Club Wyndham Access Points - VIP Founders 1.6 million (About to Inherit )

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I think if i'm doing the MF + program fee right, they would be about 14k per year.

Access MF this year is $8.13/1000
Program Fee this year is $0.70/1000

MF alone = $13,008
Program Fee = $1,120

Total MF + PF = $14,128.00

.75 for the program fee since it would be plus partners eligible, but otherwise, yes, that’s what I got as well.

 

[ShawnH]

You are confusing "15k a year" (maintenance fees dollars) with "500k" (points).

Just make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into here. Wyndham timeshare resorts are great, but 1.6 million points is a lot. Maintenance fees this year are $14,200 on that amount, and expect them to go up by around 5 percent each year. 1.6 million points is a LOT of vacations each year, especially with the VIP discounts. (Or vacations in really big rooms / presidential units.)

Ok, makes more sense now I must have missed some of this when reading the post. Also makes more sense now on the 500k points. Just trying to educate myself more for future reference. Thanks.

I think if i'm doing the MF + program fee right, they would be about 14k per year.

Access MF this year is $8.13/1000
Program Fee this year is $0.70/1000

MF alone = $13,008
Program Fee = $1,120

Total MF + PF = $14,128.00

I was guessing on the total fees for maintenance and program fees and rounded up which to my mind prepares you for the worst outcome. The number I basically came up with was just north of 14500. I honestly should have looked at the newest breakdown of the 2025 fees.

 

[Floridaman76]

It's +/- that.

I think I calculated the program fee wrong because someone else pointed out that the program fee is .75/1000 and I calculated it at .70/1000. Not much of a difference in the grand scheme of things honestly.

Basically, at least for Club Wyndham Access, you calculate your total annual fees as:
Maintenance Fees: which in your case is $8.13/1000
Program Fee: which is $0.75/1000 for retail points or $0.70 for resale points (does not apply to you)
So the basic math for you is:
=(((1600000/1000)*8.16)+((1600000/1000)*0.75)) for the total cost

or
=((((1600000/1000)*8.16)+((1600000/1000)*0.75))/12) for the monthly cost

If your total number of points you end up with changes, just change the 1600000 to whatever number that turns out to be.

For deeded properties (doesn't apply to you) there are sometimes additional taxes which may slightly influence the total cost. Access doesn't have that.

 

[WManning]

Just make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into here. Wyndham timeshare resorts are great, but 1.6 million points is a lot. Maintenance fees this year are $14,200 on that amount, and expect them to go up by around 5 percent each year. 1.6 million points is a LOT of vacations each year, especially with the VIP discounts. (Or vacations in really big rooms / presidential units.)

Yea but they can rent, with VIP discounts and upgrades they can cover all Maintenance fees easily. A sales representative told me this and persuaded me to buy more points on this pretense.

 

[WManning]

Over $9/1000 maintenance fees sounds pricey compared to a National Harbor deed at $5.06/1000 with $0.73/1000 fee at a total of $5.79

 

[BoomerKwanger]

Over $9/1000 maintenance fees sounds pricey compared to a National Harbor deed at $5.06/1000 with $0.73/1000 fee at a total of $5.79

Agreed with this. It's a common mistake to overvalue VIP benefits. Paying $5.79/1000 on resale instead of $9/1000 on developer is the equivalent of a 35% discount (basically a gold level discount) on all points, not just points used within 2 months of reservation. It's also like getting a 35% discount on RCI exchanges too, which VIP owners don't even get!

It's important to think through how you will use your points and what you envision your booking strategy to be. If you think you'll do most of your booking within 2 months of the reservation, then keeping VIP may be the right way to go. If most of your booking will be done 2-10 months before the reservation, it's almost certainly better to just let the account go back to Wyndham and then buy resale.

 

[Floridaman76]

Agreed with this. It's a common mistake to overvalue VIP benefits. Paying $5.79/1000 on resale instead of $9/1000 on developer is the equivalent of a 35% discount (basically a gold level discount) on all points, not just points used within 2 months of reservation. It's also like getting a 35% discount on RCI exchanges too, which VIP owners don't even get!

It's important to think through how you will use your points and what you envision your booking strategy to be. If you think you'll do most of your booking within 2 months of the reservation, then keeping VIP may be the right way to go. If most of your booking will be done 2-10 months before the reservation, it's almost certainly better to just let the account go back to Wyndham and then buy resale.

Yes, but, platinum VIP's get 50% discounts, founders get 60% discounts. And they get suite upgrades at 60 days.

So it's the discounts plus suite upgrades which really beneficial at the higher VIP levels. And at the 60 day mark, it's pretty easy to get upgrades unless you are going to be travelling at the highest demand resorts at peak times.

And with that many points and unlimited housekeeping, it really opens up the world to them to many shorter trips that they can take on a whim. Once retired, that's something you really need to keep in mind, travel at the last minute for short stays as you find them or as time allows and not have to worry about housekeeping expense.

There's no doubt that I would never advocate for buying retail points anymore, but getting this for free and just having to pay MF, even if it's the higher CWA MF, it's hard to pass up. Everyone has to make their own decisions for what's best for them and what they can handle financially, but this is really a rare gift and I would probably find a way to keep it all because there's no doubt that in retirement I would be able to use that, and send the kids on trips. That's what this is all about...

When buying from scratch, no doubt, find a Bali Hai or National Harbor or even Grand Desert resale and call it a day.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Yes, but, platinum VIP's get 50% discounts, founders get 60% discounts. And they get suite upgrades at 60 days.

So it's the discounts plus suite upgrades which really beneficial at the higher VIP levels. And at the 60 day mark, it's pretty easy to get upgrades unless you are going to be travelling at the highest demand resorts at peak times.

And with that many points and unlimited housekeeping, it really opens up the world to them to many shorter trips that they can take on a whim. Once retired, that's something you really need to keep in mind, travel at the last minute for short stays as you find them or as time allows and not have to worry about housekeeping expense.

There's no doubt that I would never advocate for buying retail points anymore, but getting this for free and just having to pay MF, even if it's the higher CWA MF, it's hard to pass up. Everyone has to make their own decisions for what's best for them and what they can handle financially, but this is really a rare gift and I would probably find a way to keep it all because there's no doubt that in retirement I would be able to use that, and send the kids on trips. That's what this is all about...

When buying from scratch, no doubt, find a Bali Hai or National Harbor or even Grand Desert resale and call it a day.

I'm with you on this. provided the op can use it this is a great value. Op just needs to make sure he can use it.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I think if i'm doing the MF + program fee right, they would be about 14k per year.

Access MF this year is $8.13/1000
Program Fee this year is $0.70/1000

MF alone = $13,008
Program Fee = $1,120

Total MF + PF = $14,128.00

70 cents/1000 is a bit low for developer points. The current PF cost is 75 cents/1000 with Plus Partners for 2025 - and since they own all developer points - that's what we should use here:

$8.13+0.75=$8.87/1000

Total MFs: $14,192.00

Here's what we currently pay all in for 2025 for 1.418mm annual points:

$520/month (includes 210k CWA points, PFs on two PICs, 688.5k NH resale points): $6,240.00
Annual MFs on two PIC properties: $1119+ 907=$2026
PIC conversion: $226*2=$452

Total for 1.418mm points = $8718.00

Granted, the PICs aren't transferrable. But if we owned 1.418mm CWA points - we'd be paying $12,578 every year comparatively. I'd rather save 30% every year on MFs. I agree paying over $14k per year is pretty steep, even if you break that up across more than one family member to ease the collective burden.