RCI Increases Weeks Fees in 2011

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

I talked to RCI this past weekend as to why Canadians should be paying more than Americans, with the higher Loonie.
The supervisor stated that the gap had narrowed for Canadians, for 2011, by approx. $6 for most fee's. As I don't have a record of the previous fee's I can't argue with that. He did say that many Canadians have been phoning in to question the difference in the fee's, and that they are "monitoring things but that changes are done on a 3 month to 6 month timeline rather than week to week".
Personally I have an American account within my Canadian bank and pay all my dealings with RCI, and my yearly maintenance fee's out of that account, so I don't pay the difference.

[bevvy5 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close bevvy5]

I talked to RCI this past weekend as to why Canadians should be paying more than Americans, with the higher Loonie.
The supervisor stated that the gap had narrowed for Canadians, for 2011, by approx. $6 for most fee's. As I don't have a record of the previous fee's I can't argue with that. He did say that many Canadians have been phoning in to question the difference in the fee's, and that they are "monitoring things but that changes are done on a 3 month to 6 month timeline rather than week to week".
Personally I have an American account within my Canadian bank and pay all my dealings with RCI, and my yearly maintenance fee's out of that account, so I don't pay the difference.

I've PM'd you. I'm interested in how you've done that.

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

I've set up a CIBC USD account and pay what I can out of that. Re $0.96 dollar- while the posted exchange rate may be equal, banks don't make money by giving you the deal. We just came back from the US last week and all my credit card transactions were higher in CDN than USD, by about 3-4%. Same reason it'll cost you more to buy USD than sell. Go to a Canadian bank, buy a $100 USD, then turn around and sell it back to them - you'll get less back that you started with. Today at RBC it cost $100.72 to buy $100 US, but if you sold $100 US you'd get $96.38 CDN.

I'm not defending RCI, why should I. I've dealt with RCI for nearly 2 years (including having to sit through one of their sells for some free show tickets) and like any business, the devil is in the details. Read the fine print on EVERYTHING and usually those things that cause most of the problems can be avoided or understood. Doesn't make it easy, businesses will always work to their profit advantage but I go in with eyes open.

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

[QUOTE=gokurtgo;423836]I've set up a CIBC USD account and pay what I can out of that. Re $0.96 dollar- while the posted exchange rate may be equal, banks don't make money by giving you the deal. We just came back from the US last week and all my credit card transactions were higher in CDN than USD, by about 3-4%. Same reason it'll cost you more to buy USD than sell. Go to a Canadian bank, buy a $100 USD, then turn around and sell it back to them - you'll get less back that you started with. Today at RBC it cost $100.72 to buy $100 US, but if you sold $100 US you'd get $96.38 CDN.QUOTE]

In my case I never sell the US dollars back, I always keep a float of between $US 3,000 to $5,000 in my CIBC US account. With the excellent rate at the moment, I'm at the top end of what I want to hold in there.

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

[QUOTE=Kentonmag;423875][QUOTE=gokurtgo;423836]I've set up a CIBC USD account and pay what I can out of that. Re $0.96 dollar- while the posted exchange rate may be equal, banks don't make money by giving you the deal. We just came back from the US last week and all my credit card transactions were higher in CDN than USD, by about 3-4%. Same reason it'll cost you more to buy USD than sell. Go to a Canadian bank, buy a $100 USD, then turn around and sell it back to them - you'll get less back that you started with. Today at RBC it cost $100.72 to buy $100 US, but if you sold $100 US you'd get $96.38 CDN.QUOTE]

Do you not have a CIBC US visa card for your US dollar account, I use that on all my transactions, not my Canadian visa card.

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

Personally I have an American account within my Canadian bank and pay all my dealings with RCI, and my yearly maintenance fee's out of that account, so I don't pay the difference.

I understand having a US $ account with CIBC. However, how do you have a US RCI membership? If you're CDN, RCI automatically charges you in CDN transaction fees. So you're still getting hit on the RCI exchange rate difference. Actually, you would be getting a double whammy because you're now paying CDN transaction fees in US funds.

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

[QUOTE=Kentonmag;423877][QUOTE=Kentonmag;423875]

Do you not have a CIBC US visa card for your US dollar account, I use that on all my transactions, not my Canadian visa card.

Not to hijack this thread further, but you should consider the RBC US$ Rewards credit card. Same as the CIBC US$ credit card but you get points, which you can transfer to your Avion card (if you use one of those). I switched after I found out about it the and amount of US$ transactions I do.

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

I understand having a US $ account with CIBC. However, how do you have a US RCI membership? If you're CDN, RCI automatically charges you in CDN transaction fees. So you're still getting hit on the RCI exchange rate difference. Actually, you would be getting a double whammy because you're now paying CDN transaction fees in US funds.

I got to thinking about this last night and yes you are correct, I just phoned RCI and they confirmed that they charge by your address. Thankfully I've only booked 2 points weekend ski vacations using my US visa and they were for my Son and 10 of his friends and they have paid back all the money that I was charged to my wife. So no loss at my end.

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

Points Fees

http://www.rci.com/docs/KnowledgeBas...oints_fees.pdf

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

RCI Last Call Rates

Last Call rates went up too.

I just (today) checked RCI and found this statement:

"Always on the lookout for a great deal? Then Last Call vacations are for you. If you can hit the road on short notice, you can get a great vacation for as little as $199 + tax USD/week for a studio unit. One-bedroom units are $219 + tax USD/week and two-bedroom units are only $249 + tax USD/week."

However, all of the two bedrooms I saw were $294.

Is this poor updating of the RCI web site? What were the rates before the first of the year?

Thank you. Charles