# cheapest way to get access to RCI & II



## bondy3 (Oct 11, 2016)

I recently purchased Wyndham on a whim and now realize I cant have access to II with it 

what is the cheapest timeshare to buy (nothing down, minimal maintenence) that would allow me to be a member of both RCI and II (just for last call)


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## tschwa2 (Oct 11, 2016)

You don't always want to go for the cheapest.  Sometimes you can find just the right thing for free and sometimes it is worth it to spend more time and maybe a little more money to find just the right property.


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## schenriq (Oct 11, 2016)

I had that same thinking a while back when I was still on buying spree but realized later that some resorts trade better on one exchange company than the other. For eg, my SDO can trade both in II and RCI but with the Starwood to Starwood (now VSE to VSE) priority in II, I bought it specifically for II exchanges. I use my Wyndham points if something interesting pops-up in RCI. So far it's working fine for our exchange game. I mean needs.


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## DeniseM (Oct 11, 2016)

I agree with tschwa2 - the wrong timeshare can end up being a burden, no matter how cheap it is.  I would look for a drive-to location that you would actually like to use.

Have you looked at the timeshares that are being given away for free on TUG?

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55


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## SmithOp (Oct 11, 2016)

I've got a nice Vistana resort (SVR) fixed week 12 that trades well in Interval and every few years gets a high tpu for RCI deposit (depending on when Easter falls).  Its dual affiliated so I'm in both.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## ronparise (Oct 11, 2016)

The floating weeks at the Avenue Plaza resort in New Orleans trade both in RCI and II

The studio weeks can be had for next to nothing and mf is $550


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## theo (Oct 11, 2016)

OP: If not clear from responses already provided, in order to be able to use II as an exchange company, you must first own interval(s) at a resort which is actually *affiliated* with II. If your interval ownership provides access to RCI as the only affiliated exchange company, then you simply have no access to (or option to use) II.


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## tschwa2 (Oct 11, 2016)

For the last several years, new Wyndham owners can only use RCI with the points membership regardless of which resort they own.


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## schenriq (Oct 11, 2016)

OP, since you reside in the northwest, checkout Eagle Crest in Central Oregon. It's within driving distance from Seattle in case you want to use it one year. It trades well in II and RCI so I heard but I have not traded mine. Get the summer floaters only for best results. I got mine for $1 (and free transfer ) but have already sold it. I got a Kauai week and something has to go as per wife..or else. It's a Gold Crown awardee in RCI.


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## dominidude (Oct 11, 2016)

Since you are in the northwest, consider Worldmark points. While I do not own them myself, my understanding is that you should have several resorts within driving distance.
Worldmark points are not free to obtain, but, their MFs for low point contracts are very manageable, and they do trade with both II and RCI. 
Most importantly, they are easy to get rid of if it turns out you dont want them later on.


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## bogey21 (Oct 12, 2016)

If Last Call is your sole reason for wanting RCI and/or II Membership, this may be an off the wall answer but I think you should check out buying a cheap Week affiliated with RCI (and maybe II too); join RCI and/or II; sell or give away the Week;and keep paying the RCI and/or II annual Membership Fee.  This way you have no annual MF but continuing access to Last Call.

George


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## theo (Oct 12, 2016)

bogey21 said:


> If Last Call is your sole reason for wanting RCI and/or II Membership, this may be an off the wall answer but I think you should check out buying a cheap Week affiliated with RCI (and maybe II too); join RCI and/or II; sell or give away the Week;and keep paying the RCI and/or II annual Membership Fee.  This way you have no annual MF but continuing access to Last Call.
> 
> George



OP bondy3 *already* has (...whether wanted or not) a RCI membership by virtue of the Wyndham purchase s/he mentioned. That RCI membership (wanted or not) is attached to Wyndham ownership --- but that doesn't in any way address or solve access to Interval International. 

II will of course actively verify ownership with a II affiliated property before allowing or processing a II membership, but your idea does not seem entirely "off the wall" *if* the OP could find an inexpensive II affiliated interval and later dispose of it. That being said however, I dunno if II would track (or care) if the II affiliated ownership was sold or given away in the future, nor do I know whether it would matter if II affiliation itself was to terminate in the future (I do know of an instance or two of former *dual *affiliations, but with the II affiliation later "going away"; I do not know if those "partings of the ways" were at II initiative or at resort initiative). 

We certainly know that RCI does *not* care one bit about future ownership status with *non-Wyndham* properties, as long as the RCI membership fees keep getting paid. With a *Wyndham* ownership however, the RCI membership is mandatory and the RCI membership fees are paid via the monthly fees to Wyndham. If a Wyndham ownership "went away" later, and it was the *only* RCI affiliated ownership in the owner "portfolio", I dunno if the associated RCI membership would also immediately end with the cessation of that Wyndham ownership. I'm sure that someone here knows with much more certainty exactly what happens to RCI membership if / when the *only* property in the owner portfolio is a Wyndham property and that Wyndham ownership (and the associated automatic RCI membership fee payment) ends.


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## bondy3 (Oct 12, 2016)

bogey21 said:


> If Last Call is your sole reason for wanting RCI and/or II Membership, this may be an off the wall answer but I think you should check out buying a cheap Week affiliated with RCI (and maybe II too); join RCI and/or II; sell or give away the Week;and keep paying the RCI and/or II annual Membership Fee.  This way you have no annual MF but continuing access to Last Call.
> 
> George



they dont check to make sure I still own?


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## theo (Oct 12, 2016)

*One more time...*



bondy3 said:


> they dont check to make sure I still own?



Per my reply above in post #12, RCI won't ever check if what you owned was a *non-Wyndham* property; as long as you keep your RCI membership fees current.  However, you *do* own a *Wyndham* property and, as consequence, you pay your RCI membership fees ("program fee") as part of your monthly payment to Wyndham. I'm not entirely certain, but your monthly payments to Wyndham (*and* your RCI membership) could very well *both* cease immediately if / when you parted with your Wyndham ownership if that was your only RCI-affiliated ownership. As you likely already know, Wyndham actually *owns* RCI --- lock, stock and barrel.


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## bondy3 (Oct 12, 2016)

theo said:


> Per my reply above in post #12, RCI won't ever check if what you owned was a *non-Wyndham* property; as long as you keep your RCI membership fees current.  However, you *do* own a *Wyndham* property and, as consequence, you pay your RCI membership fees ("program fee") as part of your monthly payment to Wyndham. I'm not entirely certain, but your monthly payments to Wyndham (*and* your RCI membership) could very well *both* cease immediately if / when you parted with your Wyndham ownership if that was your only RCI-affiliated ownership. As you likely already know, Wyndham actually *owns* RCI --- lock, stock and barrel.



I have realized that wyndham owns RCI  

I bought without doing all the research and now I have to live with that.


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## bogey21 (Oct 12, 2016)

bondy3 said:


> they dont check to make sure I still own?



My experience with RCI was that they didn't check.  For as long as I continued to pay my annual RCI Membership Fee I continued to have access to Last Call and Rentals.  I don't know how II handles.

George.


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## sue1947 (Oct 12, 2016)

Before going to the expense of adding another timeshare, are you sure you will be able to use the Last Calls options (or in II Getaways).  The sales people always make it sound like you can get any week you want at the last minute cost.   I also live in the Seattle area and have had both RCI and II for many years and have yet to find anything on the Last Call list worth using (and I'm retired and travel off season).  They are the left overs and usually are places in overbuilt areas at a time when most people don't want to go there; and none of those places are within a day's drive of Seattle.  That works out ok if you are within driving distance, but for Seattle, it will likely include airfare.   In fact, there isn't that much on the west coast, mostly Palm Springs in the summer or some ski resorts in Tahoe and the Rockies in Oct; most of it, especially in RCI seems to be east coast.  As a result, I do not recommend buying anything just for access to the Last Call inventory.  It's nice if something works out, but not likely. 

Learn to work the Wyndham that you own or get rid of it and find something that works for you.  It really depends on what and where you want to stay, but Wyndham is better for East and Worldmark or Vacation Internationale for west.   If Wyndham doesn't have the places you want, then cutting your losses and starting over might be a good idea.   

JMO
Sue


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## bondy3 (Oct 12, 2016)

sue1947 said:


> Before going to the expense of adding another timeshare, are you sure you will be able to use the Last Calls options (or in II Getaways).  The sales people always make it sound like you can get any week you want at the last minute cost.   I also live in the Seattle area and have had both RCI and II for many years and have yet to find anything on the Last Call list worth using (and I'm retired and travel off season).  They are the left overs and usually are places in overbuilt areas at a time when most people don't want to go there; and none of those places are within a day's drive of Seattle.  That works out ok if you are within driving distance, but for Seattle, it will likely include airfare.   In fact, there isn't that much on the west coast, mostly Palm Springs in the summer or some ski resorts in Tahoe and the Rockies in Oct; most of it, especially in RCI seems to be east coast.  As a result, I do not recommend buying anything just for access to the Last Call inventory.  It's nice if something works out, but not likely.
> 
> Learn to work the Wyndham that you own or get rid of it and find something that works for you.  It really depends on what and where you want to stay, but Wyndham is better for East and Worldmark or Vacation Internationale for west.   If Wyndham doesn't have the places you want, then cutting your losses and starting over might be a good idea.
> 
> ...



thats a pretty valid point,  I dont know how much inventory the getaways/last call have, but sales reps always talk them up like they are amazing.

perhaps im best off just keeping my new wyndham membership and see what happens.


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## theo (Oct 12, 2016)

bondy3 said:


> <snip> I dont know how much inventory the getaways/last call have, but sales reps always talk them up like they are amazing.



Timeshare sales weasels routinely exaggerate, obfuscate and / or lie outright on a daily basis. They will say virtually *anything* to make a sale, knowing (as they certainly do) that only the *written content* of an executed sales contract actually means anything at all from a legal perspective. Everything else is just meaningless noise, temporarily floating around in the air before just fading away forever. 

"Last Call" weeks available from RCI are generally offerings of last resort (...sorry, no pun intended) at places and / or in seasons that no one previously wanted or picked up as an exchange. If they *had* anyl demand or desirability, those weeks would never have languished unclaimed to later become "Last Calls" in the first place. 
I frankly doubt that it's much (if at all) different with II's "Getaways".


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## ran-ran (Oct 29, 2016)

*Have RCI - Interested in II*

Hi All,

I have been an RCI member for about 15 years (Platinum for the last 3 or 4 years) and overall, it has served us well. The only thing I do not see available to me are the Disney Resorts because the only timeshare we are currently depositing is our week 52 from Vacation Village at Parkway lock-offs separately, which exclude us from seeing the DVC availability. 

We are interested in the possibility of joining Interval (II) to expand our searches.

We also own weeks 10 and 11 at the Quarter House and we have never deposited either of the weeks into RCI because we either stayed at the QH every year or we have successfully rented either week or one of the lock-offs every year. We love this city.

Finally, we own three weeks (1,2,3 - all in the same ocean view unit) at Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort and we always go to FLBR every January for at least for one week and the other weeks we have always successfully rented the weeks out and/or lock-offs.

With all that being said, we would like to see more available options, like Marriott properties and the DVC resorts.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the feasibility of enrolling in II with the likelihood of depositing either the QH 2BR, week 10 there and/or the FLBR lock-offs in either RCI and/or II to gain the access to DVC and/or Marriott Resorts?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated before we move forward with yet another annual commitment to another exchange company.


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## DeniseM (Oct 29, 2016)

DVC is only with RCI - you need an RCI week with high points, that is not in the Orlando area.  Preferably a resale, that is already enrolled in points - it is very expensive to enroll a deed that is not already in points.

Marriott owners have priority in II - in other words, Marriott owners get first dibs on Marriott deposits - for Marriott, you need to own Marriott.


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## ran-ran (Oct 29, 2016)

DeniseM said:


> DVC is only with RCI - you need an RCI week with high points, that is not in the Orlando area.
> 
> Marriott owners have priority in II - in other words, Marriott owners get first dibs on Marriott deposits - for Marriott, you need to own Marriott.



First, thank you so very much for responding. Are you saying without owning a Marriott resale, it is not a huge benefit to belonging to II, especially with the resorts I currently own? 

Yes, I am aware of the RCI restriction of not being able to trade other Orlando resorts for DVC resorts. I am thinking that I am more interested in depositing my week 10 at the QH for 38 TPU and how it would possibly benefit me more at II or at RCI. My week 11 at the QH is a lock-off with a combined 70 TPU (35 each).
My FLBR weeks each have a combined 47 points (25 & 22 respectively) each.
My VV&P has a combined 81 point value (41 and 40 respectively).

Someone that uses both systems, RCI and II. If I would join II, how would you recommend that I maximize my trading ability with deposits to either exchange company?

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.


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## DeniseM (Oct 29, 2016)

> First, thank you so very much for responding. Are you saying without owning a Marriott resale, it is not a huge benefit to belonging to II, especially with the resorts I currently own?



No.....  You specifically asked about trading into DVC and Marriott, and that is what I responded to.  

You may have a strong II trader (I have no idea) but without the Marriott priority, _it won't work very well for Marriott._ 

However, that has no impact on trading for _non-Marriott resorts in II._

I have no experience with QH, so hopefully someone else can respond to that, but with II the strategy is pretty simple:

-Deposit as early as you can.
-Deposit the highest demand date that you can.
-Put in your request for an exchange as early as you can.

***Whether you want to use II or RCI really comes down to one thing:  *Where do you want to go?*  Because the majority of resorts are affiliated either with II or RCI, but not both.  So you should start by figuring out where you want to go.


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## sue1947 (Oct 29, 2016)

DeniseM said:


> You may have a strong II trader (I have no idea) but without the Marriott priority, _it won't work very well for Marriott._



I disagree with this statement unless you are looking only at prime weeks.    If you are looking to trade into one of the Marriott properties in Orlando, then that is frequently a very easy trade with a non-Marriott property.   I own WM and have been very successful trading into Marriott properties in the off season.  I have traded into the western US ones but know many WM owners have gotten the Orlando Marriotts for a low value WM deposit.  It all really depends on where and when you want to trade.  

Sue


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## DeniseM (Oct 29, 2016)

Good point.

Since the OP already owns 3 weeks in Florida, it didn't occur to me that they wanted to trade into Florida.

Generally, when people say they want to trade into Marriott, they want to trade for the top properties, but maybe that isn't the case here.

If they want to go to the less demand properties and off-season, then a non-Marriott trader will work.

If they want to go to the most popular Marriott resorts - they need a Marriott trader.


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