# New RCI fees announced



## timeos2 (Oct 15, 2012)

I haven;t seen this posted here yet: 

To allow us to continue to contribute to your ongoing success by providing the best products and services possible to your owners, there will be a change to some of the fees associated with the RCI® Weeks exchange program. Effective November 1, 2012, exchange fees for booking on RCI.com will increase from $189 USD to $199 USD. Call center exchange fees will increase to $209 USD. All other transaction fees will remain unchanged.

This is from a notice to RCI Affiliated resorts. It is tougher & tougher to justify exchanging when expenses are this high & rentals with no exchange so cheap and far more readily available.


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## vacationhopeful (Oct 15, 2012)

You got to love corporate America!

First RCI closes the call center on all Sundays - to save money.

Then as they raise the exchange fees, they even up the ante to USE the call in center by a further $10 per exchange increase. 

And John, as for renting ... Corporate America loves monoploies, too. Raising the exchange fees, limiting (most) access to the computer, getting hooked into online booking companies (Hotwire, Expedia, etc) --- where do you think that inventory is going? 

RCI is a rental company with lots of condo inventory. They just don't OWN any of those condos --- some other big business will "ZAP" them with a fancier web page where owners will not have to pay a YEARLY membership fee to deposit their inventory hoping to get a FAIR trade and pay $200 additional dollars for _any trade_ before the deposit expires.


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## eal (Oct 15, 2012)

Wow!  I can only imagine how much they will charge in Canadian $$ (which is at par with the US $ BTW).

I love Hawaii Timeshare Exchange - they charge $99!


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## Carolinian (Oct 15, 2012)

Ah, another ''enhancement''!

Time to start educating our fellow timesharers and HOA's about the independent exchange companies.

And just think of the lovely timing for their resort affiliates - royally iritating members who exchange right when the HOA's m/f bills are going out.


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## bogey21 (Oct 15, 2012)

As I have worked my Weeks down to 1, I have also dumped RCI.  RCI and II may work for those dealing in "high end" TS Weeks where their pricing (membership fee  plus transaction costs) is small compared to the rental value of the Weeks but IMO it is no longer practical for those dealing in lower cost Time Share Weeks.

Maybe too, with my membership no longer active maybe the incessant phone calls from RCI will stop!!

George


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## dougp26364 (Oct 15, 2012)

timeos2 said:


> I haven;t seen this posted here yet:
> 
> To allow us to continue to contribute to your ongoing success by providing the best products and services possible to your owners, there will be a change to some of the fees associated with the RCI® Weeks exchange program. Effective November 1, 2012, exchange fees for booking on RCI.com will increase from $189 USD to $199 USD. Call center exchange fees will increase to $209 USD. All other transaction fees will remain unchanged.
> 
> This is from a notice to RCI Affiliated resorts. It is tougher & tougher to justify exchanging when expenses are this high & rentals with no exchange so cheap and far more readily available.



Three letters. S.F.X. That should do the trick as far as eliminating RCI exchange fee's. Sure they don't have as large of a selection as RCI but, anymore, RCI doesn't have the selection they advertise anyway.......unless you want to rent a unit of course. 

I have one week where the resort is affiliated with RCI. Should we ever decide to exchange that week, it won't be through RCI, it will be through SFX.

I.I. went up again this year. It's geting closer and closer to the time I'm ready to leave their services. Most of the resort we have with them are part of an internal exchange system, so that's saving us to some extent for the time being.


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## Amy (Oct 16, 2012)

If you start an ongoing search on 10/31, would that lock in the exchange rate at the old price if a match is later found (say months later)?


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## elaine (Oct 16, 2012)

no, when you get the match, you will owe the extra $ to confirm the exchange. This happened to us a few years ago after exchanges went up.


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## Beaglemom3 (Oct 16, 2012)

Oh, great. Less for more..................





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## Amy (Oct 16, 2012)

elaine said:


> no, when you get the match, you will owe the extra $ to confirm the exchange. This happened to us a few years ago after exchanges went up.



Thanks.  Bummer.  It doesn't seem that long ago when our first exchanges cost ~ $79 or $89?   Will need to reassess our ts holdings next year.


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## geekette (Oct 16, 2012)

Amy said:


> Thanks.  Bummer.  It doesn't seem that long ago when our first exchanges cost ~ $79 or $89?   Will need to reassess our ts holdings next year.



Yeah, no kidding!  For a company that manufactures nothing they sure do hike the price a lot.


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## massvacationer (Oct 16, 2012)

I wonder if all of these price increases will eventually kill the RCI "golden goose".

I think customers are going to be reluctant to deposit when a trade costs so much.    More will use and rent or use other exchange companies
.


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## geekette (Oct 16, 2012)

that's been going on for years.  thing is, they bring in new customers every year.  oh, well, I should say that The Developers bring in new customers every year.  We are expendable as our replacements are just now signing up "for a tour".


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## dougp26364 (Oct 16, 2012)

massvacationer said:


> I wonder if all of these price increases will eventually kill the RCI "golden goose".
> 
> I think customers are going to be reluctant to deposit when a trade costs so much.    More will use and rent or use other exchange companies
> .



The problem is the vast majority of TS owners barely know how RCI works, let alone even know there are alternatives. So long as the masses remain uneducated, RCI will remain profitable. I bet there's a large # of RCI members who never exchange, but believe they have to remain members because their salesman told them what a great deal it is.

TUGGER's are a unique but small percentage of TS owners. We are the educated few because we talk to each other.


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## Carolinian (Oct 16, 2012)

From being on a timeshare board and analyzing membership records at that resort on the NC OBX. the majority of our members were own-to-use, and that was especially true in the summer, and few of the own to use members belonged to exchange companies.  The developer gave a free multi-year membership with the sale, but most families with summer weeks immediately dropped it when the free period was over.  From talking with other HOA board members and managers, they had similar patterns.

As to alternatives to RCI, this is an areas that resorts need to do a better job in educating their members.  It is in their interest to do so, as a dissatisfied exchange member who doesn't know he has alternatives is going to be more likely to try to jump ship on the HOA.  Some resorts on the OBX have done a fair to good job on getting the word out, others less so.

Several of the independents have, at least in the past, paid the postage for an issue of the resort newsletter if they would include a brochure from the exchange company.  My HOA did that with three different independent exchange companies.  With the RCI increase, now would be a great time for both the independents and the HOA's to jump on that deal.




dougp26364 said:


> The problem is the vast majority of TS owners barely know how RCI works, let alone even know there are alternatives. So long as the masses remain uneducated, RCI will remain profitable. I bet there's a large # of RCI members who never exchange, but believe they have to remain members because their salesman told them what a great deal it is.
> 
> TUGGER's are a unique but small percentage of TS owners. We are the educated few because we talk to each other.


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## krj9999 (Oct 17, 2012)

And it's pretty ironic that they just announced an extra vacations sale with prices at $199 - the same as they are asking for exchanging.


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## Carolinian (Oct 18, 2012)

krj9999 said:


> And it's pretty ironic that they just announced an extra vacations sale with prices at $199 - the same as they are asking for exchanging.



They are rapidly moving from an exchange company to a rental company which also does exchanges.


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## dougp26364 (Oct 18, 2012)

Carolinian said:


> They are rapidly moving from an exchange company to a rental company which also does exchanges.




I think they've been a rental company that just happens to do exchanges for several years now. It's just that people are starting to finally catch on.


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## bass (Oct 19, 2012)

I am a weeks owner.    I think it would be a good idea if RCI gave bonus points for exchange when you sign up for multiple years.   Especially, when they raise the fees often.  It would be an incentive for everyone.

Nancy


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## bbobo1812@yahoo.com (Oct 24, 2012)

We are points owners who are really, after many years, just learning what is and isn't possible..we use Manhatten Club  and also have points to book with through RCI. I'm wondering how that would be usuable if we dump RCI and just rent through TUG?


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## Jeth01 (Oct 24, 2012)

I think RCI still holds value for those of us with very cheap timeshares that are not in high demand. I have a studio blue week in Wisconsin, and I have been able to exchange with RCI to some great locations like Brazil, Costa Rica, and Turkey, often times for a 2 bedroom unit. I know that I'd never be able to trade my week for those weeks directly with the owners. And my costs of my annual dues + exchange fee are still way less than I'd pay to rent a week. I deposit my weeks as soon as I can, to maximize  my trading power. And even if I pay the extra fee to combine weeks, I still come out ahead. 

Of course if you own a high demand 2 bedroom, you could probably trade or rent that and probably get what you want without paying the RCI fees. Although I also own a 2 bedroom at a beachfront resort in Mexico, and I have had trouble renting it for enough to cover my dues. I am trying to sell it because I find it hard to justify the huge annual dues, especially if I have to put it in RCI and pay another fee on top of that to not lose it.

So I really think it comes down to what you own, and how you use it. I feel that RCI really adds value to my low demand week.


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## Carolinian (Oct 24, 2012)

If you took the maintenance fee plus exchange fee plus RCI membership fee and used the same money to rent weeks from RCI, you would likely come out money ahead.  If you combine weeks from two years, then it is two maintenance fees plus two yearly membership fees plus one exchange fee plus one combining fee, and that is probably ~$1,200.  I know you could come out better renting than that!

Actually what the new Points Lite system has done with offseason weeks is left a lot of owners of those weeks who exchanged through RCI bailing out of timesharing.  It is going to put a number of resorts in financial difficulties.




Jeth01 said:


> I think RCI still holds value for those of us with very cheap timeshares that are not in high demand. I have a studio blue week in Wisconsin, and I have been able to exchange with RCI to some great locations like Brazil, Costa Rica, and Turkey, often times for a 2 bedroom unit. I know that I'd never be able to trade my week for those weeks directly with the owners. And my costs of my annual dues + exchange fee are still way less than I'd pay to rent a week. I deposit my weeks as soon as I can, to maximize  my trading power. And even if I pay the extra fee to combine weeks, I still come out ahead.
> 
> Of course if you own a high demand 2 bedroom, you could probably trade or rent that and probably get what you want without paying the RCI fees. Although I also own a 2 bedroom at a beachfront resort in Mexico, and I have had trouble renting it for enough to cover my dues. I am trying to sell it because I find it hard to justify the huge annual dues, especially if I have to put it in RCI and pay another fee on top of that to not lose it.
> 
> So I really think it comes down to what you own, and how you use it. I feel that RCI really adds value to my low demand week.


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## skimble (Oct 24, 2012)

Have we reached the threshold where "It's only $10" isn't going to cut it?


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## Tamaradarann (Oct 24, 2012)

*Trading Value*



Jeth01 said:


> I think RCI still holds value for those of us with very cheap timeshares that are not in high demand. I have a studio blue week in Wisconsin, and I have been able to exchange with RCI to some great locations like Brazil, Costa Rica, and Turkey, often times for a 2 bedroom unit. I know that I'd never be able to trade my week for those weeks directly with the owners. And my costs of my annual dues + exchange fee are still way less than I'd pay to rent a week. I deposit my weeks as soon as I can, to maximize  my trading power. And even if I pay the extra fee to combine weeks, I still come out ahead.
> 
> Of course if you own a high demand 2 bedroom, you could probably trade or rent that and probably get what you want without paying the RCI fees. Although I also own a 2 bedroom at a beachfront resort in Mexico, and I have had trouble renting it for enough to cover my dues. I am trying to sell it because I find it hard to justify the huge annual dues, especially if I have to put it in RCI and pay another fee on top of that to not lose it.
> 
> So I really think it comes down to what you own, and how you use it. I feel that RCI really adds value to my low demand week.



I agree with you that you can trade less desirable timeshares that you own for more desirable locations.  We have RCI Points ownership in a inland property in South Florida.  We get 86,500 points a year for a $780 maintenance fee.  We have been able to get more than 2 weeks in a nice resort in Waikiki for those points.  We have also been able to get 1.5 weeks in Kauai for those points.  The fees are high but the trading benefit is great.


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## Carolinian (Oct 25, 2012)

Tamaradarann said:


> I agree with you that you can trade less desirable timeshares that you own for more desirable locations.  We have RCI Points ownership in a inland property in South Florida.  We get 86,500 points a year for a $780 maintenance fee.  We have been able to get more than 2 weeks in a nice resort in Waikiki for those points.  We have also been able to get 1.5 weeks in Kauai for those points.  The fees are high but the trading benefit is great.



There are overpointed resorts and resort areas in both Points and Points Lite (aka ''Weeks''), as well as underpointed resorts in both, although underpointing is a much bigger problem in Points Lite than regular Points.  With regular Points, the underpointed resorts are mostly those in the ''Weeks'' system where you use the crossover grid rather than those in regular Points.  Both systems institutionalize trades up if you have something overpointed and want to trade into something underpointed.  You were far more likely to get a like for like trade in the old system.

Overpointing largely comes from two factors:
1) Developers in sales politicking RCI for more points than they deserve, and
2) RCI's manipulation of numbers to try to provide cover for the the next lawsuit over their rentals.  Underpointed weeks are prime weeks for them to take out and rent to the general public while overpointed weeks are those where the ''replacement'' weeks come from.

Underpointing largely comes from two factors
1) In RCI's valuations, the term ''sold out resort'' often has a sinister double meaning.
2) #2 above


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## Coach Boon (Oct 25, 2012)

The problem I have is that I've tried to exchange with a smaller exchange company rather than RCI. However, my resort wasn't accepted. It's an older resort with low MF's (less than $600) but in a prime time and area - Hilton Head so there's lots of demand for it. I almost never stay there even though I like the area.

Although I've had good luck in exchanging through RCI, I do have issues with their fee for service value and exchanges can be tricky to find. 

Perhaps I'll have to check out a few more smaller exchange companies.





dougp26364 said:


> Three letters. S.F.X. That should do the trick as far as eliminating RCI exchange fee's. Sure they don't have as large of a selection as RCI but, anymore, RCI doesn't have the selection they advertise anyway.......unless you want to rent a unit of course.
> 
> I have one week where the resort is affiliated with RCI. Should we ever decide to exchange that week, it won't be through RCI, it will be through SFX.
> 
> I.I. went up again this year. It's geting closer and closer to the time I'm ready to leave their services. Most of the resort we have with them are part of an internal exchange system, so that's saving us to some extent for the time being.


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## Carolinian (Oct 25, 2012)

A few independents are picky - SFX only takes high season and Gold Crown or equivalent, and UKRE only takes weeks in the UK.  Others take most weeks like DAE, HTSE, TPI, and PI.  I would try those.



Coach Boon said:


> The problem I have is that I've tried to exchange with a smaller exchange company rather than RCI. However, my resort wasn't accepted. It's an older resort with low MF's (less than $600) but in a prime time and area - Hilton Head so there's lots of demand for it. I almost never stay there even though I like the area.
> 
> Although I've had good luck in exchanging through RCI, I do have issues with their fee for service value and exchanges can be tricky to find.
> 
> Perhaps I'll have to check out a few more smaller exchange companies.


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## bass (Oct 25, 2012)

I just talked to RCI  and was told that they didn't have any notice about weeks members exchange fees going up on Nov. 1.   I don't know whether to trust them or not.   Did anyone else get notice?

Thanks,
Nancy


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## Jeth01 (Oct 25, 2012)

Okay, that is true.  But I guess I don't look at it like all those costs are going just to that reservation. I think part of the value is also the fact that you can bank them to save up several weeks. It's similar to my home resort letting me "rollover" a week I don't use, for a fee. But at least with RCI, that fee allows me to use that week anywhere in the world, and probably for an upgraded unit than I own. 

I agree that all the fees do make the value much more questionable. If RCI keeps adding new fees or increasing fees, they will definitely lose my membership. 



Carolinian said:


> If you took the maintenance fee plus exchange fee plus RCI membership fee and used the same money to rent weeks from RCI, you would likely come out money ahead.  If you combine weeks from two years, then it is two maintenance fees plus two yearly membership fees plus one exchange fee plus one combining fee, and that is probably ~$1,200.  I know you could come out better renting than that!


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## Carolinian (Oct 26, 2012)

Jeth01 said:


> Okay, that is true.  But I guess I don't look at it like all those costs are going just to that reservation. I think part of the value is also the fact that you can bank them to save up several weeks. It's similar to my home resort letting me "rollover" a week I don't use, for a fee. But at least with RCI, that fee allows me to use that week anywhere in the world, and probably for an upgraded unit than I own.
> 
> I agree that all the fees do make the value much more questionable. If RCI keeps adding new fees or increasing fees, they will definitely lose my membership.



The independents let you bank weeks, too.  DAE is a three year credit, compared to RCI's two years, and UKRE is a forever credit.  UKRE also gives me a double credit for either of my summer UK weeks.  DAE also can get you exchanges anywhere in the world.  They have offices in Australia, New Zealand, England, Italy, Bulgaria, China, and South Africa.  I have done trades with them to England, Ireland, France, Croatia, Poland, Spain, the Cayman Islands, and Puerto Rico, as well as to the US.  I have upcoming confirmed exchanges with SFX to London, England and DAE to Wales.


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## Carolinian (Oct 26, 2012)

Not surprising.  They often give their affiliated resorts a heads up before they tell their own staff.  When I was an HOA board members, every time we got one of those letters, the fee increase came to pass just as RCI said it would. They do not typically tell members ahead of time, though.




bass said:


> I just talked to RCI  and was told that they didn't have any notice about weeks members exchange fees going up on Nov. 1.   I don't know whether to trust them or not.   Did anyone else get notice?
> 
> Thanks,
> Nancy


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## bnoble (Oct 26, 2012)

> they didn't have any notice about weeks members exchange fees going up on Nov. 1


I don't necessarily expect them to be announced in advance.  My guess; they'll just change on the 1st.  The OP is a reliable source for notices sent to resort Boards/Management companies.


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## bass (Oct 26, 2012)

Thanks Bnoble,

You can never trust RCI.  Pardon my ignorance but what is OP?

Nancy


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## bnoble (Oct 27, 2012)

"Original Post(er)"


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## bass (Oct 27, 2012)

Thanks.

Nancy


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## bass (Nov 3, 2012)

Bnoble,

You were so right.   RCI did raise exchange fees w/o notice!!   2nd time this year.   

Nancy


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