# 2010 Marriott Maintenance Fees: Do I need to pay timely?



## hotwings (Jan 9, 2010)

Hey all,

I have an invoice to pay my MMC 2010 Maint Fees by 15 Jan 2010.  What if I decide to wait a month or two to pay these fees.  Will I get charged interest or other type of fee?  I can't seem to find anything on the Marriott site that tells me this. I realize that I can't reserve/deposit my 2011 week until my 2010 fees are paid. 

Thanks in advance for your help.


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 9, 2010)

I dont have enough $$$ to pay my full MF this year by next week so i think i'll get a 50$ penalty fees when i'll be paying it


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## dioxide45 (Jan 9, 2010)

This is covered in your governing documents. There is a fee and then an interest rate if not paid by a certain number of days past the due date. For Grande Vista that rate is 18%, not sure what the late fee is.

Not only will you not be able to reserve 2011, but if you have a 2010 reservation, they will cancel it after providing you a few weeks notice to pay up. Not sure if they get II on their side to lock out trading your weeks.


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 9, 2010)

I dont think a 2 months delay is a big deal... really...  it itsnt the case where you dont pay at all until late 2010. March 2010 wont give me any trouble except the 50$ fees ...


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## dioxide45 (Jan 10, 2010)

I know after adding an additional week to our portfolio in 2009 the MF payments were a lot more painful this year. Did get them all paid last week though.


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## dougp26364 (Jan 10, 2010)

jesuis1837 said:


> I dont think a 2 months delay is a big deal... really...  it itsnt the case where you dont pay at all until late 2010. March 2010 wont give me any trouble except the 50$ fees ...




And if everyone thought this way, then it would become a big deal. Your HOA rely's on your MF's to cover their budget, pay the bills and pay the employee's. What if you're employer felt that it was a big deal to not pay your wages for a couple of months? It probably wouldn't seem like a big deal to them but it certainly would be a big deal to you.

The more people who pay their fee's late, the bigger deal it becomes for HOA's. If it gets to be to much of an issue, Marriott will do like some of the other management companies have already done. That would be to not allow owners to deposit for exchange until they've paid their MF's for next year.

The best thing to do would be to contact your HOA and let them know what your situation is. If you don't have the money, you don't have it. Perhaps you could come to an arrangement to pay a portion of the fee's now and pay them off in a couple of months. 

Personally, I'd like to see Marriott do like a few other management companies have done. That is to allow owners to make payments towards their next years MF's throughout the year. This huge bills at the end of the year are going to become more of an issue as time goes on. Especially when times are hard. I really prefer the ability to make monthly payments towards next years fee's. It makes it easier to budget and less painful at the end of the year. As a bonus it gives the HOA money in advance rather than having to deal with collecting deliquent accounts and charging penalities and interest to owners already in a tight place. If other timeshare management companies can add this feature to their websites I don't see why Marriott can't do the same thing for their owners.


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 10, 2010)

Doug, this is exactly my situation and i would love to see Marriott do as you suggest and split the MF throughout the year as that big bill is a killer for me unfortunately this year. In fact, it is the first time i'm unable to pay in time so that's why i cant complain with the penalty fees... It's been a tough year but things will look better in 2010...  Now if Marriott could offer monthly payment...


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## OutAndAbout (Jan 10, 2010)

hotwings said:


> Will I get charged interest or other type of fee?



Check your "Statement of Owner Account"

The ones I saw said $25 per unit week and/or 18% interest. 

You may be able to get a lower interest rate from a credit card (depends on your credit, type of card, etc).


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## rthib (Jan 10, 2010)

jesuis1837 said:


> Doug, this is exactly my situation and i would love to see Marriott do as you suggest and split the MF throughout the year as that big bill is a killer for me unfortunately this year. In fact, it is the first time i'm unable to pay in time so that's why i cant complain with the penalty fees... It's been a tough year but things will look better in 2010...  Now if Marriott could offer monthly payment...



You can do this now online.
Make small payments whenever you want.
They can't split the MF throughout the year, as the amount is not set until the annual meeting where the budget is approved by the HOA.


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## 5infam (Jan 10, 2010)

I just paid mine, but it is a chunk of money at once. I like the way Disney does it, where they simply debit my checking account every month. It is a smaller amount this way, and i don't have to worry about it - I just budget for it monthly. In essence, I do the same thing with my Marriott - but I have to keep track of it, I would rather them pull it from me and be done with it.


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## Superchief (Jan 10, 2010)

Is there a fee if you pay one week after the due date? I would like to split my payments across two statements of my Marriott Visa and this would require a late payment. I could not find this information on my online statement.


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## SueDonJ (Jan 10, 2010)

Superchief, depending on how your bylaws are written they may have some leeway with charging you either/or the interest or the penalty fees.  This is printed on one of my invoices (bolding mine):



> ... In accordance with the Association by−laws, payments received after the due date indicated will be assessed interest at 18 percent *and/or* a late charge of $25.00 per unit week. ...



Owners should be able to find the details of late payment penalty fees for their own resorts by clicking the PDF files through the "View Maintenance Fee Package" links at their my-vacationclub.com accounts.

I would contact the resort BOD directly with any questions about late payments just as a matter of courtesy; that email contact should also be somewhere under the "Owners" tab at my-vacationclub.com.


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## dioxide45 (Jan 10, 2010)

SueDonJ said:


> Superchief, depending on how your bylaws are written they may have some leeway with charging you either/or the interest or the penalty fees.  This is printed on one of my invoices (bolding mine):
> 
> 
> 
> ...



With Marriott I don't think contacting the BOD will help at all. Marriott being the management company is tasked with collecting those fees. Marriott is the only one that can work out a payment arrangement, not the BOD. Marriott collects the fees, takes their cut, then passes the rest on to the association. The BOD only meets a few times a year and really has no hand in collecting the fees.


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## AMJ (Jan 10, 2010)

I agree with dioxide45. This is from one of the Harbour Point 2009 Newsletters.

Delinquencies in accounts receivable have risen in the first quarter of 2009.
Owners are encouraged to submit payments in a timely manner. If you
have special problems, don’t wait until you are delinquent. Please contact
Marriott Owner Services as soon as possible to discuss available options.
1-800-845-4226.

It looks like you definitely need to contact Marriott and not the BOD.

Joyce


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## SueDonJ (Jan 10, 2010)

Of course, that makes much more sense!  Owner Services it is, and I'm sorry if anyone got misdirected.


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## GaryDouglas (Jan 10, 2010)

5infam said:


> I just paid mine, but it is a chunk of money at once. I like the way Disney does it, where they simply debit my checking account every month. It is a smaller amount this way, and i don't have to worry about it - I just budget for it monthly. In essence, I do the same thing with my Marriott - but I have to keep track of it, I would rather them pull it from me and be done with it.


 
For the last 3 decades, I simply tally up all large annual expenditures such as insurance, property tax and now Mfs, divide by how many paychecks I get per year, and set that money aside in a seperate do-not-touch savings account every paycheck.  Then when I have to write a check that's in the thousands, it's already there, and maybe a little interest to boot (which the govenrment takes 35%).  For anyone making a predictable income throughout the year, this is an easy way that's worked for us.


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## 5infam (Jan 10, 2010)

Thanks Gary. Yes, I do the same thing, I was just saying it would be easier to do it if they pulled it from me (like DVC does). You are right, I would loose the bit of interest I get today, but I would be willing to waive that for the convenience and not having to worry about it. The fewer budgeted items for me the better. 

Take care!!


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## hotwings (Jan 11, 2010)

Thanks all for the info... I ended up paying it all at once to avoid the late fees.  

Best of luck in 2010!


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## dougp26364 (Jan 11, 2010)

jesuis1837 said:


> Doug, this is exactly my situation and i would love to see Marriott do as you suggest and split the MF throughout the year as that big bill is a killer for me unfortunately this year. In fact, it is the first time i'm unable to pay in time so that's why i cant complain with the penalty fees... It's been a tough year but things will look better in 2010...  Now if Marriott could offer monthly payment...



What I've done is divide the last known MF by the number of paychecks in the year, then have that amount direct deposited into a special savings account set up specifically to pay my MF's. Then the only thing I have to come up with is the increase for that year. If I were smart, I'd take this years MF's and just add 10% to them to cover any increases. Anything left over would just offset the next years expenses or help pay for airfare to get to our vacations.

I suppose I'm fortunate in that our employer allows for direct deposit of our paychecks and makes it easy to split that direct deposit into multiple accounts. I can make adjustments though the year if need be.


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## dougp26364 (Jan 11, 2010)

5infam said:


> Thanks Gary. Yes, I do the same thing, I was just saying it would be easier to do it if they pulled it from me (like DVC does). You are right, I would loose the bit of interest I get today, but I would be willing to waive that for the convenience and not having to worry about it. The fewer budgeted items for me the better.
> 
> Take care!!



Yes it would be easier. But then they'd probably have to add an accounting expense in for the monthly debits. I've known many company's that charge extra to make scheduled monthly payments rather than one annual payment due to the extra accounting to keep track of everyone's balance.


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## winger (Jan 11, 2010)

hotwings said:


> Hey all,
> 
> I have an invoice to pay my MMC 2010 Maint Fees by 15 Jan 2010.  What if I decide to wait a month or two to pay these fees.  Will I get charged interest or other type of fee?  I can't seem to find anything on the Marriott site that tells me this. I realize that I can't reserve/deposit my 2011 week until my 2010 fees are paid.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help.


At MMC, we have 10 days grace period before penalties/fees are imposed. So, that means Jan 15th + 10 days = pay by COB Jan 25th (2010) and we are golden!  Each resort has it's own due dates and I think the 10 days grace period applies to most Marriott resorts.

I also called MVCI Owner Svcs twice this week to re-verify this.


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