# Wyndham points vs RCI Points



## raeuven (Oct 24, 2008)

I already have two weeks South Africa timeshares and want to get a points week going.  Is there any advantage over having Wyn points vs just regular RCI points.  It seems that I may be able to pic up RCI points cheaper than Wyn points with closing costs and all.


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## Jya-Ning (Oct 24, 2008)

With 2 SA week, what you plan to do with them after you add more weeks for travel?  I will belive it is more benefit for you to add RCI point.  There is someone that sell 3year RTU RCI point contract, you should try it first.

As to cheap, I doubt very much RCI points is cheaper than Wyndham point.

RCI point is exchange company product.  Wyndham point is developer selling product.  That is the main difference.

Jya-Ning


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## raeuven (Oct 24, 2008)

I just plan on keeping my SA weeks as weeks unless I would need to convert to points for extra points.
What is the membership fee to be in RCI points vs weeks?  I know once I buy points, then I am converted to a points member but still have rights to the weeks membership.  Is RCI points membership the same cost as Wyndham membership costs and trades?


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## Jya-Ning (Oct 24, 2008)

raeuven said:


> Is RCI points membership the same cost as Wyndham membership costs and trades?



No, these two are different fee structure, you can get RCI's fee from RCI site.
http://www.rci.com/RCI/RCIW/RCIW_index?body=RCIW_Disclosure
and look at point link.

Wyndham point will not allow you to deposit your SA as will.  You have to buy a developer package to start with, which is not very cost effective.


What makes you interesting in Wyndham point or RCI point?

Jya-Ning


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## raeuven (Oct 26, 2008)

I was interested in possibly buying into the Wyndham points system so I could enhance my South African weeks which are not always the best traders.  I think points will pull up some weeks that my SA weeks do not.
My MF for the SA weeks range from 200-275 a year which is really low and I have had great success trading with them.  I'm always able to trade my 1-bdrm SA weeks for 2 bdrm weeks elsewhere as long as I do it at least over 10 months in advance.  I was even able to get Manhattan Club 1-bdrm for next May/June with my SA weeks.  I've been able to get 2bdrm at Grand Mayan, Sheraton Vistana, Wyn Flagstaff, Canyon Hills, Ocean Palms and 1 bdrms at Hilton South Beach, Miami.
But I was looking to try to get into some 3bdrms or 4bdrms with the points in maybe off season.  But I am so confused as to if I buy a Wyndam point unit, I know I get the free RCI membership, but is it cheaper to do a Wyndham points trade than it would be to do the same trade with points through RCI or is it just a game to find the best deal?  In other words, I'm not sure how that works.  
You become a Wyndham owner with a free RCI account now, but can your Wyn points be used to just check Wyn internally or do you have to deposit those points into RCI?  I do trade into a lot of Wyn weeks so I didn't know what to do in that regard and I am so confused on this.  My weeks I would leave alone to just search for weeks, but my Wyn points would be used to find maybe better units or larger units or to buy less that 7 night stays.

I think that I am over thinking it and that I should just go for it and learn by use???


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## vacationhopeful (Oct 26, 2008)

IMHO, you don't know enough about the Wyndham point system which may be part of your confusion.

Wyndham points have fees to use the reservation for night stays.  I am assuming you would only buy resale Wyndham points - for the rest of these discussions.

1).  You can only book into Wyndham resorts on nightly stays and only if that resort is not in prime time, must book in on Fri or Sat (or chkout on Fri or Sat) either for 7 nights or 3 or 4 night stays.
2)  You get so many RT (reservation transactions) and HK (housekeeping credits) based on the number of points you own.  Short stays will have you buy more of each of these.  This will be altering the cost structure for nightly or two stays.
3)  Reserving 3 or 4 BDRs in the off-season (Wyndham resorts, I will assume) is not as easy as you might think.  The mega-owners grab these with point discounts (VIP) and then free upgrade (VIP) to the next larger available units for free (so, many of them manipulate the reservation system to go from a 1 bdr to a 3 bdr, midweek, using only 20,000 pts).  Wyndham Vacation Rentals also grabs the larger units (weekends particularly) to rent them out - from what I understand at these boards at the 60 day mark.  Look at eBay for the vacation rentals via mega-owner/renters.  Wyndham has tried to alter this rental market - to improve their own rentals no doubt - via limiting Guest Certificate w/o a fee (5X what is was before 10/15/08), not allowing cancelled reservations w/o lost of points after the 15 day before checkin, etc, limiting resale points numbers in calculating all VIP owners numbers (like towards the Guest Certificate allocatements).  

As for RCI Points - can't use Wyndham resale points w/o paying a initiation fee to Wyndham to get into Plus Partners - to get RCI Points nightly stays. As other posters have stated, leasing an RCI Points contract is cheap and has a renewal option after 3 years.

It really does take awhile to understand even one of these TS systems.  And every system has twists to skim $$$ into who evers hands - fees for exchanges, renting exchanges, HK fees, Guest Certificate fees, etc.

Keep reading and try to ask questions in as much detail as possible.


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## Jya-Ning (Oct 26, 2008)

Wyndham point is use internally.  And you can not deposit your SA week to Wyndham unless as I say before you have bought from devloper, and at the time of purchase, you PICed these two weeks.

RCI point does allow you to make deposit in a later day without convert or purchase if your SA resort does not joint RCI point.  


Wyndham will give you a free RCI week account.  So if you want to use Wyndham point on RCI, you deposit a week equivlent Wyndham point to as RCI week.  There is a generic grid to determine how many points it will be based on unit size, and season.

As you may already know, season is more important than unit size.

Since it is week side, it can not pull all these weeks, in fact, it can not pull Manhattan Club.  As to 3 & 4 BD, my understanding is, they seldomly goes to RCI for exchanges, even at off season.  Unless things change like economic goes really really bad, so people can only travel along, I won't see the trend change.

You do however, can use Wyndham point to get 3 or 4 BD internally.  They usually keep these for owners.

For You, you really should consider those RCI 3 year point RTU package.

Jya-Ning


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## raeuven (Oct 31, 2008)

Where do I go to find RTU point leases for three years?  Do I have to have a points membership to do that?  Or do I get one by leasing and paying the RCI fees?


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## theo (Oct 31, 2008)

raeuven said:


> Where do I go to find RTU point leases for three years?  Do I have to have a points membership to do that?  Or do I get one by leasing and paying the RCI fees?



Acquiring the RTU lease *creates* a new RCI Points account; you don't need to already have a RCI Points account. 

I haven't seen advertising for the 3 year RTU lease packages recently (then again, I haven't looked). Since you are not a TUG member, it probably would not be  appropriate for me to direct you to the seller (a TUG member) via the forums here. You can search the classifieds here (and also on TS4MS) to see if he is even still advertising or offering those packages. Different RCI Points levels were available, with the annual maintenance fee amount being proportional to the size of the RCI points package.

P.S. You might consider posting an inquiry in the Buying, Selling & Renting forum and/or the Points forum (...it's not really a Wyndham - specific topic for this forum) and ask if anyone knows if the RCI Points / 3 year RTU lease is even still available.


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