So here's the situation and they've made it sound like a good deal. Need someone who sees through this to make me see where it isn't?
Oh boy! I fear you have been taken for a royal ride. There is no easy quick way to own Wyndham points and be free of maintenance fees. Maintenance fees are paid to the resort (usually through Wyndham) to cover the upkeep and operation of the physical resort. But you already know this. Somebody has to pay them or the building will begin to stink and fall down. The Wyndham program fee has to be paid or we can't use our points to go to different resorts. There's no magic way to get around these fees. It is possible to do some real work and reserve a week here or there in prime time and find a renter to pay for some of your fees. It is possible to convert some of your points into Wyndham rewards points and then use those to further convert into "maintenance dollars", but the conversion factor really stinks. The example in our Member Directory on page 327 shows 105,000 points converting to $220.50 in maintenance dollars. If your maintenance fees are only $4 per 1000 points, this conversion will only pay slightly more than half your fees!
Here is what was done. Was at a "corporate site" Wyndham Great Smokies Lodge. Had 1,000,000 points at Wyndham Smoky Mountain.
They might call it a "corporate site", but it was still just a sales office.
Sales lady came by room and said they could save me money on my loan with them. Already in a substantial amount but that's water under the bridge and just have to deal with it. Was interested in hearing due to possibly lower interest rate, which I was already looking for.
Sure, they are going to save you money by making you spend even more money. Makes perfect sense...right?
Bottom line, was your debt related to Wyndham combined and do you now have a lower interest rate? Did they also sucker you in to hopping from credit card to credit card to take advantage of low intro rates? That's another of their tricks that have hurt people.
Redeeded to Lodge and added 308,000 points at 49,000 and put us in "Club Wyndham Coversion Program". Program gives you guaranteed 50% cancel/rebook so in essence it doubles my points.
This sounds like gibberish. I have never heard of Club Wyndham Conversion Program. It's not in the Member Directory. Is it in your new contract? You own what it says in the contract by the way.
So you now have 1,308,000 points? That means you are Platinum VIP and everyone who is platinum with at least 1M points can get 50% discount within 60 days of check in date. Didn't you have that already with your 1M Smoky Mt points - or were they resale points?
You new contract has you paying maintenance fees on 308K more points and you are $49,000 deeper in the hole. Are you really saving money here?
They take my maintenance fees out of these extra 1,000,000 points and at the end of 10 years (or at payoff time if paid early) I will never owe Wyndham anything again. No more maintenance fees forever. Paying the maintenance fees out of the points eliminates them and therefore reduces my present loan payment immediately. In the big picture it looks like a good deal so naturally I'm trying to figure out the "catch".
How are they going to accomplish this taking of the fees from these points? Which "extra" million points? You said you had a million to begin with? Are you setting aside the million for fee defrayment and just vacationing with the 308K you increased? Is your personal Count on Me representative going to do this magic for you? Is there language in your contract outlining how this is to be accomplished? How are these maintenance fees going to be paid then? You signed this big money contract without understanding exactly how it was going to work?
Please don't feel too bad, there are a lot of us that have been taken down this road before you.
Told them I could probably buy 1,000,000 points resale just by taking over the maintenance fees and I could basically do the same thing myself. Their answer was I couldn't pay maintenance fees with resale points. Don't know if that's true or not? Can anyone here answer that for me?
There is no restriction as to kind of points can be converted in the Members Directory. They do usually put it in there when resale points can't be used for other things; so I can't know for sure either. I believe there is a large fee to convert points and there may also be a restriction of only doing it every other year, but those things are not in the Directory either.
Asked them if it was such a great deal for me, what was in it for them? Their answer was I was already platinum so I had lots of points, had good credit, and they wanted to keep me happy. They know maintenance fees are a big issue for owners and this was a new program to address those fees.
So what does everyone think?
What is in it for them is they got you to buy more points! They got your commitment in writing to pay them $49,000. I'd say they did pretty darn well. You are sitting with an expensive contract that you don't understand. I sure hope you can get this thing rescinded.
... well, I know others will chime in with better instructions on the rescinding process. I just know, you need to postmark the letter/rescinding dox within the stated 10 days... I would not even talk to Wyndham any further, but that is just me, but just follow the advise/instructions that is soon to come from TUG members.
