RCI for Dummies

[Nona]

I need help. Here are a lot of questions. I' ve bought the timeshare ,week 51 which is x -mas week ( Silverleaf). Does that bring a good trade? How do you trade? I bought resale and have not joined RcI. The previous owner banked a week with them and said I could travel this summer. How do I get that week and how does it work? My resort asked what I wanted to do with my week. Also I thought banking your week a year ahead of time would pull a good trade. If I join now and bank it will be about 9 months

 

[skinsfan]

I need help. Here are a lot of questions. I' ve bought the timeshare ,week 52 which is x -mas week ( Silverleaf).

Actually if you have week 52 then you have New Years week. Week 51 is christmas

Does that bring a good trade?

It depends on the classification that RCI gives the resort (Gold Crown or Silver Crown)

I bought resale and have not joined RcI. The previous owner banked a week with them and said I could travel this summer. How do I get that week and how does it work?

Well if you do get a membership with RCI then the owner can transfer the week to you, or they can get a guest pass for the week. Either way you need to contact RCI and find out where you can use the week once it is in your name. Here is the link to RCI's website www.rci.com

 

[Timeshare Von]

Nona,

I'll take a kick at some of your questions . . .

"Does that bring a good trade?" I do not have personal knowledge/experience with this resort, so I can't comment

"How do you trade? I bought resale and have not joined RcI. The previous owner banked a week with them and said I could travel this summer. How do I get that week and how does it work?" You will need to join RCI to do exchanges with them. Often when someone sells a timeshare and they have no others, they will transfer the balance of the RCI membership over to the buyer. This has happened for me once, extending my existing RCI membership by about a year. I don't know how it works for a current "non-member" of RCI. If they are retaining their RCI ownership, the only way you will be able to gain access to their banked week that they said they would give you you, is to join RCI and then have them (the sellers) transfer over that banked week from their RCI account to yours. Once all of the transferring takes place, you can request an exchange by calling RCI or via the online system (after you have set up your online account).

"My resort asked what I wanted to do with my week." You will need to figure that out once you find out about RCI. If the seller didn't transfer the balance of their account to you, to establish an account for you, you will need to decide if you want to join or not.

"Also I thought banking your week a year ahead of time would pull a good trade. If I join now and bank it will be about 9 months." It is generally true that the earlier you deposit, the better trading value you will have. See other threads on this topic including one that is currently active. To say a specific week will "pull a good trade" is not necessarily possible. Fact could be, the resort is simply too weak to pull "good" trades.

A quick option for you to travel this summer with that space banked week would be to work with the seller (if they are willing to do this) to find a place to trade to this summer. Have them do the trade under their account and have an RCI gift certificate provided for you to use the week. In order to this however, I expect the seller will expect you to pay for the GC.

Good luck with it!

 

[Spence]

It depends on the classification that RCI gives the resort (Gold Crown or Silver Crown)

WRONG. Quality status has no DIRECT bearing on Trade Power and Red/White/Blue really doesn't either. It's more Supply versus demand than anything else. You're doing the OP a disservice in answering this way.

 

[janapur]

I must agree with Spence. I own at a SC resort that significantly out-trades the GC at which I own. Being the only ts in the area and with only 18 units, the supply is tiny and the demand tremendous.

Jana

 

[skinsfan]

Wow spence your a nice guy huh geesh, I am only going on info that the resort told me when I was pitched on RCI and he said the better your week class the better the trade. SORRY for the miss info I will modify my answer. BUT Gold crown resorts DO have better trading power than a Silver crown correct?

WRONG. Quality status has no DIRECT bearing on Trade Power and Red/White/Blue really doesn't either. It's more Supply versus demand than anything else. You're doing the OP a disservice in answering this way.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Wow spence your a nice guy huh geesh, I am only going on info that the resort told me when I was pitched on RCI and he said the better your week class the better the trade. SORRY for the miss info I will modify my answer. BUT Gold crown resorts DO have better trading power than a Silver crown correct?

What the resort told you is probably not the best source for accurate information. Also, I would also say that GC doesn't necessarily mean better trading power. I'm certain my SC Lifetime in Hawaii trades better than my FF Flagstaff which is GC or my FF Kingsgate before it was downgraded this past year from GC to SC.

 

[skinsfan]

Then what's the Major difference between Gold Crown and Silver crown then? guess yet another reason I will never get a membership with them.

What the resort told you is probably not the best source for accurate information. Also, I would also say that GC doesn't necessarily mean better trading power. I'm certain my SC Lifetime in Hawaii trades better than my FF Flagstaff which is GC or my FF Kingsgate before it was downgraded this past year from GC to SC.

 

[AwayWeGo]

All That Glitters Is Not Gold.

Then what's the Major difference between Gold Crown and Silver crown then?

Don't know about the major difference, but 1 difference is how many points RCI gives for Gold Crown & Silver Crown timeshares via Points For Deposit. (Hint: Gold Crown gets more points.)

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[geekette]

RCI propoganda. Makes you think "better" and that you have to give GC to get GC, etc etc. Rating does not go into trade power equation, tho it may have some bearing on supply and demand.

Plenty of 'ranked' resorts will have pitiful trading power due to their location - especially in an oversupplied area. Whatever you learned from the rep at the resort, forget it. People here have the truth from experience.

 

[skinsfan]

lol I really didn't take to much to heart on what the rep with going on about, I figured what he said about RCI made sense at the time. Guess I was foolish to believe ANYTHING he said. Live and learn I guess

RCI propoganda. Makes you think "better" and that you have to give GC to get GC, etc etc. Rating does not go into trade power equation, tho it may have some bearing on supply and demand.

Plenty of 'ranked' resorts will have pitiful trading power due to their location - especially in an oversupplied area. Whatever you learned from the rep at the resort, forget it. People here have the truth from experience.

 

[Nona]

My mistake it is week 51, not 52. The color is white but the previous owner traded and went in the summer (red)to Orlando,Florida and somewhere esle. What are the steps? You trade your week ,then do you pick the times and locations of places that you want to go. They say yes or no (just guessing) How far in advance do they tell you this.

 

[skinsfan]

You deposit your week at your home resort with RCI and in exchange you have 2 years to make a request for the time you want. RCI has MANY restrictions and RCI will let you know if your requested time is available. To request time you can call in or you can use their website. There are many threads on how peoples experience with RCI has been... not good!

My mistake it is week 51, not 52. The color is white but the previous owner traded and went in the summer (red)to Orlando,Florida and somewhere esle. What are the steps? You trade your week ,then do you pick the times and locations of places that you want to go. They say yes or no (just guessing) How far in advance do they tell you this.

 

[Dani]

Click on the "Advice" link at the top of this page. You will see many, many articles on several subjects including an article by Steve Nelson entitled "Timeharing 101." Take a look at it as well as the other articles on exchanging. You should also take a look at the trade tests that have been conducted in the past here on TUG. They can be found in a "sticky" at the top of the Sightings board. It will give you some insight on how weeks generally trade and which weeks have strong trading power. There may even be some Silverleaf weeks in some of the old tests.

 

[Timeshare Von]

You deposit your week at your home resort with RCI and in exchange you have 2 years to make a request for the time you want. RCI has MANY restrictions and RCI will let you know if your requested time is available. To request time you can call in or you can use their website. There are many threads on how peoples experience with RCI has been... not good!

RCI doesn't have "MANY restrictions" nor are everyone's experiences with RCI "not good" . . . and you may actually have more than two year's to make your trade, depending on when you deposit and when your week is.

In the case of the OP, if we are talking about 51/2007 and they deposit now, they would have from now until 12/31/09 to take their exchanged week trip (making it over 2 1/2 years to travel). They could also request (and pay for) an extension should that be necessary to buy more time into 2010 to use their exchange week. The actual policy is that you can exchange for up to one year before the date of the week (if you deposit that early) and two years after the date, rounding to the end of the month.

The restrictions do exist but generally speaking they are known in advance, if you read your membership materials and the fine print.

My personal experience with RCI has been very good and I've been able to get to the places we want to go when we want to go there. It does require some advanced planning, and sometimes flexibility on what resort you will accept in a given area. If you are looking for a trade online, your confirmation is instantaneous. If you are working with a VC on the telephone, you will also know immediately. If however, you need to enter an "ongoing search" it could be days, weeks or months . . . or never.

As for trading the week in question for a summer week in Orlando, I'd say as a general rule of thumb, that should be a pretty easy trade so long as the OP doesn't have their hopes set for a primo resort. Orlando has considerable inventory and is rather easy to trade into so I don't know that I would use that as a guide as to the "value" of the trade you will experience in the future.

Also the trading a white week for a red Orlando week is an example of how the "RCI rules" don't always play out. They typically tell you you can expect your week to trade for like inventory . . . in terms of "season" and unit size. I have had my red studio SC, trade for a red 2BR GC . . . so as you can see, it doesn't always work exactly as they say it will. In that example it was my Hawaii unit trading for an Orlando unit in the very soft season albeit red.

You haven't really said what types of places you are thinking you would like to go using this new TS for exchanging. Do you know yet or are you simply exploring all of your options?

 

[Timeshare Von]

Then what's the Major difference between Gold Crown and Silver crown then? guess yet another reason I will never get a membership with them.

Resort hosted activities, ammenities provided, customer satisfaction on comment cards from RCI. I'm sure there are other considerations too, I just don't know what else.

 

[skinsfan]

Kind of like rankings with hotels?

Resort hosted activities, ammenities provided, customer satisfaction on comment cards from RCI. I'm sure there are other considerations too, I just don't know what else.

 

[Spence]

Wow spence your a nice guy huh geesh, I am only going on info that the resort told me when I was pitched on RCI and he said the better your week class the better the trade. SORRY for the miss info I will modify my answer. BUT Gold crown resorts DO have better trading power than a Silver crown correct?

No they don't necessarily. I have four unrated resorts that trade for anything available in RCI. And it's got nothing to do with whether I'm a nice guy or not, wrong is wrong.

 

[Dani]

Kind of like rankings with hotels?

Yes...and as has been said, whether a resort is a Gold Crown, Silver Crown, or a standard resort has very little to do with trade power when it comes to RCI. You must look at supply and demand when you are looking to determine how a week might trade within RCI. A weak trading Gold or Silver Crown resort can be the absolute worst buy in timesharing. Not only will you have weak trading power, but because your resort has a higher quality rating, it will have an high VEP which will prevent it from exchanging into so-called lesser resorts.

Keep in mind, trading within Interval is an entirely different ball game.

 

[Hophop4]

I have a Silverleaf white week 52 that pulls RCI red summer weeks in Orlando all the time. We did an exchange to Sedona, AZ for last June 2006 with it and also have an exchange to Southeast Florida for summer 2008.

You said Silverleaf asked you what you want to do with it. Why would they ask that if the week is already banked in RCI unless they were talking about the 2008 week.

 

[kibear]

Is it also true that if I'm searching for a trade within 45 days, trading power, VEP, etc. is tossed out the window? I know that my weaker GC trade would draw French Lick Resort in Indiana when my stronger GC trade would not pick it up in my own tests. Now that I have an ongoing search, I'm hoping that if a 2br comes up, I can get it no matter what the quality rating. Any ideas?

 

[Mel]

Trading Power is dropped at 45 days - if it's in the system you can take it. However, VEP is NOT dropped. If the quality is too low, you can't take it, just like you wouldn't be able to see it under extra vacations.

It would be silly of RCI to waive VEP filters at the last minute, because it would undermine the whole purpose of the filters - to prevent people from complaining about the quality of the resort.

 

[skinsfan]

Whether it is wrong or not, it is how you present yourself in responding to posts. Just because you have to correct someone doesn't mean you have to be rude in doing it. Ever heard the expression you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar?

And it's got nothing to do with whether I'm a nice guy or not, wrong is wrong.

 

[bnoble]

because your resort has a higher quality rating, it will have an high VEP which will prevent it from exchanging into so-called lesser resorts.

If I understand things, and I might not, VEP is per-account, not per week. So, this is only true if this is your *first* week enrolled with RCI. Later weeks don't change your VEP unless your "original" resort is no longer represented in RCI.

 

[sfwilshire]

If I understand things, and I might not, VEP is per-account, not per week. So, this is only true if this is your *first* week enrolled with RCI. Later weeks don't change your VEP unless your "original" resort is no longer represented in RCI.

When making an exchange in RCI Weeks, the VEP of the week being used for the exchange is what counts.

When searching for Extra Vacations or Last Call in RCI Weeks, the VEP of the week that is listed on your account number is the one that counts.

In RCI Points, all accounts have the same mid-level VEP.

Sheila