• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Diamond Intro Program - Should I cancel?

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
All,

I upgraded my sampler package to a new Diamond Intro Package. Membership expires after 10 years, 7500 points per year, $15K purchase price, $825 MF per year, all sampler points transfer in with 18 month extension on expiration; and they kicked in some extras: 7500 bonus points, 4 day cruise voucher, 3 day hotel stay voucher, $200 food voucher, booked two nights in Miami.

I was feeling pretty good about it until I spent 4 hours reading up on the forums here. (BTW - This is an awesome resource!) I have until Wednesday if I want to cancel. Anyone have any thoughts on whether or not this is a reasonable deal? I signed up because I liked the idea of having concierge services, and the final cost of $2300 per year is less than I was spending on my own for two weeks a year of travel. Thoughts?

Thanks!
Chris
 

harveyhaddixfan

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
397
Reaction score
140
Points
153
Location
Springfield, OH
I think you can do better with another system than $1150 a week. I’d say look at a deeded property in RCI points (This comes with membership $129? and exchange fees $199-239) or a system like Wyndham. DRI continues to raise maintenance fees every year and it’s close to not worth it even for deeded owners. I’m closing on a Wyndham contact right now. Will cost me $840 over 2 years (it’s an every other year contact) and I can get 7-10 days out of that. If it was an every year contract, it would be about $710 a year (minimum program fee paid every year even on EOY contracts.)
 

TUGBrian

Administrator
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
22,096
Reaction score
7,679
Points
1,099
Location
Florida
15k+ $2300 a year would provide you a timeshare in just about any system in the world...and IMO you'd be far happier with a resale purchase in a better system!\

however the fact that you are having 2nd thoughts means you should rescind immediately as you only have a few short days to back out and do your research.
 

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
Thanks everyone for the thoughts!

TugBrain - To be clear, it's $15K plus $850 a year for 10 years. $2300 is the total cost of the purchase price plus 10 years of maintenance divided over ten years.

clifffaith - I'm in Colorado. What has made your Worldmark timeshare a better experience than Diamond?
 

tschwa2

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
16,004
Reaction score
4,676
Points
748
Location
Maryland
Resorts Owned
A few in S and VA, a single resort in NC, MD, PA, and UT, plus Jamaica and the Bahamas
I don't think the 7500 will get you 2 weeks of vacation, even if you restrict yourself to a 1 BR. So after the bonus points wear out you will be left with 1 week of vacation using 7500 points.
 

nuwermj

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
615
Reaction score
302
Points
273
Location
Potsdam, NY
I upgraded my sampler package to a new Diamond Intro Package. Membership expires after 10 years, 7500 points per year, $15K purchase price, $825 MF per year, ...

This DRI term product is very new. I knew it was in development, but I haven't seen any details. First, a few questions: (1) are there any restrictions on where the points can be used? Diamond offers about 100 club resorts and another 300 affiliate resorts. Can your term points be used at any and all THE Club locations? (2) How far in advance can you book? (3) Does your package include an Interval International account? (If no, can you open an individual account and exchange your Diamond points that way. (4) are the annual MF fixed for 10 years? Or do they increase each year? If yes, to the latter, what determines the increase?

Compared to a perpetual points package, this term package sounds good. The price per point for perpetual points is $3.50 - $4.00 each; you paid $2.00. Annual MF fees for 7,500 perpetual points (US Collection) are $1,670 this year (Trust fund assessment plus Club dues); yours are half that, $825.

As others have already pointed out, you can get resale deeds and points in other systems for less money. Does Diamond offer something special that makes this price worthwhile for you?

7,500 points will get you, on average, one two bedroom unit for one week a year. You will need 5,000 points for a one bedroom unit. There is, of course, some variation for season and location.
 
Last edited:

clifffaith

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
5,480
Reaction score
6,637
Points
498
Location
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Resorts Owned
Worldmark
Thanks everyone for the thoughts!

TugBrain - To be clear, it's $15K plus $850 a year for 10 years. $2300 is the total cost of the purchase price plus 10 years of maintenance divided over ten years.

clifffaith - I'm in Colorado. What has made your Worldmark timeshare a better experience than Diamond?

Aside from being way less expensive to both procure and pay the maintenance fees on, the Diamond resorts are sort of few and far between for us in Los Angeles. And every June you have to save your darn Diamond points manually, or start to lose portions of them. With Worldmark all that is automatic and you can easily see points from last year (always zero for us because we use the heck out of our ownership), this year (also usually zero for the same reason!), and available to borrow from next year (also very often zero, and we have 44,000 points). We do use Diamond almost every year for Hawaii and Sedona/Santa Fe/Scottsdale, but have already returned half of our 50,000 point account to them. And every year we have the discussion, is this the year we give the rest of Diamond back? And note that the "give it back" is actually pay them $250 per contract to return. There is NO resale value for Diamond.
 

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
@nuwermj - Answers:
1. No unusual restrictions. I have the same access as anyone in the US Collection.
2. 13 month advance booking for US Collection, 10 months for non-US Collection.
3. Yes, it includes an II account.
4. I don't think the MF is fixed, and I can't find the guidance for MF cost increases. I'll keep looking.

So I read up on the resale deeds and checked redweek. It looks like I could get a 5000 point and a 7500 point RTU for almost no cash upfront and $2250 a month in combined MF. So over 10 years that would be about the same cost as what I signed up for. (Minus the extras, which are worth about $4K if I were to try to buy them myself.) If I were to go that route, I'd get a lot more points per year. But as I understand it, I'd lose out on the ability to stay in locations outside of those collections. Is that right? How significant is that?
 
Last edited:

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
@clifffaith - Good information, thanks! Do you find the properties are as nice on Worldmark? Do you have access to properties in Asia and the Caribbean with them? Do they offer anything similar to the experience of a lifetime trips?
 
Last edited:

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
@nuwermj - And to follow up, I'd like to have the planning portion taken care of for me. Diamond showed me some 5-7 day trips in the 4000 point range where all the activities are already booked and included. I don't care so much where I travel as long as it's new, so I was thinking I'd do a trip like that once a year and find something within the 60 day half off window for the other week. Are there other timeshare offers that might be better suited to that than Diamond?
 
Last edited:

youppi

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
1,685
Reaction score
627
Points
224
Location
Montreal, Canada
Hi,
Tag people with an @ in front of their name to alert them like this @Kyndig or do a reply on their post to alert them.
 

clifffaith

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
5,480
Reaction score
6,637
Points
498
Location
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Resorts Owned
Worldmark
@clifffaith - Good information, thanks! Do you find the properties are as nice on Worldmark? Do you have access to properties in Asia and the Caribbean with them? Do they offer anything similar to the experience of a lifetime trips?

Diamond resorts, managed by Diamond are generally fancier than Worldmark. If you want fancy buy Marriott, Hilton anything other than Diamond. Anything other than staying at a resort that they tell you you can use your points for is not a good value.To put it bluntly, Diamond salespeople are the scum of the earth and will tell you ANYTHING to get you to buy. Then every time you visit a resort they'll want you to suffer through another arm twisting, confusing sales presentation and you'll learn everything they told you last time was bullshit, and proceed to feed you new lies. I'd advise staying well clear of them. Hang around here and find out about buying good properties at resale rather than retail.
 

DanZale2000

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
102
Reaction score
38
Points
138
Location
New York
- And to follow up, I'd like to have the planning portion taken care of for me. Diamond showed me some 5-7 day trips in the 4000 point range where all the activities are already booked and included.

The Diamond Escorted Tours are points plus cash. For example, the 7-night Scotland tour is 4,285 Points plus $3,428 per person. I'd rather use the all cash Roads Scholar, there are many more choices and much less expensive. https://www.roadscholar.org/
 
Last edited:

Kyndig

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Points
53
The Diamond Escorted Tours are points plus cash. For example, the 7-night Scotland tour is 4,285 Points plus $3,428 per person. I'd rather use the all cash Roads Scholar, there are many more choices and mush less expensive. https://www.roadscholar.org/

Damn. And should I assume the same is true for the two week 10,000 point Diamond member guided journey's?

I was thinking about keeping the package because the bonus trip is valuable enough to me (7 day cruise + 4 days in Orlando) that I've been discounting the total cost of the package by about $4k. But that's an enormous omission from the Diamond sales staff that completely blows up the value proposition. What else did they forget to tell me? Ugh. If I rescind, am I on the hook to reimburse the freebies they gave me? Like the $200 meal voucher? Or the $75 they gave me for lunch?
 

nuwermj

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
615
Reaction score
302
Points
273
Location
Potsdam, NY
- Answers:
1. No unusual restrictions. I have the same access as anyone in the US Collection.
2. 13 month advance booking for US Collection, 10 months for non-US Collection.
3. Yes, it includes an II account.
4. I don't think the MF is fixed, and I can't find the guidance for MF cost increases. I'll keep looking.

Thank for this.


So I read up on the resale deeds and checked redweek. It looks like I could get a 5000 point and a 7500 point RTU for almost no cash upfront and $2250 a month in combined MF. So over 10 years that would be about the same cost as what I signed up for. (Minus the extras, which are worth about $4K if I were to try to buy them myself.) If I were to go that route, I'd get a lot more points per year. But as I understand it, I'd lose out on the ability to stay in locations outside of those collections. Is that right? How significant is that?

Something's wrong with the MF figure. Nevertheless, I would not suggest Diamond resale. As you note, the restrictions are very significant.

My view is that timeshares can be a good value as a way to get resort accommodations. I'm not convinced all the other travel benefits, including Escorted Tours, are a good value. I hope your decision works out.
 

DRIless

Guest
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
1,364
Reaction score
404
Points
143
TugBrain - To be clear, it's $15K plus $850 a year for 10 years. $2300 is the total cost of the purchase price plus 10 years of maintenance divided over ten years.
Ha
 

izzymail

Guest
Joined
Sep 14, 2017
Messages
97
Reaction score
62
Points
78
My assumption based on experience is that they lied to you about many other things. The low maintenance fees, for one. Get out while you can! In the unlikely event you have remorse for cancelling you can always go buy it again. Once your money goes hard, you are locked in for 10 years.

Btw, I'm a happy Worldmark resale owner!
 
Top