Exit Vistana Timeshare Help

[dawsonar802]

Hello,
I am reaching out in hopes for some advice here. Last September we went to a presentation at Sheraton and were pitched Vistana. We declined several times, but after being there for close to 3hrs with our daughter and the sale pitch getting sweeter and sweeter, we ended up purchasing. Shortly after purchasing my wife had some health problems and had to leave her job. We are not able to use the timeshare and to be honest it is so confusing on how to even do anything with it. We felt like there were quite a few lies on what we would be able to do with the points as well. We tried exit services but since there is a loan they will not help.

Out of frustration back in May we found Wesley Financial and again were not going to go through with using them, but they made some great points on if we keep paying the service fees and they go up 5% a year we will have paid an outrageous amount. We are now awaiting next steps from them, but it was a cost of $8k. If they cannot cancel for us, then it can be refunded, but so far we are not happy with their services. They would not tell us one way or the other but we need to decide on if we keep paying on the loan and maintenance fees or stop paying. They would only say that not paying it has helped get a cancellation, it I assume it will hurt our great credit.

Can anyone share any advice? What happens if we get a refund from Wesley and then pay off the Vistana loan? Can it be sold at that point to recoup the loan payoff or is it worthless? Thanks in advance.

Andrew

 

[DeniseM]

Tough Love: You are not going to get a refund from Wesley. They are going to give you some sample letters to send off, and that's about it. These "rescue" companies cannot do anything legally to break your contract - they just want your money.

Your timeshare has little or no resale value, so selling it and paying it off is not an option.

Your only real option is to default on the loan, and eventually, Sheraton/Marriott will foreclose & take it back. If you aren't worried about having great credit for the next 7 years or so, that may work for you.

If the timeshare is just the tip of your financial iceberg, you should consult a legitimate credit counselor about the big picture and what your options are. With your wife out of work, bankruptcy may even be an option - but you need to talk to someone reputable about it.

 

[dawsonar802]

Fantastic. Well that is about what was expected I suppose. It is crazy to me that this is even legal, but I am sure with all the various loopholes they get around it.

Does anyone know what the impact on a credit score would be? Is it 50, 100, 300 points, etc… When you say if the timeshare is just the tip of the Iceberg, do you mean if there is more debt, etc…? I mean if we can get out of the loan and be up maybe taking a hit on credit of a few hundred points, that would not be terrible. But I had read that since it is a foreclosure that it would stay on for 7yrs and impact other loans, etc.. I would for sure dispute it with the credit agencies but not sure if that would really do much or not.

 

[DeniseM]

That's why I wrote: If you aren't worried about having great credit for the next 7 years or so, that may work for you.

YES: do you mean if there is more debt, etc…?

 

[dawsonar802]

Thanks. If anyone has been through this and can speak to how much it will impact credit, that would be great. But if there are no other options to get out of it, then the option to not pay the loan seems to be the only one. Credit scores are mid to high 800’s so having 100 or 150 point impact may be doable but if it is something like 300 or more, then that would not be ideal.

 

[dioxide45]

Worst of all, when you default and Vistana forecloses, Wesley will consider that a successful timeshare exit. They can do nothing for you that you can't do yourself for free. It costs you nothing to default. Have you already paid Wesley the $8000?

 

[dawsonar802]

Yes, unfortunately we already paid Wesley. :-(..

 

[WorldT]

Yes, unfortunately we already paid Wesley. :-(..

How is this even legal? These guys advertise everywhere and they are not doing anything for these folks. But I digress.

Not sure how many points the foreclosure will impact your score. Keep in mind that some lenders may chose to ignore timeshare related debts on your report. You have to ask yourself, what am I going to be doing in the next few years that requires a pristine credit history?

 

[FunnyFarm]

If your loan is somehow forgiven for hardship (very unlikely), then you would get a 1099 for income taxes.
As you have heard, no real good solution to be found.
Sorry you didn't find us sooner.

 

[5finny]

If you paid Wesley Financial with a credit card contact your credit card company and contest the charge.
Probably a long shot but you have nothing to loose
Also contact your Attorney General Consumer Fraud division and file a complaint against Wesley
Unfortunately even a longer shot

 

[dawsonar802]

I did see some reports that trying to open a dispute with the credit card company may be an option, so I initiated that last week and they have reached out to Wesley. We will see how it goes. In the off chance this does work and I am able to get some or all of it refunded, would it be to any benefit to engage a law firm for getting out of the timeshare or just stop paying the loan and take the credit hit?

What a huge pain… and the place we stayed was not even that nice. I really cannot believe we fell for it, but they truly did play to our emotions as our daughter was with us and they sold it as an asset for her future…

 

[byeloe]

Just stop paying

 

[TUGBrian]

I did see some reports that trying to open a dispute with the credit card company may be an option, so I initiated that last week and they have reached out to Wesley. We will see how it goes. In the off chance this does work and I am able to get some or all of it refunded, would it be to any benefit to engage a law firm for getting out of the timeshare or just stop paying the loan and take the credit hit?

What a huge pain… and the place we stayed was not even that nice. I really cannot believe we fell for it, but they truly did play to our emotions as our daughter was with us and they sold it as an asset for her future…

they have a HUGE social media presence, would suggest posting your story (and request to cancel/refund) there!

 

[dawsonar802]

they have a HUGE social media presence, would suggest posting your story (and request to cancel/refund) there!

Yes, this is a good idea. I was thinking about doing this and also adding a BBB complaint. I am hoping to at least get a reply this week, so we will see.

 

[dawsonar802]

Has anyone here had a good experience with Vistana and being able to use it? Maybe we’re are just missing something and did not fully understand the fast paced sales pitch. We had a client executive reach out and offer to discuss any and all questions with us on using it. If it is something we could actually use and work, then paying the loan off and getting a refund from Wesley would be ideal. We were told the maintenance fees would go up year after year and be in manageable by Wesley, but from the Vistana rep, she has said they would be capped and has never seen them as high as what we had heard.

Any advice one way or the other?
- Opt 1 - Stop paying and take a credit hit and then get out of the timeshare.
- Opt 2 - Pay off the timeshare, understand it, and use it

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hindsite]

If you can, I'd go with Opt 2, there is great value to be had if you can find a way to match it to your vacation lodging requirements.

 

[WorldT]

It depends on if you can handle the loan payments and your circumstances allow you to use what you bought. We also don't know how bad your purchase price was. Remember, you don't have to finish paying the loan to be able to use the product.

So if you can tell us what you bought, this group will be able to educate you on how the system works and you can then compare it to your circumstances to see how it fits.

 

[dawsonar802]

It depends on if you can handle the loan payments and your circumstances allow you to use what you bought. We also don't know how bad your purchase price was. Remember, you don't have to finish paying the loan to be able to use the product.

So if you can tell us what you bought, this group will be able to educate you on how the system works and you can then compare it to your circumstances to see how it fits.

@WorldT , thank you. So we purchased the Vistana by Marriott/Sheraton also called Abound, also called Sheraton Flex (see where the confusion comes in.. ) We received some bonus points and then have a point allotment per year of 56,300 points.

There seems to be all sorts of points like club points, star options, etc… but when we looked at booking anything, even a local trip we would not be able to get with the allotted yearly points. The client executive mentioned something regarding interval or an exchange where you can book things on short notice, etc…

We would only really like to use it once a year for a vacation or maybe twice for two smaller ones. If there are options for airfare or other things the pair with the booking that would be great to know. We are also a bit nervous that the maintenance fees would keep increasing so need to know what that may look like.

Thanks in advance.

 

[WorldT]

Looks like you bought Sheraton flex. I don't own in that system but there are very knowledgeable individuals in this group who do and will chime in. In the meantime, here is a FAQ that was developed by some in the group that would be very useful to you. You will fall under the developer purchase category.

Updated Flex FAQ

This FAQ has been built upon the previous Flex FAQ by okwiater from 2016 and makes updates to include the Westin Flex and Aventuras Flex systems, as well as some other recurring questions that arise on TUG. I did invite the original author to collaborate on this revision; however, the offer was...

tugbbs.com

Here is the chart showing how many points you need to make reservations. Also remember, you can only reserve what is available. And the earlier (and closest to 12 months) the better.

https://vistana-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/vistana-web/assets/pdf/charts/staroptions_value_chart.pdf

 

[rickandcindy23]

That's not many points, I will tell you that. These can be purchased resale for $0. You read that right. People want out of Sheraton Flex.

There is a cost to caving into these sales' pitches. There are no easy answers. Walking away will hurt your credit (maybe), and you most certainly won't get Wesley to do anything for you. It's scummy /scammy company.

I enjoyed telling our salesperson at Steamboat Springs during our stay that I wouldn't buy Flex because I knew it was a crappy product. They did give us 50,000 Marriott hotel points, which got us two nights at a Marriott in Jacksonville before our cruise.

How many Abound points did you get? Those might have more value to you in keeping the product. I doubt it came with many points.

 

[dawsonar802]

How many Abound points did you get? Those might have more value to you in keeping the product. I doubt it came with many points.

That is the confusing portion. There are so many types of points and making sense of what is what has proven to be difficult. We also received 50,000 Bonvoy points for attending.

I am not sure on abound points, but I see star options listed as 112,600 and then each year it is 56,300. It says it converts to 87,000 bonvoy points. Maint fee is $1233 and club dues are $240.

 

[WorldT]

That is the confusing portion. There are so many types of points and making sense of what is what has proven to be difficult. We also received 50,000 Bonvoy points for attending.

I am not sure on abound points, but I see star options listed as 112,600 and then each year it is 56,300. It says it converts to 87,000 bonvoy points. Maint fee is $1233 and club dues are $240.

I suspect the abound points, if any, were given as incentives. It also seems they gave you some homeoptions or star options as incentive too. A way to make you bite the product that is worth approximately $0 dollars on the resale market. Based on the maintenance fee, it does seem you only have Sheraton flex of 56,300 as you posted. As @rickandcindy23 said and as you will see from the chart above, that isn't much and you can acquire that for very little cost.

BTW: 87000 Bonvoy points is worth about $700 according to nerdwallet. On the Marriott website, you can buy 97k Bonvoy points for $1062 right now. This makes conversation from Sheraton flex to Bonvoy points a bad strategy. This is typically true for almost all (or all?) timeshare systems. They best value comes from using it for a timeshare stay.

 

[dioxide45]

That is the confusing portion. There are so many types of points and making sense of what is what has proven to be difficult. We also received 50,000 Bonvoy points for attending.

I am not sure on abound points, but I see star options listed as 112,600 and then each year it is 56,300. It says it converts to 87,000 bonvoy points. Maint fee is $1233 and club dues are $240.

They usually offer StarOptions as an incentive to purchase. So that is what the 112,600 is. It is usually double the amount you bought. Converting to Bonvoy points isn't usually a good value. The Abound points is what you can elect for instead of using the Sheraton Flex HomeOptions.

The main issue with Sheraton Flex is that the maintenance fees are high and then buying direct is expensive. You can certainly get some utility out of the points but the main goal when they sell that lower number of points is to "upgrade" you later by selling you more after you have realized you don't have enough points to book a lot of places in a 2BR for a week.

 

[dawsonar802]

Thank you. I can post in another thread/area if needed, but during the sales presentation (from what we recall) they were showing a lot cheaper (in terms of points) options to stay. Like Hawaii for 80,000 points, etc… that is what we had thought looked nice, but then looking at it, even for the home location for us which would be Orlando, it is still 67,000 points. Which since we have not used it and will have close to 160,000 (provided that can be banked) then we could probably do that and some other places, but how would the interval exchange and bookings like a week before work for cheaper options. Also I recently received an email that mentioned the following:

“Elect to receive Club Points using your eligible 2026 and/or 2027 Vacation Ownership Interests (VOIs) by September 30, 2025.”

What is that for and what happens if we do nothing there?

I suppose if we end up keeping it and like/use it, we could purchase additional points, but honestly we may just use it once a year or maybe once every two if needing a larger vacation.

 

[dioxide45]

Thank you. I can post in another thread/area if needed, but during the sales presentation (from what we recall) they were showing a lot cheaper (in terms of points) options to stay. Like Hawaii for 80,000 points, etc… that is what we had thought looked nice, but then looking at it, even for the home location for us which would be Orlando, it is still 67,000 points. Which since we have not used it and will have close to 160,000 (provided that can be banked) then we could probably do that and some other places, but how would the interval exchange and bookings like a week before work for cheaper options. Also I recently received an email that mentioned the following:

“Elect to receive Club Points using your eligible 2026 and/or 2027 Vacation Ownership Interests (VOIs) by September 30, 2025.”

What is that for and what happens if we do nothing there?

I suppose if we end up keeping it and like/use it, we could purchase additional points, but honestly we may just use it once a year or maybe once every two if needing a larger vacation.

Electing for Club Points will allow for you to reserve Marriott Vacation Club properties. If you do nothing you would just use your HomeOptions or StarOptions to book at one of the Westin or Sheraton (Vistana) resorts.

If you are only using it once a year or every other year, then the number of points you have is fine. It just makes for a more expensive vacation based on the maintenance fees being paid. You can certainly add resale to the mix of what you own to get more points, but resale Sheraton Flex isn't a good idea since you can't combine the resale with what you already have for reservations using StarOptions at 8 months.

You're in the right place for information. Keep reading and asking questions. There are also a number of Facebook groups out there you can join, though trudging through information in those groups can be a shore and the nature of Facebook doesn't lead to very detailed responses. Plus, the experts are here