Received 75,000 Marriott points unexpectedly!

[thinze3]

Yesterday, I logged in to my Marriott account and noticed that I had many more Rewards points than I thought I should have. There were 75,000 more to be exact! What a pleasant surprise that was. :whoopie:

Here is what I think happened. Back in July, we purchased an EOY at Legends Edge. The purchase was specifically for getting into the Marriott points system. I had become envious of Tuggers, like Brian, who take such advantage of the Marriott system and decided to check in to it. Legends Edge is the closest MVCI resort to my home and appeared to be a very good points/dollar deal.

Anyhow, the EOY unit was about $11,000 +/- a few dollars, and we put 15% down payment using our MR credit card. I asked about the financing incentives and was told specifically that you had to finance a minimum of $15,000 to qualify. The incentive Marriott was offering was 150,000 MR points (after 3 months) for an EY or 75,000 for EOY. I asked specifically if it was possible to finance $7,500 for an EOY to qualify and was told NO by my sales person and his manager.

Since, as many times as not, the Marriott sales people tend be vague, misleading, and unsure on the “more difficult” questions, I decided to test this theory. I just made my third payment a few weeks ago, and guess what, there are now 75,000 bonus points are in my account! They are labeled as “LEGENDS EDGE PURCHASE BONUS”.

So much for the thought that you must finance $15,000 to qualify for the financing bonus, I just found out otherwise. Now I can use my MR credit card to pay off the principal balance and get roughly 45,000 more MR points!

If we keep reading (and writing on) Tug, we CAN use this Marriott system to its fullest.

 

[camachinist]

If you can use the MR VISA to pay off the principal, then you just solved a big problem for me. Let us know how that goes and congrats on getting your point load!

Pat

 

[thinze3]

I may be making an incorrect assumption. I will definately check into it.

If you can use the MR VISA to pay off the principal, then you just solved a big problem for me. Let us know how that goes and congrats on getting your point load!

Pat

 

[Eric F]

Points Incentive Clarification

The 75,000 points deposited are probably the "purchase incentive" points for an EOY purchase. The 75,000 points puchase incentive is contingent on keeping the financing for a minimum of 6 months before paying off the mortgage. It usually takes 6 months from the closing for the points to be deposited in your account.

It sounds like there was a misunderstanding about "purchase incentive" and the following "finance payment option" incentive.

Marriott also has a finance incentive plan that encourages financed customers to set-up monthly Auto-Payments to a credit card account (most owners have Marriott Rewards Visa cards anyway) or to a checking account at the closing. To qualify for the program you must finance a minimum of $15,000. This program is an additional way to earn Marriott Rewards points, and is separate from the "purchase incentives". If the purchaser sets-up and makes the auto-payments (without additional prepayments), Marriott will deposit 25,000 Marriott Rewards points every 6 months into the designated Rewards account. So this incentive can equal 50,000 points every year of the financing. 50,000 times 10= 500,000 points. That could be used for 2 Rewards combo package trips to Europe worth $5,000 each.

Are you 100% positive that you can pay-off your financed balance with a credit card? I do not think you can. I am going to double-check on it myself. Be sure to double-check that with a Marriott Owner Services manager.

 

[thinze3]

You may be right. The 75,000 MR points may have not been limited by the $15,000 minimum financing amount whereas the 25,000 MR points every six months is.

I looked online today and could not find a place to use a credit card to pay any portion of my loan. It doesn't look good, but I will call and find out.