Question on Joint Owners and Guest Certificates

[tjk144]

My wife and I have been RCI members since1981 and have done exchanges to many wonderful resorts. Our children now have families of their own and we would like let them do some RCI exchanges using our units. To avoid probate problems down the road, we plan to add the children as joint owners on the title. My question is -- once our children are joint owners, I would assume that they could share in our RCI exchanges without paying for a guest certificate. Is that correct and, if so, do we just notify RCI to add their names to our RCI membership account? Or is it more complicated than that?

 

[VacationForever]

You still need to add their names to your RCI account, but it should be free, otherwise the exchanges will not have their names on them.

 

[Jan M.]

I think you have to contact the resort to get them added to your deed. RCI is just the exchange company and has no power to change your deed. We did it 8 years ago when our son turned 21 and it was $100 back then at our home resort. Then you would have to ask RCI what the procedure is for adding them to your RCI account. In addition to saving on the $69 guest fee, an owner has privileges and more pull if there are any issues than a guest.

When our five year old granddaughter was here last month I booked one of the $199 sale weeks at a resort in Orlando for us. RCI frequently has sales, anywhere from $299-$199, plus tax, for a week long stay and you don't use any points or weeks. Las Vegas is another location that usually has a nice selection of those sale weeks. I didn't see a very big selection of resorts or much that interested me in the current sale so don't assume that what you see now is the same thing you will see every time there is a sale. It isn't just the junk that ends up in these sale weeks. Yes there are some resorts that I wouldn't go to in the offerings but there are a lot of very nice resorts too. I recommend sitting down at the computer with your children and grandchildren and showing them how they can go and not even have to use any of your points or weeks.

If you have young adult grandchildren they can go places even on a young adult's budget with those sale weeks. For Las Vegas is fairly easy to get round trip flights on airlines like Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant, and others that offer really cheap flights to Las Vegas for anywhere from $80-$140. Add in $199-$299 for a one or two bedroom unit that they can share with friends. When our son was in college he and some friends, went to Vegas, Florida, Myrtle Beach and Virginia. He and his one friend would share the king bed in the master bedroom and the other two shared the second bedroom. He charged them enough to pay for the unit with some left over for spending money for himself. I never had to worry about them getting drunk and being obnoxious to the other guests or trashing the unit. Not that there wasn't any alcohol but as an owner himself he knew he had certain responsibilities. It was a cheap vacation for his friends, they stayed at nice resorts and everyone had a great time.

 

[Steve NH]

There was a time when my brother in law and his wife were joint owners with my wife and myself on a timeshare
We were all able to trade thru one account in RCI, no guest cert needed.
Not sure if that has changed since we sold that unit about 5 yrs ago.

 

[rapmarks]

Wow, rci always said to me only two names on rci account, any additional owners needed guest certificates


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[dioxide45]

I am not sure that tying someone else to the liability is worth the savings you would get from free guest certificates.

 

[mdurette]

I am not sure that tying someone else to the liability is worth the savings you would get from free guest certificates.

I was thinking the same....

OP: before you change over the ownership, you really should ensure your kids would want your TS first. For Many, Many people timeshares are a liability, not an asset.

EDIT: I just went back and read Dioxide's reply. Just think it is funny how we both used the term liability.

 

[moonstone]

We have been told by a few different RCI employees (1 being a supervisor) that we must add our (adult) children's names to our deeds before they can be added to our RCI account. One rep told me that adding their names to our deeds (we have 2, in different states) "wasn't worth the hassle" ! So we haven't started the process or even investigated it further. Our boys seem to only use an average of 1 week a year and lately DD just travels with us -as long as we have a 2 bedroom!

Our youngest DS (+30yrs old) & his DW have used some of our points, as well as 3 Extra Vacations weeks (at different resorts) over the last few years. Each time I booked the week for them I called the resort directly and explained the situation and asked if a Guest Certificate was needed. Every resort has said no - maybe due to the surname being the same.


~Diane

 

[Saintsfanfl]

I was thinking the same....

OP: before you change over the ownership, you really should ensure your kids would want your TS first. For Many, Many people timeshares are a liability, not an asset.

EDIT: I just went back and read Dioxide's reply. Just think it is funny how we both used the term liability.

This is why every state should require a timeshare deed be signed by the buyers instead of just the seller.