RCI Termination - points

[Carol01]

Hi. Does anyone have experience of terminating a points membership/contract with RCI. I gave 12 months notice last November and should now be released from the contract but they are demanding another years maintenance fees (over £1000). Our account clearly shows no points are available next year. All of my paperwork seems to agree with what I was told at the time of termination that I would only be liable for 2020 but because they issue invoices at the start of Nov for the following year they are forcing me to pay or keeping me tied into the contract. Use year is clearly defined as Jan - Dec, purchase agreement says rolling contract with use year starting in Jan, declaration says fees calculated on the points allocated in year so I’m at a loss as to why they are not terminating. Reps only reason was they do this to protect members that are still in the scheme but I’ve served my 12 months notice and paid until 31st Dec 2020. Notice was first given on 6th Nov and paperwork submitted on 27th Nov 2019. Any help would be greatly appreciated before I seek legal assistance.

 

[Eric B]

Is there an underlying TS for the points, or is this a travel club of some type? If it's the latter, it might help to know who the other party to the contract is; in my experience RCI doesn't sell naked points and it's not entirely clear to me whether their terms and conditions would allow another company to do so, though that could be set up by a specific contract between them and someone else.

 

[Carol01]

Is there an underlying TS for the points, or is this a travel club of some type? If it's the latter, it might help to know who the other party to the contract is; in my experience RCI doesn't sell naked points and it's not entirely clear to me whether their terms and conditions would allow another company to do so, though that could be set up by a specific contract between them and someone else.

Hi. It’s timeshare. From what I can see we traded our weeks for points which we can use anywhere in the world (from the RCI directory). I think our maintenance is still tied to our original property but members ‘pool’ their properties so they can use different resorts instead of just one. Each property has a points value per week and you use your points to rent it. RCI are the company that we are in a contract with but another company called Diversified Group are the ones collecting the fees (even though the invoices are sent from RCI UK). Diversified are based in Spain. I have written 3 times (to Diversified and RCI UK) and not had a reasonable explanation as to how they have calculated the fees and why we are paying for 25 months beyond the date that our termination was accepted.

 

[Eric B]

The way RCI points works in my experience is that you continue to own the underlying TS week, but the usage for that week is enrolled in RCI in exchange for RCI points, which you are then able to exchange within RCI for other TS stays or reserve your own week. You still, however, own the underlying TS week and are bound by whatever contractual relationship exists between you and the resort management. From what you've posted, it sounds like you removed the TS week from the RCI points program and are no longer getting the points. This doesn't affect your relationship with the resort management as a general rule.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Hi. Does anyone have experience of terminating a points membership/contract with RCI. I gave 12 months notice last November and should now be released from the contract but they are demanding another years maintenance fees (over £1000). Our account clearly shows no points are available next year. All of my paperwork seems to agree with what I was told at the time of termination that I would only be liable for 2020 but because they issue invoices at the start of Nov for the following year they are forcing me to pay or keeping me tied into the contract. Use year is clearly defined as Jan - Dec, purchase agreement says rolling contract with use year starting in Jan, declaration says fees calculated on the points allocated in year so I’m at a loss as to why they are not terminating. Reps only reason was they do this to protect members that are still in the scheme but I’ve served my 12 months notice and paid until 31st Dec 2020. Notice was first given on 6th Nov and paperwork submitted on 27th Nov 2019. Any help would be greatly appreciated before I seek legal assistance.

Because you mention payment in £ / UK - I wonder if there are some details that are not familiar to most North American TUG members.

also - I assume you are using the word “scheme” in the UK sense; where I understand it means program.

It is possible to own an RCI affiliated resort that does not have an individual underlying deed . Mexican Timeshares are RTU / right to use contracts.

I own Taranova - which is Canada based 1200 member association , with properties / units owned in Costa Rica and 3 USA locations. The incorporated club owns the property ( due to US tax issues for Canadians on deeded property) and is owner controlled with board members. All weeks are essentially float weeks when deposited into RCI ( upon request) and get RCI TPU’s ( not points).It also has a structure that is designed to end in about 2034 . Members have been allowed to leave sooner with a negotiated payment of xx future years MF.
This is done to give financial protection for all members.

It sounds like your ownership of RCI points has some similarities , and you need to revisit your paperwork and how the ownership exit works and who you contact when there is a discrepancy as you describe.

added-
Your 2nd post mentioned Diversified Group in Spain .I understand that in Europe there was a legal ruling regarding “ forever “timeshare contracts” and it that negotiated exits as you describe became allowed.

Good luck in finding a resolution.

 

[dioxide45]

The way RCI points works in my experience is that you continue to own the underlying TS week, but the usage for that week is enrolled in RCI in exchange for RCI points, which you are then able to exchange within RCI for other TS stays or reserve your own week. You still, however, own the underlying TS week and are bound by whatever contractual relationship exists between you and the resort management. From what you've posted, it sounds like you removed the TS week from the RCI points program and are no longer getting the points. This doesn't affect your relationship with the resort management as a general rule.

I suspect you are right, cancelling the RCI points just pulls you out of RCI points, the owner still owns the week. If they want to cancel or deedback the week, then there may be additional costs and many HOAs or developers charge one or more years of MFs to do that. The reason is that they need to try to find a taker for that week the owner gives back and that can take a year, more or even never.

 

[B&Bruskin]

Hi. Does anyone have experience of terminating a points membership/contract with RCI. I gave 12 months notice last November and should now be released from the contract but they are demanding another years maintenance fees (over £1000). Our account clearly shows no points are available next year. All of my paperwork seems to agree with what I was told at the time of termination that I would only be liable for 2020 but because they issue invoices at the start of Nov for the following year they are forcing me to pay or keeping me tied into the contract. Use year is clearly defined as Jan - Dec, purchase agreement says rolling contract with use year starting in Jan, declaration says fees calculated on the points allocated in year so I’m at a loss as to why they are not terminating. Reps only reason was they do this to protect members that are still in the scheme but I’ve served my 12 months notice and paid until 31st Dec 2020. Notice was first given on 6th Nov and paperwork submitted on 27th Nov 2019. Any help would be greatly appreciated before I seek legal assistance.

We own in Minnesota and recently exited from RCI, including the point system for our White Birch unit.

You need to request the exit form from RCI and fill it out, and I returned ours by certified mail.

It can be tricky because RCI advised us to wait until we actually used our week, but I was told by our resort that we should send in the request right away, or we might be locked in for the next year & our week would be claimed by RCI. I am not sure what or how that might have turned out but we are happy to be out of the points system.
Our memberships in RCI ends on 11/30/2020.

We will no longer need to reserve our owned week to stay in our unit. When we wanted to use our own week we had to reserve 12 to 11 months in advance. In the past we used the points to travel many places. And I do not have many complaints except the long lead time to get our own place. Good luck