Discover - Worth it?

[Niknar1900]

Hi all, great forum btw. Yesterday ended up signing up for the 400k point Discover program, after 4+ hours of a 90 minute presentation lol. For $130 a month (for 2 years) it doesn't seem like a bad deal. Any thoughts on the program? Thank you for your time.

 

[Eric B]

Not really a great deal. Rescind and rent from an owner to see if you like using Wyndham; they will have better access and a lower point cost. Your cost per 1000 points is $7.80, which is on the high end, although you don't have an additional purchase cost depreciating. Look in the marketplace for what people on TUG are asking for rental rates for Wyndham weeks to get an idea of the comparative value.

TUG Timeshare Marketplace Search Results - For Rent Points

TUG Timeshare Marketplace Search, For Rent, Points

tug2.com

 

[Cyrus24]

We started with a Wyndham Discovery plan many years ago. Then we bought resale, then we bought retail. VIPP with PICS, today. The advantage to having the Discovery program is that you really get to learn all about how Wyndham works at a relatively low price, via your own personal account. You can read and you can rent, but, the only way to see if TS life is for you is to manage it and live it for a couple of years. 400K is a nice sum of points, 2 to 4 weeks of vacation depending on where you go, when you go, and the size of units being reserved.

If after getting feedback on pros/cons of Discovery you are overly concerned or confused, rescind. It's not a bad program, IMHO.

 

[cbyrne1174]

You're better off going on Ebay and getting a low MF contract for a couple of hundred bucks (like Grand Desert) and seeing if it's right for you. If you don't want to keep it, you can just give it back to Wyndham via their Ovations program. With a Grand Desert resale contract, 200,000 points a year costs $94.50 a month and never expires.

 

[Eric B]

You're better off going on Ebay and getting a low MF contract for a couple of hundred bucks (like Grand Desert) and seeing if it's right for you. If you don't want to keep it, you can just give it back to Wyndham via their Ovations program. With a Grand Desert resale contract, 200,000 points a year costs $94.50 a month and never expires.

That would likely work with a low cost contract, but Wyndham can be choosy about what contracts they will take back through Ovations. The other option is to pick one up from Timeshare Nation where there isn't a cost to you because the sellers pay for closing and resort transfer - you may have to monitor their inventory periodically to get a decent Wyndham points contract, but they come up periodically. I just picked up a small WorldMark contract from them. Here's their inventory link:

Bulk List Inventory - Google Drive

docs.google.com

 

[dgalati]

You're better off going on Ebay and getting a low MF contract for a couple of hundred bucks (like Grand Desert) and seeing if it's right for you. If you don't want to keep it, you can just give it back to Wyndham via their Ovations program. With a Grand Desert resale contract, 200,000 points a year costs $94.50 a month and never expires.

I would add use the 3k in discovery payments to rent before buying. Renting gives you the timeshare experience without the commitment of paying maintenance fees or additional sunk costs of buying and selling of the resale deed.

 

[Cyrus24]

I would add use the 3k in discovery payments to rent before buying. Renting gives you the timeshare experience without the commitment of paying maintenance fees or additional sunk costs of buying and selling of the resale deed.

I agree that renting gives you the TS experience. What it does not give you is the ownership experience, without a long term contractual commitment. To each there own, we appreciated getting the full Wyndham experience via the Discovery program.

 

[dgalati]

I agree that renting gives you the TS experience. What it does not give you is the ownership experience, without a long term contractual commitment. To each there own, we appreciated getting the full Wyndham experience via the Discovery program.

Correct me if Im wrong. 100% of the discovery purchase price can also applied to a future developer purchase.

 

[Cyrus24]

Correct me if Im wrong. 100% of discovery costs are also applied to a future developer purchase.

They used to be. And, BTW, I'm not advocating that anyone buy retail. In our case, we lost the credit for retail as we went resale for several years before buying retail. By the time we bought retail, we knew exactly what we were getting in to. I still have those resale points from Grand Desert.

 

[dgalati]

They used to be. And, BTW, I'm not advocating that anyone buy retail. In our case, we lost the credit for retail as we went resale for several years before buying retail. By the time we bought retail, we knew exactly what we were getting in to. I still have those resale points from Grand Desert.

I get it. I just wanted to point out a possible positive if someone wanted to purchase developer after buying in discovery.

 

[chapjim]

The Discovery program is bait. You wanna guess who is the fish?

Nah! That's too harsh and cynical. It's just a teaser.

 

[dgalati]

The Discovery program is bait. You wanna guess who is the fish?

Nah! That's too harsh and cynical. It's just a teaser.

Who am I to judge if someone wants to buy discovery. Then upgrade to developer points and eventually become whatever it's called now. Flounders VIP?

 

[Niknar1900]

You're better off going on Ebay and getting a low MF contract for a couple of hundred bucks (like Grand Desert) and seeing if it's right for you. If you don't want to keep it, you can just give it back to Wyndham via their Ovations program. With a Grand Desert resale contract, 200,000 points a year costs $94.50 a month and never expires.

What would be the search terms? I didn't find anything useful.

 

[Jan M.]

What would be the search terms? I didn't find anything useful.

Right now inventory is typically low because of the holidays but that can mean you can sometimes get good deals because business is slow. Here on TUG you can find people selling or giving away for the closing costs, around $215 through LT Transfers which many of us have used, and the transfer fee of $299. Look in the Marketplace and under the Buying, Selling Renting forum and at the top of that forum Free Timeshare Giveaways and Bargain Deals. In addition to eBay under Wyndham timeshares for sale you can look on Sumday Vacations website.

If you haven't stayed in timeshares before you should consider renting first and staying at resorts through several different timeshare systems. You might like one of the others more than Wyndham or find that their system better suits your needs. We are happy with our Wyndham ownership but it was the first resort system we'd ever stayed in. I'm not sure if there was even another big system out there back then.

 

[Rolltydr]

Hi all, great forum btw. Yesterday ended up signing up for the 400k point Discover program, after 4+ hours of a 90 minute presentation lol. For $130 a month (for 2 years) it doesn't seem like a bad deal. Any thoughts on the program? Thank you for your time.

We started out with this exact same deal. we later bought 450k developer points to be VIP Silver. Many on this board will tell you it isn’t worth it but we have enjoyed it and saved 25% on many reservations plus gotten a few free upgrades. The cost wasn’t a financial burden to us, so we’re glad we did it. Having said that, we are now purchasing resale because we want additional points to travel more but without the high cost of developer points.

 

[Braindead]

You're better off going on Ebay and getting a low MF contract for a couple of hundred bucks (like Grand Desert) and seeing if it's right for you. If you don't want to keep it, you can just give it back to Wyndham via their Ovations program. With a Grand Desert resale contract, 200,000 points a year costs $94.50 a month and never expires.

What it does not give you is the ownership experience, without a long term contractual commitment

I’d recommend this combination over renting, it will also give you RCI access to see if it has any value to you.
Low cost getting in & out if necessary. As others have said you can always add a developer purchase later.

If you’re not sure you want to take the of risk on Wyndham still taking contracts back in a couple of years buy the Discovery Package & maybe you’ll be able to get some discounts & upgrades to lower the cost per point.

 

[Niknar1900]

Just got my rescission letter emailed to me, just wanted to thank everyone for their help.

 

[Xcalibur]

I’d recommend this combination over renting, it will also give you RCI access to see if it has any value to you.
Low cost getting in & out if necessary. As others have said you can always add a developer purchase later.

If you’re not sure you want to take the of risk on Wyndham still taking contracts back in a couple of years buy the Discovery Package & maybe you’ll be able to get some discounts & upgrades to lower the cost per point.

It really takes time to master the use of the points and the different systems. Especially with the rules changing all the time. That said, once you get the hang of it (and learn what questions to ask), it's a great tool. This is especially true of you have VIP privileges.

 

[weleftmn]

We started with Discover. I agree that it was a great way to figure out if the system would work for us. I don't think we would have gotten the same experience renting.