RCI Family Share

[kgamwell]

Hi, have any of you heard of the RCI Family Share program and web site - https://www.rcifamilyshare.com. It allows RCI members to sign up friends and family and they can that way get their own RCI account even though they don't personally own a time share. My brother in law has some time shares and he is an RCI member and according to this web site he can let me sign up with an RCI account using his RCI id and his name and phone number. Then he can give me points or weeks if he wants to but he doesn't have to. I can just buy the cash weeks at RCI. Also once I have the RCI points account, I could buy points from Tuggers.

I was wondering if anybody has done this with their friends or family?

 

[DeniseM]

Interesting! It must be free, because the price seems to be hidden.

Found it - it's on the payment form on a drop down menu:

 

[kgamwell]

From researching RCI Family Share this is how I think it works.
If you sign up with the RCI Family Share account you still have to pay the standard amount for the RCI account. And you can also pay the additional extra amount for the RCI platinum level.
This RCI Family and Friends membership account is different from putting your family on your timeshare deed. If a family member is on your deed then they can use your RCI account so they don't have to pay for their own account. But with this RCI Family Share account, each person who signs up with your RCI id, has to pay for their own account and they cannot see the account information of the original RCI member. However the original RCI member can see the account activity of their friends and family who they allowed to sign up under their account.

 

[kgamwell]

Oh yes, thanks for posting the RCI Family Share, FAQs page.

 

[kgamwell]

When you read the FAQ questions and answers on the RCI Family Share website you might get the idea that the original subscribing RCI member must either give the "friends or family" member a free week or points. Because I had this question I called RCI to ask them if it was true. Below is our chat. You can see from the chat log that the sponsoring RCI member does not have to give the new "friends or family share" member a free week or points. I thought this would help anyone thinking of helping out their family or friends with an RCI account.

Here is my (edited to take out personal info) chatting transcript:
...
Me (7/7/2021, 4:34:25 PM): My brother in law has the RCI account. My question is that if I join RCI through the RCI family share plan does my brother in law have to give me a week or points? Or can I just do the cash weeks?
Ava M. (7/7/2021, 4:35:31 PM): Yes, you can use the rental options with RCI.
Me (7/7/2021, 4:35:33 PM): The FAQ mentions weeks and points but it does not say the RCI Sharer member has to give them
Me (7/7/2021, 4:35:54 PM): So he would not have to give us points or weeks?
Ava M. (7/7/2021, 4:36:13 PM): He has the option to, but you can also use the rental program.
Me (7/7/2021, 4:37:01 PM): ok thanks
Ava M. (7/7/2021, 4:37:07 PM): You're welcome. Thanks for visiting RCI.com.

 

[kgamwell]

I found out today that you cannot transfer RCI points into an RCI Family Share account from a third party. Only from the family member who helped you setup the family share account.

 

[HudsHut]

Thanks for letting us know. I had not seen this new feature.

 

[mdurette]

I wonder if this feature just adds ease to the timeshare owner - let family and friends look for themselves.

It would be interesting to know if familyshare offers the same exact pricing for EV or points required for exchanges.

 

[tschwa2]

Once we get the RCI Family Share account we will probably want to buy RCI points. I have noticed some RCI points for sale here on TUG. Also someone mentioned that with an RCI points account you have to pay a $98.00 transfer fee but with a weeks account you can transfer points into your account for free. Can anyone explain why that is or whether it is true?

I'm not sure what happens if your RCI account is a weeks account but we plan to have a points account so all is good.

RCI weeks members have to pay the $98 transfer fee to transfer tpu's (although not into the family share account apparently). RCI points members can transfer points once a year for free or $98 after the first time, platinum members can transfer unlimited times for no extra charge (again it seems no fee for back and forth between family share)

 

[tschwa2]

I imagine the family share account has to be in a single name and that person booking through their family share account can make a reservation in their own name and would not require a guest cert and they could book and pay for a stay for someone else by purchasing a guest cert.

 

[CPNY]

I imagine the family share account has to be in a single name and that person booking through their family share account can make a reservation in their own name and would not require a guest cert and they could book and pay for a stay for someone else by purchasing a guest cert.

Is there a way to have two separate RCI accounts under the same name?

 

[Free2Roam]

Is there a way to have two separate RCI accounts under the same name?

Yes, I have multiple RCI accounts in my name.
- One weeks account paid by Wyndham (my 1st. I've had it over 20 years... long before Wyndham had portal access thru their website to RCI)
- One "Points" account thru Wyndham's portal
- One regular Points account that I pay for
- The Weeks account that's included with my regular Points account
- I also had an account thru my Bluegreen Vacation Club ownership, until I found new owners for those contracts a few years back

 

[tschwa2]

It looks like RCI has been tweaking their family share and may even be discontinuing it. The cert on the site expired 5 days ago but if you are willing to go to an unsecured site, it still lets you. I went through the process of setting one up and it lets you put 2 members on the account.
The fees have changed. The weeks account went from $99 to $154. A points account is still $124. I believe the weeks account now has a fee of $29 to transfer a tpu deposit to the family share account and then it can be returned or the leftovers returned to the mail account for free. It doesn't look like a fee to transfer rci points but it could be the standard $98.

Speaking of the points transfer fee, an agent told me yesterday that there is no longer 1 per year free for standard members, each transfer is $98 but still free for platinums.

My older son is turning 21 next summer so I am trying to decide if this would work better or if the 5 year guest pass on my weeks account would be better option.
If anyone doesn't have rci and wants to try it out for the getaways and last calls, they can use me as their friend and set up a points account share and report back how it works. If you want to try out rci points we could DM about an allotment to transfer.