• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Resale disadvantages?

timeos2

Tug Review Crew: Rookie
TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
11,183
Reaction score
5
Points
36
Location
Rochester, NY
No downside here. We really enjoy our Wyndham re-sale points.

Resale Wyndham Points are one of the truly great values in all of timeshare. Not as good as they were 5 years ago due to system changes imposed by Wyndham but still a true bargain for an outstanding system.
 

vacationhopeful

TUG Review Crew: Rookie
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
12,760
Reaction score
1,699
Points
498
Location
Northeast USA
We have about 630k points (UDI) that we have paid probably about $2200.00 for.

Imagine paying retail for that many points.

If the time comes where we no longer want the points, I have no problem selling them for as cheap or even giving the points away if I need to. I'll be out $2200.00 at the most.

We have had our points for 3 years going on 4. We also have a fixed week we paid nothing for (although we have to pay the yearly maintenance fees on it).
If you are curious why we got the fixed week, its near where my daughters live but it's incredibly difficult to get points available there because most owners have not converted to points. So, to be sure we can vacation there, we got the fixed week.

Our main investment each year is in the maintenance fees. But, the several years that we traveled before we bought the points and the fixed week, we were spending about as much on hotel rooms. Why not have a resort for the same price.

No downside here. We really enjoy our Wyndham re-sale points.

Fully agree as to the benefits of owning Wyndham timeshares - both as in a Points system and with a Fixed Week. I own both also, for the very same reasons - esp my Fixed Weeks - limited availability at PRIME times.

I have used my points for both my personal vacations, for group vacations with my siblings and their spouses, for trips with the next generations (in my case, my nieces and nephews), as gifts for my siblings with their spouses, and with friends. And I rent some of my reserved time to afford the MFs.

But as ANYONE who participates on TUG has learned, YOU must LEARN the timeshare system INs and OUTs. You really need to PLAN AHEAD! You must stay flexible and learn NEW ways as the TS world changes and as YOUR family vacationing style also changes.
 

Lisa P

TUG Review Crew: Rookie
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
1,888
Reaction score
416
Points
443
Location
NC
Resorts Owned
Club Wyndham Points
plus partners... is not a good use of your points.

Even the RCI nightly stays are pretty marginal. I found a 1 night stay in Monterey CA which is fairly near me for 15,100 points. But then you have to to pay the $49 RCI fee. In total not that good a deal. Certainly not worth a developer purchase or buying it for $2500.
We found the same thing when researching whether to upgrade our points to Plus Partners. On top of the points used and the RCI fee, some nightly stays incur housekeeping fees. Paying cash directly to hotels and resorts is often a better deal and sometimes those have nice packages or discounts as well.

That said, we LOVE our resale Wyndham points! They've provided for several wonderful vacations each year, in much better accommodations than we would had for the same cost, for ~15 years now. It's a great fit for us, for how we like to travel and where we've wanted to go!

But as ANYONE who participates on TUG has learned, YOU must LEARN the timeshare system INs and OUTs. You really need to PLAN AHEAD! You must stay flexible and learn NEW ways as the TS world changes and as YOUR family vacationing style also changes.
Classic, solid TUG advice! :clap:
 
Last edited:

Bourne

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
639
Reaction score
2
Points
378
Location
60601
As with any other deal, it never does ..:)
 
Last edited:

webkrawlerr

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Orlando, FL
But as ANYONE who participates on TUG has learned, YOU must LEARN the timeshare system INs and OUTs.

But of course. We spent about 6 months researching many of the timeshare options out there, including buying retail and the different timeshare companies.

We even went to a Wyndham resort and told them we were interested in buying into their system (but we did not tell them it would be re-sale) and we spent 3 hours with the sales guy go over all the ins and outs.

Of course, the most learning comes from doing and we have learned even more in the last 3 years of having and using the points. But, we had enough information that we believed Wyndham re-sale points would be a good investment for us.
 

pacodemountainside

TUG Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Messages
2,865
Reaction score
4
Points
36
Location
Aurora, Colorado
Of course, the most learning comes from doing and we have learned even more in the last 3 years of having and using the points. But, we had enough information that we believed Wyndham re-sale points would be a good investment for us.

Be careful of using term "investment" when referring to Wyndham TS. You are making an investment in future vacations per their 30 Rules of Conduct but incurring a financial liability for MF, POA fees and possible SA as long as you are alive!
 

webkrawlerr

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Orlando, FL
True. The investment was in future vacations.

One year we spend $2000.00 just in hotel rooms, tiny rooms
with just a bed, dresser and TV.

If we were going to invest, as in place money into, hotels like that
we might as well be paying it on maintenance fees.

The benefits would be, we would be making payments all year
and it would be easier to manage the vacations that way, and
we have a resort room with a kitchen and other amenities.

It made sense to us as we love to travel.
 

PHXwyndham

Guest
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
17
Reaction score
3
Points
163
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Resorts Owned
Dolphin Cove - (Ex took Star Island lol)
Resale points do NOT count towards any VIP level.

Yes, you get the same HKs and RTs as associated with a developer purchase.

You get 1 free GC for each member number. Not one for each contract yoou purchase.

You get a "free" RCI account usable thru the Wyndham portal into RCI.


Hello,

I have been reading this forum for years, but I was just reading the comments. I finally decided to pull the trigger and register. I would like to share my TS experiences as well...

I entered the Wyndham world by renting a week in Vegas and after that I decided to buy points on Ebay... Everything I own is resale and I find interesting that some people here get access to the RCI portal via the Wyndham site I get an error when I click on that.

I called for help and she told me that in order to have access to that I have to be VIP and that the only way I can do RCI exchanges is through the phone... I don't know if this is true, but Wyndham is known for lying to people.

Maybe I need to call again? any advice...
 
Last edited:

markb53

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
930
Reaction score
253
Points
274
Location
Northern California
Resorts Owned
CWA
Panama City Beach
Worldmark
You didn't mention if you could log into your RCI account at RCI.com I am assuming not. When I first got my account (I'm not VIP either) I had to call,probably 10 - 12 times before I got my account working. I would start with RCI and see if they know anything about you. If they do have a record of your membership, get your membership number. Then you can log into RCI.com directly and get access to Last Calls and extra vacation without going through the portal. Then I would call RCI portal support people and tell them the portal is not working. They will probably blame it on Wyndham. Then you call Wyndham owner care and tell them the portal is not working. They will probably blame RCI.

Mine was doing the same thing as yours when I first got my account. It took 2 weeks and a lot of phone calls to get it working. One bit of advice. DON'T get upset with them. Be sickeningly sweet. The phone support, especially the Wyndham phone support can be very chatty. Be chatty back. If they want to talk about the great places you have gone. Talk about the great places you have have been or plan to go. You NEED them to WANT to help you. If you get someone who seem impatient or in a hurry. Thank them. Hang up and call back. Be patient. You will eventually get someone that will transfer you to someone, who will fix the problem.

Good luck

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

vacationhopeful

TUG Review Crew: Rookie
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
12,760
Reaction score
1,699
Points
498
Location
Northeast USA
Yes, it can take EXTREMELY LONGTIME to get your RCI account set up on a resale account. Sometimes years!

Mark has it totally down - sweet as pie with sugar on top. The sales staff is totally clueless on RCI accounts - their top manager has a bigger clue - but he/she gets a bigger paycheck and has no interest in spending their time to help a resale owner out.
 
Last edited:

timeos2

Tug Review Crew: Rookie
TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
11,183
Reaction score
5
Points
36
Location
Rochester, NY
I called for help and she told me that in order to have access to that I have to be VIP and that the only way I can do RCI exchanges is through the phone... I don't know if this is true, but Wyndham is known for lying to people.

Maybe I need to call again? any advice...

Yes, contact them again (and again and again if the standard process occurs). You absolutely do not have to be VIP for the RCI access - every Wyndham owner is forced to have an RCI account (you pay for it in your fees). VIP is a costly sales gimmick - ignore anything and everything you may hear about it as today the cost to obtain it, and the fact that it cannot be sold/transferred, makes it extremely expensive to acquire. Costs you would never recover with the non-guaranteed perks it offers.

Dealing with Wyndham "customer service" can be extremely frustrating as they never seem to get things right (a major problem with our account - the NAME was wrong! - took us over 10 years to get corrected. I cannot tell you how many times we heard "that's silly - we'll get that taken care of .." then the next bill would (maybe) show up with the wrong name again. They are totally incompetent but thankfully your interaction with that group as well as the sales weasels is very limited. The actual operation of the system is mostly done by web access and that mostly goes well.

Overall Wyndham's base system is fine but virtually everything involving their people and rules tend to be negative. Just deal with it as best you can and enjoy the great resorts.
 

Timeshare Von

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
7,031
Reaction score
1,637
Points
599
Location
Milwaukee, WI
Resorts Owned
Wyndham (77k points at Myrtle Beach/Westwinds)
Thank you all for all your help. I see I have a lot to learn and research to see if buying a timeshare is worth it or not. I feel we will need 154000 points which will cost us 800+ in maintenance fees each year. I guess that would save me money as it would cost more than that for some week stay at the beach for most resorts, but do not if it is worth being bound to the fees from now on. How easy is it to get rid of the timeshare if I decide later that we will not use it enough?

Also, how easy is it to make reservations and rent it? Is there money to be made after paying maintenance fees? Can you make enough to pay your fees plus have points left to use for free?

It's more than being bound to the MFs that can get you. There are also special assessments (SA), which can be quite costly. I had a Wyndham ownership where the SA cost over $1,000 paid over three years. Tough to make that back with rentals.

Renting on a small scale, like you are talking can be a lot of work and effort, and you are still at risk of getting stuck and not breaking even. If you're talking about buying a 154k pt ownership, you won't have much especially if you are planning to go to nicer resorts during peak vacation season (beach in the summer, as an example).

In my opinion, buying a timeshare with any thought of renting to make money or to pay your MF's is a bad idea . . . especially for a first time owner. Ron and others here have been at it for a while. Many are "mega owners" and with the number of points they have, they are able to make a business out of it.

I own a very small points package (77k) at Myrtle Beach, it was given to me by my sister for free. I have used the points for 4-5 night stays at places we want to go when we want to be there. I have also been able to book 5-7 night stays for friends for the cost of the MFs + guest certificate (if any). I barely break even when I do that and have no points left over to go take another vacation. Perhaps with 154k you could but I would not count on it as a real ownership/business model.
 

Timeshare Von

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
7,031
Reaction score
1,637
Points
599
Location
Milwaukee, WI
Resorts Owned
Wyndham (77k points at Myrtle Beach/Westwinds)
<<snipped>> You must stay flexible and learn NEW ways as the TS world changes and as YOUR family vacationing style also changes.

This is probably the best advice in here!

I too owned a couple of Wyndham fixed weeks but ended up giving both away a couple/few years ago. I had minimal front-end cost, so to give them away (literally for nothing) wasn't a big deal. (One was a nice 3 BR lock-off, that took more than a year to give away for free!)

Our vacation style had changed . . . RCI exchanging changed to the detriment of some sweet perks Wyndham owners had (I used to get a 2BR in Hawaii for the 1BR side of the lock-off. Now that was nice!!!)

Anyway, so now all we own is that 77k points package with Wyndham and a nice little studio on Waikiki that has a great TPU value:MF cost.
 

ronparise

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
12,664
Reaction score
2,134
Points
548
Thanks ron , you have answered a lot of questions for me. What about the program fee I read about in one of the articles on here. Is that included in the maintenance fees or is that a separate fee?

I didnt see that this question was answered

The program fee pays for the reservation system and everything else behind the points system that allows us to use what we own at one resort to make reservations at any of the other resorts in the system. It is a separate charge, but it is billed with your maintenance fees. Most of us as well as most sellers when we talk about maintenance fees are talking about the maintenance fees and program fees combined

The basic program fee is 54 cents per $1000 points (I think Im right on that) If you bought from the developer and have access to RCI nightly stays, its a little more. But there is a minimum program fee of $108/year (again I think Im right on that) so accounts of less than about 200000 points pay more than 54 cents per thousand
 

PHXwyndham

Guest
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
17
Reaction score
3
Points
163
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Resorts Owned
Dolphin Cove - (Ex took Star Island lol)
You didn't mention if you could log into your RCI account at RCI.com I am assuming not. When I first got my account (I'm not VIP either) I had to call,probably 10 - 12 times before I got my account working. I would start with RCI and see if they know anything about you. If they do have a record of your membership, get your membership number. Then you can log into RCI.com directly and get access to Last Calls and extra vacation without going through the portal. Then I would call RCI portal support people and tell them the portal is not working. They will probably blame it on Wyndham. Then you call Wyndham owner care and tell them the portal is not working. They will probably blame RCI.

Mine was doing the same thing as yours when I first got my account. It took 2 weeks and a lot of phone calls to get it working. One bit of advice. DON'T get upset with them. Be sickeningly sweet. The phone support, especially the Wyndham phone support can be very chatty. Be chatty back. If they want to talk about the great places you have gone. Talk about the great places you have have been or plan to go. You NEED them to WANT to help you. If you get someone who seem impatient or in a hurry. Thank them. Hang up and call back. Be patient. You will eventually get someone that will transfer you to someone, who will fix the problem.

Good luck

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yeah, I have been with Wyndham for about 3 years now and the account doesn't work. I really didn't care much, but now I want to do an exchange to NY and called to see what was going on. I'll keep calling then... Thanks for the reply.
 

kd172005

newbie
Joined
Jun 18, 2013
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
61
It has been a year since I started this thread and I have still not pulled the trigger on buying a timeshare yet. A few questions I have again after reviewing the threads are about the program fees and special assessment fees. The program fee of $108 per year is including in the maintenance fees i see advertised on eBay for example correct? It's not an additional fee right? Also, how and what are the special assessment fees?
 

pacodemountainside

TUG Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Messages
2,865
Reaction score
4
Points
36
Location
Aurora, Colorado
POA fee is fixed at $118 for around 212K points and then is $.56/ 1,000. Of course includes "free" RCI membership.

See following, post 20 for SA causes and MF.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217812


Simply put, a resort either collects enough through annual MF to cover operating costs, disasters and replace major components when they wear out or they zap owners when there is not enough money to pay bills.
 
Top