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Newlywed requesting advice

livinginjapan

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Hello everyone,

I am coming to ask for help because my wife and I are very worried that we will not be able to pay our HGVC timeshare monthly payment. I have done some searching on the forum and have gotten some information, and seen some similar older posts, but would like to ask for any up to date or recent advice that we can get because we are really not sure what we should do...

I am a US citizen living and working in Japan with my wife who is Japanese. We got married last year and stayed in a Hilton hotel. Because most of our family was staying there, or maybe they just offer it to everyone I'm not sure, but we were offered to see a presentation in Las Vegas get some discounts, cheap hotel stay, etc.

Initially we had no intention of buying anything but after sitting through hours of very convincing sales tactics and negotiation we signed for 3750 point annually with 20,000 bonus point after 6 months of payments for roughly $22,000. The location is the HGVC at Trump International in Las Vegas. At the time they made it sound like a good deal and working out that it would only cost us roughly $350 a month, we thought we could afford it.

We thought we did pretty well, and got home to Japan several days later. I decided to do some research (which I know I should have done before hand, but we were prepared to say no to the traditional one week a year at one location, the club point system caught us off guard and was much more appealing). That is when I found out about TUG and resales and everything else.

Because it was after the rescind period and we were already back in Japan, we thought that we didn't really have a choice. So at this point we have paid the maintenance fee (of over $1000), the down payment, and the first monthly finance payment. We thought that we weren't the first to fall for slick sale speech and would just have to tough it out and try to use it as best we can... until my wife found out that she will be losing her job. Which now cuts our finances by a large chunk.

Is there anything we can do? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 

Ty1on

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I'm getting a mixed signal from you between whether you are experiencing buyer's remorse after learning you could have gotten it for less, or you can't afford the monthly payment.....
 

Talent312

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With a loan, you can't sell it, but you can ask HGVC to buy it back for what you owe.
If (when) they refuse, ask them for their next best offer -- Most likely, it won't be enuff.
Tell them that you'll stop paying, go into default and file Bankruptcy to avoid personal liability.
-- Aside from honoring your debt, that will be your only other option.
.
.
 
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Uscjusto

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You can warn others here on TUG how financially dangerous it is to purchase a time share when you can't pay for it in full upfront. Never finance your timeshare purchase!
 

livinginjapan

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I'm getting a mixed signal from you between whether you are experiencing buyer's remorse after learning you could have gotten it for less, or you can't afford the monthly payment.....

I'm sorry to have made it sound that way. Of course there was some buyer's remorse at first. But we had resolved that we would try to use it as best we could. From what I have read, it's unfortunate but many had the same experience that their first timeshare was full retail. And HGVC wasn't a bad one to be with. We weren't going to let it sour timeshares for us.

If my wife wasn't losing her job it would be a different story...
 

csxjohn

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Are you planning to stay in Japan? If you are and you wife lost her job I would look into the implications for just walking away from this.

You could write to the company and tell them your situation, let them know you cannot make another payment and ask them to take it back. They will say no, but what other choice do you have? It will hurt your credit here in the states but should go away in about seven years.

If you can afford it but just don't want to with the reduced income, my advice would not be the same.
 

livinginjapan

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-- Aside from honoring your debt, that will be your only other option.

Thank you for your honesty.

I was praying there were other options, or maybe some members had heard how it had turned out for someone else in a similar situation, that maybe had a different result.
 

Passepartout

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As I see it, you have good intentions, but the loss of your wife's income prevents you from honoring your commitment, not to mention vacations. Truth be told, I don't know who among us can say what the (credit) effect on a Japanese resident- even US citizen- would be after a timeshare default and foreclosure.

I think you should write to whomever holds the note, pleading hardship, just as you've done here. It may take missing a few payments to get their attention. After all, if you are current, that's all that's required. We have heard of other HGVC owners being let out of the contract without a credit hit, but it's probably done on a case by case basis.

Good luck. We wish you better days.

Jim
 

sjsharkie

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Since you are a US citizen (and I assume you are not renouncing citizenship), I believe you still need to file a tax return. If HGVC decides to file a 1099c, you will be required to account for this in your tax situation.

Since you are living in Japan, I don't think that US credit will impact you there unless you are using US based forms of credit (ie credit cards).

But you should contact a professional IMHO before proceeding so you can make the best decision for yourself.

Good luck.

Ryan

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 

livinginjapan

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Good luck. We wish you better days.

Jim

Thank you all very much for your kind words, I really hope everything can be resolved. Honestly though, I am really scared.


But you should contact a professional IMHO before proceeding so you can make the best decision for yourself.

Good luck.

Ryan

Thank you for the information, I would like to contact a professional. I will do some searching on my own, but could you please recommend someone if you know of any reputable ones.
 

geekette

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I am hoping your wife lands an even better job and the money issue is no longer an issue.

If they won't take it back and cancel the note (don't expect money paid to be refunded as I don't think they would be nice twice), start trying to rent it out to cover what you owe. It won't make much of a dent but could at least help with a few months of mortgage.

Best of luck to you and your bride!
 

Passepartout

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Thank you for the information, I would like to contact a professional. I will do some searching on my own, but could you please recommend someone if you know of any reputable ones.

By 'professional', I think we mean someone in the ex-pat community with knowledge of whether- or how severely- US based lenders deal with defaults by people in your circumstances. Possibly a lawyer or financial professional. I recall one HGVC buyer who defaulted, and after a time- and lots of letters and calls for payment- he reported that the lender had cancelled the contract without a negative credit report- though he lost whatever sum of funds he had paid.

By far, the vast majority of people here are timeshare USERS. People who are looking for ways to cancel valid contracts make requests here, then never return. It isn't that we are unkind, but when another owner stops (or is unable to) paying, those maintenance fees have to be paid by someone. And that is- the rest of the owners- USERS.

We are sorry that you've hit a financial rough patch. As suggested, you might weather the storm by renting your weeks) to family/friends to help you with the cost. Of course that would be if you actually want to keep the ownership.

Best wishes for a solution you can live with.

Jim
 

livinginjapan

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I am hoping your wife lands an even better job and the money issue is no longer an issue.

If they won't take it back and cancel the note (don't expect money paid to be refunded as I don't think they would be nice twice), start trying to rent it out to cover what you owe. It won't make much of a dent but could at least help with a few months of mortgage.

Best of luck to you and your bride!

My wife getting a job soon (a better one would be nice) is the best possible solution to our predicament. Unfortunately the job market isn't that good in Japan either...

I wasn't planning on getting any money back from them, not having to pay the rest would help us enough.

Thank you for your comments :)


By 'professional', I think we mean someone in the ex-pat community with knowledge of whether- or how severely- US based lenders deal with defaults by people in your circumstances. Possibly a lawyer or financial professional. I recall one HGVC buyer who defaulted, and after a time- and lots of letters and calls for payment- he reported that the lender had cancelled the contract without a negative credit report- though he lost whatever sum of funds he had paid.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what was meant by a professional in this case. I thought maybe he meant a tax professional because of the content of the post, but wasn't sure so I thought it best to ask.

Ideally we don't want to default, we want to fulfill our commitment. It's just that rent and food takes precedence...

By far, the vast majority of people here are timeshare USERS. People who are looking for ways to cancel valid contracts make requests here, then never return. It isn't that we are unkind, but when another owner stops (or is unable to) paying, those maintenance fees have to be paid by someone. And that is- the rest of the owners- USERS.

We would like to become users as well, when finances allow. We have already paid the 2016 maintenance fees so it wouldn't impact other owners. We are trying to do right by the community and company.

We are sorry that you've hit a financial rough patch. As suggested, you might weather the storm by renting your weeks) to family/friends to help you with the cost. Of course that would be if you actually want to keep the ownership.

Best wishes for a solution you can live with.

Jim

We'll see what HGVC says, if they won't let us out of the loan payments we'll have to figure something out and renting may be a possible option. We think it is a good program and want to use it. But disposable income is the biggest factor. We need to be able to cover the essentials first. If things take a turn for the better we may give it another shot, taking into account everything we learned from this go around.

Thank you again for all the valuable advice and kind words.
 
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livinginjapan

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I wanted to post an update on this.

I called the loans department, and they suggested to send an email because we live outside the US. But there was nothing further they could advise over the phone because the loans department you reach through their calling service only handles payments.

After a little more than a week after the email we received a call. At first they said that there was nothing they could do other than recommend that a friend or relative help, or take over payments.

From everyone's advice, we didn't stop there (because the salesman didn't stop when he was pitching it). They took some more information about are financial situation with asking about liabilities and income, and said they would review again and get back to us in a few days.

I just got off the phone with the same person that said they would call (right in the timeframe they said they would), and we were informed that our case has been moved to a separate team and will receive an email from them by Monday at the latest, on how to proceed.

So I guess there's movement, and they are trying to do more than just saying, "too bad".

Thank you again to everyone for your advice and suggestions. I'll update again when I can.
 

Uscjusto

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I wanted to post an update on this.

I called the loans department, and they suggested to send an email because we live outside the US. But there was nothing further they could advise over the phone because the loans department you reach through their calling service only handles payments.

After a little more than a week after the email we received a call. At first they said that there was nothing they could do other than recommend that a friend or relative help, or take over payments.

From everyone's advice, we didn't stop there (because the salesman didn't stop when he was pitching it). They took some more information about are financial situation with asking about liabilities and income, and said they would review again and get back to us in a few days.

I just got off the phone with the same person that said they would call (right in the timeframe they said they would), and we were informed that our case has been moved to a separate team and will receive an email from them by Monday at the latest, on how to proceed.

So I guess there's movement, and they are trying to do more than just saying, "too bad".

Thank you again to everyone for your advice and suggestions. I'll update again when I can.



Has HGVC ever taken back a timeshare and forgiven a debt?
 
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