RCI's upgrade - Day 8

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

why would I want to pay so early?

Because you want full value from your ownership. Remember: in RCI Weeks, depositing a full year out is necessary for the maximum possible trade power. Late deposits do matter.

Some owners (probably, most owners) do not do this. Savvy owners do. Likewise for situations like Ann-Marie's; the smart owner who plans ahead gets the most desireable time. The lost opportunity on that money amounts to a few dollars at most---especially in the current yield environment---and that few dollars is considered by many to be a very fair cost for the increase in options available.

Other systems require you to pay in advance to borrow points from future years, etc. And, many owners' deposits are also driven by resort systems, independent of payment (or even deposit) behavior. For example, all of Wyndham's point-side deposits are developer controlled, and happen roughly once a month, 8 months prior to use, give or take. HGVC also deposits on behalf of members, but seems to do so less frequently for longer stretches at a time.

There was an inventory bump earlier this year, over late first/early second quarter. Presumably, these are "regular owners", who paid their MFs at the "usual time", and then spent a few months deciding what they'd do, finally depositing. So, you see some seasonal variations in when things are deposited as well.

Edited to add: a big trap in trying to "figure out" how timeshare mechanisms work is to generalize from your own anecdotal experience and assume everyone else works the same way. Every resort system---and in some cases, every resort---handles the questions of deposit time, pre-payment, etc. differently.

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

Some of it may be they have new levels but that's not all of what is going on.
My deposits are getting closer but for the most part they are still down quite a bit from where they were except 1 deposit which has gone up. But with two of my deposits(I am with Wyndham) I have one that was deposited as a Blue Studio which gave me an upgrade to a Blue 1BR and the other one is a deposited Red 1BR. The red 1BR has always outdrawn the Blue 1BR, that is until now. Now the Blue 1BR sees about 10K more than the Red 1BR. It has been a loss of trading power for the red 1BR and a gain for the Blue 1BR.

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

See if you can't get the deposit dates for those units...you'll have to call the Wyn/RCI desk and get them to look them up.

(Edited to add: Unless that red week was deposited at the last possible moment, or they gave you a more in-demand season for your blue week, there's no way they should be inverted.)

[pgtime2 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pgtime2]

Looks like the RCI website is down (due to heavy traffic, according to the website), and has been since at least 3:30 EST. Can anyone else get in?

[pgtime2 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pgtime2]

Never mind, it's working again. My available inventory is about 155k now, with a great trader. This is down form the high of ~ 170k from a couple of weeks ago.

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

Because you want full value from your ownership. Remember: in RCI Weeks, depositing a full year out is necessary for the maximum possible trade power. Late deposits do matter.

Some owners (probably, most owners) do not do this. Savvy owners do. Likewise for situations like Ann-Marie's; the smart owner who plans ahead gets the most desireable time. The lost opportunity on that money amounts to a few dollars at most---especially in the current yield environment---and that few dollars is considered by many to be a very fair cost for the increase in options available.

Other systems require you to pay in advance to borrow points from future years, etc. And, many owners' deposits are also driven by resort systems, independent of payment (or even deposit) behavior. For example, all of Wyndham's point-side deposits are developer controlled, and happen roughly once a month, 8 months prior to use, give or take. HGVC also deposits on behalf of members, but seems to do so less frequently for longer stretches at a time.

There was an inventory bump earlier this year, over late first/early second quarter. Presumably, these are "regular owners", who paid their MFs at the "usual time", and then spent a few months deciding what they'd do, finally depositing. So, you see some seasonal variations in when things are deposited as well.

Edited to add: a big trap in trying to "figure out" how timeshare mechanisms work is to generalize from your own anecdotal experience and assume everyone else works the same way. Every resort system---and in some cases, every resort---handles the questions of deposit time, pre-payment, etc. differently.

Well I guess I'm just not savvy enough yet. I'm still learning.
But I guess since I don't travel at peak times it seems that I've been pretty lucky to get pretty decent trades for my stuff. I don't own anything that is considered top Tigers except maybe my DVC which I don't deposit so I guess depositing low traders anyway is getting me satisfactory trades for my stuff. I guess if I decide to start going to NYC or Hawaii or Europe then I'll have to change my ways. Thanks for the clarification.

[pgtime2 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pgtime2]

Depositing early

FWIW, I've seen more trading power with earlier deposits. I made the decision to pay the next years MF's early a few years ago and now always pay at the same time every year, but it will be for the next year's weeks. Once you get in the habit (and have "doubled up" 1 year), the costs are the same anyway; it's just that now you're 1 year ahead... Hope that helps and wasn't confusing.

Paul

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

Looks like the RCI website is down (due to heavy traffic, according to the website), and has been since at least 3:30 EST. Can anyone else get in?

Down again, as far as I can tell (4:45 eastern). Earlier today, I could login to weeks, but as soon as I did it put up an error message and kicked me out. Points login worked, but any searches returned immediately with no results. Now, I can't login to either.

This is one of the more grandiose self-inflicted wounds I've seen on the web. One wonders what testing they did before release. Sheesh.

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

FWIW, I've seen more trading power with earlier deposits. I made the decision to pay the next years MF's early a few years ago and now always pay at the same time every year, but it will be for the next year's weeks. Once you get in the habit (and have "doubled up" 1 year), the costs are the same anyway; it's just that now you're 1 year ahead... Hope that helps and wasn't confusing.

Paul

Well maybe when I get my act together I'll try it on my weeks account. I only have 2 that I would deposit anyway. Thanks for the advice. I'll try it for next year.

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

Because you want full value from your ownership. Remember: in RCI Weeks, depositing a full year out is necessary for the maximum possible trade power. Late deposits do matter.

Some owners (probably, most owners) do not do this. Savvy owners do.

I think this is, in general, true, but as Brain noted later on in his posting, the individual resort/system that is the source of the week may constrain owners in how well they can do this. I'll describe four different ownerships I have or used to have.

I own multiple UDI contracts at Christmas Mountain Village, which have rolling reservations throughout the year, and the ability to make up to 10 reservations in a year if I really tried to max them out. I don't, but because of the rolling reservation system, where I can make a new reservation as soon as a current reservation starts (e.g., I have a week reserved for 12 June; on Friday, I'll be able to make another reservation using that "slot" on my ownership), if I made a reservation a year in advance to deposit to RCI, I'd cost myself a couple more reservations I could make at my resort. The example I gave earlier in this thread of depositing 7 months in advance is about as far out as I'll generally go, so I'm not maximizing my trading power in weeks. However, I'll often throw those weeks into RCI points for deposit (those two week 39 weeks have to go in this week to get me maximum points) if I don't see an opportune trade come for them. I'm trading flexibility for maximum trading power. A CMV UDI is among the most flexible ownerships around, but it takes a lot of care and feeding, and you have to decide far in advance what criteria you're trying to maximize.

My Bluegreen Club ownership is much more traditional, in that I can make reservations 12 months out for my home week, or 11 months out anywhere else within Bluegreen, and immediately deposit those weeks for exchange.

The most dead simple system is one in which the owner has a fixed week/unit contract; I used to have one of those at Gethlane in South Africa. Then, I could deposit 2 years in advance, if I prepaid my maintenance fees.

At Dikhololo, which I also used to own, I had a floating ownership, but if I paid my fees in advance, I could reserve the following year's week and deposit it more than 12 months out.

So, depending on your ownership, you may be restricted in how far in advance you can book things, but in general, the closer you can get to booking a year out, the better, for RCI.

Regards,

sc
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[Arb Member Find all posts View Profile Close Arb]

Can't get on RCI's site at all

I can't get anything at all.
I'd think they'd at least restore the system to the way it was just before the so-called enhancement.
When I screw up my own computer, I restore it to an earlier point where it worked properly.
Carole

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

I think this is, in general, true, but as Brain noted later on in his posting, the individual resort/system that is the source of the week may constrain owners in how well they can do this. I'll describe four different ownerships I have or used to have.

I own multiple UDI contracts at Christmas Mountain Village, which have rolling reservations throughout the year, and the ability to make up to 10 reservations in a year if I really tried to max them out. I don't, but because of the rolling reservation system, where I can make a new reservation as soon as a current reservation starts (e.g., I have a week reserved for 12 June; on Friday, I'll be able to make another reservation using that "slot" on my ownership), if I made a reservation a year in advance to deposit to RCI, I'd cost myself a couple more reservations I could make at my resort. The example I gave earlier in this thread of depositing 7 months in advance is about as far out as I'll generally go, so I'm not maximizing my trading power in weeks. However, I'll often throw those weeks into RCI points for deposit (those two week 39 weeks have to go in this week to get me maximum points) if I don't see an opportune trade come for them. I'm trading flexibility for maximum trading power. A CMV UDI is among the most flexible ownerships around, but it takes a lot of care and feeding, and you have to decide far in advance what criteria you're trying to maximize.

My Bluegreen Club ownership is much more traditional, in that I can make reservations 12 months out for my home week, or 11 months out anywhere else within Bluegreen, and immediately deposit those weeks for exchange.

The most dead simple system is one in which the owner has a fixed week/unit contract; I used to have one of those at Gethlane in South Africa. Then, I could deposit 2 years in advance, if I prepaid my maintenance fees.

At Dikhololo, which I also used to own, I had a floating ownership, but if I paid my fees in advance, I could reserve the following year's week and deposit it more than 12 months out.

So, depending on your ownership, you may be restricted in how far in advance you can book things, but in general, the closer you can get to booking a year out, the better, for RCI.

Regards,

sc
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Steve thanks for the lengthy explanation, it helps alot.

What is a UDI?

I own 3 regular weeks but I use one always and the other two I deposit or use depending on my mood. The first I give to II and the 2nd week I convert to points with RCI and use the 7500 exchanges (they give me 38,000 points for it so I get about 5 weeks off of it). , so I think I am maximizing that one as much as possible. I am looking for an alternative to II since I'm not too happy with the exchanges there although I do use the getaways sometimes. Anyway, I guess I could maximize my straight week if I deposit it early with maybe SFX if they'd take it or DAE. I need to study them more since I'm so new to TS's. (5 years only). I've been learning along the way.

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

What is a UDI?

A UDI (Un-Divided Interest) is a special type of ownership only offered at Christmas Mountain Village and Shenanoah Crossings (Wyndham and others have things they call UDI, but they don't mean this type), where an ownership allows one to have 3 weeks booked on the contract at any time (1 red, two non-red), plus a fourth week within 45 days, regardless of color. So, I could book my 3 weeks a year out, and then have just those three weeks to deposit (and maximize trading power), or I can get multiple weeks. For example, right now I have a summer red week booked; as soon as that week starts, I can book a Christmas red week, and at Christmas, I can book a spring ski-season red week. So that 1 red week I'm allowed on the contract can become three over the course of the year.

In reality, it's tough to make it work out that well because of competition (the 4th of July weeks disappear well in advance, as they're the highest demanded week of the year there).

I own 3 regular weeks but I use one always and the other two I deposit or use depending on my mood. The first I give to II and the 2nd week I convert to points with RCI and use the 7500 exchanges (they give me 38,000 points for it so I get about 5 weeks off of it). , so I think I am maximizing that one as much as possible. I am looking for an alternative to II since I'm not too happy with the exchanges there although I do use the getaways sometimes. Anyway, I guess I could maximize my straight week if I deposit it early with maybe SFX if they'd take it or DAE. I need to study them more since I'm so new to TS's. (5 years only). I've been learning along the way.

As I noted, I often use my RCI Weeks account as a "staging area" for PFD weeks. I deposit them in weeks, see if anything really good comes up, and if not, I put them into RCI points (with the standard limit of 4 PFD weeks per resort per year).

I have given my weeks to HTSE, SFX, and DAE, and also belong to Trading Places, Platinum Interchange, and Timex. I didn't find anything useful in DAE, but I got two Hawaii weeks through HTSE in 2007, and we're going to gold-crown-level resorts in Europe next year through SFX. HTSE is fine if you're ok with non-GC-level resorts. They don't often get much inventory from the top-level resorts. The smaller exchange companies obviously don't have the level of inventory that II/RCI get, but I've found them to be quite willing to hunt for matches for us. It's nice to get personal service without all the extra fees and crap we get from RCI and (to a lesser extent) II.

I should note that SFX has really started pushing their Platinum-level ownership, which has a healthy annual fee. They focus on higher-end resorts, and do a true 1-1 week exchange, so if they'll take your deposit, you'll probably be happy with what you get out. Our trades for next year are our first through them, so I'm reserving full judgment until I see what their product is. While my initial interaction has been uniformly and extremely positive, I'm not ready to go to platinum-level membership until I've seen the resorts in Europe.

Regards,

sc
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[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Day 11 06:03AM eastern

Due to internal error, the system is unavailable.


Currently, the RCI Weeks site is experiencing heavy traffic. We value your business and apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later. If you need immediate assistance, please contact an RCI Guide. [M2]



Even better here is Points trying to look at weeks:

Sorry, we did not find a match for your search. Please change your search criteria and try again.

Doesn't matter what I plug in to search. Same answer.

ETA 06:29 Now I can't get in at all. What a bunch of pinheads.

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

I'm completely shut out too. At this point, it's beyond frustrating. It's simply comical.