Are you happy with your RCI Membership?

[Jeanne Sz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jeanne Sz]

My RCI memberships for both points and weeks come via Wyndham ownership, but I mostly use it for cash purchases now unless I see something I can get for converting Wyndham points for a non-Wyndham location. Before TPUs, my non-Wyndham Red week ownership got me even trades for July 4 2 bedroom weeks; now my week is worth 13 TPU and I can't even get a summer week at my home resort. I use II instead to trade those weeks for better deals, and have happily taken advantage of their e-trade option as well.

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

Ditto! I have also come to really love II's E-trade option and wish that RCI offered something similar. Also II's platinum membership provides far more value to me.

Love EPlus option. And I like the Platinum but since I have 4 (soon to be 5) II accounts, the platinum has limited value depending on which account I am using.
I really think of II as my primary exchange company but use RCI for specific hard to get places that only they have.

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

I have significantly reduced my usage of RCI over the past couple years as II has gotten a lot more of my attention. RCI's fees have gotten out of line. If I need to book more than a year out, then I go with RCI, but most everything else is split between a few other exchange companies.

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

Wow 18 Love/Hates already.
Including me.

Unfortunately RCI has most of my favorite resorts on an exclusive, so I am definitely stuck with them if I want to go to those resorts.
Love that I can get a DVC for way less than my own points cost, same with HGVC and Wyndhams.
Also gotta stick with them to get more time at my favorite frumpy beachfront place which I always do.

Yes gotta pay those stupid combine fees now but I am being more selective about when I combine and have
only paid it twice since we went to TPU's yet have been able to get pretty much everything I have wanted from them.

I do agree that II is a better value for a week for week basis and I get awesome deals with them too.
II is now my off site choice for Disney trips thanks to all those wonderful Marriotts.

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Fees are a total rip off. They no longer have an office in Australia which is very annoying because there is nothing like local knowledge and Australians provide better customer service. I dislike RCI but unfortunately still have to use them when I need to book overseas. Otherwise, it's DAE for me.

[catwgirl Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close catwgirl]

Love/hate here too. Especially hate the fee to combine TPUs.

When I did my first RCI exchange (back in the day) the exchange fee was $75. $209 is just plain nuts.

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

After years of being with II only. I took the plunge and added RCI about 2 years ago. I now have both.

Over the last year, I have started to like RCI a bit more for these reasons:
1. For trips into New England, the unit availability is much more. Even resorts that are dual have more desired weeks in RCI.
2. For trips outside of New England, they have more options for some of the places on my bucket list (San Diego, San Antonio)
3. I like that I know what I have with them. TPUs needed....I either have enough or I don't. No trade power game which can be frustrating with II.
4. DVC. I won't pay the 40+ TPUs to stay there, but those last minutes are great. Also got prime Vero Beach in April for only 20 TPUs, thought that was a good deal.

If II wasn't my only Marriott outlet, then I would drop them and use only RCI. But, I do love those Marriott resorts!

[bezerk Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close bezerk]

I like it less than before..fees are going to high.. Options seem to be less..least for me..
I usually can get what I want in Mexico but extreme difficulty in US, like say New York.
Also NY outrageous TPU's

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

Also NY outrageous TPU's

Except last week!

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

Love/hate for me. Still getting good exchanges just not happy with fees and TPU for some of my resorts. I used to be able to get a 2BR every year for Florida easter/passover spring break. I am now almost always short 1-3 TPU's on the same trader and they are forcing me to combine TPU's to get the same exchange that I have gotten for at least 10-15 years in a row before TPU's. So for dual affiliated resorts that I am nor happy with my TPU's I am now using II or SFX to get what I want. Still using RCI for my RCI points account and doing well with that for now.

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

So wow.
25 Votes for Love/Hate.
That's a lot of love/hate.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

No opinion is my answer because I don't have to worry about them as I let my membership expire and the same for the II independent account. All what these companies are trying to do today is squeeze more money out of us to satisfy their Corporate Directors and their stock investors and we have no choice but to pay the fees or dump them like we did.

This is not how it was portrayed to us when we bought originally from the developer. Naive people like us are the ones who, most likely, will keep paying these fees or not exchange at all so they can rent OUR units out for pure profit while they told us that we could travel the world and save money supposedly.

We didn't fall for that ploy because we bought where we like to vacation so need none of them but most people signed the dotted line because of the beautiful RCI or II directory of colorful pictures of far away places. Who wouldn't like to visit these far away places one day and the same tactic is still used today when you do a developer presentation without telling you how difficult it is to do and how many extra fees there are. They do mention the yearly fee.

We are lucky to belong to a forum here where people educate each other how to get around it by sharing their knowledge and so much more.

[FreeIn2010 Member Find all posts View Profile Close FreeIn2010]

Love the many options, Hate the rising costs.

[MisterE Member Find all posts View Profile Close MisterE]

i've been wanting to dump RCI and my timeshare for years.

[iapetus79 Member Find all posts View Profile Close iapetus79]

Wow 18 Love/Hates already.
Including me.

Unfortunately RCI has most of my favorite resorts on an exclusive, so I am definitely stuck with them if I want to go to those resorts.
Love that I can get a DVC for way less than my own points cost, same with HGVC and Wyndhams.
Also gotta stick with them to get more time at my favorite frumpy beachfront place which I always do.

Yes gotta pay those stupid combine fees now but I am being more selective about when I combine and have
only paid it twice since we went to TPU's yet have been able to get pretty much everything I have wanted from them.

I do agree that II is a better value for a week for week basis and I get awesome deals with them too.
II is now my off site choice for Disney trips thanks to all those wonderful Marriotts.

I never heard of II until I started reading these boards....is it something that you buy a membership to directly ? Or is it perk of one of your timeshares ?