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newbie interested in RCI points questions

hdchuck

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First let me say thanks to everyone here. I have learned much and enjoyed reading the information so far.

I have no timeshare experience. What I want to do is buy some RCI points. I am looking for about 45,000 points with a good maint fee ($400 or less). As i understand it with RCI points it does not matter where the home resort is "points are points" is this correct? I can get a better deal on a points package at a resort I do not plan to use, but are there any downsides to this approach?

Or would I be better served to pay a higher maint fee at a resort I may want to use?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks

Chuck
 

AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
You're Smart To Watch Out For Those Fees.

On a per-point basis, we're paying way too much in annual fees -- $330 -- for our annual injection of points (15,000) at a resort there's little chance we'll actually want to go to.

But we paid so little for our 15,000-point eBay resale points timeshare in the 1st place ($152.50) that we can afford several years' worth of those resort fees with the money we saved by buying such a cheap week.

We were more interested in joining points in a small-potatoes way so that we could do points for deposit (if we choose) with the RCI-affiliated weeks we already owned at non-points timeshare resorts.

And we are more interested in partial-week reservations & economical Instant Exchange reservations than in week-long stays at fancy-pants resorts where a reservation takes lots & lots of points.

So far, it has worked out fine -- but we're only 3 months into our points plunge, so the final analysis has not yet been done (& won't be for a while longer).

If we're still as satisfied with points in 3 years as we have been with timeshares overall after our initial 3 years as weeks owners, then we will have nothing to complain about.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
 

hdchuck

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mases a lot of sense

I hadn't thought of it that way.. I have been looking for low maint fee per point with less consideration to purchase price. If you saved....say $1000 on purchase price that pays a lot of additional mf's.

So there is no underling reason that you know of to select a resort that you actually want to stay at....other than that you can use it without a reservation fee.

Chuck
 

AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
Points Are Points

hdchuck said:
So there is no underling reason that you know of to select a resort that you actually want to stay at....other than that you can use it without a reservation fee.
We just wanted to get into points for as little outlay as possible. If the resort happened to be close by, so we could go there on a day-trip basis as owners (to use the pool, work-out room, etc., as a perquisite of ownership), or if it's near a favored vacation spot, those would just be fringe benefits. (Ours isn't -- we get no fringe benefits, just the points.)

In my view, once it all boils down to fully interchangeable points, that puts all the pluses & minuses of the entire transaction on a dollars & cents basis. That is, since points are points, who cares about resort amenities, high-, medium-, or low-season, location, or any other factor besides the most points per dollar & the lowest maintenance fee per point?

In fact, a developer's sales pitch was put to us almost but not quite that bluntly earlier this month in Orlando FL -- & the resort's management strategy seemed to go hand in hand with that (few on-site features other than nice pools & hot spas, minimal activities, big attractive suites, lots of points, moderate fees).

Even so, the lowest bottom line they came up with would have cost us about $9,950 for some alternate-year arrangement.

When they're selling points, it puts'm on the spot if they have to show the advantages of buying at their resort instead of someplace else.

At 1 points sales pitch last month, they were going to throw in 2 "bonus vacations" per year -- for how long, I don't know (indefinitely, I guess). At another points sales pitch, they were going to throw in 3, 4, 5, 6 -- I don't know how many -- luxury cruises.

The Chief Of Staff showed signs of being tempted there for a while, but in the end we decided to stand pat with our dinky points timeshare & our paid-for weeks timeshares.

If we want cruises, we can shop for bargains on our own.

If we want bonus vacations, we can see what's available among the dogs & cats of RCI Last Call.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
 
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Noelle

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Domestic Points - I had the same question.

FWIW See the conversation on Timeshare Forums when I was researching points - some of the suggestions were helpful and I eventually made a decision that met my needs very well.

Latest update is that Land of Canaan for a limited time has been running a special sale on their Blue weeks - $500 for the points and then with a single conversion fee for multiple purchases, your costs per point to purchase and to maintain (m/f $320/week)will be very competitive with some of the other points options (such as Australian timeshares),

http://www.timeshareforums.com/showthread.php?t=2529
 
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