Search first vs. Deposit first - impact on trade power

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

As a new II member, I'm getting used to the search first option. Is the trade power less than it would be if I deposited first? If so, how much?

I know you should deposit a year out but with RCI, some regions don't have a significant reduction in trade power if you deposit late (e.g. summer socal). Is that the same with II and in the same regions?

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Too risky to deposit first

As a new II member, I'm getting used to the search first option. Is the trade power less than it would be if I deposited first? If so, how much?

I know you should deposit a year out but with RCI, some regions don't have a significant reduction in trade power if you deposit late (e.g. summer socal). Is that the same with II and in the same regions?

In my 10 years+ of II individual membership I never found deposit first to be a good choice with II. You lose all control over your time and they tend to bombard you with offers of smaller units, different resorts, different times and on and on once they have your week. With search first you can be sure you are going to get a satisfactory exchange or they don't get your week. That incentive seems to be far more valuable than any possible enhanced trade power that deposit first may bring. I tried it both ways almost equally over the ten years using the same deposits. No question the results were far better using request first.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

The only problem with request first is that you can only request dates prior to the checkin date of the week you are exchanging...

[I-DE-HO Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close I-DE-HO]

As a new II member, I'm getting used to the search first option. Is the trade power less than it would be if I deposited first? If so, how much?

I know you should deposit a year out but with RCI, some regions don't have a significant reduction in trade power if you deposit late (e.g. summer socal). Is that the same with II and in the same regions?

There is a great thread on TUG about this- Dep. First (DF) and Req. First (RF). I'd post the link but then I'd have to look for it. Do a search on the B/S/Exchange forum for 'request first' and 'deposit first'. IIRC, TP is equal on a SF or DF assuming everything is equal (same week, same start time, etc). The big difference in TP occurs if you later on decide to deposit the week you've been SF with. That week will then have a decreased TP since you are much closer to your use date. I like John's theory-RF.

Phil