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HGVC purchase - keep or cancel?

kytraveler

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New user here, this definitely seems like the place to come for advice so i'm glad I found it! Here is what we have bought into, but I have to cancel by 4/15, so please weigh in experts:

-5000 pts every year
-2 br ocean club in myrtle beach week 18 (gold week)
-33,600 bonus points to use in 2 years, which can be rolled to RCI for 2 more as I understand it (small fee?)
-Maint fee is $1037 plus taxes and other standard fees
-Cost to buy in was $24,660 plus $550 closing cost

Now that I have read up on the Gold week i'm not certain we have enough points to get a week during platinum. We have 2 adults and 3 kids ages 14,13, and 9. We will likely use the time during spring/fall breaks and summer months when kids are out of school for the next few years. I was actually thinking I could use the bonus points to get me about 7 trips at 4800 points over the next few years until they are out of the house, then the wife and I could use our 5000 points each year and get a nice 1 br once per year. So basically while the kids are living with us I can use the bonus points to stay in nice 2 br places and then when they are gone the standard 5000/yr should serve us well. It seems to make a little bit of sense considering we vacation 2-3 times per year and now that they are larger we need to move up to a 2 br for space which would cost us at least 2500-3000 for lesser properties than HGVC has.

So what am I missing and why should I not do this, because I would love to cancel. I have seen all of the threads on the resales so have no issue if you guys think this is a bad deal. Only reason it seems doable is because of our timing in life and all the bonus points to serve the next few expensive years of travel. Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

PS - something the salesman mentioned was that he uses a little trick to book through rci because their point system only goes up to 4800 points for the best weeks, and he acted like he booked hgvc this way but maybe he was just talking about rci properties?
 
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alwysonvac

TUG Lifetime Member
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Sep 11, 2005
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New Jersey
Resorts Owned
WORLDMARK, HGVC, VISTANA

SOLD (DVC, FSRC)
RESCIND and RESEARCH

New user here, this definitely seems like the place to come for advice so i'm glad I found it! Here is what we have bought into, but I have to cancel by 4/15, so please weigh in experts:

-5000 pts every year
-2 br ocean club in myrtle beach week 18 (gold week)
-33,600 bonus points to use in 2 years, which can be rolled to RCI for 2 more as I understand it (small fee?)
-Maint fee is $1037 plus taxes and other standard fees
-Cost to buy in was $24,660 plus $550 closing cost

Now that I have read up on the Gold week i'm not certain we have enough points to get a week during platinum. We have 2 adults and 3 kids ages 14,13, and 9. We will likely use the time during spring/fall breaks and summer months when kids are out of school for the next few years. I was actually thinking I could use the bonus points to get me about 7 trips at 4800 points over the next few years until they are out of the house, then the wife and I could use our 5000 points each year and get a nice 1 br once per year. So basically while the kids are living with us I can use the bonus points to stay in nice 2 br places and then when they are gone the standard 5000/yr should serve us well. It seems to make a little bit of sense considering we vacation 2-3 times per year and now that they are larger we need to move up to a 2 br for space which would cost us at least 2500-3000 for lesser properties than HGVC has.

So what am I missing and why should I not do this, because I would love to cancel. I have seen all of the threads on the resales so have no issue if you guys think this is a bad deal. Only reason it seems doable is because of our timing in life and all the bonus points to serve the next few expensive years of travel. Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

PS - something the salesman mentioned was that he uses a little trick to book through rci because their point system only goes up to 4800 points for the best weeks, and he acted like he booked hgvc this way but maybe he was just talking about rci properties?

If you change your mind after 4/15, it would be worth less than $5,000 on the Resale market. Do the math .. you're better off buying more points on the resale market for less money ;)
Here's an example of resale prices - http://www.sellingtimeshares.net/category/listings/hilton/

Time is on your side. There is no rush after you cancel ...Stick around and learn as much as you can PROS and CONS before buying any timeshare. :cool:

Welcome to TUG :hi:
 
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alwysonvac

TUG Lifetime Member
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New Jersey
Resorts Owned
WORLDMARK, HGVC, VISTANA

SOLD (DVC, FSRC)

Talent312

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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HGVC & GTS
You paid 3x - 4x too much. RESCIND NOW...

The sales peep make the system sound great, and truth is, it's a very good system.
But they don't tell you that you can buy the same points on the street for a fraction.
Resale points don't count toward "elite" status, but otherwise they have the same
features as retail points.
 

kytraveler

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Thanks for the quick responses. I'll get the cancellation in the mail! I guess what I was hung up on we're the larger than what seems normal amount of bonus points that I thought had a higher cash value. 34k bonus points would get me in a 2br for about 5-7 vacations that I would pay 2500-3500 for a room I assumed, so it was a big chunk of the buy in. Now after that I agree I'm left with only 4800 pts but I kind of thought the value in that was that I was paying 1300 or so in Maint plus tax to stay in a 2500 dollar a week room so saving money. I guess what everyone is saying if you're gonna guy points do it on the resale where the 25k gets you more annual points which last forever even though you may be paying more in Maint fee? Can't wait to learn more about this stuff.
 

TUGBrian

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Can't wait to learn more about this stuff.

so glad you found us in time to save a fortune! Welcome to TUG! Be careful what you wish for =)
 

alwysonvac

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
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Location
New Jersey
Resorts Owned
WORLDMARK, HGVC, VISTANA

SOLD (DVC, FSRC)
Thanks for the quick responses. I'll get the cancellation in the mail! I guess what I was hung up on we're the larger than what seems normal amount of bonus points that I thought had a higher cash value. 34k bonus points would get me in a 2br for about 5-7 vacations that I would pay 2500-3500 for a room I assumed, so it was a big chunk of the buy in. Now after that I agree I'm left with only 4800 pts but I kind of thought the value in that was that I was paying 1300 or so in Maint plus tax to stay in a 2500 dollar a week room so saving money. I guess what everyone is saying if you're gonna guy points do it on the resale where the 25k gets you more annual points which last forever even though you may be paying more in Maint fee? Can't wait to learn more about this stuff.

There's lots to learn ;)

For most HGVC Resorts, maintenance fees are based on unit size so a gold season owner pays the same annual maintenance fee as a platinum and silver season owner. So for example, you could buy an annual platinum two bedroom at the same resort (get more points) for the same maintenance fee (as the gold season) for less money via resale (vs a developer purchase).

There are some resorts that have lower annual maintenance fees compared to others. You'll definitely want to compare the trade off of the one time buy-in cost vs annual maintenance fees (which will increase every year).
For example, here's my maintenance fees from 2003 thru 2012 - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179539
My last three years are posted on the 2016 maintenance fee thread - http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233428

Remember take your time and Happy Hunting :)
 

SmithOp

TUG Review Crew
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Huntington Beach, CA
Resorts Owned
HGVC King's Land 2BR Premier 23.040K Points.
Thanks for the quick responses. I'll get the cancellation in the mail! I guess what I was hung up on we're the larger than what seems normal amount of bonus points that I thought had a higher cash value. 34k bonus points would get me in a 2br for about 5-7 vacations that I would pay 2500-3500 for a room I assumed, so it was a big chunk of the buy in. Now after that I agree I'm left with only 4800 pts but I kind of thought the value in that was that I was paying 1300 or so in Maint plus tax to stay in a 2500 dollar a week room so saving money. I guess what everyone is saying if you're gonna guy points do it on the resale where the 25k gets you more annual points which last forever even though you may be paying more in Maint fee? Can't wait to learn more about this stuff.



FWIW I searched for over a year before finding a resale I wanted, I paid half what you did retail and have 14,400 platinum points.

HGVC sales convinces you that its saving money not having to pay $2500-$3500 a week but if you buy resale the net result is a lot less per week. Thats why they sweeten the deal with bonus points. Would you even be able to take 5 weeks vacation in two years of bonus points, plus the 2 weeks you own. The RCI extension is great but its a lot tougher to find a comparable unit to HGVC in there.
 

presley

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PS - something the salesman mentioned was that he uses a little trick to book through rci because their point system only goes up to 4800 points for the best weeks, and he acted like he booked hgvc this way but maybe he was just talking about rci properties?

Two bedroom units are 4800 in RCI. HGVC deposits their weeks over a year in advance and owners are not allowed to book any of them until 9 months out or less. Those units are already gone when our 9 month window opens. We can still book non Hilton units for 4800 points, but they are all lower quality resorts that aren't worth the high prices of owning Hilton. Trading in RCI is almost always a trade down.

The bonus points with purchase always sound really good, but many people never get to use all of them and they expire. If you want Hilton, buy resale. If you just want access to cheap weeks in RCI, buy a really cheap non Hilton resale.
 

kytraveler

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Thanks everyone for the info, sent our letter today. They must be angry cause someone used our chase credit card number to make a purchase and the only time we used that card in forever was to put our deposit down.
 
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