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New to Timeshare - Upgrade to Founder Worth it?

N

nathant

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Joined
Apr 15, 2024
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Hi all,

My parents have been a part of Worldmark since 1994 and have spent over 130k to upgrade their status to Platinum level over the years. They love their timeshare but they don’t love the annual maintenance fees as they are now paying roughly 6.2k a year and receive 68k credits annually. I recently joined them on a trip and sat in on a sales presentation disguised as an “Owners update” and the salesperson brought up upgrading to founder level to offset these maintenance fees under their new program now that travel and leisure has revamped it.

He ran the numbers with us and my parents are seriously debating upgrading for the cost of 49k from the foreclosure pool.

This is how the salesperson broke down the numbers for them so that it would almost essentially cost them nothing to upgrade and offset their maintenance costs:

If they upgrade to founder, they will receive 21k bonus points which could be sold for worst case scenario ~85 cents per point back to wyndham at the cost of $17,850.

They currently have roughly 30,000 Points in their balance for this year that they are most likely not going to be using them. The sales rep suggested they sell those as well and they would recoup the costs of the upgrade to founder any they would also be able to offset their maintenance fees in the future if they allocate a portion of their annual credits to the maintenance offset program.

Is this too good to be true? I am not familiar with timeshares and their sales tactics but it doesn’t make sense to me that they would allow owners to sell $40,000 worth of points in one go and completely offset their costs like that. If they did, couldn’t owners do this every year and profit substantially?

Would really appreciate your input regarding this! Thanks in advance.
 
Remember a Sales Person's only function is to separate you from as much money as possible. They are not there to help you. They will obsuscate, tell half truths and out right lies to accomplish their mission.
 
nathant said:
Is this too good to be true?
Click to expand...
Absolutely.
nathant said:
but it doesn’t make sense to me that they would allow owners to sell $40,000 worth of points in one go and completely offset their costs like that.
Click to expand...
Of course it does't make sense. The sales person is lying. The only purpose of an owner update is to sell more credits.

First thing; tell them to stop going to 'owner updates'. The sale people always lie. They will take anything you say and twist it to meet their need to make a commission. Your parents complained about the maintenance fees, so the sales person made up the 'maintenance offset program' (which doesn't exist).
If they won't use those 30,000 credits (what WM calls points), go to wmowners.com and look at the Credits for rent (out) section. You can 'rent' credits to other owners for 7-8 cents per depending on when they expire. Renting is transferring credits from one account to another and is very easy to do. Then look at the memberships for sale section to quickly realize nobody, especially Wyndham, will buy your credits for 85 cents each.
 
They have already spent tons of money buying from the developer and can't use the points they have. Why would they buy more? Of course the sales team heard "Maintence Fees are too high" and of course they have a solution that only requires your folks spend more money. Think about this. They complain they are already spending too much on their timeshares and the solution is to spend even more on their timeshares.

In what world does this make sense? Only in the bizzaro world of timeshare sales where all common sense must be disregarded as denying your family of years of vacations together.:cautious:
 
Save your parents' money now! They should not buy anything else. Never attend another "Owner Update", which is ALWAYS a SALES PITCH.

And there will always be another "higher / better / more status" level. Because that's how the salesperson gets more money.
 
sue1947 said:
Absolutely.

Of course it does't make sense. The sales person is lying. The only purpose of an owner update is to sell more credits.

First thing; tell them to stop going to 'owner updates'. The sale people always lie. They will take anything you say and twist it to meet their need to make a commission. Your parents complained about the maintenance fees, so the sales person made up the 'maintenance offset program' (which doesn't exist).
If they won't use those 30,000 credits (what WM calls points), go to wmowners.com and look at the Credits for rent (out) section. You can 'rent' credits to other owners for 7-8 cents per depending on when they expire. Renting is transferring credits from one account to another and is very easy to do. Then look at the memberships for sale section to quickly realize nobody, especially Wyndham, will buy your credits for 85 cents each.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your response! The way the sales rep sneakily phrased it was that since Travel and Leisure is now the parent company, they introduced a new maintenance fee offset program that was different from renting credits out. They made a point that it was a different program from everything they had done in the past and Worldmark is directly buying credits back at that rate. I was skeptical of the whole pitch as I just couldn’t figure out how they were making any money off of this given the numbers they were pulling out. Thanks for confirming!!
 
HudsHut said:
Save your parents' money now! They should not buy anything else. Never attend another "Owner Update", which is ALWAYS a SALES PITCH.

And there will always be another "higher / better / more status" level. Because that's how the salesperson gets more money.
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming! Ive relayed this information to them and they agreed to never attend another “Owner Update” again.
 
Huskerpaul said:
They have already spent tons of money buying from the developer and can't use the points they have. Why would they buy more? Of course the sales team heard "Maintence Fees are too high" and of course they have a solution that only requires your folks spend more money. Think about this. They complain they are already spending too much on their timeshares and the solution is to spend even more on their timeshares.

In what world does this make sense? Only in the bizzaro world of timeshare sales where all common sense must be disregarded as denying your family of years of vacations together.:cautious:
Click to expand...
It was actually crazy now that I think back on it. They pitched it to my parents as a way to get out of maintenance fees forever and be able to pass the timeshare ownership to my sibling and I in the future since the fees are outrageous for the amount they’ve put in. When I questioned if there was more information on this program in writing he told me to look it up online as it’s all there. Thanks for confirming my suspicions!
 
Travel and Leisure is not a "new" company with new programs that bought Wyndham. Wyndham bought Travel and Leisure so they could use the Name but the "Travel and Leisure" Magazine is run independent of Wyndham. But no matter how much lip stick you out in a Pig it is still a Pig. I doubt that the Sales Person even knows or understands the relationship between Travel and Leisure, Wyndham, and Worldmark. But they do not care. They are simply there to take your money.
 
nathant said:
Hi all,

My parents have been a part of Worldmark since 1994 and have spent over 130k to upgrade their status to Platinum level over the years. They love their timeshare but they don’t love the annual maintenance fees as they are now paying roughly 6.2k a year and receive 68k credits annually. I recently joined them on a trip and sat in on a sales presentation disguised as an “Owners update” and the salesperson brought up upgrading to founder level to offset these maintenance fees under their new program now that travel and leisure has revamped it.

He ran the numbers with us and my parents are seriously debating upgrading for the cost of 49k from the foreclosure pool.

This is how the salesperson broke down the numbers for them so that it would almost essentially cost them nothing to upgrade and offset their maintenance costs:

If they upgrade to founder, they will receive 21k bonus points which could be sold for worst case scenario ~85 cents per point back to wyndham at the cost of $17,850.

They currently have roughly 30,000 Points in their balance for this year that they are most likely not going to be using them. The sales rep suggested they sell those as well and they would recoup the costs of the upgrade to founder any they would also be able to offset their maintenance fees in the future if they allocate a portion of their annual credits to the maintenance offset program.

Is this too good to be true? I am not familiar with timeshares and their sales tactics but it doesn’t make sense to me that they would allow owners to sell $40,000 worth of points in one go and completely offset their costs like that. If they did, couldn’t owners do this every year and profit substantially?

Would really appreciate your input regarding this! Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Group think in this thread is a dangerous thing. You can definitely take worldmark ownership credits, converted to wyndham rewards points, and then use wyndham rewards points to partially pay off your maintenance. https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/wyndham-rewards/redeem/maintenance-fees
 
PaidToTrade said:
Group think in this thread is a dangerous thing. You can definitely take worldmark ownership credits, converted to wyndham rewards points, and then use wyndham rewards points to partially pay off your maintenance. https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/wyndham-rewards/redeem/maintenance-fees
Click to expand...
No one said you could not do that. The real question is it a good use of credits? The answer is no it is not. Just run the numbers and it is easy to see why it makes little fiscal sense.
 
When you use Worldmark Points/Credits for something other than making Reservations through Wyndham Wyndham values the Worldmark Credit/Point at 4 cents. Not a good financial use of your Credits/Points.
 
A salesperson is probably defending this idea of getting maintenance fees back in the above post. Doesn't work. Salesperson is lying to make a $49K sale.

I cannot believe this is allowed at the sales' table. Anyone who sells a product based on lies is not just a criminal, they are the devil. They take hard-earned money from people who cannot afford to lose it.
 
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