Cheap way to get into Club Wyndham

[Russed1]

I am new to this timeshare stuff, but have benefited from my parents having a points membership with RCI. They had points with Pahio Shearwater, now managed by Wyndham. I am struggling with 2 questions.

1) is there a cheap way to get into Club Wyndham? Have heard/read that you have to buy from developers for Wyndham and then you can join other timeshares to gain VIP levels. Seems like if you own at a resort managed by Wyndham you should be able to join.

2) For those of us that travel only 1 or 2 times per year is the cost justified? Is there some comparison chart between RCI and Club Wyndham benefits?

I have previously been provided a contact name at the Sales office, have not called them yet as I am still trying to get through the hoops in changing the name on the deed from my parents to myself.

 

[Pietin]

Hey Russed1,

Yes you can get into the Club Wyndham cheap and sometimes even for free. It depends on what your goals are. If VIP is important to you, you have to buy the point directly from Wyndham. I am not sure if the PIC program is still around, it is a program where they will give you points for the week you have and add them to the purchased point to get you to VIP. The question is, is VIP worth the cost.

To get into the club as cheap as possible, you can wither buy resale, check out ebay, or the bargain deals here and on TUG. We were able to get my in-laws 154K points at Kingsgate in Williamsburg for the transfer cost, 299. We picked up 182K at Glacier Canyon for $26 plus the transfer cost. We have not bought from Wyndham directly so we do not have VIP but are always treated well at the resorts.

As for RCI points to Wyndham, the best feature of Wyndham points in there is no cost to use them and you can book any Wyndham resort in the Wyndham system, (I should say that it is no cost if you have Reservation transactions available, you get one for every 77K points, if not it will cost a reservation fee) whereas RCI will charge each reservation. RCI has more resorts but Wyndham has a good selection of resorts too. We have not traded in RCI for several years as see not need to spend the money on the reservation fee.

There is also the ARP to look at. ARP is advance reservation priority, this means you can book you home resort 13 months in advance, this is why we bought GC. We wanted to book in before it opened to the rest of the Wyndham system. So if particular resort is important to you, you should seek it out, otherwise “Points are Points”*

There are some on treads on the board that will go into the “why buy when you could rent” and other that will talk about resale vs retail. All our purchases in Wyndham have been resale, and we spent a way lot less cash than retail

Steve

* See disclaimer in the “Bonnet Creek Transportation Fee” tread.

 

[ronparise]

Silver VIP is 400000 points, You could do it with a purchase of 400000 points from Wyndham or using the PIC program to bring two non Wyndham weeks into the system. each PIC week requires a purchase from Wyndham of at least 50000 points

So either spend $15000-$70000 with Wyndham to become VIP

400000 points is more than you need. and the VIP benefits, while real, are not worth that kind of money..you should buy on the secondary market. I would think 200000-300000 points would be enough for your needs. You can probably get what you need for under $1000 and monthly maintenance fee payments of under $125

Is it worth it???...only you can say. I see 14 nights in a condo with a full kitchen for about $100 a night...I think it is

 

[55plus]

Are these Wyndham points? If your parents purchased from the developer (Wyndham or Fairfield) and you inherited their points, you also inherited their benefits.

When I inherited points I also inherited benefits that went along with the points. It has to be from immediate family. Fairfield was the developer when the points were purchased and these were Fairfield timeshares when inherited, but that shouldn't matter. Fairfield timeshares are now Wyndham Vacation Resorts.

Why call a sales office? All there going to do is lie to you in order to sell you something.

 

[jjmanthei05]

If it's a fixed week it can be converted for $2,395 and Shearwater has the best maintenance fee rate in the system. I would convert your contract to points and you might be able to get VIP if it was a developer purchase.

Jason

 

[jebloomquist]

If it's a fixed week it can be converted for $2,395 and Shearwater has the best maintenance fee rate in the system. I would convert your contract to points and you might be able to get VIP if it was a developer purchase.

Jason

I don't think that you can convert PAHIO properties for $2,395. If someone has actually done that at an Hawaiian PAHIO proeprty, I would appreciate knowing that.

Jim

 

[Russed1]

We did get Points, but it is a Pahio property. Seems that since Wyndham took over the management and ongoing sales we would be grandfathered in. Apparently that is not the case. So if we want to gain VIP status we would have no choice but to buy from a developer.

So I am still trying to determine if VIP is really worth it. I like the idea of not paying for all the transaction fees that RCI has, but then it would take alot of transactions to justify spending $10-15,000. Not sure how the upgrades actually work and the 2 for 1 points. Appreciate hearing positive and negative experiences with VIP.

Diane

 

[richjester]

Value of VIP

We are VIP because we bought before we found out about TUG and other cheaper forms of buying timeshares. Since then, we've added additional points for pennies on the dollar. We mostly decided we'd make lemonade out of the lemons we picked.

If we had it to do over again, there is no way we would buy from Wyndham. What we are paying for our VIP status will far exceed what we could have paid for the same vacations buy resale. But, because we have VIP, we make the most of it by renting out some units to help us cover our costs. It has worked out fairly well for the past two years, covering out maintenance fees, but we'er stuck paying the mortgage.

 

[timeos2]

We did get Points, but it is a Pahio property. Seems that since Wyndham took over the management and ongoing sales we would be grandfathered in. Apparently that is not the case. So if we want to gain VIP status we would have no choice but to buy from a developer.

So I am still trying to determine if VIP is really worth it. I like the idea of not paying for all the transaction fees that RCI has, but then it would take alot of transactions to justify spending $10-15,000. Not sure how the upgrades actually work and the 2 for 1 points. Appreciate hearing positive and negative experiences with VIP.

Diane

VIP is almost always a bad deal. You would pay far more than you are ever likely to get out. You are prepaying upfront for a potential to breakeven or, if you really get lucky, make $100 or so over your cost in 10-20 years. It is not transferable so it has zero value if you sell. The benefits - even as limited as they already are - can be and have been reduced in the past. It is likely to occur again (and again) thus making that breakeven move even further out (and likely never happening).

Don't worry about VIP. Deal with the things that have real value and that you can control. ARP, purchase cost and fees. If you get those in line with your use / expectations you'll do fine. VIP is not going help any of them. It is mostly sales blather. NEVER pay retail for Wyndham points.

 

[vacationhopeful]

VIP Silver (the lowest level of VIP) does not have a lot of "good" pieces of the pie (free HK and 5 Guest Certificates). VIP Gold has both the Free Housekeeping Credits, the Free Reservation Transactions and 10 Guest Certificates plus 35% off reservations booked during the 60 days before checkin and unit upgrades are 45 days before checkin. Silver is 24% off and unit upgrades at 30 days before checkin.

You can do you own cost analysis --- but any which way you punch the numbers in, you are better off investing $2500 (or less) to get 400-600K in points for your 2-3 weeks of Prime vacation in a 2/2 somewheres. Take your "unspent" for the developer points' loan dollars to pay your MFs. In addition to the Wyndham loan to buy the points (or the lost opportunity income of that BIG chuck of your greenbacks), you would still be paying the MFs for those points.

Meanwhile, I am planning my 7 weeks at Wyndham Royal Vista (using my RV ARP) for most of 2 months each and every winter. Yes, it is about $930 per week for my beachfront winter/snowbird condo but I have almost NO sunk costs of buying the Wyndham points.

My other option was a REAL condo I could have brought - 2 blocks in for $190-245,000 plus condo fees, utilities, furniture, cleanings, repairs, insurance, security system, etc. My monthly carrying cost for my 1,000,000 Royal Vista points is about $550.

And I can still have my friends down to sleep on my sofa bed --- which is exactly WHERE they would have been sleeping, if I had brought a year-round condo.