# Should I keep my timeshare or get rid of it? [Wyndham]



## fishboy1111 (Jul 28, 2016)

I am one of suckers who bought a timeshare at retail. I certainly did regret it(this was 2011) but I am over that now. I have it paid off now but I am still not sure if it is worth keeping. I pay $57/mo in maintenance fees for 161k Wyndham points biannually. That usually gets me a week somewhere with a few points left over that don't usually use because of the booking fee. I did some quick research and it seems you can rent most of these places in my point range for around $200 a night. If I add up my maintenance fees it comes out to $1368 which is slightly less than the ~$1400 that the room would cost just booking myself so it doesn't seem worth it to keep it. Curious what your guys opinions are? Thanks!


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## scootr5 (Jul 28, 2016)

At this point, you've paid all the upfront money for it. If you're using it, I would certainly keep it for the flexibility of booking exactly what you want (maybe even adding a few resale points to bring your average cost per night down).


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## fishboy1111 (Jul 29, 2016)

Thanks for the reply. I guess when I bought it they made it sound like I would be getting practically free vacations for life and now I realize it is hardly even a discount that is pretty disappointing. At any rate where can I learn more about these "resale points" you are talking about?


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## cayman01 (Jul 29, 2016)

*right here*

Join the TUG family right here on this board and start reading. You will be in for a true eye opening experience as far as owning a TS goes.


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## markb53 (Jul 29, 2016)

fishboy1111 said:


> I am one of suckers who bought a timeshare at retail. I certainly did regret it(this was 2011) but I am over that now. I have it paid off now but I am still not sure if it is worth keeping. I pay $57/mo in maintenance fees for 161k Wyndham points biannually. That usually gets me a week somewhere with a few points left over that don't usually use because of the booking fee. I did some quick research and it seems you can rent most of these places in my point range for around $200 a night. If I add up my maintenance fees it comes out to $1368 which is slightly less than the ~$1400 that the room would cost just booking myself so it doesn't seem worth it to keep it. Curious what your guys opinions are? Thanks!



So you have a 161k every other year contract? Where is your Home resort.  


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## fishboy1111 (Jul 29, 2016)

Star Island in Kissimmee FL is my home resort.


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## vacationhopeful (Jul 29, 2016)

You could do either 1 of 3 things . to decide to buy MORE Wyndham points or DUMP it all.

Buy MORE points to go with the SAME even or odd year you own ... might get those FREE with FREE transfer and closing costs OR
Buy MORE points opposite of your ownership ... to balance out your vacationing from every other year to EVERY year.
Or dump the entire ownership .. via Ovation to Wyndham ... and SAYING, "I am done with timesharing" ... and rent vacations here or stay in hotels.

DO NOT DECIDE to buy or take on more FREE points ... until you are certain THAT is your course of action for the next 10 years or better.


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## markb53 (Jul 29, 2016)

fishboy1111 said:


> Star Island in Kissimmee FL is my home resort.



You have a couple of things that keep your maintenance on the high side. It looks like you are paying $6.67 per 1000 points for Star Island and that is before the program fee. Do you particularly like Star Island and need the ARP (Advance Reservation Priority) in order to get the unit that you want. As an example CWA (Club Wyndham Access) MF is currently $5.14/k before the program fee. Your other issue is that you don't have enough points to be above the minimum program fee. The minimum program fee is $147.00 when you purchase from Wyndham. Which means, up to 257k points the program fee doesn't change. So if my math is correct each year you are paying for 80.5k points at $6.67/k plus $147.00 program fee.

I agree with VacationHopeful. Although if you do decide to purchase more points (resale of course) you might consider buying at a lower maintenance fee resort. I bought 210k EOY at Panama City Beach for $1000.00 that currently has a MF of $3.96. Points are points and you can spend them to book any Wyndham Resort. There are really only a few where you have to own there in order to go there during prime time.


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## jebloomquist (Jul 29, 2016)

vacationhopeful said:


> You could do either 1 of 3 things . to decide to buy MORE Wyndham points or DUMP it all.
> 
> Buy MORE points to go with the SAME even or odd year you own ... might get those FREE with FREE transfer and closing costs OR
> Buy MORE points opposite of your ownership ... to balance out your vacationing from every other year to EVERY year.
> ...



I agree completely with vacationhopeful, especially the point about "and rent vacations here." If for any reason you find that you need more points than what you have, check with one of the TUG renters, vacationhopeful, ronparise, bigrob, sandibo, winpointvip, or myself to get your best deal. Each of us has a special niche where one can get you something that the others can't. 

Jim


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## fishboy1111 (Jul 29, 2016)

Great info everyone, maybe I can turn this into something useful.

I live in California and most of the resorts near here are actually Worldmark so I end up paying to transfer my points to them almost every time. Do people do trades like if I wanted to trade my Wyndham points for roughly equivalent Worldmark points?


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## vacationhopeful (Jul 29, 2016)

Perhaps you should read the Wyndham Member Directory's section on* CREDIT POOLING *of points.

Credit pooling will talk about saving your points for the NEXT YEAR use year ... but you can also Credit Pool 2017 points to bring forward (meaning bring them back into 2016 to use) into this year. 

So that vacation to the East Coast could use up 3 years worth of Wyndham points ... say in the Washington, DC area or in New York City or at Bonnet Creek with one set of plane tickets for the family.


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## AwayWeGo (Jul 29, 2016)

*Luxury Timeshare Accommodations At Motel 6 & Super 8 Rates.*




fishboy1111 said:


> Curious what your guys opinions are?


We scaled back bigtime on our timeshares, from multiple weeks & points units in years past to just one _-- 1 --_ triennial points unit today. 

We still go on all the timeshare vacations we want, often via various specials offered by RCI -- _Last Call_ & what used to be called _Instant Exchange_ & occasional special low-price sales on _Extra Vacation Getaways_. 

Those rarely work out to $200 per night.  Sometimes they're closer to $200 per week. 

Click here for a condensed version of our timeshare experience, 2002-2016.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## fishboy1111 (Jul 29, 2016)

AwayWeGo said:


> We still go on all the timeshare vacations we want, often via various specials offered by RCI -- _Last Call_ & what used to be called _Instant Exchange_ & occasional special low-price sales on _Extra Vacation Getaways_.
> 
> -- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​



Could I still do all those things if I got rid of my timeshare or are those only available to timeshare owners? 

(If you haven't figured it out yet, I have no clue what I am doing with a timeshare LOL)


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## vacationhopeful (Jul 29, 2016)

Wyndham pays for your RCI membership and access is via their "portal" on the Wyndham Member Number web page .. .sign into your Wyndham online booking account to get access to RCI. Lose the Wyndham points account and no more RCI account.

If you have an individual RCI exchange account ... you do NOT need to own any  timeshares. Just pay the yearly RCI membership fee.


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## AwayWeGo (Jul 29, 2016)

*Resort Condominiums International.*




fishboy1111 said:


> Could I still do all those things if I got rid of my timeshare or are those only available to timeshare owners?


Our history with RCI goes back to our purchase of a low-cost & high-tradepower South African timeshare unit, which we no longer own -- just abandoned it when management turned it into a non-timeshare resort, which made it of no further use to us.  

That 2BR South African unit cost us $750 -- & that included several years of paid-up membership in RCI -- _Resort Condominiums International_, the largest of the various timeshare-exchange companies out there.  

I assume it's necessary to own a timeshare in order to join RCI, but I don't know for sure.  We joined RCI as part of buying a timeshare, & we've stuck with it ever since because it has worked out favorably for us. 

Other TUG-BBS members have mentioned a parallel RCI-style web site that RCI uses to offer timeshare rentals to non-members -- a source of irritation to those who point out that offering units to outsiders that timeshare owners have banked with RCI dilutes both the value of RCI membership and the value of timeshare units that people have banked for exchange with RCI.  That is, if availability were limited to RCI members only, then members would have more units to choose from than when the total units available are whittled down by letting outsiders reserve some of'm.  I mean, why pay annual dues to RCI when RCI lets the general public, without joining RCI or paying dues, snag some of the units that RCI members have banked for exchange with RCI ?

I always heard that RCI Weeks membership is included at no extra charge with ownership of Wyndham timeshares -- i.e., a portion of the maintenance fees paid to Wyndham covers RCI dues.  If that's true, then you can at least start exploring the RCI possibilities before you decide whether to stick with Wyndham.  

RCI Points is related but not totally the same thing even though it's all 1 company.  When we took the points plunge, we had to pay for a new RCI Points membership even though we already belonged to RCI.  With paid membership in RCI Points, the company includes (at no added charge) a side-by-side membership in regular old plain-vanilla RCI (also called RCI Weeks, just to distinguish it from RCI Points).  We used both when we had both kinds of timeshares -- points & weeks.  Now, with just a triennial points unit, we still have our old original RCI Weeks membership, which we have not used for several years.  We can still log in on the Weeks part of RCI Dot Com, & I suppose we can still do _Last Call_ & _Extra Vacation Getaway_ reservations via RCI Weeks, but we have no straight-weeks timeshares to deposit & for that reason we can't make any straight-weeks exchange reservations.  _Mox nix_ -- RCI Points still works fine for us. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## philemer (Jul 30, 2016)

Does the OVATION program take back pts contracts?


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## Cheryl20772 (Jul 31, 2016)

philemer said:


> Does the OVATION program take back pts contracts?


Yes, please see this sticky thread http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237533


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## jmfrost (Aug 1, 2016)

[This would be a good private message.]


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