RCI: Combining Deposits

[DeniseM]

I haven't done this for a few years, so bear with me:

In the past, I believe I would combine the oldest deposit with the newest deposit, so both deposits would have the end date of the new one, with the longest date.

Now it is giving me the choice of 12 mos. or 24 months - when does that time begin?

 

[tschwa2]

The time starts from the day you do the combine- or rather the end of the month 12 or 24 months from when you combine. It doesn't matter what the previous expiration for each deposit was.

 

[djyamyam]

To add to the other post, you don't want to combine old with new. Combine the oldest ones

 

[bizaro86]

It may not make sense to combine a newer deposit as you can end up with less time on it than you had before. Situation dependent, obviously.

 

[DeniseM]

So is the best strategy to wait until your 2 oldest deposit are about to expire and combine them then?

(You responded while I was writing - thank you!)

 

[JeffC]

Yes. The expiration date on the combined deposit will be from the date you do it.

 

[wackymother]

So is the best strategy to wait until your 2 oldest deposit are about to expire and combine them then?

(You responded while I was writing - thank you!)

Yes, although sometimes I wait till the oldest deposits are about to expire and then I do combine them with newer deposits, so I have one big deposit. I usually go for the 24 months. Also, when we were on a school calendar and mostly traveled in the summer, I tried to wait till it was as close as possible to July to combine.

 

[bizaro86]

So is the best strategy to wait until your 2 oldest deposit are about to expire and combine them then?

(You responded while I was writing - thank you!)

I always wait until my oldest deposit is about to expire, and then put everything I want combined into one new deposit. I often have a couple of "change" pieces and I combine all of that, plus anything expiring in the next 18 months or so.

 

[Luanne]

I always wait until my oldest deposit is about to expire, and then put everything I want combined into one new deposit. I often have a couple of "change" pieces and I combine all of that, plus anything expiring in the next 18 months or so.

Question. If you combine several deposits into one is there only one fee?

 

[DeniseM]

I think so.

 

[tschwa2]

Question. If you combine several deposits into one is there only one fee?

One fee for up to, I think 9 different deposits. You may be able to do even more but I think you may have to call or chat. I've never reached the limit and I have combined 4 or 5 leftovers before.

If you have one deposit that gets a special benefit or has a specific limitation, you want to be careful when combining. For example if you have one left over deposit from an Orlando resort and others, the combined deposit will not be eligible to exchange into DVC. On the other side if you have Vacation Village affiliate deposits and combine with a non affiliate you lose your $159 internal exchange fee with that combined deposit.

One more caution. You can't combine a deposit that is attached to an ongoing search. You would have to cancel the search and then start it up with the new combined deposit and you would lose your place in line (although if you get a sympathetic RCI person, they may back date it to the original date).

 

[silentg]

One fee for up to, I think 9 different deposits. You may be able to do even more but I think you may have to call or chat. I've never reached the limit and I have combined 4 or 5 leftovers before.

If you have one deposit that gets a special benefit or has a specific limitation, you want to be careful when combining. For example if you have one left over deposit from an Orlando resort and others, the combined deposit will not be eligible to exchange into DVC. On the other side if you have Vacation Village affiliate deposits and combine with a non affiliate you lose your $159 internal exchange fee with that combined deposit.

One more caution. You can't combine a deposit that is attached to an ongoing search. You would have to cancel the search and then start it up with the new combined deposit and you would lose your place in line (although if you get a sympathetic RCI person, they may back date it to the original date).

I just did this I had some small TPU so I combined 4 of them. One fee. For one year. You can combine 10 maximum. I now have 23 TPU to use by next September. Then I’m done. I have 3 confirmed vacations . And have canceled our trip next week. Too much Covid in areas we were going. Will make a short trip end of October.

 

[bizaro86]

Question. If you combine several deposits into one is there only one fee?

One fee. There is a limit as others have mentioned but I've never reached it. That's why it makes sense to clean up any "change" in the same transaction.

I would never pay a combine fee to rescue 5 TPU, but if you combine at the same time it's no extra charge.

 

[djyamyam]

One fee for up to, I think 9 different deposits. You may be able to do even more but I think you may have to call or chat. I've never reached the limit and I have combined 4 or 5 leftovers before.

You can only combine up to 10 deposits online. I've combined more but you have to call in to talk to a guide to have them do it. What they do is they combine 10 and then do a second combine of your remaining ones along with the new superbig one you just combined but don't charge you the second fee

 

[Conan]

There’s a trade-off between combining, say, five 20-TP deposits into one 100-TP deposit (paying only one fee) and setting up the ongoing search to snag the hard-to-get exchange (being limited to one ongoing search from that 100-TP deposit and getting only one favorable place-in-line).

 

[Happytravels]

I haven't done this for a few years, so bear with me:

In the past, I believe I would combine the oldest deposit with the newest deposit, so both deposits would have the end date of the new one, with the longest date.

Now it is giving me the choice of 12 mos. or 24 months - when does that time begin?

View attachment 40198

WOW this went way up. I think last year or year before we paid 189.00 for the 24 months.

 

[wackymother]

WOW this went way up. I think last year or year before we paid 189.00 for the 24 months.

It did go way up. The exchange fee is way up too. I think it was $189 pre-covid and now it's $249.

 

[bnoble]

I think it was $189 pre-covid

pre-pre-pre Covid maybe. Weeks was at $239 in early 2018.

RCI hikes Weeks fees...highway robbery!

Did I blink and miss the latest exchange fee hike ? It's gone up so much that I consider it extortion at this point! No more deposits for that greedy bunch!

tugbbs.com

However, the increase in combine fees makes Points or a mini-system portal that much more attractive.

 

[wackymother]

pre-pre-pre Covid maybe. Weeks was at $239 in early 2018.

RCI hikes Weeks fees...highway robbery!

Did I blink and miss the latest exchange fee hike ? It's gone up so much that I consider it extortion at this point! No more deposits for that greedy bunch!

tugbbs.com

However, the increase in combine fees makes Points or a mini-system portal that much more attractive.

I'm living in the past! Sigh. $249 is a chunk of money.

 

[rickandcindy23]

RCI sure knows how to get the money out of timeshare owners. We are cash cows to that company. I wish I owned nothing with RCI, but when our home resort had an opportunity to go with II, the vote was against moving to II. Maybe we would have had poor trading power with II.

 

[bnoble]

As always, though, the important question when considering any particular exchange is: "Is this a reasonable way to pay for this vacation?"

 

[Luanne]

I put a reminder in my calendar to look at combining deposits next year when I had some due to expire.

 

[silentg]

I’m going to make one more exchange then I’m done with RCI( wishful thinking).

 

[wackymother]

As always, though, the important question when considering any particular exchange is: "Is this a reasonable way to pay for this vacation?"

Yes...now that we're not tied to school calendars anymore, I was trying to decide if it was worth four exchanges back to back to back to stay in the same very modest resort for a month off-season. I decided it is, in some cases.

 

[jacknsara]

So is the best strategy to wait until your 2 oldest deposit are about to expire and combine them then?

(You responded while I was writing - thank you!)

Aloha Denise,

Since we deposited our KBV and Shearwater units with RCI for COVID related reasons similar to yours, I’ll detail out what we decided to do.

Our RCI account was on the verge of expiring and we were going to be happy to see it go. But we renewed it for 3 years to align with the sudden need to make deposits. My decision making view of the MFs paid for those deposits is as sunk costs – essentially a non-factor. About the only state we would want to exchange into is Hawaii. In order to have sufficient TPU for resorts we would want to trade into with long lead time, we combined our two KBV deposits and launched an OGS for Maui. We subsequently, used that deposit for an immediate match of an April 2022 Kingsland unit on the BI (with 16 TPU change); this enabled us to use an Alaska Airlines companion fare that was nearing expiration. I deemed the TPU for the Shearwater deposit sufficient for its own OGS for a week at a short list of specific Kauai resorts appended to our Feb 2022 stay on Kauai using our ownership weeks. We have cancellable hotel reservations to cover that week should the OGS fail; my forecast is that we will likely get a match at 3 – 6 weeks lead time before check in. Assuming there is sufficient change left over from that OGS, we will combine the two remainders either when the first approaches expiration or when we have a new definable plan that depends on combining.

Jack