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A couple of Wyndham questions for those in the know.

StPeteGator

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My dad has about a million points (all bought from Wyndham) that he intends to "leave" to me (fortunately, nothing impending). He's Platinum and has grandfathered unlimited housekeeping. We've been their guests on occassion and enjoy it, but I have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone on here might have some insight into.

Accepting that things change, at the moment:

1) I think the VIP benifits transfer with inheritance, true?
2) Do the grandfathered benifits transfer?
3) Are any of the VIP benifits contractual (ie part of the legal agreement that cannot be changed by one party)?
4) Is anyone aware of a time when inherited ownership was treated differently from original purchaser ownership?
5) Dad indicated he signed up for (bought?) something that allow his heirs to get 22% of the original contract cost if they don't wish to accept the ownership. Does that sound right?


Thanks to anyone who has the willingness to respond.
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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Hi @StPeteGator ,

Your Dad has a contract with VIP benefits that can transfer to you as family .
If you plan on regularly vacationing - this has real vacation value & your Dad paid for this.

Welcome to TUG - Timeshare Users Group.
You will get answers to your questions & lots of assistance on how to optimize use of Wyndham points.
( and some questions about details of your father's ownership)
 

bnoble

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I'm not 100% sure of this, but:

1: yes
2: yes
3: no
4: I am not
5: No

For #5, I suspect what he has is "Pathways" for some or all of his points. Pathways was a very short-lived program in which Wyndham would buy back the points for 20% of their purchase price when you were done with them. I have no idea if that transfers to an heir, or how well Wyndham has done honoring it. If Pathways is part of his ownership it is worth considering whether or not you'd rather have the 20% in cash or a Platinum Wyndham account.
 

StPeteGator

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Hi @StPeteGator ,

Your Dad has a contract with VIP benefits that can transfer to you as family .
If you plan on regularly vacationing - this has real vacation value & your Dad paid for this.

Welcome to TUG - Timeshare Users Group.
You will get answers to your questions & lots of assistance on how to optimize use of Wyndham points.
( and some questions about details of your father's ownership)
Thanks. We've got plenty of time (I hope at least). I'll start reading.
 

StPeteGator

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I'm not 100% sure of this, but:

1: yes
2: yes
3: no
4: I am not
5: No

For #5, I suspect what he has is "Pathways" for some or all of his points. Pathways was a very short-lived program in which Wyndham would buy back the points for 20% of their purchase price when you were done with them. I have no idea if that transfers to an heir, or how well Wyndham has done honoring it. If Pathways is part of his ownership it is worth considering whether or not you'd rather have the 20% in cash or a Platinum Wyndham account.
Pathways sounds right. I'll do some research. At this point I think we would prefer the Platinum account, but I don't kow what the purchase price(s) were, so we'll see. I appreciate your help.
 

Jan M.

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Your dad should add you now. When he's gone you'll likely have a lot to deal with and you certainly don't need the headache of getting the account transferred to you. And it will be a headache.

From what's been reported transferring the account afterwards takes months. You won't be able to use the account during that time but will have to keep paying the maintenance fees. A large number of points could be lost when the transfer isn't completed before the end of the use year. Sometimes the VIP benefits don't transfer correctly and that's another time consuming headache to get straightened out.

Are you and your dad aware of the owner priority reservations lists? For the resorts and dates on the lists owners get two exceptions a year to add guest names. If you're an owner on the account that won't be an issue if you want to stay at a resort on those lists.

It's better to be an owner than a guest of an owner. Owners are given more consideration than guests when it comes to unit assigments, unit upgrades, etc.
 

troy12n

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I agree with pretty much all of what's been said. Especially Jan's suggestion to be put on the account NOW. This will make dealing with this later a non-issue and less of a chance of shenanigans happening.

But about the only thing I will warn you about is, the maintenance fees you will have to pay monthly depend on what your father owns.

If you could give specifics of what he actually owns, like is it Club Wyndham Access, or Club Wyndham Select. If it's Select, what's the home resort. This will tell us if it's a resort with low maintenance fees or not.

Also will tell us if it's one of the resorts with "issues", There are a couple resorts with borderline insolvent HOA's due to local mismanagement that are potentially in risk of being disbanded and leaving the system. If this happens you will be without recourse and out of your timeshare. You may get some settlement money, but that's about it. This is likely not going to be an issue, but it's worth asking.

But at a high level, yes all the VIP privileges will transfer to you. Even the grandfathered stuff. If it was me, and I was financially stable and think I would be able to afford the maintenance fees, I would jump on it.
 

northovr

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I agree with pretty much all of what's been said. Especially Jan's suggestion to be put on the account NOW. This will make dealing with this later a non-issue and less of a chance of shenanigans happening.

But about the only thing I will warn you about is, the maintenance fees you will have to pay monthly depend on what your father owns.

If you could give specifics of what he actually owns, like is it Club Wyndham Access, or Club Wyndham Select. If it's Select, what's the home resort. This will tell us if it's a resort with low maintenance fees or not.

Also will tell us if it's one of the resorts with "issues", There are a couple resorts with borderline insolvent HOA's due to local mismanagement that are potentially in risk of being disbanded and leaving the system. If this happens you will be without recourse and out of your timeshare. You may get some settlement money, but that's about it. This is likely not going to be an issue, but it's worth asking.

But at a high level, yes all the VIP privileges will transfer to you. Even the grandfathered stuff. If it was me, and I was financially stable and think I would be able to afford the maintenance fees, I would jump on it.
There are a couple resorts with borderline insolvent HOA's due to local mismanagement that are potentially in risk of being disbanded and leaving the system

Could you list them just curious


Thanks
Daniel
 

TheHolleys87

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I agree with @Jan M. , your dad can add you as an owner now to make the transition seamless later on. The cost is low, and I’d suggest contacting LT Transfers, https://www.lttransfers.com/, to handle it for you. They handled multiple gratuitous transfers/owner additions for my family, efficiently and at reasonable cost.
 

Silverdollar

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My dad has about a million points (all bought from Wyndham) that he intends to "leave" to me (fortunately, nothing impending). He's Platinum and has grandfathered unlimited housekeeping. We've been their guests on occassion and enjoy it, but I have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone on here might have some insight into.

Accepting that things change, at the moment:

1) I think the VIP benifits transfer with inheritance, true?
2) Do the grandfathered benifits transfer?
3) Are any of the VIP benifits contractual (ie part of the legal agreement that cannot be changed by one party)?
4) Is anyone aware of a time when inherited ownership was treated differently from original purchaser ownership?
5) Dad indicated he signed up for (bought?) something that allow his heirs to get 22% of the original contract cost if they don't wish to accept the ownership. Does that sound right?


Thanks to anyone who has the willingness to respond.
You have something of real value, and I would recommend jumping on it ASAP. For example, if you were to walk into a Wyndham Sales Center today and request enough points to become VIP Platinum it would cost about $260 per 1000 points, or $260,000. Actually, it would cost more because it now requires 1,100,000 points to become VIP Platinum. So that would be another $26,000. They may offer some kind of "special" that would bring the price down some, but probably still in excess of $200k. If you were to buy directly from Wyndham telesales, they may offer something in the neighborhood of $160 per 1000, or $160k.

There are only a couple reasons I would not be added as an owner and that would be if I couldn't afford the maintenance fees. Or the ownership is with one of the resorts that is borderline insolvent, as previous mentioned by Troy.
 

Fido Chuckwagon

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My dad has about a million points (all bought from Wyndham) that he intends to "leave" to me (fortunately, nothing impending). He's Platinum and has grandfathered unlimited housekeeping. We've been their guests on occassion and enjoy it, but I have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone on here might have some insight into.

Accepting that things change, at the moment:

1) I think the VIP benifits transfer with inheritance, true?
2) Do the grandfathered benifits transfer?
3) Are any of the VIP benifits contractual (ie part of the legal agreement that cannot be changed by one party)?
4) Is anyone aware of a time when inherited ownership was treated differently from original purchaser ownership?
5) Dad indicated he signed up for (bought?) something that allow his heirs to get 22% of the original contract cost if they don't wish to accept the ownership. Does that sound right?


Thanks to anyone who has the willingness to respond.
Find out what resorts he owns at. If they are very high maintenance fee resorts then this might not be worth owning.

Edit: If 5. Is true you should consider doing that, but I bet 5 is malarkey.
 
Last edited:

Sandi Bo

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Find out what resorts he owns at. If they are very high maintenance fee resorts then this might not be worth owning.

Edit: If 5. Is true you should consider doing that, but I bet 5 is malarkey.
OH... I would want to know if #5 is Pathways AND if it's grandfathered
 

regatta333

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There are a couple resorts with borderline insolvent HOA's due to local mismanagement that are potentially in risk of being disbanded and leaving the system
I would also be interested to know which HOAs are having problems.
 

Timeshare Von

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It's only "awesome" if you have the interest and time to travel enough to use 1M points. The MFs will be very high, so make sure you know the true "value" of your vacationing experience using timeshares.
 
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tschwa2

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If he is platinum and would still be platinum (or even grandfathered at gold with unlimited hki) if he divested one of the pathways properties and he doesn't travel as much as he used to he may want to look into shedding the Pathways now. I am not sure if the Pathways contract would transfer even to family member and he might want to take advantage of getting some money back.
 

r4rab

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For #5 (Pathways) you will need to read the appropriate clause(s) of the contract(s) to see if it is transferrable and if modifying the contract (by adding an owner) negates it. Note that multiple contracts can exist in a single account. Anyone on a contract in an account has access to all the points in that account. If you are added to a contract (as suggested) you only need to be added to 1 to have access to all the points but would need to be added to all of them to ease things in the future. A CWS contract will have more expenses involved with the contract addition because a deed needs amendment; a CWA contract is easier to amend. Be aware that you are legally responsible for the MFs associated with a contract once your name is on it in the event your father does not pay it. If I could afford the MFs down the road and I was interested in this (and VIP Platinum is nothing to sneeze at), I'd add my name now while it is easier to do so as long as your father is alright with that (and this would let you book vacations without his involvement).
 

StPeteGator

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It is pathways. The points are all CWA. Maintenance is about 7.5k per year. Not sure if pathways is enheritable. I'll see if I can find the documents.
 

curitiba_tapley

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My parents transferred all of their CWA points to my wife and me a few years back. Not a 1M but enough for a couple solid vacations each year. We have loved owning ever since - the amount we vacation and the locations have been great - and as long as you plan far enough in advance, never have had a problem getting the location and floorplan we want!

I recall the transfer process was seamless, and I'm pretty sure my dad worked through the Wyndham team. The only drawback I recall is that my parents moved some points into a future use year, and those points were lost in the transfer (unfortunately, my dad didn't read the fine print). The VIP levels transferred and were grandfathered. Every time we are invited and go to a Sales Presentation, the Sales guy says something like, I see you've been an owner for 20 years! LOL.
 

1Melanie

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I agree with @Jan M. , your dad can add you as an owner now to make the transition seamless later on. The cost is low, and I’d suggest contacting LT Transfers, https://www.lttransfers.com/, to handle it for you. They handled multiple gratuitous transfers/owner additions for my family, efficiently and at reasonable cost.
Wyndham has a form you can fill in and submit. You can add as many people on as you want. Pay the $395 fee. It is done by contract vs membership. Get added to the largest contract. It will give you access to the entire program. Takes about 6 - 8 weeks to complete the process. The check doesn’t get cashed until the very end so will be outstanding for awhile.
 

dioxide45

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Wyndham has a form you can fill in and submit. You can add as many people on as you want. Pay the $395 fee. It is done by contract vs membership. Get added to the largest contract. It will give you access to the entire program. Takes about 6 - 8 weeks to complete the process. The check doesn’t get cashed until the very end so will be outstanding for awhile.
Does this work for deeded weeks though, or just CWA? I would think you need a closing company involved in order to prepare the transfer of a deed.
 

1Melanie

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Does this work for deeded weeks though, or just CWA? I would think you need a closing company involved in order to prepare the transfer of a Request the form while you’re at it. Wyndham takes care of it. You’re not transferring. Your owners to your contract.
Does this work for deeded weeks though, or just CWA? I would think you need a closing company involved in order to prepare the transfer of a deed.
Yes it does. You’re not transferring ownership, you’re adding owners to yours. For the fee, (I just checked my records, it was actually $299) Wyndham takes care of it. Ask for the form at your next sales meeting or call Wyndham for it. It alleviates the necessity of using guest confirmations for co-owners. (Those 15 don’t last long when your kids or other family members want to go somewhere or want to go to a resort with restricted access.) I added my two boys to our largest contract that has all the perks. It gives them access to the entire membership with all the benefits that go with it. At some point (when I can’t move around on my own anymore) we will probably get rid of the two smaller contracts we have and quit claim the one they’re on to them. It’s not instantaneous. It took about 3 months to complete. (They don’t cash the check until then either.)
 
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