New User, Want out of Mexican TS

[Seachange01]

Hi guys (From Sunny California),
I am new here and this is my first post, so I sincerely apologize upfront if I am posting this in a wrong section of the Forum/boards. I also apologize for this being a longer type of post.

Last November my wife and I purchased an El Cid Vacations Club membership (Puerto Morales/Cancun, Mexico) ... I am sure no one is asking.. but just incase... Its LIKE a timeshare.. but no deed, and has a 20 year defined lifetime/membership where you pay for a maintenance fee, and what I feel like is the "equivalent" of a mortgage.. but seeing it has no deed... It's more like credit that is/was extended to you by the resort that is then paid back over 10 years to pay for your "membership". Obviously, at the end of 20 years... you are done.

So.. the reason for my post is ... We absolutely feel we were lied to fairly badly during our presentation, but didn't become aware of that until March this year, so clearly WAY after our "get out of jail free" card had expired. So now we find ourselves desperately wanting to get out of our membership.. not because the maintenance fee's are too high etc. but rather, just because the reasons we even bought the time share have turned out to be a big lie. So on principal alone I want out, but added to that is the anger of now knowing that benefits that were promised to us to go along with the timeshare (like having the ability to use our maintenance fees to pay for airfares via infinite privileges) was just a lie and simply WON'T happen.

My question now then is... All the reading I have done here about wanting to get out of a timeshare and the help and advice section posts etc... seem to be referring to Time shares in particular, am I being too pedantic to assume they don't relate to vacation clubs?
I know we owe on "the mortgage", so getting out would sound like its going to be harder than if we just had maintenance fees to pay, but there is no deed, and the mortgage.... membership joining fee is only being paid TO THE RESORT, and not a 3rd party lender outside. I have contacted the resort and told them we feel lied to and want out, they have pretty much ducked and dodged my calls and emails, but on the last call, a staff member told me we couldn't leave until we paid the whole 20 years of maintenance fee's ($500 per year).

If there is a section in the forum that relates specifically to getting out of a "vacation club" that would be more appropriate for me to post in, I am very happy to go there and post.

 

[Passepartout]

Only you can answer this. You can simply quit paying. I suppose there is a chance they might bring some kind of civil charges for breach of contract or something, but there is no deed, no mortgage, and their only hold on you would be the inability to use the club. This might cost you a few points off your credit score, but even so, you are welcome to write and answer to any negative credit file, and (a) getting a judgement on an international debt is extremely difficult and (b) any subsequent credit inquiry would see that you have more disposable income to spend on whatever they're selling you.

They might generate some collections emails, possibly some phone calls or letters, but in the end there isn't much they can do. If you DO pay it off it isn't worth anything, so if you default all you lose is what you've already paid.

DO NOT get involved with ANY 'Get Out Of Your Timeshare' upfront fee outfit. They will just take your money and leave you no better off than you already are.

Good Luck, whatever you choose.

Jim

 

[easyrider]

Hi guys (From Sunny California),
I am new here and this is my first post, so I sincerely apologize upfront if I am posting this in a wrong section of the Forum/boards. I also apologize for this being a longer type of post.

Last November my wife and I purchased an El Cid Vacations Club membership (Puerto Morales/Cancun, Mexico) ... I am sure no one is asking.. but just incase... Its LIKE a timeshare.. but no deed, and has a 20 year defined lifetime/membership where you pay for a maintenance fee, and what I feel like is the "equivalent" of a mortgage.. but seeing it has no deed... It's more like credit that is/was extended to you by the resort that is then paid back over 10 years to pay for your "membership". Obviously, at the end of 20 years... you are done.

So.. the reason for my post is ... We absolutely feel we were lied to fairly badly during our presentation, but didn't become aware of that until March this year, so clearly WAY after our "get out of jail free" card had expired. So now we find ourselves desperately wanting to get out of our membership.. not because the maintenance fee's are too high etc. but rather, just because the reasons we even bought the time share have turned out to be a big lie. So on principal alone I want out, but added to that is the anger of now knowing that benefits that were promised to us to go along with the timeshare (like having the ability to use our maintenance fees to pay for airfares via infinite privileges) was just a lie and simply WON'T happen.

My question now then is... All the reading I have done here about wanting to get out of a timeshare and the help and advice section posts etc... seem to be referring to Time shares in particular, am I being too pedantic to assume they don't relate to vacation clubs?
I know we owe on "the mortgage", so getting out would sound like its going to be harder than if we just had maintenance fees to pay, but there is no deed, and the mortgage.... membership joining fee is only being paid TO THE RESORT, and not a 3rd party lender outside. I have contacted the resort and told them we feel lied to and want out, they have pretty much ducked and dodged my calls and emails, but on the last call, a staff member told me we couldn't leave until we paid the whole 20 years of maintenance fee's ($500 per year).

If there is a section in the forum that relates specifically to getting out of a "vacation club" that would be more appropriate for me to post in, I am very happy to go there and post.

You bought a membership to the El Cid Vacation Club. There is no mortgage. If you are paying this membership fee to El Cid in Mexico it would be hard for this group to pursue anything in the USA . I doubt anything would happen if you quit paying. They might threaten you with collection but it would be very difficult to impossible without your cooperation.

Jim's right. Cut your losses and stop paying.

Bill

 

[Grammarhero]

We hope you are well and healthy. If you made the hard decision to default, please kindly let us know if your credit got affected. It would help tuggers in similar situations moving forward.

 

[RTVA]

Seachange, I wanted to let you know that we also got scammed-- in exactly the ways you're describing-- by El Cid. (We had two salespeople, a woman with the British accent and a guy who said he was from Tennessee... I vaguely wonder if they were the same ones you had!) It's so embarrassing. They lied on basically every single aspect of the sale.

Anyway: ours is paid off and we're defaulting on the maintenance fees. It's not because it's too much, it's because the company is so vile and we can't stomach giving them another dime. I checked the boards today to see about credit score impacts as they apparently sold our maintenance fee debt (like $500, but accruing $100 and change each month) to a US collections agency. I will come back and post more about how it goes with them. So far, nothing is on our credit reports and our scores are 810+, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. My biggest worry is that there could theoretically be a continued stream of collection items with each year of unpaid maintenance fees; I have no idea how it works.

Have you also received the scam calls to sell the timeshare? We had some referrals to "Sphinx FInancial" (but it has has many names, with identical websites) originate directly from El Cid. I know I should probably report them to the Mexican authorities for it. They had the audacity to populate their databases with an email address that I only gave to the scammers for fun.

 

[easyrider]

Seachange, I wanted to let you know that we also got scammed-- in exactly the ways you're describing-- by El Cid. (We had two salespeople, a woman with the British accent and a guy who said he was from Tennessee... I vaguely wonder if they were the same ones you had!) It's so embarrassing. They lied on basically every single aspect of the sale.

Anyway: ours is paid off and we're defaulting on the maintenance fees. It's not because it's too much, it's because the company is so vile and we can't stomach giving them another dime. I checked the boards today to see about credit score impacts as they apparently sold our maintenance fee debt (like $500, but accruing $100 and change each month) to a US collections agency. I will come back and post more about how it goes with them. So far, nothing is on our credit reports and our scores are 810+, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. My biggest worry is that there could theoretically be a continued stream of collection items with each year of unpaid maintenance fees; I have no idea how it works.

Have you also received the scam calls to sell the timeshare? We had some referrals to "Sphinx FInancial" (but it has has many names, with identical websites) originate directly from El Cid. I know I should probably report them to the Mexican authorities for it. They had the audacity to populate their databases with an email address that I only gave to the scammers for fun.

Don't cooperate with the debt collector. They might threaten judgement and actually file in court to trick you into signing a new agreement or acknowledging the debt. The foreign company would need to first get a judgement in their country and then take that judgement to a court in the USA to be recognized before that recognized judgement could go to a state court to be processed. Three huge steps that do not guarantee that they will get paid.

Bill

 

[RTVA]

Don't cooperate with the debt collector. They might threaten judgement and actually file in court to trick you into signing a new agreement or acknowledging the debt. The foreign company would need to first get a judgement in their country and then take that judgement to a court in the USA to be recognized before that recognized judgement could go to a state court to be processed. Three huge steps that do not guarantee that they will get paid.

Bill

Hi guys (From Sunny California),
I am new here and this is my first post, so I sincerely apologize upfront if I am posting this in a wrong section of the Forum/boards. I also apologize for this being a longer type of post.

Last November my wife and I purchased an El Cid Vacations Club membership (Puerto Morales/Cancun, Mexico) ... I am sure no one is asking.. but just incase... Its LIKE a timeshare.. but no deed, and has a 20 year defined lifetime/membership where you pay for a maintenance fee, and what I feel like is the "equivalent" of a mortgage.. but seeing it has no deed... It's more like credit that is/was extended to you by the resort that is then paid back over 10 years to pay for your "membership". Obviously, at the end of 20 years... you are done.

So.. the reason for my post is ... We absolutely feel we were lied to fairly badly during our presentation, but didn't become aware of that until March this year, so clearly WAY after our "get out of jail free" card had expired. So now we find ourselves desperately wanting to get out of our membership.. not because the maintenance fee's are too high etc. but rather, just because the reasons we even bought the time share have turned out to be a big lie. So on principal alone I want out, but added to that is the anger of now knowing that benefits that were promised to us to go along with the timeshare (like having the ability to use our maintenance fees to pay for airfares via infinite privileges) was just a lie and simply WON'T happen.

My question now then is... All the reading I have done here about wanting to get out of a timeshare and the help and advice section posts etc... seem to be referring to Time shares in particular, am I being too pedantic to assume they don't relate to vacation clubs?
I know we owe on "the mortgage", so getting out would sound like its going to be harder than if we just had maintenance fees to pay, but there is no deed, and the mortgage.... membership joining fee is only being paid TO THE RESORT, and not a 3rd party lender outside. I have contacted the resort and told them we feel lied to and want out, they have pretty much ducked and dodged my calls and emails, but on the last call, a staff member told me we couldn't leave until we paid the whole 20 years of maintenance fee's ($500 per year).

If there is a section in the forum that relates specifically to getting out of a "vacation club" that would be more appropriate for me to post in, I am very happy to go there and post.

This makes it sound like the chances of any legal problems are about nil. (It's $1400 a year in maintenance fees on a RTU club; seems unlikely that's worth it.) I'm more worried about my credit score, but have accepted that it could happen... maybe not a huge deal, even then. Dispute, and if that fails, add a letter to the report. Thanks for the response!

 

[RTVA]

Hi guys (From Sunny California),
I am new here and this is my first post, so I sincerely apologize upfront if I am posting this in a wrong section of the Forum/boards. I also apologize for this being a longer type of post.

Last November my wife and I purchased an El Cid Vacations Club membership (Puerto Morales/Cancun, Mexico) ... I am sure no one is asking.. but just incase... Its LIKE a timeshare.. but no deed, and has a 20 year defined lifetime/membership where you pay for a maintenance fee, and what I feel like is the "equivalent" of a mortgage.. but seeing it has no deed... It's more like credit that is/was extended to you by the resort that is then paid back over 10 years to pay for your "membership". Obviously, at the end of 20 years... you are done.

So.. the reason for my post is ... We absolutely feel we were lied to fairly badly during our presentation, but didn't become aware of that until March this year, so clearly WAY after our "get out of jail free" card had expired. So now we find ourselves desperately wanting to get out of our membership.. not because the maintenance fee's are too high etc. but rather, just because the reasons we even bought the time share have turned out to be a big lie. So on principal alone I want out, but added to that is the anger of now knowing that benefits that were promised to us to go along with the timeshare (like having the ability to use our maintenance fees to pay for airfares via infinite privileges) was just a lie and simply WON'T happen.

My question now then is... All the reading I have done here about wanting to get out of a timeshare and the help and advice section posts etc... seem to be referring to Time shares in particular, am I being too pedantic to assume they don't relate to vacation clubs?
I know we owe on "the mortgage", so getting out would sound like its going to be harder than if we just had maintenance fees to pay, but there is no deed, and the mortgage.... membership joining fee is only being paid TO THE RESORT, and not a 3rd party lender outside. I have contacted the resort and told them we feel lied to and want out, they have pretty much ducked and dodged my calls and emails, but on the last call, a staff member told me we couldn't leave until we paid the whole 20 years of maintenance fee's ($500 per year).

If there is a section in the forum that relates specifically to getting out of a "vacation club" that would be more appropriate for me to post in, I am very happy to go there and post.

Seachange, I also meant to say: If you were sold any airfare program, check into that asap if you haven't already. You may be able to get some of that money back. If you don't pay the annual fee for it-- and you will probably not get a reminder of when this is due-- they may claim that they can keep it all and pay out no future benefits. I hope you see this in time!

 

[RTVA]

Don't cooperate with the debt collector. They might threaten judgement and actually file in court to trick you into signing a new agreement or acknowledging the debt. The foreign company would need to first get a judgement in their country and then take that judgement to a court in the USA to be recognized before that recognized judgement could go to a state court to be processed. Three huge steps that do not guarantee that they will get paid.

Bill

The US bill collector called again. I told her that I don't acknowledge it as a debt, it's a scam, and they would need to get a judgment in Mexico and then a judgment in the USA to proceed against me. She said, "What are you talking about?!" like it was a foreign language, and that I "signed a legal contract and this is definitely going against your credit score." I reiterated that I don't acknowledge it, I hung up, and will just keep blocking any new numbers that come through. Hopefully this is right re: the hoops they'd have to jump through! I did finally report it to Profeco. I suppose in the worst case, it will help my credit report dispute (and a letter on my report, if that fails) to be able to indicate I reported them for their misrepresentation and outright scamming (they appear to have another division / are working with an entity called "Sphinx Financial Services" and a few other names that "help you sell"... I didn't of course work with them). Thanks again for the response on this!

 

[easyrider]

The US bill collector called again. I told her that I don't acknowledge it as a debt, it's a scam, and they would need to get a judgment in Mexico and then a judgment in the USA to proceed against me. She said, "What are you talking about?!" like it was a foreign language, and that I "signed a legal contract and this is definitely going against your credit score." I reiterated that I don't acknowledge it, I hung up, and will just keep blocking any new numbers that come through. Hopefully this is right re: the hoops they'd have to jump through! I did finally report it to Profeco. I suppose in the worst case, it will help my credit report dispute (and a letter on my report, if that fails) to be able to indicate I reported them for their misrepresentation and outright scamming (they appear to have another division / are working with an entity called "Sphinx Financial Services" and a few other names that "help you sell"... I didn't of course work with them). Thanks again for the response on this!

Do you know how this was financed ? If you used an American line of credit they can go after you. The mf is a Mexican debt but the contract could be American debt.

Bill

 

[RTVA]

Do you know how this was financed ? If you used an American line of credit they can go after you. The mf is a Mexican debt but the contract could be American debt.

Bill

All cash, no financing, and it's fully paid. They are just chasing us for maintenance fees.

 

[easyrider]

All cash, no financing, and it's fully paid. They are just chasing us for maintenance fees.

I think you are going to be fine, lol.

Bill

 

[RTVA]

I think you are going to be fine, lol.

Bill

I hope you're right, and even if you're not, you raised my serotonin levels today and I thank you for that regardless! My credit score is 800+ and I grew up with parents in the 300-400 zone, with collectors always calling for legitimate debts, so the experience of actually getting physical letters (the first came today) definitely triggers me a bit. I know there's a massive gulf between honestly owing money vs. being scammed by El Cid Resorts and having them chase for more free cash, but still... collection letters. Ewww.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Seachange01]

Hi guys,
Sorry to have been so slow on replying here. I have a wife that has an ongoing medical issue we are battling together, and there are certain times when it just required pretty much most of our time
Anyway, I chose to default on El Cid, and cancel my credit card so that they can't take anymore money for maintenance fees from me. I find it interesting that they had no interest in calling back or responding to my emails, or really trying to resolve the issue in any way at all when they were getting my maintenance fees paid. This despite THEM suggesting that to help me, they would stop the monthly payment fee for the amount owing on the resort. There was no "loan" for that, just us being billed each month. The "bill" is owed to El Cid, not a 3rd party lender at all. So, El Cid were the ones who said "we will stop the account payment till this is all resolved" . I am sure that also would stop us using the facilities etc should we have tried during that time.
But throughout it all, the maintenance fees were continuing to be billed. So, 2 months into that (and after writing on here), We decided to cancel the card and cease paying maintenance. Its amazing how quickly El Cid tried contacting us and how suddenly it was a priority and a matter of urgency lol.
Since then, I have received emails from "resort.com" saying that our account is in default. Seeing I have no account or dealings with "resortclub" I can only assume its either a scam, or that El Cid has decided to use them to chase us for payment. Either way, I wont be responding to them.
I have also received a txt from someone saying "we have received your paperwork, please call the following number and extension back to address the account". Again, no idea who it is, but I have no intent on calling them back. El Cid has also continued to call about once a week, but I am DONE with them.
So far, nothing on my credit report, but I wouldn't expect anything to happen this soon even if it is going to end up happening.
To those of you following this thread, I hope this information helps.
To those who messaged me on here, thanks for your input and help.
Alan

 

[Seachange01]

Seachange, I also meant to say: If you were sold any airfare program, check into that asap if you haven't already. You may be able to get some of that money back. If you don't pay the annual fee for it-- and you will probably not get a reminder of when this is due-- they may claim that they can keep it all and pay out no future benefits. I hope you see this in time!

Hey,
We were sold an infinite privileges program. It came "free" for 12 months, then we would be billed. It was actually that program that made me realize just how badly we were lied to. So, when infinite privileges called us asking firstly for approx. 5 thousand dollars, and then telling me none of my "points" could be used to purchase flights (like El Cid had told us they could), I refused to pay a cent to infinite privileges. The guy on the phone that day emailed me the next day saying my account with them was cancelled, even though it was meant to be free for 12 months. My intent is to wait a few months and then reach out to them and ensure it IS cancelled, because despite him saying what he did, it appears it is NOT cancelled. I still have the email saying that it is though. El Cid also said they were looking into it too, so who knows.
Hope that helps.
Just to clarify again though, I havent used any benefits or points from either infinite privileges or from El Cid.
Alan

 

[bogey21]

You probably have already thought of this but just in case -- If they are automatically taking payments from one of your Credit Cards or Bank Accounts, close it immediately so any future charges they may process will be rejected...

George

 

[Seachange01]

You probably have already thought of this but just in case -- If they are automatically taking payments from one of your Credit Cards or Bank Accounts, close it immediately so any future charges they may process will be rejected...

George

Yeah all done, doing that is what made them step things up really quickly and actually make an effort to contact me... too little too late from my side though.

 

[RTVA]

Hi guys,
Sorry to have been so slow on replying here. I have a wife that has an ongoing medical issue we are battling together, and there are certain times when it just required pretty much most of our time
Anyway, I chose to default on El Cid, and cancel my credit card so that they can't take anymore money for maintenance fees from me. I find it interesting that they had no interest in calling back or responding to my emails, or really trying to resolve the issue in any way at all when they were getting my maintenance fees paid. This despite THEM suggesting that to help me, they would stop the monthly payment fee for the amount owing on the resort. There was no "loan" for that, just us being billed each month. The "bill" is owed to El Cid, not a 3rd party lender at all. So, El Cid were the ones who said "we will stop the account payment till this is all resolved" . I am sure that also would stop us using the facilities etc should we have tried during that time.
But throughout it all, the maintenance fees were continuing to be billed. So, 2 months into that (and after writing on here), We decided to cancel the card and cease paying maintenance. Its amazing how quickly El Cid tried contacting us and how suddenly it was a priority and a matter of urgency lol.
Since then, I have received emails from "resort.com" saying that our account is in default. Seeing I have no account or dealings with "resortclub" I can only assume its either a scam, or that El Cid has decided to use them to chase us for payment. Either way, I wont be responding to them.
I have also received a txt from someone saying "we have received your paperwork, please call the following number and extension back to address the account". Again, no idea who it is, but I have no intent on calling them back. El Cid has also continued to call about once a week, but I am DONE with them.
So far, nothing on my credit report, but I wouldn't expect anything to happen this soon even if it is going to end up happening.
To those of you following this thread, I hope this information helps.
To those who messaged me on here, thanks for your input and help.
Alan

They are chasing us for maintenance fees via "Monterey Collections" in Oceanside, CA. I worried a bit that simply talking to them (only to say I didn't acknowledge it and El Cid was a scam) could be held against me, but since nothing was in writing, that's probably a paranoid thought on my part. Now I'm debating if I just mail their letter back with the line "The attached is not acknowledged as valid." Or would even that be too much involvement? No email address was provided, and they're not emailing us. I suspect maybe this is a trick, because I am invited to "create an account" on their site. **If I simply create an account, I think that could be seen as acknowledgement of debt?** I mention that to you because I would recommend a) not talking to them, just hang up, assuming Monterey calls you, and b) don't create an account. That simply echoes the advice given by EasyRider above to not cooperate in any way, but I thought it was worth echoing.

I wish we could find all of the other victims. There have to be plenty!

 

[RTVA]

Hi guys,
Sorry to have been so slow on replying here. I have a wife that has an ongoing medical issue we are battling together, and there are certain times when it just required pretty much most of our time
Anyway, I chose to default on El Cid, and cancel my credit card so that they can't take anymore money for maintenance fees from me. I find it interesting that they had no interest in calling back or responding to my emails, or really trying to resolve the issue in any way at all when they were getting my maintenance fees paid. This despite THEM suggesting that to help me, they would stop the monthly payment fee for the amount owing on the resort. There was no "loan" for that, just us being billed each month. The "bill" is owed to El Cid, not a 3rd party lender at all. So, El Cid were the ones who said "we will stop the account payment till this is all resolved" . I am sure that also would stop us using the facilities etc should we have tried during that time.
But throughout it all, the maintenance fees were continuing to be billed. So, 2 months into that (and after writing on here), We decided to cancel the card and cease paying maintenance. Its amazing how quickly El Cid tried contacting us and how suddenly it was a priority and a matter of urgency lol.
Since then, I have received emails from "resort.com" saying that our account is in default. Seeing I have no account or dealings with "resortclub" I can only assume its either a scam, or that El Cid has decided to use them to chase us for payment. Either way, I wont be responding to them.
I have also received a txt from someone saying "we have received your paperwork, please call the following number and extension back to address the account". Again, no idea who it is, but I have no intent on calling them back. El Cid has also continued to call about once a week, but I am DONE with them.
So far, nothing on my credit report, but I wouldn't expect anything to happen this soon even if it is going to end up happening.
To those of you following this thread, I hope this information helps.
To those who messaged me on here, thanks for your input and help.
Alan

Oh, and sorry for 2nd message, I forgot to ask: Did they refer you to https://sphynx-financial.com, or the clone sites for "help" (http://www.mckenzieandjohnsonllc.com, http://liquidationservicesltd.com/, or https://monroe-transfer-services.com)? I know it really was El Cid, and not a "rogue employee" as they would claim. No matter how dirty they were the first time, it really did amaze me that El Cid was trying to make extra money from that second level of scam. That one was, at least, a pitiful scam and virtually no chance of success. I reported that one to Profeco, though was disappointed that I was told I'd have to file in-person (as if). I suppose they will continue to operate with impunity...

 

[Grammarhero]

Hi guys (From Sunny California),
I am new here and this is my first post, so I sincerely apologize upfront if I am posting this in a wrong section of the Forum/boards. I also apologize for this being a longer type of post.

Last November my wife and I purchased an El Cid Vacations Club membership (Puerto Morales/Cancun, Mexico) ... I am sure no one is asking.. but just incase... Its LIKE a timeshare.. but no deed, and has a 20 year defined lifetime/membership where you pay for a maintenance fee, and what I feel like is the "equivalent" of a mortgage.. but seeing it has no deed... It's more like credit that is/was extended to you by the resort that is then paid back over 10 years to pay for your "membership". Obviously, at the end of 20 years... you are done.

So.. the reason for my post is ... We absolutely feel we were lied to fairly badly during our presentation, but didn't become aware of that until March this year, so clearly WAY after our "get out of jail free" card had expired. So now we find ourselves desperately wanting to get out of our membership.. not because the maintenance fee's are too high etc. but rather, just because the reasons we even bought the time share have turned out to be a big lie. So on principal alone I want out, but added to that is the anger of now knowing that benefits that were promised to us to go along with the timeshare (like having the ability to use our maintenance fees to pay for airfares via infinite privileges) was just a lie and simply WON'T happen.

My question now then is... All the reading I have done here about wanting to get out of a timeshare and the help and advice section posts etc... seem to be referring to Time shares in particular, am I being too pedantic to assume they don't relate to vacation clubs?
I know we owe on "the mortgage", so getting out would sound like its going to be harder than if we just had maintenance fees to pay, but there is no deed, and the mortgage.... membership joining fee is only being paid TO THE RESORT, and not a 3rd party lender outside. I have contacted the resort and told them we feel lied to and want out, they have pretty much ducked and dodged my calls and emails, but on the last call, a staff member told me we couldn't leave until we paid the whole 20 years of maintenance fee's ($500 per year).

If there is a section in the forum that relates specifically to getting out of a "vacation club" that would be more appropriate for me to post in, I am very happy to go there and post.

@Seachange01 We hope you are well and healthy. If you made the hard decision to default, please kindly let us know if your credit got affected. It would help tuggers in similar situations moving forward.

 

[Grammarhero]

Seachange, I wanted to let you know that we also got scammed-- in exactly the ways you're describing-- by El Cid. (We had two salespeople, a woman with the British accent and a guy who said he was from Tennessee... I vaguely wonder if they were the same ones you had!) It's so embarrassing. They lied on basically every single aspect of the sale.

Anyway: ours is paid off and we're defaulting on the maintenance fees. It's not because it's too much, it's because the company is so vile and we can't stomach giving them another dime. I checked the boards today to see about credit score impacts as they apparently sold our maintenance fee debt (like $500, but accruing $100 and change each month) to a US collections agency. I will come back and post more about how it goes with them. So far, nothing is on our credit reports and our scores are 810+, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. My biggest worry is that there could theoretically be a continued stream of collection items with each year of unpaid maintenance fees; I have no idea how it works.

Have you also received the scam calls to sell the timeshare? We had some referrals to "Sphinx FInancial" (but it has has many names, with identical websites) originate directly from El Cid. I know I should probably report them to the Mexican authorities for it. They had the audacity to populate their databases with an email address that I only gave to the scammers for fun.

@RTVA We hope you are well and healthy. If you made the hard decision to default, please kindly let us know if your credit got affected. It would help tuggers in similar situations moving forward.

 

[RTVA]

@RTVA We hope you are well and healthy. If you made the hard decision to default, please kindly let us know if your credit got affected. It would help tuggers in similar situations moving forward.

Yep! It got reported on the credit report, 100 point drop. It's currently being disputed; after all, the contract says nothing about collections in the event of non-payment of MFs, just that the right-to-use benefits are all forfeited until they're fully paid.

 

[Passepartout]

Yep! It got reported on the credit report, 100 point drop. It's currently being disputed; after all, the contract says nothing about collections in the event of non-payment of MFs, just that the right-to-use benefits are all forfeited until they're fully paid.

You might consult with a law firm that has consumer credit knowledge. They can advise you of your rights under the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act. They can tell you what documentation they MUST provide, and what your obligation is under U.S. law. Good Luck!

IMO, their only hold on you is the loss of RTU. There is no deed to foreclose. Tell 'em to pound sand. And As I said in the other thread, send a mitigating letter to the credit agencies rebutting their claim.

Jim

 

[easyrider]

Yep! It got reported on the credit report, 100 point drop. It's currently being disputed; after all, the contract says nothing about collections in the event of non-payment of MFs, just that the right-to-use benefits are all forfeited until they're fully paid.

Was it a RCI credit card that was initiated by El Cid ? This would show on your credit report the same as any other credit card does.

Bill

 

[RTVA]

Was it a RCI credit card that was initiated by El Cid ? This would show on your credit report the same as any other credit card does.

Bill

Nope, all cash, no credit cards involved, and it's solely for the MFs. It takes me by surprise, a bit. It's just shameless greed on their part, after scamming us out of so much $ already.