# How to get the bare minimum 5000 points



## threerowsup (Jan 4, 2023)

Hello everyone,

I have read most of the posts going back a year and from what I have gathered, 5000 points would be ideal for me to get into the system and try it out. 

Is it possible to buy a larger membership and split it up? Most of the resales I see are for 6000+ and any 5000 exactly the seller knows they have the holy grail and add on fees and price per point is higher. Thank you all for your prior posts and knowledge.


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## CO skier (Jan 4, 2023)

2023 Annual Dues:

5,000 credits = $0.133/credit

10,000 credits = $0.107/credit  (20% less per credit than 5,000 credits)

Purchase price for 10,000 credits would be $1,500 - 2,000 all in.  5,000 credits might be a few hundred less.

Median credits required for a full week in a 1 bedroom during Red Season = 8,000 credits.

10,000 credits seems, to me, to be a much better deal than 5,000 credits, and much easier to find for sale, if you just want to "try it out."


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## Mongoose (Jan 4, 2023)

If you are going to do 6K, you might as well go for 7500 credits.  There is no difference between the two in maintenance fees.  Personally I had never seen a 5K contract for resale before looking today out of curiosity.  I think you will pay way more than market value to get one as they are more rare.  Here are some examples... They have a 6K contract for $5.  
https://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/...sortBy/5000/pointsMin/6000/pointsMax/?ads-tab


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## Mongoose (Jan 4, 2023)

Mongoose said:


> If you are going to do 6K, you might as well go for 7500 credits.  There is no difference between the two in maintenance fees.  Personally I had never seen a 5K contract for resale before looking today out of curiosity.  I think you will pay way more than market value to get one as they are more rare.  Here are some examples... They have a 6K contract for $5.
> https://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/...sortBy/5000/pointsMin/6000/pointsMax/?ads-tab


Look at that.  There is a 5K contract on ebay right now.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/3345596118...U88dISF9Pq+0tl82sGHR1rMLQ=|tkp:Bk9SR4iMhfavYQ


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## djyamyam (Jan 4, 2023)

In addition to the above posts, I would say that the recommendation of getting a minimum point membership and renting the rest is old news and not necessarily the best way to purchase now. What no one seems to have mentioned is that you can only rent "in" 2x the number of points of what you own. Rental points are ranging in the $.08-$.09 range but if you had a 5K or even 6K point ownership, you could only rent in an additional 10K-12K number of points. Basically, that'll (5K + 10K rental = 15K points) give you about two full weeks in a 1BR or a 2BR for a week with points for additional days

If that's the length of time you're looking to travel, then you'd be ok with a minimum point ownership. You'd still have access to Monday madness, inventory specials, etc.


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## Sandy VDH (Jan 4, 2023)

I guess the only difference between rent in points and bonus time, is whether or not bonus time is available for where and when you want to travel.

I purchased a 5K about a year ago.  Haven't used my points yet, nor did I rent in points, but I have made 5 IS or BT bookings.  There is not a cap on those.  Works well for me. Cheaper than rent in points and NO extra HK fees to pay.


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## Eric B (Jan 4, 2023)

djyamyam said:


> In addition to the above posts, I would say that the recommendation of getting a minimum point membership and renting the rest is old news and not necessarily the best way to purchase now. What no one seems to have mentioned is that you can only rent "in" 2x the number of points of what you own. Rental points are ranging in the $.08-$.09 range but if you had a 5K or even 6K point ownership, you could only rent in an additional 10K-12K number of points. Basically, that'll (5K + 10K rental = 15K points) give you about two full weeks in a 1BR or a 2BR for a week with points for additional days
> 
> If that's the length of time you're looking to travel, then you'd be ok with a minimum point ownership. You'd still have access to Monday madness, inventory specials, etc.


There is also the option of getting a small contract and using the Exchange Plus program to deposit other TS for WorldMark credits. A 2 BR red week gets you 8,000 credits, 1 HK, and 1 GC for the cost of $129 plus the underlying MF for wherever the week came from.


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## CO skier (Jan 4, 2023)

Mongoose said:


> If you are going to do 6K, you might as well go for 7500 credits.


There is no such thing as a 7500 credits membership.  All WorldMark memberships are exactly divisible by 1,000.  Memberships divisible by 10,000 are most cost efficient, because complimentary housekeeping is awarded for every 10,000 credits owned (memberships up through 19,000 credits do receive one complimentary HK per account year).


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## CO skier (Jan 4, 2023)

Mongoose said:


> Look at that.  There is a 5K contract on ebay right now.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/334559611814?hash=item4de54e8ba6:g:TNkAAOSwszFb12Gw&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAoOeFzlQI8NBbqA9s1BEZFvK7VpoqxYEbDuE0A2vTACn5ifpX8FnwPEC6lZA10sujXzX+4OSIVZ9X8vgSCpLlVb1mWrSaxOkb17fLTbdHXMjwKgUHyqBkCFkvyhyxQ3rI+AsMxLWnCNT2jUIw7r2zlpcFfwJ2KMo71iO9HXliZS4qaS0nOsd0UnZV1jOzkzU88dISF9Pq+0tl82sGHR1rMLQ=|tkp:Bk9SR4iMhfavYQ


$1,647.53 all in.

Here is (was) a 10,000 credits WorldMark auction that sold for $1,344 all in.  Plus, the seller is paying the maintenance fees until the membership transfers, which can take 4-5 months.  Twice as many credits for >$300 less?  Sign me up!









						WORLDMARK BY WYNDHAM - 10,000 POINTS - ANNUAL!  | eBay
					

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for WORLDMARK BY WYNDHAM - 10,000 POINTS - ANNUAL! at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



					www.ebay.com


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## CO skier (Jan 4, 2023)

threerowsup said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I have read most of the posts going back a year and from what I have gathered, 5000 points would be ideal for me to get into the system and try it out.


It might help if you detailed how you plan to use the WorldMark membership and why only 5,000 credits is "ideal" for you.


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## threerowsup (Jan 4, 2023)

CO skier said:


> It might help if you detailed how you plan to use the WorldMark membership and why only 5,000 credits is "ideal" for you.


Yes it would. Mainly want to use BT and IS as I travel a lot for work (Western US) and my wife and child come with me in the summers as she is a teacher.


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## Eric B (Jan 5, 2023)

CO skier said:


> complimentary housekeeping is awarded for every 10,000 credits owned


I wouldn't really think of those as "complimentary" or being "awarded". You get one housekeeping token in exchange for the payment of dues on an account plus another housekeeping in exchange for the payment of dues in each 10,000 credits over the first 10,000. That does make the multiples of 10,000 milestones of efficiency but there can be other considerations depending on circumstances.


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## Eric B (Jan 5, 2023)

threerowsup said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I have read most of the posts going back a year and from what I have gathered, 5000 points would be ideal for me to get into the system and try it out.
> 
> Is it possible to buy a larger membership and split it up? Most of the resales I see are for 6000+ and any 5000 exactly the seller knows they have the holy grail and add on fees and price per point is higher. Thank you all for your prior posts and knowledge.


IIRC, WorldMark no longer sells 5,000 credit accounts, so the ones that are on the resale market are either older accounts or ones where someone has an older account and splits off a 5,000 credit one. That can happen for a variety or reasons - some people think having multiple smaller accounts in order to be able to have more waitlist requests at a time. 

Have you looked at wmowners.com? It's another good resource for information from WorldMark owners and has a classified ad forum with account sales/want ads.


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## CO skier (Jan 5, 2023)

threerowsup said:


> Yes it would. Mainly want to use BT and IS as I travel a lot for work (Western US) and my wife and child come with me in the summers as she is a teacher.


This may be a recipe for disappointment, depending on where you might want to stay and how far in advance you plan your business trips.

This is how the Inventory Specials (IS) program is described:

"Inventory Specials are selected based on current and historical data which forecast periods of low occupancy for the resorts and dates listed. To ensure vacation credits bookings have first priority, resorts with a significant increase in occupancy may be removed at any time."

"Summers" is not "low occupancy periods" in most of WorldMark; the Texas resorts may be an exception.    I often stayed in the WM Solvang resort on business trips.  It worked great in January - March.  The Solvang resort was never on IS in the summer.  At this moment Solvang is on IS for February and March, but not April, and it definitely will not be on IS for the summer months.  By the time the 14-day Bonus Time window opened, there were dates open here or there during the summer, but it was not worth the effort to check out of the hotel, check into WM Solvang for one or two BT nights, then back into a hotel.

WorldMark owners regularly complain about the lack of Bonus Time because they think of WorldMark as a short-term hotel instead of a vacation Club.

All this does not change the fact that if you want to give WorldMark a try, you would likely be better served by purchasing a 10k membership versus a 5k membership.


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## Sandy VDH (Jan 5, 2023)

Eric B said:


> There is also the option of getting a small contract and using the Exchange Plus program to deposit other TS for WorldMark credits. A 2 BR red week gets you 8,000 credits, 1 HK, and 1 GC for the cost of $129 plus the underlying MF for wherever the week came from.



What does a white week 2 BR get in terms of WM points?  I have a unit that I could use for this purpose.  Is there any restriction on the resort in order to do an exchange plus.  For example on Global Choice with HICV I can use the two resorts that do not offer RCI points options, but I have one that does offer it, even though my week is not converted to points, so Global Choice will not take that unit.  I only have 3 independents left in my portfolio, 2 got into HICV, having an alternate option would be great because I currently have more than 300 TPUs in my RCI weekly account.  I don't want more.


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## Huskerpaul (Jan 5, 2023)

I agree with the recommendation to start with 10,000. I purchased a 20k resale contract last year and already rented in 20,000 credits. I have already booked vacations for this summer. Very happy so far.


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## CO skier (Jan 5, 2023)

Eric B said:


> I wouldn't really think of those as "complimentary" or being "awarded".




Note the use of the terms "complimentary" and "awarded" in the official explanation.


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## Eric B (Jan 5, 2023)

Sandy VDH said:


> What does a white week 2 BR get in terms of WM points?  I have a unit that I could use for this purpose.  Is there any restriction on the resort in order to do an exchange plus.  For example on Global Choice with HICV I can use the two resorts that do not offer RCI points options, but I have one that does offer it, even though my week is not converted to points, so Global Choice will not take that unit.  I only have 3 independents left in my portfolio, 2 got into HICV, having an alternate option would be great because I currently have more than 300 TPUs in my RCI weekly account.  I don't want more.


6,000 credits, 1 HK, and 1 GC. The only restriction is you have to be able to deposit in either RCI or II.


CO skier said:


> Note the use of the terms "complimentary" and "awarded" in the official explanation.
> 
> 
> View attachment 71060


Roger that - it's marketing speak. TANSTAAFL.


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## Mongoose (Jan 5, 2023)

Its amazing what you can actually do with small credit accounts when you leverage FAXtime, Monday Madness and other specials.  They have a BOGO special going on right now which I was able to take advantage of.    With the majority of other systems you can't do much at all with small accounts.  Hilton has Open Season for Cash, but its only 30 days out.  With HICV, you are limited but can at least rent or borrow from future years.  With Hyatt (which I love) you are pretty much SOL if you are short a few credits.  Any other systems offer the flexibility of WM?


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## MCLRenoNV (Jan 5, 2023)

Mongoose said:


> They have a BOGO special going on right now which I was able to take advantage of.


Where do you find BOGO deals? I haven’t seen this on the WM site? I checked under Deals & Offers > Resorts and only see Inventory Specials and Monday Madness.


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## Mongoose (Jan 5, 2023)

MCLRenoNV said:


> Where do you find BOGO deals? I haven’t seen this on the WM site? I checked under Deals & Offers > Resorts and only see Inventory Specials and Monday Madness.


If you call the reservations line and get put on infinite hold they are advertising it every 5 minutes.  I lucked out with picking my resort and dates.


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## CO skier (Jan 5, 2023)

Mongoose said:


> If you call the reservations line and get put on infinite hold they are advertising it every 5 minutes.  I lucked out with picking my resort and dates.


Waited on hold for more than half an hour before giving up and deciding to try early tomorrow morning when the wait time will be less.  The BOGO offer is for Jan. 5 to Mar. 31 at 20 resorts that were not named.  Maybe there will be some announcement within a few days.


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## Sandy VDH (Jan 5, 2023)

I called and they said it was emailed, but I never got anything.  Did anyone else?


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## CO skier (Jan 5, 2023)

Sandy VDH said:


> I called and they said it was emailed, but I never got anything.  Did anyone else?


No, and I usually receive email notifications after I checked-off the approriate boxes within my account.

If I had made it that far, I would have asked to have the email read to me or "resent" to me while I waited on the phone to be sure I received what they "sent."


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## djyamyam (Jan 5, 2023)

Sandy VDH said:


> I called and they said it was emailed, but I never got anything.  Did anyone else?


I just called and got through to owner resolution and had someone email me the info. I've made a separate thread on it so as to not hijack the OP's thread any more


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## CO skier (Jan 6, 2023)

Sandy VDH said:


> I called and they said it was emailed, but I never got anything.  Did anyone else?


Finally received an email about the BOGO at 6 p.m. yesterday, so the Owner Resolutions person was not completely wrong, just early.


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