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Timeshare Purchase security

dagger1

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We are trying to buy a relatively cheap TS and have been told by the seller he will accept full payment by credit card. Is this a secure way of paying and getting the process started? If major issues arise, would I be able to dispute the charge with my credit card company? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? Thanks in advance for thoughts/comments!!
 

mjkkb2

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I would say CC payments are the most secure for any purchase. The only issue is it is likely the purchasing/transferring process will take more than the 3 month CC allows to dispute the transaction. Please read the sticky info on how to go about buying (verification, contract, using escrow company etc..) and you will have a safe process.
 

dagger1

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I would say CC payments are the most secure for any purchase. The only issue is it is likely the purchasing/transferring process will take more than the 3 month CC allows to dispute the transaction. Please read the sticky info on how to go about buying (verification, contract, using escrow company etc..) and you will have a safe process.
The TS company has a 15 day ROFR period, so I am planning on giving the seller 45 days (15 for ROFR, 30 to prepare/file/record the deed and submit to the TS company. If after 45 days the TS company does not have the deed and transfer documentation, I am planning on turning it over to my credit card company for lack of performance. As soon as it passes ROFR I will be telling the seller he has 30 days to complete the paperwork or no deal. Any thoughts?
 

echino

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Who is the seller / transfer company? Not from Tennessee?
 

Aurelius

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I’m in the payments industry. Paying with a credit card may feel more secure, but it really isn’t in this instance. The merchant (seller) wins nearly every charge back claim as long as they respond in time. Do your research on the seller and closing company. If it’s small dollars take the risk if it’s a large contract I would insist on something more secure like escrow.
 

Panina

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We are trying to buy a relatively cheap TS and have been told by the seller he will accept full payment by credit card. Is this a secure way of paying and getting the process started? If major issues arise, would I be able to dispute the charge with my credit card company? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? Thanks in advance for thoughts/comments!!
I would not proceed unless you have trust in the company you purchased from or cheap means the amount is so little and you are ok with losing it if the deal goes bad.
 

dagger1

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Who is the seller / transfer company? Not from Tennessee?
No, not from Tennessee. I really don’t want to say because I will get laughed out of TUG!!!
 

dagger1

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I would not proceed unless you have trust in the company you purchased from or cheap means the amount is so little and you are ok with losing it if the deal goes bad.[/
I’m in the payments industry. Paying with a credit card may feel more secure, but it really isn’t in this instance. The merchant (seller) wins nearly every charge back claim as long as they respond in time. Do your research on the seller and closing company. If it’s small dollars take the risk if it’s a large contract I would insist on something more secure like escrow.
Not a trivial amount, but not really large either. I think we will go ahead, and it case it turns bad we will see how the credit card company handles it.
 

TheTimeTraveler

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The TS company has a 15 day ROFR period, so I am planning on giving the seller 45 days (15 for ROFR, 30 to prepare/file/record the deed and submit to the TS company. If after 45 days the TS company does not have the deed and transfer documentation, I am planning on turning it over to my credit card company for lack of performance. As soon as it passes ROFR I will be telling the seller he has 30 days to complete the paperwork or no deal. Any thoughts?



If you really want this then I would advise you to tell the seller you will use your own closing company and at your expense. This way the closing company represents you (the buyer) instead of the seller.

Use a reputable closing company and you won't encounter any sketchy seller BS and won't be stretched out forever.





.
 

5finny

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Use your own closing company and have funds held in escrow unless you are confident in seller (as in good tug reputation)
Anything else is just a gamble
If you decide to go ahead anyway put all time deadlines in writing in your contract to buy and then add in contract that you will receive a full refund after deadline passes
That will be useful for your credit card dispute
 

Bao Nguyen

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brianfox

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I like the suggestion of offering to pay for the escrow company of your choosing.
Let me tell you, the scammers are out in full force.

If I may share something that happened recently.

My family likes iPhones. We've been using them as a family for many years, upgrading every two years.
I have always sold our used phones on Ebay, and have gotten surprisingly high resale values each time.

Never had a single problem. Until this time...

We had 4 iPhone 7's that were in excellent shape, so I put them on Ebay two auctions at a time, so I wasn't competing with myself too much.
Ads clearly stated no PO box and only sales within the continental US, because I don't want to deal with foreign shipping.
Each listing got the usual "Text me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. I want to buy your phone", which I always ignored.
One sold without incident.
One had a winning bidder who was later revealed to be in China, so I cancelled the sale. Offered a second-chance sale to the second-place bidder - who ALSO turned out to be in China. Total waste of a week of my time.
Ebay doesn't reveal the winning bid address until the auction is complete.
Relisted and next winner said he wanted me to ship to his family member's address, because he just moved out of his dorm.
Sounded reasonable, as isince I've asked for something to be shipped to a different address on occasion (but I wasn't trying to scam).
I googled the alternate address. What came up was dozens of scam warnings. It was a warehouse in Mass. that is used a shipping point to - you guessed it - China.
The scam works like this: They pay you right away and ask for item to be shipped to alternate address (not the address on file with Ebay). Item gets shipped (and even signed for if you want). Item is shipped to China. Shortly before time limit for filing complaint (after you have thrown away shipping receipts), the buyer opens a non-ship complaint with Paypal and Ebay or makes a complaint that the box was empty if a signature was involved. Paypal ALWAYS sides with the scammer. You have no Ebay seller protection because you did not ship to the auction address specified in auction - it's in the fine print.
This buyer had an extensive Ebay history - years of hundreds of positive reviews. Yet when you go back into the history, many are on the same day from the same three accounts. So Ebay rating is total BS.
Fortunately, I checked out the address or I would have been out an iPhone.
I cancelled the auction and sent the guy a nastygram, saying I know he is a scammer. Got no response (of course). I reported him to Ebay, but I'm certain it went into a black hole.
The only cool part of the transaction is I learned that if you void a sale on Ebay, they automatically credit money back through Paypal and all fees are removed. So that goes smoothly, if you ever wondered.
I decided to sell the remaining phones (for a LOT less) to a company that buys and sells phones, from whom I've purchased phones in the past. Very reputable.

All it takes is a couple of scammers to turn you off from something you've been doing for years.
 

truckinusa

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I like the suggestion of offering to pay for the escrow company of your choosing.
Let me tell you, the scammers are out in full force.

If I may share something that happened recently.

My family likes iPhones. We've been using them as a family for many years, upgrading every two years.
I have always sold our used phones on Ebay, and have gotten surprisingly high resale values each time.

Never had a single problem. Until this time...

We had 4 iPhone 7's that were in excellent shape, so I put them on Ebay two auctions at a time, so I wasn't competing with myself too much.
Ads clearly stated no PO box and only sales within the continental US, because I don't want to deal with foreign shipping.
Each listing got the usual "Text me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. I want to buy your phone", which I always ignored.
One sold without incident.
One had a winning bidder who was later revealed to be in China, so I cancelled the sale. Offered a second-chance sale to the second-place bidder - who ALSO turned out to be in China. Total waste of a week of my time.
Ebay doesn't reveal the winning bid address until the auction is complete.
Relisted and next winner said he wanted me to ship to his family member's address, because he just moved out of his dorm.
Sounded reasonable, as isince I've asked for something to be shipped to a different address on occasion (but I wasn't trying to scam).
I googled the alternate address. What came up was dozens of scam warnings. It was a warehouse in Mass. that is used a shipping point to - you guessed it - China.
The scam works like this: They pay you right away and ask for item to be shipped to alternate address (not the address on file with Ebay). Item gets shipped (and even signed for if you want). Item is shipped to China. Shortly before time limit for filing complaint (after you have thrown away shipping receipts), the buyer opens a non-ship complaint with Paypal and Ebay or makes a complaint that the box was empty if a signature was involved. Paypal ALWAYS sides with the scammer. You have no Ebay seller protection because you did not ship to the auction address specified in auction - it's in the fine print.
This buyer had an extensive Ebay history - years of hundreds of positive reviews. Yet when you go back into the history, many are on the same day from the same three accounts. So Ebay rating is total BS.
Fortunately, I checked out the address or I would have been out an iPhone.
I cancelled the auction and sent the guy a nastygram, saying I know he is a scammer. Got no response (of course). I reported him to Ebay, but I'm certain it went into a black hole.
The only cool part of the transaction is I learned that if you void a sale on Ebay, they automatically credit money back through Paypal and all fees are removed. So that goes smoothly, if you ever wondered.
I decided to sell the remaining phones (for a LOT less) to a company that buys and sells phones, from whom I've purchased phones in the past. Very reputable.

All it takes is a couple of scammers to turn you off from something you've been doing for years.
If you want to avoid all that sell it to Atlas. No hassle they just pay you. Another option is swappa but kinda the same issues as eBay.
 
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