Questions on PIC Plus Program

[FL Guy]

I acquired a resale contract for an RCI-affiliated contract last year and enrolled it in Wyndham's PIC Plus program to get to the silver VIP level. As with most things Wyndham, the information available tends to be on the vague side. Additionally, little the salespeople have to say is to be trusted, so I'm hoping some experienced Wyndham owners on TUG can enlighten me.
I know I have to book a stay at my PIC Plus resort (after paying that year's maintenance fees), deposit it into RCI, then transfer the deposit into Wyndham by exchange and pay the exchange fee to be able to utilize the points within Wyndham.
My understanding is that I don't have to exchange the RCI deposit into Wyndham, that I can choose to leave the deposit in RCI and book resorts directly within RCI with that deposit. Is this correct?
IF I was wanting to book a resort within RCI, would it be smarter to do that with the week I deposit into RCI rather than to exchange it into Wyndham, then use Wyndham points to book an RCI stay?
A Wyndham salesperson told me that I must do the exchange of the RCI deposit at least every 3 years in order to keep the PIC Plus active with Wyndham. Is this correct?
I have almost no experience with RCI as I've always used my Wyndham points to stay at Wyndham properties (or Worldmark through Plus Partners). My PIC Plus resort reservation has a trading power of 31, which seems to be good, based on the trading powers I have seen for other resorts available in RCI. But I don't fully understand how to utilize my 31 trading power to book other resorts and am not finding the information on the RCI web site or their directory very helpful.
I have researched some on TUG, but haven't been very successful on finding information regarding the PIC Plus program here either.
Any advice or direction would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Floridaman76]

Hitchhiker is one of the PIC experts here.

I don't have a PIC but looked into it and think I know a few things.

One of the things is in order to get Club Wyndham points, you have to DEPOSIT your fixed week into RCI at 9 months or more before your fixed week.

Hopefully you do not have a FLOAT week, because i'm not sure those even work, I will defer to someone else about that. Maybe you can pick your week, then deposit it... don't know.

Anyway, once it's deposited, and verified in RCI, you call Wyndham, pay them some amount of money, then the points show up in your Club Wyndham account.

They get counted as developer points, but I don't think you can deposit them into a future use year, or back into RCI. Again, someone may correct me on that.

Anyway, it's probably not going to be in the cards because the cost for 100,000 developer points is not something I want to be doing right now. I would have to do two PIC's of a 3 or 4 BR to get me to Platinum, getting to gold just has no value to me really.

 

[DRIless]

A Wyndham salesperson told me that I must do the exchange of the RCI deposit at least every 3 years in order to keep the PIC Plus active with Wyndham. Is this correct?

As usual, if their lips are moving, they are lying !
I have two PICs and I've never deposited them, there is not a requirement to deposit them.

 

[DancingWaters]

As usual, if their lips are moving, they are lying !
I have two PICs and I've never deposited them, there is not a requirement to deposit them.

If you don’t deposit your pic weeks, do you automatically get points?

 

[Floridaman76]

If you don’t deposit your pic weeks, do you automatically get points?

No, some people just PIC to get the VIP benefits.

Depending on what you PIC'ed, you get VIP "credit" for a certain number of developer points which count toward your VIP level.

HOWEVER, there is no requirement to actually deposit your timeshare into RCI and convert that into USABLE Club Wyndham points.

You get the VIP benefits regardless, and that's based on the size of the unit you PIC'ed... if that makes sense.

In fact, a lot of times the first year you enroll the PIC, you may not be able to deposit your week before the 9 month deadline has already come and gone.

 

[HitchHiker71]

If you don’t deposit your pic weeks, do you automatically get points?

No, you only receive Wyndham points into your account by following the PIC Plus process, documented here:

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...en/owner-guide/resources/pic-plus-points.html


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[HitchHiker71]

The PIC Plus program and the options and steps to follow to use your week are documented here:

PIC Plus Contract

Are you a Club Wyndham owner? Learn more about Personal Interval Choice Plus, which allows members to enroll non-Club Wyndham timeshare weeks to be applied their VIP status.

clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com

If after reviewing the above information anyone has questions, please let us know here in this thread.


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[tschwa2]

It makes no sense to deposit and then transfer the deposit to wyndham to get wyndham points to use in rci. You always get credit for the points toward vip level whether you deposit and transfer for PIC points or not. If you want to use your home resort you won't receive points to use in wyndham for the PIC week. If you want to deposit and exchange your week directly, you won't receive PIC points to use in Wyndham. There is no requirement to ever transfer a deposit to get PIC points- it is your choice. If you know you aren't going to use your home week, go ahead and deposit at least 9 months but you can do it earlier. Most resorts will make you prepay your MF's in order to deposit. You can look at what is available through rci. I personally wouldn't transfer into Wyndham unless you had specific plans to use those points within the wyndham network.

 

[FL Guy]

Thanks to everyone for their input.
Glad to know that I am not required to exchange the points into Wyndham points every 3 years to keep the PIC active for VIP benefits level in Wyndham.
I need to do more studying of the process to be able to use my deposited PIC week within RCI as it seems to make more sense to use the RCI deposit to book RCI resorts rather than using Wyndham points to book RCI resorts, (especially since Wyndham just increased the exchange fee to $226.00 from $169.00 effective this year). There are several locations where I'd like to vacation, but there is no Wyndham resort or Worldmark resort in the area. It does appear that most, if not all, of the stays available within RCI are for full week stays, rather than having the flexibility within Wyndham of booking a shorter stay, so that will be an adjustment mentally for me. In order to stretch my Wyndham points, I've been booking more Sunday through Thursday night stays since I'm retired.
My PIC contract resort is a 3-bedroom unit and has a trading power of 31. My understanding of RCI is that I can book multiple week-long stays within RCI, as long as the total of the trading power of those multiple stays are below my 31 trading power deposit. Am I on the right track?

 

[Silverdollar]

Thanks to everyone for their input.
Glad to know that I am not required to exchange the points into Wyndham points every 3 years to keep the PIC active for VIP benefits level in Wyndham.
I need to do more studying of the process to be able to use my deposited PIC week within RCI as it seems to make more sense to use the RCI deposit to book RCI resorts rather than using Wyndham points to book RCI resorts, (especially since Wyndham just increased the exchange fee to $226.00 from $169.00 effective this year). There are several locations where I'd like to vacation, but there is no Wyndham resort or Worldmark resort in the area. It does appear that most, if not all, of the stays available within RCI are for full week stays, rather than having the flexibility within Wyndham of booking a shorter stay, so that will be an adjustment mentally for me. In order to stretch my Wyndham points, I've been booking more Sunday through Thursday night stays since I'm retired.
My PIC contract resort is a 3-bedroom unit and has a trading power of 31. My understanding of RCI is that I can book multiple week-long stays within RCI, as long as the total of the trading power of those multiple stays are below my 31 trading power deposit. Am I on the right track?

Here is a little history on the cost of exchange fee for PIC. In 2005, it was $25. I know because that was the year I added two PIC weeks and became VIP Gold. The following year the exchange fee increased to $50. Since that time, it has increased several more times from $89, $100, $169 and now $226.

 

[DRIless]

A little bit off topic, but I've not heard this mentioned .....

At Williamsburg Owner Updates during the group session the speaker makes the statement that, during your time with the Rep, they will be checking your PIC that you have registered to ensure that you still have them and that they are still eligible.

 

[FL Guy]

Here is a little history on the cost of exchange fee for PIC. In 2005, it was $25. I know because that was the year I added two PIC weeks and became VIP Gold. The following year the exchange fee increased to $50. Since that time, it has increased several more times from $89, $100, $169 and now $226.

Thanks for the history. It can't cost them $226 in labor to complete the transaction, so they obviously have decided it's a way to make more money. If they keep increasing the exchange fee at this rate, all the more reason NOT to exchange it into Wyndham points.

As a side-story to this, I've had trouble doing the deposit/exchange this year. I paid my 2026 maintenance fees, and my PIC timeshare booked week 16. I called RCI to let them know the week and the unit number. Then I called Wyndham 5/23/25, they charged me the $226 and told me the points should be in my account in 5-7 business days. On 5/26/25 I was notified by my timeshare that RCI had deposited week 20 instead of week 16, so I had to call RCI for them to correct the week. Then I called Wyndham to tell them it was corrected. They told me I had to wait 5-7 more business days for the points to show in my account. As of yesterday, the points were still not in my account. I called Wyndham and was told I had to talk to RCI because they'd never sent the correction through. I called RCI and was told the correction had been done on 5/27 and the problem was with Wyndham. I called Wyndham back and was told I have to wait another 5-7 days or else they have to charge me an additional $226 for the exchange. Supposedly after the 5-7 days if the points are not in my account, I will receive an "exchange denial" and refund of my original $226, THEN I can pay the fee again and make the exchange. UGH!! What a hassle. Last year when I did the deposit/exchange everything went off without a hitch. This year, not so much!

 

[FL Guy]

A little bit off topic, but I've not heard this mentioned .....

At Williamsburg Owner Updates during the group session the speaker makes the statement that, during your time with the Rep, they will be checking your PIC that you have registered to ensure that you still have them and that they are still eligible

I am at silver VIP with my PIC contract. A sales rep cautioned me that Wyndham CAN do away with the PIC program at any time they want and convinced me to buy a small points CWA contract to put me over 300,000 points without the PIC so if the PIC program went away that at least I'd have bronze level VIP. Then, at an owner update a couple of months later, a sales rep tried to convince me to buy enough points to take me up to 800,000+ points for gold VIP and assured me that the PIC program will NEVER go away. "If their lips are moving....." The PIC program does clearly state that a resort can lose their RCI affiliation and PIC eligibility. I presume if the resort went to crap maintenance-wise that it would be dropped from eligibility. Hopefully that won't happen to my PIC resort.

 

[HitchHiker71]

It makes no sense to deposit and then transfer the deposit to wyndham to get wyndham points to use in rci. You always get credit for the points toward vip level whether you deposit and transfer for PIC points or not. If you want to use your home resort you won't receive points to use in wyndham for the PIC week. If you want to deposit and exchange your week directly, you won't receive PIC points to use in Wyndham. There is no requirement to ever transfer a deposit to get PIC points- it is your choice. If you know you aren't going to use your home week, go ahead and deposit at least 9 months but you can do it earlier. Most resorts will make you prepay your MF's in order to deposit. You can look at what is available through rci. I personally wouldn't transfer into Wyndham unless you had specific plans to use those points within the wyndham network.

Actually it may make at least some sense if you want to take advantage of RCI nightly stays as opposed to having to book an entire week within RCI - which to the best of my understanding - not being an RCI expert - can only be done via Wyndham points.

PlusPartners: RCI Nightly Stays

Are you a Club Wyndham owner? Learn more about RCI Nightly Stays, a program that allows you to book nightly reservations at most RCI-affiliated resorts.

clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com

Having never done this personally, I'm just going off of the rules per the link above though, I'm sure others who have actual experience using RCI Nightly Stays can comment further. I've also seen reference to examples of points in the RCI system being "less expensive" than booking the same resort within the Wyndham system, and therefore some folks move the points into RCI and then book the same Wyndham resort within the RCI system using less points than if they were to book said resort within Wyndham directly. Again, having never done this before, I cannot comment based on actual experience, just passing along what I've heard over the years here.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Thanks to everyone for their input.
Glad to know that I am not required to exchange the points into Wyndham points every 3 years to keep the PIC active for VIP benefits level in Wyndham.

This is a lie often used by sales just FYI. Just don't attend the sales updates - that is our general recommendation here on TUG.

I need to do more studying of the process to be able to use my deposited PIC week within RCI as it seems to make more sense to use the RCI deposit to book RCI resorts rather than using Wyndham points to book RCI resorts, (especially since Wyndham just increased the exchange fee to $226.00 from $169.00 effective this year). There are several locations where I'd like to vacation, but there is no Wyndham resort or Worldmark resort in the area. It does appear that most, if not all, of the stays available within RCI are for full week stays, rather than having the flexibility within Wyndham of booking a shorter stay, so that will be an adjustment mentally for me. In order to stretch my Wyndham points, I've been booking more Sunday through Thursday night stays since I'm retired.
My PIC contract resort is a 3-bedroom unit and has a trading power of 31. My understanding of RCI is that I can book multiple week-long stays within RCI, as long as the total of the trading power of those multiple stays are below my 31 trading power deposit. Am I on the right track?

If you are Wyndham VIP and/or a Plus Partners member you can use the RCI Nightly Stays benefit to stay less than a week, more info here - this does require Wyndham points to be moved into your Wyndham RCI account though: https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...html?msockid=39d5ee9f5a866c583326ff535be96dd2

 

[FL Guy]

This is a lie often used by sales just FYI. Just don't attend the sales updates - that is our general recommendation here on TUG.

If you are Wyndham VIP and/or a Plus Partners member you can use the RCI Nightly Stays benefit to stay less than a week, more info here - this does require Wyndham points to be moved into your Wyndham RCI account though: https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...html?msockid=39d5ee9f5a866c583326ff535be96dd2

Thanks for sharing! Always something new to learn!

 

[bnoble]

If you are Wyndham VIP and/or a Plus Partners member you can use the RCI Nightly Stays

This is only true for accounts with PlusPartners. It is hard to built an account that has some level of VIP recognition without it, but it is possible.

 

[HitchHiker71]

This is only true for accounts with PlusPartners. It is hard to built an account that has some level of VIP recognition without it, but it is possible.

Agreed, I think these days at least you have to intentionally opt-out of the PP/Club Pass features if you own developer points in order to pay the slightly lower $/1000 program fees associated with not having access to these benefits. I'm sure the vast majority of developer points owners don't opt out though, myself included.

 

[CYRUS2400]

Glad to know that I am not required to exchange the points into Wyndham points every 3 years to keep the PIC active for VIP benefits level in Wyndham.

This comment caused me to take a deep breath, then you stated that you PIC'd the resort last year. If it's every year, ignore the rest of this comment. If the PIC every 3 years, well, that could be a problem unless Wyndham coded the PIO as triennial and only count 1/3rd of the points toward VIP. If it's every 3 years and they are counting full points for your VIP as every year, keep that to yourself, very private. It's my understanding that the PIC has to be annual for full point benefits toward VIP. Whether or not you PIC it, it is still your call as others have noted. I don't PIC my resorts every year, never had a problem.

 

[WManning]

No, you only receive Wyndham points into your account by following the PIC Plus process, documented here:

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...en/owner-guide/resources/pic-plus-points.html


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I thought you could also do a PIC Express, but its only good for 5 years.

PIC Express Contract

Are you a Club Wyndham owner? Learn more about Personal Interval Choice Express, which allows members to enroll non-Club Wyndham timeshare weeks to be applied their VIP status.

clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com

 

[HitchHiker71]

I thought you could also do a PIC Express, but its only good for 5 years.

PIC Express Contract

Are you a Club Wyndham owner? Learn more about Personal Interval Choice Express, which allows members to enroll non-Club Wyndham timeshare weeks to be applied their VIP status.

clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com

Yep, there’s no way to have PIC Express last longer than five years, whereas if you make the required developer purchase with the PIC Plus enrollments there is no expiration. There’s actually also a way to enroll PIC Plus contracts on a fee basis, without a developer purchase, but then a five year expiration applies to those PIC Plus contracts. This is seldom mentioned but it is available as an option for those who may want to level up in VIP via PIC plus, but not have to make the required developer purchase, which requires a much larger dollar amount compared to the fee based option. There are pros and cons to either approach.


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