# DVC exchange with RCI



## Minnie29 (May 27, 2013)

I am a DVC owner with 175 points at Saratoga springs and may wish to consider exchanging with RCI.

can anyone explain how this works? I understand that you can exchange only for 7 nights (1 bedroom will be 160points). Can anyone confirm this and I assume less than 7 nights is not possible?

I only have 37points left this year so I assume I will have to borrow points from next year to make up to the 160points required?

Any comments would be much appreciated?


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## presley (May 27, 2013)

DVC's RCI acct. offers a limited number of resorts on a nightly basis.  You will need to borrow points from your next year, but I think you will be booking RCI through DVC's member services.  So, they will be able to do everything for you in one phone call.


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## MichaelColey (May 27, 2013)

You might also consider renting your DVC points out and renting where you want to stay.  It'll probably be much cheaper (especially if you want something bigger than 1BR).  Or, find someone interested in doing a direct exchange with you.  DVC is in pretty high demand, so that shouldn't be hard.

160 DVC points can rent for $1600 (or more).  You can rent many places (including larger units) for quite a bit less than that.


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## chalee94 (May 28, 2013)

MichaelColey said:


> You might also consider renting your DVC points out and renting where you want to stay.  It'll probably be much cheaper (especially if you want something bigger than 1BR).  Or, find someone interested in doing a direct exchange with you.  DVC is in pretty high demand, so that shouldn't be hard.
> 
> 160 DVC points can rent for $1600 (or more).  You can rent many places (including larger units) for quite a bit less than that.



unless you are looking at a trade in hawaii, i would agree with michael.  DVC is a very expensive resort with high annual dues - you would mostly be trading for $1 resorts in RCI with a fraction of the annual dues...


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## Boonie (Jul 10, 2013)

I own DVC and have done two 7-night exchanges, once to Maui and one just last year to Aruba.    You just call Member Services, there is a $95 exchange fee and if you cancel and need to rebook you have to pay it again.


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## rfc0001 (Jul 31, 2013)

*RCI Waitlists*

Comment/question. I'm a long time RCI users with HGVC, but new to DVC, & have found RCI is drastically different with DVC. For starters there are only 500 resorts available-which isn't really a bad thing since this limits the resorts you can exchange into (& conversely out of into DVC) to the top tier (silver & gold crown). Still, it's different than what many (most?) are used to.

Secondly, on the surface DVC has a sweet deal with RCI ($99 exchange fee, no guest certificate fee), but upon closer inspection there is a *major* disadvantage. Namely, that you can't do a true Ongoing Search. Instead DVC RCI members have what are called "Waitlists" (not to be confused with DVC Waitlists which are similar in concept but for DVC reservations). Whereas normally an Ongoing Search will find a match & give you the option to confirm or release it within 2 business days after notification, with DVC the match is *automatically* confirmed, which means 2 things: 1) if you cancel you lose your RCI exchange fee & have to start a new search (whereas a true ongoing search will simply release the match & keep searching with the same search/fee) & 2) your DVC points will automatically be deposited into RCI, which if you cancel stay in RCI (which again a real ongoing search will not transfer any points until you confirm).

My guess is DVC negotiated some pretty low fees (both ones they pay yearly as well as transaction fees) in exchange for this setup. RCI loves this setup because they get $99 every time you match vs. $199 for unlimited matches until you actually confirm. Also, even if you cancel, they keep the points in their system, which ultimately gives them 2 things: 1) a guaranteed exchange into DVC @ $199 & 2) excess inventory they can rent if you don't use your RCI points. So, long story short, it's a bad deal. On the flip side, if you end up cancelling a match, you lose your $99 fee, and use of your DVC points, and now have to go back through this contorted process to use your RCI points that have automatically been transferred. I'd much to prefer to pay double for the search/exchange and get a true Ongoing Search in exchange.  Hopefully more DVC owners express concern with this setup and DVC renegotiates with RCI for better terms.

One question-I've seen several threads that have stated you'll only automatically confirm with an exact match-so I'm wondering if you can simply search for a room type that doesn't exist at a resort (e.g. Hotel or Studio), thus guarantee an inexact match-& I'm wondering if in this case you'll be presented with the "normal" confirm/release option for the inexact match?  Anyone know what happens in the case of an inexact match?  Or does RCI simply ignore inexact matches (e.g. larger room size). I'd be surprised if it is the latter since ongoing searches normally match for the same *or larger* room size, but obviously it wouldn't be fair to DVC owners who request a 1 bdrm to automatically confirm a 3 bdrm & transfer the points for this without their approval. If it turns out you get the 2 day confirm/release period for inexact matches, you can just always search for Hotel room type (which don't exist at most resorts) to avoid an exact match.  Also, note, technically according to the RCI Membership Terms you have to accept every time you log in, you have until the next business day to cancel a confirmed reservation and get the fee back.  This *should* also return your points to DVC.  While this is a pain to do every time you get a match, it is technically in their terms and therefore they legally must allow you to do so (I've actually done this several times with HGVC -- they always give me a hard time but ultimately always allow it after me telling them it's clearly in the terms I accepted).  I'm curious if anyone has had success doing this with DVC?  Again, it's not optimal to rely on this, but as is the RCI search for DVC owners is pretty much useless since searching for an exact date/resort is disproportional to your odds of getting a match, thus antithetical to how you normally search within RCI.


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## rfc0001 (Jul 31, 2013)

presley said:


> DVC's RCI acct. offers a limited number of resorts on a nightly basis.  You will need to borrow points from your next year, but I think you will be booking RCI through DVC's member services.  So, they will be able to do everything for you in one phone call.


From what I've read, and if it is like HGVC's RCI system, RCI has access to two years of points, so you should be able to reserve online and it should automatically transfer the necessary DVC points.



MichaelColey said:


> You might also consider renting your DVC points out and renting where you want to stay.  It'll probably be much cheaper (especially if you want something bigger than 1BR).  Or, find someone interested in doing a direct exchange with you.  DVC is in pretty high demand, so that shouldn't be hard.
> 
> 160 DVC points can rent for $1600 (or more).  You can rent many places (including larger units) for quite a bit less than that.


FYI, David's Vacation Rentals (a popular DVC rental service) pays $11/point.  Also, just as a counterpoint, for me it would be more convenient to use RCI (if the DVC RCI had Ongoing Searches) than to have to pay out of pocket for a rental then spend the time to figure out renting my DVC points (and the risk associated with an unknown renter incurring fees/damages).  This is the whole reason I own a condo -- to prepay for vacation lodging then not have to worry about it.  Thus, having to pay out of pocket for a rental reservation is sort of a pain when you've already paid your fees -- granted you'll get that back several months down the road when the rental occurs (you get half at time of booking/half at time of actual reservation).  Also, there are some resorts that renting is pretty close to what you could make renting your points (e.g. HGVC resorts in Hawaii, which are $250/night for 1 bdrm =  $1743 -- same as renting your DVC points).


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## MichaelColey (Aug 1, 2013)

rfc0001 said:


> For starters there are only 500 resorts available-which isn't really a bad thing since this limits the resorts you can exchange into (& conversely out of into DVC) to the top tier (silver & gold crown).


It's probably more of a quality restriction.  They don't want DVC owners to end up in below average resorts, where they would likely be disappointed.  The converse isn't true.  ANY timeshare owner at RCI can exchange into DVC, with the exception of Orlando weeks exchanging into Orlando DVC properties.

I still contend that an RCI exchange is an absolutely awful value for DVC owners.  And I don't say that lightly, because I exchange into DVC a lot, and the only reason I can do that is because DVC owners exchange out to other RCI resorts.

If you want to do an occasional RCI exchange and don't want the hassles of renting (my previous suggestion as an alternative to DVC->RCI exchanges), just buy a cheap RCI trader and use that.  It could easily be half the cost (especially for larger units).


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## chriskre (Aug 1, 2013)

DVC has an RCI portal now so you can shop online yourself.  


Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2


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## queenofthehive (Aug 14, 2013)

I think you are better off renting your points. I am not a DVC owner but I have been on the renting side of things. I have rented DVC points thru the site called mouseowners.com. You can post your ad and it will be rented asap. There are stickies on the forums that explain to you how to rent points. There are even sample contracts. I think pay pal would be the easiest and just transfer the fee to use this service to the renter. As a renter, I felt better using paypal. The going price per point is $12 and $13 for high demand resort like Boardwalk or BLT. If you do not feel want the hassle with that, David's Rentals is a reputable company to rent your points for you. You can then use this money to pay for your desired vacation.


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## icydog (Aug 18, 2013)

Renting your points is so easy that it makes no sense at all to exchange through RCI. YOu can rent your points for much more than most of the RCI resorts are renting for through Redweek.com or other such rental sites.


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