Is this new deal any good?

[srib]

Recently during our visit to Wyndham property, we were offered a new program (that no one here seem to have heard of, see here).

Good Life Benefits enrollment program:
Buy additional 154K points for about $42K
All points, about 550K points (400K CWA and these 154K new) will be convered into a NY property
The overall MF before and after remains the same (one of our current property has ridiculous MF)
As a bonus, I was offered 4 wks of RCI that never expire

Upselling included the following:

• The program (GLB) offers us the ability to sell the weeks that we don't use and since this is NY property, selling shouldn't be a problem.
• The projection is we can just sell 150K points every year to pay for the entire MF fee whlie keeping the rest of the points for our vacation.
• Taking the additional $42K up-front investment into consideration, that can be probably paid off in about 10 to 12 years.
• After that $42K is paid-off, our vacations are pretty much free of cost year after year (MF being paid from part of the returns from points)

Yes, that sounded VERY enticing, if everything works out as laid in front, until we finally walked out without signing up.

Reading through few threads here, I am curious to hear what you think of this offering.

-Sri

 

[srib]

Forgot to mention this. One of the red-flags for me on this deal was they don't let me take a picture of the benefits listing (printed list of benefits on a single-sheet) they showed me or give me a copy of the same. That didn't sound right to me to start with.

Recently during our visit to Wyndham property, we were offered a new program (that no one here seem to have heard of, see here).

Good Life Benefits enrollment program:
Buy additional 154K points for about $42K
All points, about 550K points (400K CWA and these 154K new) will be convered into a NY property
The overall MF before and after remains the same (one of our current property has ridiculous MF)
As a bonus, I was offered 4 wks of RCI that never expire

Upselling included the following:

• The program (GLB) offers us the ability to sell the weeks that we don't use and since this is NY property, selling shouldn't be a problem.
• The projection is we can just sell 150K points every year to pay for the entire MF fee whlie keeping the rest of the points for our vacation.
• Taking the additional $42K up-front investment into consideration, that can be probably paid off in about 10 to 12 years.
• After that $42K is paid-off, our vacations are pretty much free of cost year after year (MF being paid from part of the returns from points)

Yes, that sounded VERY enticing, if everything works out as laid in front, until we finally walked out without signing up.

Reading through few threads here, I am curious to hear what you think of this offering.

-Sri

 

[bnoble]

That all sounds very familiar, and it seems like old wine in new bottles.

Buy additional 154K points for about $42K
All points, about 550K points (400K CWA and these 154K new) will be convered into a NY property

That's just an equity trade, and sales has been doing this for a while with developer purchases. But they are proposing you buy points at $272/K. That is ridiculously high.

The overall MF before and after remains the same (one of our current property has ridiculous MF)

Maybe possible, depending on what you are paying currently. Midtown 45 is listed as $4.79/K which is very good. The total MFs for 554K there should be just a hair over $3,000/year. (($4.79 + $0.66) * 554).

Of course, you could do the same thing by giving back the high-cost contract via Ovations/Certified Exit (assuming they will take it) and buy a low-fee property resale for much much less.

As a bonus, I was offered 4 wks of RCI that never expire

These are probably equivalent to Last Call. Figure they are worth about $300-$350 per week. Ignore them.

The program (GLB) offers us the ability to sell the weeks that we don't use

Nothing new; that's just Extra Vacations. You give Wyndham a week to rent. They rent it (or, possibly, part of it), and pay you part of the proceeds after taking a cut. Most people find that program to be more trouble than it is worth.

since this is NY property, selling shouldn't be a problem

Pure speculation on the part of the sales agent. Maybe. Maybe not.

The projection is we can just sell 150K points every year to pay for the entire MF fee whlie keeping the rest of the points for our vacation.

So they are telling you that you will net $20/K for rentals? Balderdash and hogwash. At this point there's no real reason to do the rest of the math. This just isn't plausible. Why on earth would they sell these to you if they could make more than 400% by renting them out themselves? (Remember, that $20/K is your net, not what they would rent for.)

Same old story with some new names to make it sound different. Reminds me of this scene from The Wire.

 

[troy12n]

Not a good price per 1000 points. I'm betting they are selling you Midtown 45 deeded points, which are expensive, but have low MF. It's not a great deal.

 

[srib]

Thank you @bnoble . Appreciate the detailed breakdown.

Maybe possible, depending on what you are paying currently. Midtown 45 is listed as $4.79/K which is very good. The total MFs for 554K there should be just a hair over $3,000/year. (($4.79 + $0.66) * 554).

Thanks for this very useful link.

 

[55plus]

Sales weasels won't allow photos of the paperwork so you can't use it in court against them for fraud after you find out they lied.

 

[Italag5]

That all sounds very familiar, and it seems like old wine in new bottles.

So they are telling you that you will net $20/K for rentals? Balderdash and hogwash. At this point there's no real reason to do the rest of the math. This just isn't plausible. Why on earth would they sell these to you if they could make more than 400% by renting them out themselves? (Remember, that $20/K is your net, not what they would rent for.)

Surprised to hear sales is still selling the rental strategy. Then again I have heard them say just about anything to make a sale. The equity trade plus a 154k point purchase for $272/1000 is Wyndham math at its finest. Dump CWA for a lower cost deeded ownership at premium price of $272/1000. So for only 42k you can lower maintenance fees $2/1000. If OP owned 550k of points it will only take 40 years to recoup the sunk cost of this deal. Figure in the lost opportunity of investing the 42k with a average return of 6% a year and this deal really becomes costly.