# Real Club RCI exchange questions/reliability



## gregster (Oct 14, 2009)

My wife and I went to a presentation at The Royal in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for the Real Club. We did not buy, but are curious to learn about the Real Club.

First the offer:

For $2350.00 US dollars total, including transfer fee, I can get a Gold Membership with 100 weeks at the "Real Club" in Playa del Carmen. The 100 weeks can be "accelerated", or used at any time...all in one year if we choose, including RCI exchanges. This is an AI resort where you need to pay a nightly rate per person for the AI fees during the stay. They have no maintenance fees. 

My wife and I are fortunate to be in a position to travel for most of the next year. We want to travel throughout the world, and like the idea of staying in nice places such as timeshares during our travels. We are not interested in using the resort in Playa, and would like to utilize their RCI exchange for our travels over the next year. They will exchange 1 week for a studio, 2 weeks for a 1 bedroom, 3 weeks for a 2 bedroom unit through RCI. We need to pay $498.00 for each RCI exchange. It sounded like I can book up to 301 days for the exchanges, allowing me to book my travel for the next 10 months.

Through my calculations I get the following:
$498.00 for the exchange fee
$23.50 for each week for the timeshare weeks purchase
$521.50 total per week - $74.50 per night.

Once we use the 100 weeks, we have no more benefits.

My questions: 
Has anyone heard of the Real Club, and how the RCI exchange works through them?
Are they reliable to book utilizing the RCI exchange? 
Would I be better off utilizing a different method to book places to stay throughout the world over the next year?
Are there additional fees we can expect to pay when booking through RCI, such as cleaning fees, taxes, etc.?

Thanks... Greg and Danielle


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## tschwa2 (Oct 14, 2009)

*AI's in Mexico*

All inclusives in Mexico (even 2 and 3 bedroom) have not historically had good trading power.  A studio at an all inclusive where the resort gets to pick the deposit (think September or other hurricane month) would have terrible trading power.  Paying $521.50 for the kind of weeks that would be available most of the time would not be a good value. I am assuming you would not have direct access to RCI because the exchange fee you are quoting is way higher than it is for general members, even if you factor in the $90 per year RCI membership.  You should take your time and do research and find the best program for you and your family.  There are many bargins out there right now but if it they don't work for you they are hard to get rid of.  At least that's one good thing about the Real Club offer.  If you don't like it your only out $2350; but even then I wouldn't be surprised if the contract didn't include hidden miscellaneous fees like assessments, etc.


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## jabellatina (Dec 22, 2010)

*To grester*

Do you have an update to your timeshare post? Has it been what you expected?

I'm new here, just purchased but paid WAAAY more which I'm kinda disappointed bc I shoulda done my research before hand.

Anyhow I wanted to hear how it's been working out for you.

Thanks,
Jackie


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## DeniseM (Dec 22, 2010)

Jackie - How long ago did you sign the contract?  You may still be within the legal rescission period.


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## jabellatina (Feb 21, 2011)

I paid about 9,000 for only 125 weeks


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## chellej (Feb 21, 2011)

I have a palace membership which is also an AI in mexico.  Paid $1 for it with 89 weeks on ebay.

You may verify your costs because the way palace works is if I want to deposit a week in RCI I pay palace ~$400 (this may be more because I haven't checked in a while) then I must pay RCI's normal exchange fee which is $189.  Plus you will also have an annual fee to belong to RCI of $89.

If you are able to travel off season, I would think you would be better off buying something like a southern california summer week which will get you ~50 credits in RCI.  

You then would be able to use this for several off season trades (possibly 5-6)

so you could get 5 weeks for as little as $47/night

($600 maintenance fee + 5($189) exchange fee + $89 membership fee +$46.68/night)


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