Points are good for 2 years, 3 if you pay to have the platinum benefits. After that you can pay to extend them.
Go to the RCI website and at the bottom of the page you'll see HELP. You dont even have to sign in to access this. Open that up and then look for HELP LIBRARY. In that section you'll see RCI POINTS MEMBERSHIP. You can select from several topics to learn more.
Take note of FEES & FORMS and how you found the topic. RCI gives a discount when you pay for mutiple years at once for their subscription fees/membership dues and the platinum benefits fees too. It gives the rates for 5 years but most number of years I've ever been able to pay for at once is 4 years and most times it's only been 3 years. Our use year is February 1-January 31. If I can wait until after January 1, I can pay for 4 years. I've never figured out why not 5. However if I do wait until January, I can't make any reservations past January 31st without having to pay to renew. We have a lot of points and travel extensively with our timeshares so most times I end up settling for only being able to pay for 3 years.
In the FEES & FORMS you'll find the cost to extend points. The fee is $109 for up to 30,000 points and $159 for more than 30,000 points.
As an owner at Grandview, a Vacation Village resort, within 45 days of the check in date you can book two weeks a year for just the approximate cost of the exchange fee and no points needed. Click on the menu bars in the upper right hand corner and then OFFERS. When you click on BOOK you'll see a list of options including LAST CALL VACATIONS that also don't require you to use your points to book, just the fee. The LCV are also only within 45 days of the check in date. I see a larger selection of inventory available in the Vacation Village BONUS WEEKS than LAST CALL WEEKS. Also the exchange fee seems to be a little bit less than with LCV. If you have the vacation time and a somewhat flexible schedule, many owners are able to make good use of these weeks.
I've seen people saying there's only junk in the LCV but others find stays they can use. It's not just studios and one bedroom/partial kitchen units at resorts no one particularly cares for in that available inventory. You can find one bedroom/full kitchen and two bedroom units at a number of good resorts.
The best advice anyone can give you is to familiarize yourself with the website and what's typically available in the inventory in areas you would want to go to. When you know what's typically available, you'll know to grab a stay at a resort that doesn't often have availability or the heavily discounted point stays that can be found within about 30 days of the check in date. The inventory is constantly changing. I like to say that luck favors the persistent. Meaning you're more likely to be lucky in finding great stays the more often you search.
RCI often runs promotions/deals for 10-30% off the points and/or money off the exchange fee. Pay attention to the emails about them and take advantage of them if you can.
