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Please help! Re. deed transfer and maintenance fees

sruizaroo

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Hello everyone. I am new to this forum, but I am so glad I found it. I hope you all can help me. My mother and I currently own points in Wyndham, to the tune of 343,000 a year. Our home resort is Bonnet Creek. My husband and I recently went to the Wyndham Rio Mar in Puerto Rico (looovvveee!) and at our owner's update, the rep we met with advised that we convert our points from Bonnet Creek to Panama City (has the lowest maintenance). Would you advise that we do this? My mother currently pays the maintenance and I am paying the mortgage. I would like to save some money, as I feel like we are paying through the nose for this package.

When we trade in our points, would we get more since I think Panama City's points might be cheaper? Another rep previously advised us not to convert our points, since Bonnet Creek is such a desired resort and therefore the deed was worth more.... I really don't know who to believe. I find this whole Wyndham timeshare system to be overly complicated and the reps are quite disingenuous. I just want to make the most of our package and also stop paying through the nose! Please help!
 

ronparise

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Both reps are right as far as they go...Panama Cities fee are lower and Bonnet Creek is a desirable resort


but what they probably didnt say is that the conversion to Panama City will be done only if you buy more points..My guess is that they will suggest that you take your account to VIP Gold status


So yes you may reduce your mf per point, but the number of points will go up as will your mortgage payment

be careful, know what they are offering you
 

sruizaroo

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Thanks! So what is the advantage of owning at Bonnet? Higher resale value? I don't care about the ARP (being able to book at Bonnet 13 months out).
 

rrlongwell

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Thanks! So what is the advantage of owning at Bonnet? Higher resale value? I don't care about the ARP (being able to book at Bonnet 13 months out).

Currently, not re-sale value as reflected on E-Bay. I have seen some recent actions go for no bid. Some went for next to nothing.

If you want Gold VIP Status than you may look at it. You would be buying the Gold Status for reasons other than financial. I think Ron is right, you would have to buy more points to consoladate the way the sales rep indicted. You may want to check the offer being given and confirm whether a new purchase is required or not.
 

massvacationer

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Sruizaroo:

Don't do it. Enjoy your existing points and learn to use them efficiently. Don't buy more retail points now - as that is what the first salesman is trying to get you to do. Get more familiar with what you own and make any decisions like this a couple of years down the road. If you find you need more points in a couple of years, you should consider a resale purchase.

Any maintenance fee savings from buying at Panama City will be more than offset by the costs of owning more points (larger mortgage and fees on more points).
 

sruizaroo

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Thank you, massvacationer!

Another question, the sales rep mentioned that we can now use points to pay maintenance fees. He said 10,000 pts pays something like $60 a month in maintenance. Has anyone heard of this or done this? I need to call and get more information.
 

massvacationer

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yes, you can use points to pay Maintenance fees, BUT.....

they will give you something like $2.10 per thousand points which is less than half what you paid in maint fees for those points. So it's like you are renting them back to Wyndham for half what you paid in maint fees.

This is not the best use for points. Best is to use your points for nice vacations.

BTW - the salesman might have been alluding to the fact that you can rent reservations either directly (or through a Wyndham rental department).......the salesmen say this to try to talk prospects into buying more points than they really need. In a nutshell, don't count on this as a source of dollars. Don't take any action now, give yourself a couple of years of use.

You should read the "Club Wyndham Plus Member's Directory 2011-2012" . It's available both on-line and you can get a book (paper) edition. Get your knowledge from the Directory, the stickies in this forum, and the other members here. The above directory covers almost everything including using points to pay for maint fees (see page 327)
 
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sruizaroo

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Yes, I agree that is the best way to use your points. I ask though b/c sometimes I have like 10,000 or 12,000 pts leftover at the end of the year and that's not really enough to get yourself a vacation.
 

massvacationer

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you might want to credit pool one years points, at some point down the road. This will extend those points over three years, so you'll be able to combine left over points with some of the credit pooled points to make a reservation. If you credit pool every three years or so, you may find that you'll always have enough active points to make a reservation. It's complicated, but will probably help.

You can also borrow points from your next year, for reservations less than three months out. So you can use your 12k points and borrow say 50k more for a weekend somewhere.
 

sruizaroo

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Very helpful, massvacationer! Thank you, everyone!

So I guess my best bet for now in order to save money is to try and refinance the mortgage with a credit union for a lower interest rate. That seems to be my only option. Unless someone has any other ideas?
 
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Start asking, but I don't know of any banks/credit unions that will refinance your timeshare mortgage. The only way they would do it is a Home Equity Line of Credit. The simple reason is, timeshares are not equity. Banks/Credit Unions don't want to finance something if they don't have collateral.

TS
 

sruizaroo

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Well, the Wyndham rep told me one of his owners with bad credit (I have good credit) refinanced her mortgage at a credit union for a 5.5% interest rate. He said there was no penalty, too. I'm gonna look into it. Worth a shot!
 

rrlongwell

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Well, the Wyndham rep told me one of his owners with bad credit (I have good credit) refinanced her mortgage at a credit union for a 5.5% interest rate. He said there was no penalty, too. I'm gonna look into it. Worth a shot!

Depends on your personal financial situation and the Credit Union policies. If they do not, then they might do an unsecured loan or a colaterlized lone based on other assests.
 

ronparise

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Well, the Wyndham rep told me one of his owners with bad credit (I have good credit) refinanced her mortgage at a credit union for a 5.5% interest rate. He said there was no penalty, too. I'm gonna look into it. Worth a shot!

You have been advised here not to listen to Wyndham reps...I think thats good advice. Conventional wisdom here is:...If their lips are moving they are lying

You may get a loan based on your own assets or your own income or your own good name...but I doubt that your banker will consider your Wyndham deed as anything but a liability
 

SOS8260456

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I do not recommend purchasing direct from Wyndham at all. If VIP Gold or Platinum is what you are after, then I recommend researching Wyndham's PIC program before making that very expensive corporate purchase. I am also sure there are also many threads debating the value of VIP status vs non-VIP status.

If you go through with this purchase, your monthly maintenance fees may go down, but as someone else said your monthly mortgage payment will go up.

Also, I remember when they were first selling Atlantic City. It had very low maintenance fees which they used to push sales of this property. Within a few short years, the maintenance fees were increased quite a bit.

Good luck with your decision. You have definately come to the right place for much "food for thought".

Lisa from PA
 

vacationhopeful

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I do not recommend purchasing direct from Wyndham at all. If VIP Gold or Platinum is what you are after, then I recommend researching Wyndham's PIC program before making that very expensive corporate purchase. .....Good luck with your decision. You have definately come to the right place for much "food for thought".

Lisa from PA

These are important points. PIC is a very good option to cheaply get Gold VIP with a BIG direct from Wyndham purchase. But buying any POINTS directly from Wyndham will cost you many more dollars than resale Wyndham points.
 

antjmar

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Everyone here is giving you good advice but unless you want to go up to VIP Gold (over 500k points) your best bet is to keep what you have and to just get a HELOC if you can and pay the timeshare off at a lower interest rate.
 
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