Time Share? How to Get Out (1 Viewer)

[The Commish]

FWIW....ours is awesome...incredibly flexible. Our "home" is Harbourside at Atlantis, but we can use it at a dozen or so identical resorts (minus location) all over the country. We've used it while at Disney. We've used it to go skiing out west and they just added three locations (two in Hawaii and one in Mexico) that are options. If those don't work we can roll our time over into a different vacation group (for a fee) or convert it to SPG points.

We know pretty quickly if we aren't going to use it for the year, so if that's the case, we just sell our week online. That more than makes up for the maint fees, especially if we get someone who wants to go to Atlantis. A week down there takes care of two years worth of maint fees on average. It can be a PITA sometimes to manage but it's not terribly bad.

How's it going SPG buddy? Our home is in Cancun. Haven't made it out to Atlantis yet, but it is planned. This year we traded everything to pay for an upcoming Europe trip. Have you been to St. John's yet? We're about ready to plan that one. I think it helps to not have kids when owning a timeshare.

We've owned for about 7 years now and with little kids we spend most of our time at Atlantis. I want to try them all at some point, but that may be after the kids are grown and out of our hair. Just the last couple years, I have explored selling our week, so I've done it a couple times. We've used it a ton in Orlando. We can stay there for two and a half weeks (if we wanted) on what would give us a week at Atlantis, so that's been really cool. So Orlando, Colorado and the Bahamas is what we've used. I didn't even realize St Johns was on there. I've been trying to plan a secret get away to Hawaii for the two of us, but maybe St Johns would be easier...need to check in to that.

For what its worth, I can vouch for both the Kauai and Maui properties. Both are excellent.

I can get two plane tickets to St John for the price of one to Hawaii though

I've been to both islands myself and Maui is my "go to" hands down, but my wife has been to neither. It's just a logistical nightmare for us on the east coast to get there.

 

[freakinback]

I have no idea why anyone ever buys these things.

We bought DVC on the resale market and could sell ours tomorrow for a profit and have rented extra points almost every year. So I guess that is why we bought ours.

Sell now.

Sounds like you are well informed about DVC properties. I should probably take your advice immediately.

same here..bought my DVC for a song resale. Could prob make $30-$40 per point on it now.

not that it add to this thread other then at least our DVC contract expires when I'm into my 70's. By then the thing will have paid for itself 10x over

Can you guys provide your transaction details for your DVC purchases?

You can buy the one I inherited.

 

[glvsav37]

I have no idea why anyone ever buys these things.

We bought DVC on the resale market and could sell ours tomorrow for a profit and have rented extra points almost every year. So I guess that is why we bought ours.

Sell now.

Sounds like you are well informed about DVC properties. I should probably take your advice immediately.

same here..bought my DVC for a song resale. Could prob make $30-$40 per point on it now.

not that it add to this thread other then at least our DVC contract expires when I'm into my 70's. By then the thing will have paid for itself 10x over

Can you guys provide your transaction details for your DVC purchases?

You can buy the one I inherited.

send me your paypal address.....$25 seem fair?

 

[parasaurolophus]

If you purchase directly from DVC, how much is it per point?

right now they are only selling the Polly and Aulani directly through Disney.

Cost per point is $168 per point. So 100pts is close to $17K buy in.

100 pts won't get you much on property—Deluxe studio at Old Key West in the summer is 108, slower seasons about 76 is prob the cheapest points wise.

Just for clarity these values are per week, not per night.

 

[chet]

If you purchase directly from DVC, how much is it per point?

right now they are only selling the Polly and Aulani directly through Disney.

Cost per point is $168 per point. So 100pts is close to $17K buy in.

100 pts won't get you much on property—Deluxe studio at Old Key West in the summer is 108, slower seasons about 76 is prob the cheapest points wise.

Just for clarity these values are per week, not per night.

As I understand it, DVC points can be used at any of their properties but you can book your home property ~11 months in advance and any other property ~7 months in advance? How often do properties book up in that 4-month span?

 

[eoMMan]

I heard an ad for:

Www.timeshareexitteam.com

Might be something to look into.

 

[parasaurolophus]

If you purchase directly from DVC, how much is it per point?

right now they are only selling the Polly and Aulani directly through Disney.

Cost per point is $168 per point. So 100pts is close to $17K buy in.

100 pts won't get you much on property—Deluxe studio at Old Key West in the summer is 108, slower seasons about 76 is prob the cheapest points wise.

Just for clarity these values are per week, not per night.

As I understand it, DVC points can be used at any of their properties but you can book your home property ~11 months in advance and any other property ~7 months in advance? How often do properties book up in that 4-month span?

The "cool" resorts almost always book up before the 7 month window. With the exception of some of the really off peak times.

Old Key West and Animal Kingdom Lodge can pretty much always be booked at 7 month windows with the exception of spring break, xmas, etc. During off peak times you can book them 2-3 months out no problem. Saratoga springs can pretty much always be booked.

 

[comfortably numb]

I assume OP is on vacation at his timeshare now and unable to respond!!!!

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

No - extremely busy at work. If we were utilizing the timeshare I would not be looking to get rid of it - but we are not. It was great when we had 5 kids at home, could take a two week vacation without booking multiple hotel rooms, in a variety of locations we otherwise would never get to see. However, two oldest kids are married now and the middle child is working full time and going to college while living at home...our second youngest is a Soph in HS and travels extensively for HS baseball and Legion ball to the point that we use our vacation just traveling around doing baseball stuff in the summer. So "just using" our timeshare is not an option and won't be for at least the next 6 years. Add to the fact that we now don't need accommodations for 7 and and it is cheaper to get hotels than to continue to pay a grand in maintenance fees for a chance that we might be able to book time at a resort in an area we want to go to - but mind you most of the locations we want to go to are already booked even 10-12 months out. So essentially we pay for a time share that we really couldn't participate in if we had the time due to overbooking/overselling by the club.

So, we researched a few options - TimeshareExitTeam seems legit but I don't know of anyone who has used them and what their experience was. We also looked into a few other sites like TUG and MyResortsInc but again don't know how effective they are and how expensive it is to get out. We just want to swallow our losses on the timeshare investment, get away form the yearly maintenance and taxes, and move on. Unfortunately BlueGreen will not take the deed back even when we said they could just take it as a free gift to pass on to entice other owners - and directed us to their only reseller - Pinnacle - which is also owned by BlueGreen - and is also a collection agency. So the option to just not pay the fees and taxes would be great - but then they eventually foreclose and I take a credit hit.

 

[comfortably numb]

No - extremely busy at work. If we were utilizing the timeshare I would not be looking to get rid of it - but we are not. It was great when we had 5 kids at home, could take a two week vacation without booking multiple hotel rooms, in a variety of locations we otherwise would never get to see. However, two oldest kids are married now and the middle child is working full time and going to college while living at home...our second youngest is a Soph in HS and travels extensively for HS baseball and Legion ball to the point that we use our vacation just traveling around doing baseball stuff in the summer. So "just using" our timeshare is not an option and won't be for at least the next 6 years. Add to the fact that we now don't need accommodations for 7 and and it is cheaper to get hotels than to continue to pay a grand in maintenance fees for a chance that we might be able to book time at a resort in an area we want to go to - but mind you most of the locations we want to go to are already booked even 10-12 months out. So essentially we pay for a time share that we really couldn't participate in if we had the time due to overbooking/overselling by the club.

So, we researched a few options - TimeshareExitTeam seems legit but I don't know of anyone who has used them and what their experience was. We also looked into a few other sites like TUG and MyResortsInc but again don't know how effective they are and how expensive it is to get out. We just want to swallow our losses on the timeshare investment, get away form the yearly maintenance and taxes, and move on. Unfortunately BlueGreen will not take the deed back even when we said they could just take it as a free gift to pass on to entice other owners - and directed us to their only reseller - Pinnacle - which is also owned by BlueGreen - and is also a collection agency. So the option to just not pay the fees and taxes would be great - but then they eventually foreclose and I take a credit hit.

While you figure trying to get out of it, is it worth putting on here for rent at a price that would make it a wash for you?

Never know, might work for both parties until you can get out of it?

 

[chet]

If you purchase directly from DVC, how much is it per point?

right now they are only selling the Polly and Aulani directly through Disney.

Cost per point is $168 per point. So 100pts is close to $17K buy in.

100 pts won't get you much on property—Deluxe studio at Old Key West in the summer is 108, slower seasons about 76 is prob the cheapest points wise.

Just for clarity these values are per week, not per night.

As I understand it, DVC points can be used at any of their properties but you can book your home property ~11 months in advance and any other property ~7 months in advance? How often do properties book up in that 4-month span?

The "cool" resorts almost always book up before the 7 month window. With the exception of some of the really off peak times.

Old Key West and Animal Kingdom Lodge can pretty much always be booked at 7 month windows with the exception of spring break, xmas, etc. During off peak times you can book them 2-3 months out no problem. Saratoga springs can pretty much always be booked.

I assume the cool resorts are primarily the new ones? What are the top 5?

 

[glvsav37]

If you purchase directly from DVC, how much is it per point?

right now they are only selling the Polly and Aulani directly through Disney.

Cost per point is $168 per point. So 100pts is close to $17K buy in.

100 pts won't get you much on property—Deluxe studio at Old Key West in the summer is 108, slower seasons about 76 is prob the cheapest points wise.

Just for clarity these values are per week, not per night.

As I understand it, DVC points can be used at any of their properties but you can book your home property ~11 months in advance and any other property ~7 months in advance? How often do properties book up in that 4-month span?

Karma is prob gonna kick my ### for this...but out of 4 trips, we have not had a problem with booking the 'cool' resorts. We mainly stay at Bay Lake/Contemporary and book at the 7 mo window during the Sumer periods. :knocks wood:

However, 'sell outs' also have to do with the type of room more then the resort. There are always tons of studios, less 1 bed room suits and even less 2 bedroom, etc. We upgraded to the 1 bedroom at BLT for this next trip and while we got room no problem, we are currently waitlisted for the view we preferred

Chet:

Cool resorts, in no order, I'd say:

Grand Flo

Yacht & Beach Club

Bay Lake

Boardwalk

and maybe Polly b/c its new and there are not a lot of DVC rooms there.

these are mainly based on location, being within walking or monorail access to a park.

After that

Wilderness lodge (could be in the top group)

Animal Kingdom

then

Old Key West

Saratoga Springs

then any off property like Viro Beach or Hilton head.

here is the collection of point charts for the resorts, room types, and season. All of that has an effect on the 'rate'

 

[tonydead]

Seriously, if you add up a normal trip you can likely spend less, not be trapped, and have way more flexibility...oh you want to inherit this hell on to your kids? GREAT!

Agree, math is hard. I haven't seen anyone in here include the loss of interest due to investment if they buy the property outright or cost of interest if they financed it. Not to mention inflation and the increase of maintenance fees over time.

 

[The Commish]

Can't speak for anyone else. We didn't finance and we will break even at year 10 of ownership (That's either next year or the year after). My kids will be 10 and 6 respectively with several more years of using it every single year and being able to go just about anywhere we want to.

 

[tonydead]

Can't speak for anyone else. We didn't finance and we will break even at year 10 of ownership (That's either next year or the year after). My kids will be 10 and 6 respectively with several more years of using it every single year and being able to go just about anywhere we want to.

Right, if you didn't finance that means you essentially paid in advance for your vacations. You need to add on to your yearly vacation costs the interest that you are loosing on that money by not being able to invest it somewhere else. And if I understand you correctly you need to compound that over 10 years. That's a lot of money. The salesmen and the industry as a whole count on people not understanding this.

 

[The Commish]

Can't speak for anyone else. We didn't finance and we will break even at year 10 of ownership (That's either next year or the year after). My kids will be 10 and 6 respectively with several more years of using it every single year and being able to go just about anywhere we want to.

Right, if you didn't finance that means you essentially paid in advance for your vacations. You need to add on to your yearly vacation costs the interest that you are loosing on that money by not being able to invest it somewhere else. And if I understand you correctly you need to compound that over 10 years. That's a lot of money. The salesmen and the industry as a whole count on people not understanding this.

This is completely outside of my investments....this is extra money that wouldn't ever seen an investment in the first place, so why would I have to factor that in? I'm not in an "either/or" situation here. If I were, I'd have put the money into savings. NOTE: We didn't approach this purchase as an investment. It was a lifestyle purchase. I would never recommend it as an investment to anyone

Let's say it was approached from an investment perspective. Your equation here is still incomplete. You'd have to account for the rising costs in taking the vacations as well. So you'd have to factor in (somehow) gain/loss of income if it were somewhere else as not all investments automatically make money AND you'd need to factor in how much you'd save/lose by purchasing 15 vacations at X dollars (+/- inflation).

But again....this wasn't an investment for us, so attempting to figure out that rabbit hole didn't apply to us.

 

[tonydead]

Can't speak for anyone else. We didn't finance and we will break even at year 10 of ownership (That's either next year or the year after). My kids will be 10 and 6 respectively with several more years of using it every single year and being able to go just about anywhere we want to.

Right, if you didn't finance that means you essentially paid in advance for your vacations. You need to add on to your yearly vacation costs the interest that you are loosing on that money by not being able to invest it somewhere else. And if I understand you correctly you need to compound that over 10 years. That's a lot of money. The salesmen and the industry as a whole count on people not understanding this.

This is completely outside of my investments....this is extra money that wouldn't ever seen an investment in the first place, so why would I have to factor that in? I'm not in an "either/or" situation here. If I were, I'd have put the money into savings. NOTE: We didn't approach this purchase as an investment. It was a lifestyle purchase. I would never recommend it as an investment to anyone

Let's say it was approached from an investment perspective. Your equation here is still incomplete. You'd have to account for the rising costs in taking the vacations as well. So you'd have to factor in (somehow) gain/loss of income if it were somewhere else as not all investments automatically make money AND you'd need to factor in how much you'd save/lose by purchasing 15 vacations at X dollars (+/- inflation).

But again....this wasn't an investment for us, so attempting to figure out that rabbit hole didn't apply to us.

 

[The Commish]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

 

[glvsav37]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

I'm with you. I put those statements right up there with "You need to keep a mortgage for the tax incentive" statements.

You spend your money the way you want to. I'll spend mine. If i was to run compounding interest formulas on everything i buy, I'd be living in a box.

 

[tonydead]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

Everything that costs money has value and the value of that money changes over time. If you think you can change that fact simply by changing your perspective, you sir, are nutty coo coo.

 

[Scoresman]

In addition to what the Commish said, having this timeshare in a way forces us to plan a vacation every year which has been awesome. There's no way we would've seen the places we have without it because we probably would've just gone to the same old places. I've discovered a passion for travel partly because of having our timeshare. We probably could have made more money investing in something else but we dont have any regrets.

 

[tonydead]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

I'm with you. I put those statements right up there with "You need to keep a mortgage for the tax incentive" statements.

You spend your money the way you want to. I'll spend mine. If i was to run compounding interest formulas on everything i buy, I'd be living in a box.

I wouldn't suggest figuring interest on everything you buy, just those things that are purchased over a long period of time like a car, home or timeshare. Everyone should have an amortization table spreadsheet, it's not that difficult of a formula and literally takes a couple minutes to figure out. But, again, the timeshare industry is banking (literally) on people not knowing or caring how to do this.

 

[RUSF18]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

 

[mphtrilogy]

Got a call from Sears vacation club last month, made the mistake of signing up for a $1k raffle in the store.

Seems like they recently bought expedia timeshares or something along those lines.

They were relentlessly calling for 2 straight weeks, I had ignored them all.

Then my wife grabbed one of those calls one night, and was intrigued for the free 3 or 7 night night thingy offering they were having that weekend, just sit for a preso and boom free Vaca. She said to call the next night.

I yelped some reviews and there were horror shows.

I grabbed the call the next night, laid down the hammer with a big remove my name, they became very nasty and mocking how can you say no to a free 7 night stay? Made the decision even better when they got nasty. Seemed very Boiler Room like, so was happy to have nipped it in the bud.

Thankfully no more calls, and to this thread, seems like I dodged a real pain in the butt.

 

[culdeus]

Can't speak for anyone else. We didn't finance and we will break even at year 10 of ownership (That's either next year or the year after). My kids will be 10 and 6 respectively with several more years of using it every single year and being able to go just about anywhere we want to.

Right, if you didn't finance that means you essentially paid in advance for your vacations. You need to add on to your yearly vacation costs the interest that you are loosing on that money by not being able to invest it somewhere else. And if I understand you correctly you need to compound that over 10 years. That's a lot of money. The salesmen and the industry as a whole count on people not understanding this.

This is completely outside of my investments....this is extra money that wouldn't ever seen an investment in the first place, so why would I have to factor that in? I'm not in an "either/or" situation here. If I were, I'd have put the money into savings. NOTE: We didn't approach this purchase as an investment. It was a lifestyle purchase. I would never recommend it as an investment to anyone Let's say it was approached from an investment perspective. Your equation here is still incomplete. You'd have to account for the rising costs in taking the vacations as well. So you'd have to factor in (somehow) gain/loss of income if it were somewhere else as not all investments automatically make money AND you'd need to factor in how much you'd save/lose by purchasing 15 vacations at X dollars (+/- inflation).

But again....this wasn't an investment for us, so attempting to figure out that rabbit hole didn't apply to us.

Oof

 

[comfortably numb]

About 10 years ago I went to one.

My cousin and her husband got an invite for one of these in the Poconos.

Wasn't even a vacation type thing, just you get a bunch of free stuff they were offering.
Gift cards, coupons, etc...

We had no idea what it was for, she was just told it was a presentation you had to sit through and then would get all these free things.
We were going camping in that area anyway so she set it up.

They were selling time shares for a new resort they were building in the Poconos.

Had us all in room with tons of people all broken up into groups to sell these packages.

It was the 3 of us, and at that time in my life all 3 of us were always hanging out together along with vacationing.

1st guy to talk to us was a kid who mumbled his way through things.
They were on fence I was non committal.

They bring in the big dog to our table and he slashes the prices.

Actually looked enticing, they were in...basically left it to we won't do it unless the 3 of us agree.

I can be convinced pretty easily mind you...but for some reason I just had this feel like I was being tricked into something.

It was all legit but I just hated the spiel so I basically dug my heels and said I wanted to look into it more before I committed.

He got pretty frustrated with me and said fine...we were set to leave but 1st had to go to talk to someone else in the basement office.

This guy slashed the price again. He spoke very softly with an eastern european accent.

I almost caved as the other 2 kept saying it sounds like a good deal.

At that point it wasn't about price it was just about not wanting to commit to something I had no idea about an hour ago.

I'm glad I didn't sign up...not that they aren't beneficial for various reasons but I was in no position to make a purchase like that despite basically being fully pressured into it by their sales team

 

[The Commish]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

Everything that costs money has value and the value of that money changes over time. If you think you can change that fact simply by changing your perspective, you sir, are nutty coo coo.

Well of course it does. That's true of everything. If that's your point, comparing it to an investment is a bizarre and ineffective way to do that. Perspective is sorta important though. It's typically wise (if you want genuine discussion anyway) to make sure the discussion starts from the same point of view. From your point of view (as an investment) it's not wise. That's why I said it's not wise in my post. The investment lens isn't the only lens to look at purchases like this as I pointed out above.

 

[The Commish]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

I'd say the more flexible they are, the less "scammy" they can be. I remember back in the day my parents looked at one. It was a specific week in a specific unit of a specific resort. If you couldn't make it, tough. They've come a long way. If you're interested in something like this I'd make sure to pay attention to a few things:

1. The cost of ownership. Specifically the "dues" or "maint fees".

2. Flexibility of use. What can you do with it? Can I sell my week to someone else? If I die, can I will it to someone? Can I go to many different places? all that sort of stuff.

3. Desirability of your "home" resort as a vacation destination.

Those are probably the big three. If you decide to have it as an investment, I wouldn't do it. Find something else to put your money into.

 

[culdeus]

I surfed around and looked at rentals of these. Cost seems super low. Can't imagine wanting to be on the hook if the rental is in the budget range for ones vacation.

Some of the properties I know in Hawaii are going for a huge discount to what I have paid for straight rentals. Obviously there are some date issue and fine print to overcome.

 

[Scoresman]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

I'd say the more flexible they are, the less "scammy" they can be. I remember back in the day my parents looked at one. It was a specific week in a specific unit of a specific resort. If you couldn't make it, tough. They've come a long way. If you're interested in something like this I'd make sure to pay attention to a few things:

1. The cost of ownership. Specifically the "dues" or "maint fees".

2. Flexibility of use. What can you do with it? Can I sell my week to someone else? If I die, can I will it to someone? Can I go to many different places? all that sort of stuff.

3. Desirability of your "home" resort as a vacation destination.

Those are probably the big three. If you decide to have it as an investment, I wouldn't do it. Find something else to put your money into.

I would add

4. Is my life situation going to change in the future to where I wont be able to travel as much?

This seems to be a big reason why people end up seeing the timeshare as a burden. They buy it and then suddenly 5 years later they have kids or cant take enough time off work, etc.

 

[parasaurolophus]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh.

We have stayed at 4 of the HGV resorts and have liked them very much. We also have friends that own and they like it. Elara in vegas is pretty awesome.

Resale is the way to go though. I cant emphasize that enough. The property reps will try and convince you otherwise. There are usually a couple perks that you cant use if you buy resale, but those perks are usually a terrible value.

For example Disney points can't be used for cruises or exchanges if you bought resale. These things are terrible though. You are actually better off renting your points and then using cash to book.

 

[tonydead]

In addition to what the Commish said, having this timeshare in a way forces us to plan a vacation every year which has been awesome. There's no way we would've seen the places we have without it because we probably would've just gone to the same old places. I've discovered a passion for travel partly because of having our timeshare. We probably could have made more money investing in something else but we dont have any regrets.

When I say investing your money somewhere else I don't mean don't take vacations. I mean just figure out your true costs, especially when you put up a whole bunch of money up front or finance money to pay it off out in the future. Compare that against what you would spend without the timeshare. I take planned travel vacations every six months and I don't have to be reminded to do so.

I'm not saying all timeshares are scams or are bad, I just never see anyone figure the true costs when they claim they will break even after 10 years. Just like you won't hear the true costs from any salesman either. There is a reason you can't get a mortgage loan for a timeshare and you have to pay interest rates that are closer to that of a credit card.

 

[Kanil]

Many years ago, when the children were younger and we were on vacation we made a (horrible) decision to fall for a timeshare pitch from BlueGreen. For about 10 years we utilized the club and went to some really great places - but as the children got older we had more activities and no time to spend on vacations. So the timeshare is bought and paid for - but we are still charged a yearly maintenance fee and real estate taxes. Not a problem, but since we don't use it we decided to see if we could sell it back or even give it away. But...we are told that no one is buying so we are stuck in perpetuity paying maintenance fees and taxes on something we can't even use. Researching resellers all I read about is scams and having already fallen for the time share scan we don't want to get caught up in another scam.

Anyone else ever have experiences with trying to get rid of a paid off timeshare? Even if we could just give it away or abandon it we would be fine - just sick of paying maintenance fees and taxes for something we don't use. Any lawyers have any ideas?

Wait a minute. Are you telling me you don't, in fact, Know-It-All?

 

[urbanhack]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Marriott?

RCI?

 

[urbanhack]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh.

This is good to hear and this is what my mom has for her week in Hawaii. We are hopeful that she can re-sell this back through HGV and get something back.

 

[Zow]

All I know about them is that they are a huge headache in resolving how they should be handled in a divorce case. Usually each side is trying to give it to the other but assigning its original "price" as its value. Ugh.

I guess I understand them in theory. My mom's husband has a couple that he bought during his previous marriage and the rationale is that is "forced" him to take vacation. He also likes the consistency of knowing what to expect when he travels (he's got some weird pickiness about only staying in certain hotels/places). But I've stayed with them a few times and split the fees/costs of the stay and I swear it seemed like those weren't too much lower than what a normal hotel bill would have been.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh.

We have stayed at 4 of the HGV resorts and have liked them very much. We also have friends that own and they like it. Elara in vegas is pretty awesome.

Resale is the way to go though. I cant emphasize that enough. The property reps will try and convince you otherwise. There are usually a couple perks that you cant use if you buy resale, but those perks are usually a terrible value.

For example Disney points can't be used for cruises or exchanges if you bought resale. These things are terrible though. You are actually better off renting your points and then using cash to book.

What is better about going the time share route and Disney points vs. renting a $199/$299 a week condo (2-3 bedroom) at Windsor whatever that is right by the park? I don't really care about having to drive and park at Disneyworld.

 

[Zow]

Oh, a warning to anybody who owns an international timeshare. There's apparently a good amount of bogus brokerage companies that claim to be able to sell your timeshare. They charge an up front fee of like 5k then basically don't do ####.

 

[Zow]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good.

This is what my mom's husband has that I referenced above. They're pretty nice and in some decent locations. I've been to the Vegas and Orlando ones and they were pleasant.

 

[tonydead]

you were the one that went down the path. might as well do it correctly/completely If it's not purchased as an investment, there is no point in even trying to compare it to one when determining "good" or "bad".

Everything that costs money has value and the value of that money changes over time. If you think you can change that fact simply by changing your perspective, you sir, are nutty coo coo.

Well of course it does. That's true of everything. If that's your point, comparing it to an investment is a bizarre and ineffective way to do that. Perspective is sorta important though. It's typically wise (if you want genuine discussion anyway) to make sure the discussion starts from the same point of view. From your point of view (as an investment) it's not wise. That's why I said it's not wise in my post. The investment lens isn't the only lens to look at purchases like this as I pointed out above.

I think I agree with you. If your "point of view" is that you don't care if you get the best value for your money then don't listen to anything I said.

 

[The Commish]

In addition to what the Commish said, having this timeshare in a way forces us to plan a vacation every year which has been awesome. There's no way we would've seen the places we have without it because we probably would've just gone to the same old places. I've discovered a passion for travel partly because of having our timeshare. We probably could have made more money investing in something else but we dont have any regrets.

When I say investing your money somewhere else I don't mean don't take vacations. I mean just figure out your true costs, especially when you put up a whole bunch of money up front or finance money to pay it off out in the future. Compare that against what you would spend without the timeshare. I take planned travel vacations every six months and I don't have to be reminded to do so.

I'm not saying all timeshares are scams or are bad, I just never see anyone figure the true costs when they claim they will break even after 10 years. Just like you won't hear the true costs from any salesman either. There is a reason you can't get a mortgage loan for a timeshare and you have to pay interest rates that are closer to that of a credit card.

Not sure what you're talking about.....7 years ago, should we choose to finance through them it was going to be 9%. I found a plan through my employer (Wachovia at the time) that would have been 7.25% with the interest being tax deductible on our federal taxes (they would have provided us a 1098). My current employer Wells Fargo, will offer the same sort of loan for purchases like this as well. However, I have no idea what the interest rates are now. They could be well up in the double digits (like most credit cards).

 

[The Commish]

Oh, a warning to anybody who owns an international timeshare. There's apparently a good amount of bogus brokerage companies that claim to be able to sell your timeshare. They charge an up front fee of like 5k then basically don't do ####.

yup....my next door neighbor got scammed by one of these groups. Anything goes offshore with these groups.

 

[ZenMaster]

My wife and I have a timeshare in Cabo. It's linked through Interval World but we don't ever plan to trade in for any other location (we heard the trade-in system is terrible).

We get one week/year between May-October. It's a 50-year term so the 'ownership' ends after 50 years. It's perfect for us since we don't have any kids and we'll be lucky to be alive in 50 years. We have the ability to pull a year from the end of the term if we want to go 2x/year or get 2 units during the same week if we wanted to take a big group of friends/family.

Included in our week are 8 rounds of golf across 3 courses (Puerto Los Cabos, Cabo Real, Club Campestre San Jose). Any additional rounds are 50% off.

We bought it two years ago. 50% down payment and we got 18 months no interest on the rest. It's a two-bedroom unit that could sleep 8 people although the 7th and 8th people get hosed (1 king, 2 queens, queen roll-away).

The golf is what makes it worth the cost. Greens fees in May are $190/$245/$265 and June-Oct are $140/$180/$195. I'm sure those prices are inflated but I haven't played a resort course that wasn't expensive.

We'd been to timeshare presentations before and always said no. We love going to Cabo and the golf is fantastic. If we don't want to go one year, we could rent it to someone else or let our family/friends use it.

 

[parasaurolophus]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh.

We have stayed at 4 of the HGV resorts and have liked them very much. We also have friends that own and they like it. Elara in vegas is pretty awesome.

Resale is the way to go though. I cant emphasize that enough. The property reps will try and convince you otherwise. There are usually a couple perks that you cant use if you buy resale, but those perks are usually a terrible value.

For example Disney points can't be used for cruises or exchanges if you bought resale. These things are terrible though. You are actually better off renting your points and then using cash to book.

What is better about going the time share route and Disney points vs. renting a $199/$299 a week condo (2-3 bedroom) at Windsor whatever that is right by the park? I don't really care about having to drive and park at Disneyworld.

Any condo you are getting for 199 a week that is right by the park probably has wheels on it. There is no way. The absolute cheapest condo I saw on VRBO right now for any date range in windsor hills was 85 bucks a night. It also had a 90 dollar cleaning fee, a 35 dollar damage protection fee. They had zero reviews. Windsor hills is also not really right by the park. It is close, but OKW is just a couple minutes from Epcot. I can walk to Disney Springs. We have stayed off property before. Just stayed off property in November. We just prefer being on property.

Also means btw you are paying 20 bucks parking at the parks. You also miss the 60 day fastpass window.

 

[The Commish]

My wife and I have a timeshare in Cabo. It's linked through Interval World but we don't ever plan to trade in for any other location (we heard the trade-in system is terrible).

We get one week/year between May-October. It's a 50-year term so the 'ownership' ends after 50 years. It's perfect for us since we don't have any kids and we'll be lucky to be alive in 50 years. We have the ability to pull a year from the end of the term if we want to go 2x/year or get 2 units during the same week if we wanted to take a big group of friends/family.

Included in our week are 8 rounds of golf across 3 courses (Puerto Los Cabos, Cabo Real, Club Campestre San Jose). Any additional rounds are 50% off.

We bought it two years ago. 50% down payment and we got 18 months no interest on the rest. It's a two-bedroom unit that could sleep 8 people although the 7th and 8th people get hosed (1 king, 2 queens, queen roll-away).

The golf is what makes it worth the cost. Greens fees in May are $190/$245/$265 and June-Oct are $140/$180/$195. I'm sure those prices are inflated but I haven't played a resort course that wasn't expensive.

We'd been to timeshare presentations before and always said no. We love going to Cabo and the golf is fantastic. If we don't want to go one year, we could rent it to someone else or let our family/friends use it.

It's not that bad to deal with Interval's system. It's sorta clunky but it's manageable. SPG is hooked into it and we sold a week last year to a place in Germany a couple wanted to stay.

 

[ZenMaster]

My wife and I have a timeshare in Cabo. It's linked through Interval World but we don't ever plan to trade in for any other location (we heard the trade-in system is terrible).

We get one week/year between May-October. It's a 50-year term so the 'ownership' ends after 50 years. It's perfect for us since we don't have any kids and we'll be lucky to be alive in 50 years. We have the ability to pull a year from the end of the term if we want to go 2x/year or get 2 units during the same week if we wanted to take a big group of friends/family.

Included in our week are 8 rounds of golf across 3 courses (Puerto Los Cabos, Cabo Real, Club Campestre San Jose). Any additional rounds are 50% off.

We bought it two years ago. 50% down payment and we got 18 months no interest on the rest. It's a two-bedroom unit that could sleep 8 people although the 7th and 8th people get hosed (1 king, 2 queens, queen roll-away).

The golf is what makes it worth the cost. Greens fees in May are $190/$245/$265 and June-Oct are $140/$180/$195. I'm sure those prices are inflated but I haven't played a resort course that wasn't expensive.

We'd been to timeshare presentations before and always said no. We love going to Cabo and the golf is fantastic. If we don't want to go one year, we could rent it to someone else or let our family/friends use it.

It's not that bad to deal with Interval's system. It's sorta clunky but it's manageable. SPG is hooked into it and we sold a week last year to a place in Germany a couple wanted to stay.

That's good to know, thanks. We've never used it but most of the reviews we read online weren't positive. If we really wanted to go somewhere else, we'd rent our place for a week and use the $$ for that.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh.

We have stayed at 4 of the HGV resorts and have liked them very much. We also have friends that own and they like it. Elara in vegas is pretty awesome.

Resale is the way to go though. I cant emphasize that enough. The property reps will try and convince you otherwise. There are usually a couple perks that you cant use if you buy resale, but those perks are usually a terrible value.

For example Disney points can't be used for cruises or exchanges if you bought resale. These things are terrible though. You are actually better off renting your points and then using cash to book.

What is better about going the time share route and Disney points vs. renting a $199/$299 a week condo (2-3 bedroom) at Windsor whatever that is right by the park? I don't really care about having to drive and park at Disneyworld.

Any condo you are getting for 199 a week that is right by the park probably has wheels on it. There is no way. The absolute cheapest condo I saw on VRBO right now for any date range in windsor hills was 85 bucks a night. It also had a 90 dollar cleaning fee, a 35 dollar damage protection fee. They had zero reviews. Windsor hills is also not really right by the park. It is close, but OKW is just a couple minutes from Epcot. I can walk to Disney Springs. We have stayed off property before. Just stayed off property in November. We just prefer being on property.

Also means btw you are paying 20 bucks parking at the parks. You also miss the 60 day fastpass window.

Thanks - I would love being able to walk to Disney Springs. We haven't gone in a while but the last two times we went we used Vacation Central Florida Rentals and got their specials. I think the cleaning fee is around $100 or so.

What is the 60 day fastpass window - does that enable you to schedule rides with the FP 2 months in advance? Is that a huge benefit? The last time we were there (5 yrs ago) we had no problem using our FPs.

 

[glvsav37]

So besides Disney-related, what are the time share companies/options that don't fall into the scam category as outlined by the OP?

Hilton Grand Vacations seems pretty good. We have put in some offers on the resale market, but haven't hit yet. Be wary though as they have like three different kinds of timeshares. One that is a certain week. One that is like a tier level and one that is points. The points are a good deal. The others are kinda meh. We have stayed at 4 of the HGV resorts and have liked them very much. We also have friends that own and they like it. Elara in vegas is pretty awesome.

Resale is the way to go though. I cant emphasize that enough. The property reps will try and convince you otherwise. There are usually a couple perks that you cant use if you buy resale, but those perks are usually a terrible value.

For example Disney points can't be used for cruises or exchanges if you bought resale. These things are terrible though. You are actually better off renting your points and then using cash to book.

What is better about going the time share route and Disney points vs. renting a $199/$299 a week condo (2-3 bedroom) at Windsor whatever that is right by the park? I don't really care about having to drive and park at Disneyworld.

Any condo you are getting for 199 a week that is right by the park probably has wheels on it. There is no way. The absolute cheapest condo I saw on VRBO right now for any date range in windsor hills was 85 bucks a night. It also had a 90 dollar cleaning fee, a 35 dollar damage protection fee. They had zero reviews. Windsor hills is also not really right by the park. It is close, but OKW is just a couple minutes from Epcot. I can walk to Disney Springs. We have stayed off property before. Just stayed off property in November. We just prefer being on property. Also means btw you are paying 20 bucks parking at the parks. You also miss the 60 day fastpass window.

Thanks - I would love being able to walk to Disney Springs. We haven't gone in a while but the last two times we went we used Vacation Central Florida Rentals and got their specials. I think the cleaning fee is around $100 or so.

What is the 60 day fastpass window - does that enable you to schedule rides with the FP 2 months in advance? Is that a huge benefit? The last time we were there (5 yrs ago) we had no problem using our FPs.

Yes. They have changed the whole process about 2-3 years ago. It's all electronic fast passes (not the paper ones anymore). On site guests get to reserve all their times 60 days from arrival. Off site has to wait for 30 days.

Depending on the season, at 30 days you'll still get decent attractions/times but if there is anything new or hot, forget about it. Be ready to wait in line.

 

[The Commish]

My wife and I have a timeshare in Cabo. It's linked through Interval World but we don't ever plan to trade in for any other location (we heard the trade-in system is terrible).

We get one week/year between May-October. It's a 50-year term so the 'ownership' ends after 50 years. It's perfect for us since we don't have any kids and we'll be lucky to be alive in 50 years. We have the ability to pull a year from the end of the term if we want to go 2x/year or get 2 units during the same week if we wanted to take a big group of friends/family.

Included in our week are 8 rounds of golf across 3 courses (Puerto Los Cabos, Cabo Real, Club Campestre San Jose). Any additional rounds are 50% off.

We bought it two years ago. 50% down payment and we got 18 months no interest on the rest. It's a two-bedroom unit that could sleep 8 people although the 7th and 8th people get hosed (1 king, 2 queens, queen roll-away).

The golf is what makes it worth the cost. Greens fees in May are $190/$245/$265 and June-Oct are $140/$180/$195. I'm sure those prices are inflated but I haven't played a resort course that wasn't expensive.

We'd been to timeshare presentations before and always said no. We love going to Cabo and the golf is fantastic. If we don't want to go one year, we could rent it to someone else or let our family/friends use it.

It's not that bad to deal with Interval's system. It's sorta clunky but it's manageable. SPG is hooked into it and we sold a week last year to a place in Germany a couple wanted to stay.

That's good to know, thanks. We've never used it but most of the reviews we read online weren't positive. If we really wanted to go somewhere else, we'd rent our place for a week and use the $$ for that.

Actually, this is what we do....it'll save you the $150 "roll over" they offer.

 

[Zasada]

I get free hotel rooms worldwide by putting all of my spend on my Hilton HHonors Amex. Also Gold status, to boot.

If you want free/cheap hotel rooms, feels like a better approach vs some scammy timeshare deal.

ETA: Yes, I know "free" is relative. I give up cash-back rewards by going with Hilton points. But I've done the math and the points value -- if used (they are) -- are lower than the cash I would get back from an alternative card. So I really should call this "cheap" hotel rooms and not "free".