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Finally planning to switch from Weeks to Points. Any tips?

JustAllie

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I have had two deeded week units at Wyndham Patriots' Place and Kingsgate for years and have used them, traded them on RCI, rented them out, etc. I actually share the use of these with some friends, but the weeks are still officially in my name.

After enduring yet another "owner update" late last year, I am convinced that having Points would be more useful to us than fixed weeks. However, I am not going to pour thousands more to buy additional from the developer just to have the privilege of switching to points.

As I understand it, it should be possible to switch to points by paying a fee of $2395 for the first week and $995 for the second week. The total of the two weeks should get us 280,000 points -- not enough for VIP, but I don't think the advantages of VIP are sufficient to get me to shell out a bunch more money to buy another unit from the developer.

Will paying this fee and doing the paperwork be all that's really necessary? Am I missing out on some of the benefits by not making an additional purchase at the time of the switch? I never seem to get a straight answer when I ask these questions during an owner update -- their incentive is to sell me more timeshare points, not to simply convert me over from weeks.
 

vacationhopeful

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JustAllie,
You might want to see if you can PIC a week or two at the same time. You are very close to VIP or GOLD VIP (gold is so much more useful ... really). Or buy a 3rd week before converting to get GOLD VIP ... have to be a big 3bdr unit (look for a lockout like in the Waterfalls section of Sea Gardens that is a PRIME deed (231,000 points)).

The advantage of PIC'ing is you don't have to use those as Wyndham points each year and therefore you can still deposit them into RCI Weeks for their TPU advantages.

With converting to points, you should get Plus Partners which is called Nightly Stays (aka RCI Points).

From the EXPERTS in converting weeks via the Corporate Direct route, you need to find out if those about to be:
1)converted weeks must have been direct purchases from Wyndham to get VIP.
2)if you can PIC weeks with the conversion.
3) do you get nightly stays/plus partners.

And go for the GOLD or PLATIMUM .....
 

Gophesjo

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I hope others will correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that there is another alternative that could save you thousands.

Unless you need either fixed week reservation guarantees or 13 month ARP at the resorts you own, you could sell or give away those weeks, and pick up a 'free' or nearly free resale points contract to replace them. You might end up paying transfer fees, but would not need to pay conversion fees.
 

momeason

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It may be better to see if you can donate the weeks, try Donate to a Cause..an Ebay Charity or contact Sumday vacations or even better try seeing if anyone on TUG wants them. Look on Ebay and see what is offered and check out maintenance fees per point. Compare to what your m/f per point will be. It may be cheaper to unload the weeks if you can and buy new ones with lower maintenance fees. M/F vary widely even at the same resort sometimes.
Williamsburg is overbuilt so you may not be able to unload them, but it is worth considering. You could buy some really good timeshare point packages with the $3300 you are about to spend. Then again, I do not know what you m/f situation is. You may have very low m/f on these weeks.
Read everything twice and have someone check behind you. Never believe anything they tell you in owner updates. How much would they charge you for 20k more points to get to VIP? I think I would try to negotiate that into the deal. If you are savvy, you might can get VIP w/o any extra money out over the $3300. I would tell them you are not converting w/o 20k more points for free and no increase in m/f. If they want your $3300 they just might bite. Tell them you will just give the TS to a Tug member if they do not want your deal. Do make sure to mention TUG. Most sales people know you are not going to fall for their lies if you are a TUG member.
 

JustAllie

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See, I knew there would be other issues to consider, which is why I thought I'd ask here first before calling Wyndham. :D

I was given these weeks by my parents, who were the original buyers, so I believe that means they count as developer weeks.

Keep in mind that I don't have a lot of spare $$ or time to devote to timesharing. I don't think buying up to Gold level is in the cards now. I've found timeshares to be a nice way to vacation, but I struggled with using up these two weeks per year until I found someone to share them with. (My friend and her husband pick up the maintenance fees on one of the units, I pay the fees on the other unit.)

I thought it would cost too much to sell/give away these weeks to be worth the effort to sell and then re-buy a place that's already in Points. It always seems that people have to pay a year or two ahead in fees to get someone to take over the contracts.

Note: I'm not trying to sell/give away these units in this thread. I know there is a defined process for using TUG to sell a timeshare.
 

jjmanthei05

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It may be better to see if you can donate the weeks, try Donate to a Cause..an Ebay Charity...

Be careful looking at "giving" your timeshare to donate for a cause. We have 4 separate contracts and they wanted us to pay $3,000 per contract to "donate" our timeshares to them. $12,000 seems quite steep even at the current prices Wyndham goes for. Hell if I offered them for free and payed closing and transfer that would only be like $2,000 or less.

Jason
 

JustAllie

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IHow much would they charge you for 20k more points to get to VIP? I think I would try to negotiate that into the deal. If you are savvy, you might can get VIP w/o any extra money out over the $3300. I would tell them you are not converting w/o 20k more points for free and no increase in m/f. If they want your $3300 they just might bite. Tell them you will just give the TS to a Tug member if they do not want your deal. Do make sure to mention TUG. Most sales people know you are not going to fall for their lies if you are a TUG member.
Wow, I had no idea something like that might be an option. Would this be one of those things you call Wyndham corporate HQ about or the resort itself?

Maintenance fees for these two units combined is about $1350, so that's about $4.80 per thousand points if they were converted as is. Is that how folks calculate these things?
 

vacationhopeful

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Plus $.51 per thousand w/o Plus Partners or $.53 with Plus Partners.
 

JustAllie

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So I guess $1500 after I convert to Points, to account for the slightly higher fees with Points than with Weeks? I guess that will work out to around $5.35 per thousand.

My RCI multi-year membership is expiring in July, and I haven't figured out if I should renew it or not. If it is going to take me a while to figure things out, maybe I should renew it and deposit this year's weeks -- they're in late April and so their RCI weeks trading power is going to drop again soon.
 
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vacationhopeful

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Some of the resorts have "foreclosed" inventory they are selling as a "last" pitch before you escape from a sales presentation. Esp true at the older resorts.

I would try the PIC route. You can get a FREE timeshare that you like (must be in RCI WEEKS) and with cheap MFs. Take the RCI playbook for PRIME season ONLY (more Wyndham points). Can NOT be a Wyndham resort. They will verify each year you still own it and there is a $89 fee to carry it as a PIC. And the sales staff is very "giving" on this option - I think it is easy to hide from corporate on the average per K of sold Wyndham Points.
 

JustAllie

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OK, this is where my head starts to spin. I assume that if I read this article a few times, the PIC program will start to make sense? Or is there an even easier explanation of what this is?
 

vacationhopeful

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VIP gets 5 free Guest Certificates per year (a points owner only get 1). So that is worth about $400 yearly -- go if you are "sharing" this with your friends. GOLDs get 10 free GCs per year. VIPs get a 25% discount off reservations made 60 days out. Resort Specials also have discounts in the lower seasons -- but it might be 5% to 40% .. You would get the better of the 2 discounts, but not both. You get FREE HKs as a VIP, but pay for the extra RTs that you use. GOLDs get free both. VIPs get a free unit upgrade at the 30 day from checkin (if available)whereas GOLDs get it at 45 days out. GOLD get 1 RARP advance at the 11 month out mark; Platimum get 2 RARPs.
 

vacationhopeful

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OK, this is where my head starts to spin. I assume that if I read this article a few times, the PIC program will start to make sense? Or is there an even easier explanation of what this is?

My RULE is READ everything Wyndham 3 times with different colored highlighters. Then it might start to make sense. Wyndham does employ very good writers and each different word means something totally different. But mastering the system keeps your COSTS lower, allows you to book good units or go off season as cheaply as possible.

Pay for 1 year membership into RCI. You have several weeks of reading, decide if 2 PICs are affordable on MFs, and then you can play the bargaining game towards your GOLD membership.

Then we will teach you how to have friends who like to vacation with you and help pay for your lifestyle. :D
 
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e.bram

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I don't know if you have prime or dog weeks. But,mostly dog weeks convert. So, your point weeks will only let you get dog weeks. If you have prime weeks(they should pay you) , converting would make no sense. If you have dog weeks , it would just cost you money to get dog weeks. regardless of how many points you have. If the prime weels haven't been converted you will have no access to those PRIME weeks.
 

dr_adventure

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You can probably dump your properties on e-bay for little cost - just charge transfer fee and closing and then pick up properties on e-bay the same way - though I think I would try to get them to evaluate your property to 300K in points for VIP Silver. Then if you have other weeks in any time share bring in those as PIC and you can get up to GOLD for very little - you will find that for your investment of 3K you will make this up in housekeeping, guest reservations and discount points. Your parents investment can be made much more valuable with a small investment - that should pay for itself in 2-3 years
 

JustAllie

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I don't know if you have prime or dog weeks. But,mostly dog weeks convert. So, your point weeks will only let you get dog weeks. If you have prime weeks(they should pay you) , converting would make no sense. If you have dog weeks , it would just cost you money to get dog weeks. regardless of how many points you have. If the prime weels haven't been converted you will have no access to those PRIME weeks.
Weeks 16 and 17, so they are "red" weeks but not as valuable as summer weeks, apparently.

On those years when one of my weeks happens to fall during a school holiday (e.g., if one of them happens to fall on the week before or after Easter), I have little trouble renting them out to my co-workers. But that only happens every few years. When I trade them with RCI Weeks, I can't get into really "hot" areas, but I've been able to find something workable most of the time. I have a 2 BR unit and a 2 BR lockout which can be split up. I think my RCI "trading power" is 15 for the two-bedroom, and I think 14 for each side of my 2 BR lockout, which is kind of odd but nice. Does that make these "dog" weeks?
 
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JustAllie

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Yeah, I figured that they weren't prime weeks because a few years ago I tried to get one of those timeshare resale companies on eBay to sell them for me, and they wouldn't even take them because they couldn't get enough $$ to make it worth their while. Still, I've managed to use them or rent them or trade them every year, so the difficulty in selling them wasn't a pressing issue.
 

scootr5

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Not entirely "dog" weeks, and they've worked for you. Points are very flexible though (hope I didn't smeek)!
 

Ridewithme38

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Slightly off topic, but i didn't know Kingsgate sold just the 2br side of the 3br lockoff....Your sure you don't own a lockoff at Kingsgate and just haven't been using the other side?
 

JustAllie

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Slightly off topic, but i didn't know Kingsgate sold just the 2br side of the 3br lockoff....Your sure you don't own a lockoff at Kingsgate and just haven't been using the other side?
I think my parents bought this very early in the Kingsgate building process. I think the resort changed the offerings after the first few buildings. I've stayed in the unit and I don't recall a door to a lockoff 1 BR.
 

scootr5

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I agree with that if you are going to outlay the cash to convert you should definitely pick up another cheap week to PIC, given your expressed desire to do shorter/weekend trips. That way you would have VIPstatus and not have to worry about housekeeping credits and occasional guest certificates.

Oh, and I would also avoid those fake "updates" from here on out - so not worth the aggravation!
 

JustAllie

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OK, things have been crazy at work so I haven't moved forward on this other than to renew my RCI membership for a year.

So, should I deposit my April weeks into RCI weeks to keep them from losing any more Trading Power Units? Or will having deposited weeks throw into disarray any "negotiations" with Wyndham to switch to points and maybe get VIP status?
 
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