased the Wyndham VIP package. We are 27 yo professionals and we take a lot of vacations so we hope this will turn out to be a great financial decision for us. I have been browsing through the forums for the last few hours, and I have already learned quite a bit. I am wondering if some of you experienced Wyndham owners could take the time to answer some of my questions here. Because I am new, and I am blonde, please feel free to answer the questions like you are talking to a 5 year old. At this point, you couldn't make anything too clear or too repetitive!

1. We are flexible in our dates, most of the dates we would want are not prime or high season dates, so does this make us likely to get the dates we want?

Yes. Generally, there is very good inventory available for Wyn resorts at 10 months before check in. For some prime summer and holiday weeks, you will want to book on 10 months. The further out you can plan, the more availability there will be. If you are planner like many of us here, you will do fine.

2. We just joined this weekend. Will we have only until the end of the year to use our 2008 points? Are next years points deposited on Jan 1 or will they be deposited on our anniversary date of July 19 2009? Basically, how many points will we have on Jan 1, 2009?

You must use or lose your 2008 points by the end of your Use Year. If that is Jan 1 to Dec 31, then you have to use them by Dec 31. If you don't use them, they are gone. You have choices of how to use them. Reservation with check in before Dec 31, deposit a week into your exchange company, probably RCI, rent them to another owner

3. We are planning to go to Europe this next year using our points. Any suggestions on how to use them or where to stay?

How are you planning to go? Exchange? If so, you will need to put in a search request NOW. Europe is very difficult to get through exchange and requires 1 to 2 years advance planning. If you have Plus Partners, you will be able to have resorts in the RCI Points program also available.


4. Since we are fairly flexible travelers, would it be worth it to us to wait on making reservations since we can get discounts on the points in the 90 day window?

If you like to take a chance on what's available, yes. BTW, the discounts aren't available until 60 days prior to check in.

5. How do you get discounts when you are VIP on a reservation that you make?

The reservations will calculate it automatically if you are eligible.


That's all I can think of for now but I know there will be more. Thank you in advance for help!

See my answers/comments in red.

Although you didn't ask, you may want to investigate buying Wyn via resale. You don't get the VIP status, but you can buy points at 10 to 20% of what you paid. If that is something you would want to do, you will need to rescind your contract within the time you have. If the rescind time has passed, you should stay here and learn all you can.

Another great website for Wyn owners is here. You should register and join, it's free.

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

AHHHH!!! Help me ! I am looking at our contract now, how do I rescind????? Are all their contracts capable of being cancelled within 7 days?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

2. We just joined this weekend. Will we have only until the end of the year to use our 2008 points? Are next years points deposited on Jan 1 or will they be deposited on our anniversary date of July 19 2009? Basically, how many points will we have on Jan 1, 2009?

No, you would not, since you bought retail, I would believe your use year will be start from either Oct or July. Most likely is Oct. Don't know how many points you will have at Jan 2009, you may used all the points before that time.

3. We are planning to go to Europe this next year using our points. Any suggestions on how to use them or where to stay?

You bought from retail, so you do have Plus Partnership. Try to make reservation start from 10 month of your travel day. So, if you plan to travel to England say at April, call VC and bug them start at June (it is a little late now). Make sure you first check the place from RCI to figure out how many of them are RCI points. I don't believe there are enough RCI point resorts there. But could be wrong. RCI week trade is depended on where and when you want go. You will need to call VC ask them to do search first and hopefully, they will transfer you to an experience VC that will tell you how many points you may need to deposit.


Sounds like you don't have kids and have enough saving for the future. If you can afford the purchase price, than maybe you will find some benefits on VIP. But usually it does not worth the loss of the money. On the other hand, my 5 years old never measure things with money value.

Good luck.

Jya-Ning

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

AHHHH!!! Help me ! I am looking at our contract now, how do I rescind????? Are all their contracts capable of being cancelled within 7 days?

I hope by now you've found the instructions to rescind. Write a brief letter stating that you have decided that you want to rescind your purchase for contract xxx. Follow the instructions exactly for delivery to the company. If it says mail, don't fed ex and vice versa. Get a return receipt so you have proof of when you mailed it.

Good luck. Spend more time reading here and you'll become an educated consumer!

Welcome!

Sue

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

Although you didn't ask, you may want to investigate buying Wyn via resale. You don't get the VIP status, but you can buy points at 10 to 20% of what you paid.

Just to repeat what Mike said.

You'll likely pay only 10% -20% of what the developer is asking.

Buy resale and save 80-90% OFF THE DEVELOPER'S PRICE!!

FYI: With many other TS companies, buying resale will save you about 1/2 of the developer's price. BUT with Wyndham/FF it seem to be more like a 90% savings.

[rklein01 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rklein01]

Another reason you should rescind is it will give you a chance to relax and devote a month or three to discovering what timeshare system (if any) will best meet your needs.

Wyndham is an excellent system, but there are fundamentally only two ways to use it. One is to use your Wyndham FSP points to stay at Wyndham properties in the U.S. (check the online directory and you'll see what and where they are: there are only about 50 of them). The other is to exchange Wyndham points into the RCI Weeks system which can work very well but usually only if you're the sort who can plan your vacations one to two years in advance.

Wyndham Plus Partners would give you access to RCI Points, but at a vastly inflated initial purchase price. If it's too late to rescind you'll be able to make it work for you. But an alternative if you can rescind will be to buy directly into the RCI Points system by (resale) purchase of a property that participates directly in RCI points.

I'm guessing RCI points would be good for you because there are many hundreds (thousands?) of RCI Points properties that you could trade for. At most you'd need to plan 10 months ahead for the RCI Points reservations and in many cases you could get excellent last-minute deals via RCI Points' abillity to reserve RCI Weeks properties (confusing, I know) for a nominal number of points in the 45-day window. [You can also apply RCI points to reserve RCI Weeks properties, ideally up to two years in advance, just as you would with your Wyndham points.]

So if you can rescind, do so and then take your time and study Wyndham (resale) versus the competition. RCI Points will not be the only alternative... there are also also Worldmark, Hilton HGVC, Shell, Marriott and more.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

AHHHH!!! Help me ! I am looking at our contract now, how do I rescind????? Are all their contracts capable of being cancelled within 7 days?

Sorry miss this post. Look at the contract, general, at the end, it will say how you rescind. generally, it is write them a letter say you don't want the contract then send them through certified mail (this I am not so sure). Make some copies, but they will take over there.

Read your contracts to find out what kind of US mail you need do.

Jya-Ning