How are Worldmark maintenance fees applied toward annual points?

[mblosser]

I have owned WM for years and do not know for sure the answer to this. Cannot find documentation on WM website explaining it, either.

Owners have various monthly anniversary dates. Mine is October. I pay my fees quarterly.

So, when I got my points October 1, 2011, for example, are they:

1. Prepaid in the previous calendar year (all October 2011 points are prepaid up as of December 31, 2010, regardless of 2011 anniversary date)?
2. Prepaid in the previous anniversary year (all October 2011 points are prepaid from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011)?
3. Mostly prepaid in the current calendar year (payments are made on a calendar year basis regardless of anniversary date (January 1-December 31 , 2011), but people get their points on their anniversary date, mine being October 1, 2011)?

I couldn't find anything on WM website clarifying this, and when I called to ask, they could not clarify it either (maybe because it is a weekend). I found a document on the South Pacific website and it seems to say that all fees are paid in advance, either lump sum on January 1, or in increments (monthly, quarterly, twice a year) during the previous year.

So, it is my best guess that Option 1 above is correct, but I would feel better if I knew for sure how WM is taking my money.

Direction please? Thank you.

 

[rhonda]

I believe dues are paid "after the fact" relative to your anniversary date and receipt of your fresh credits (points). Think through the process of a new account being created as direct developer purchase: Buyer signs the paperwork, get a full bucket of credits that same day then start making quarterly dues payments. A year goes by, new credits are dropped into the account on its anniversary ... owner keeps making quarterly dues payments. (Repeat annually.) There is no major dues catch-up, large year end installment or prorated dues payment.

This also plays into why some accounts "lose" credits during account merges on the resale marked. During a merge, the transfer department makes an adjustment for percentage of credits surviving the merge based on how many dues payments had been applied since the anniversary.