Sticky - Give back your unwanted wyndham Timeshare - Wyndham Ovations / Wyndham Cares / Certified Exit

[Happy Hopian]

I have to laugh at myself because I was thinking about an odd-year resale contract I currently have in process, and I was thinking I know the odds are slim it transfers before the end of the year (I was only ever planning on getting use out of it in 2025 and beyond) but wouldn't it be nice if it did? But then I realized that the negative points balance in my current year is larger than the number of points in the new contract so I wouldn't even really have access to them if it transferred early. Well played, Wyndham!

So to be clear - you gave back the contracts but kept others in the same account? I was under the impression that if they took back, then you could not be an owner again.

 

[Timeshare Von]

We have our 2023 use scheduled for Christmas week. After that, I will figure out whether or not it's worth our doing the exit strategy offered by Wyndham. We only have 77k points (roughly $800/year MF including the RCI membership). Part of me still feels like we can use the points each year and having access to RCI's last minute rental opportunities, etc. may make keeping this one worthwhile.

We have officially divested ourselves from our floating week at Lifetime in Hawaii, so having RCI for exchanging isn't in play any more.

I'm closer and closer to pulling the trigger to deed back our Myrtle Beach T/S to Wyndham using the Certified Exit program. In reviewing the current situation with RCI (including last minute availability) I'm not sure keeping this small points package is would the money (or hassle). The tipping point may be the limited use and value of just 77k points . . . and when we'd have to travel in order to get a fully week for that low of a points package.

 

[bnoble]

If it were me, I would be hard-pressed to keep just a 77K account. I'd either add to it, or liquidate.

 

[brennall]

Hi, We have 7000 annual Shell Vacation Club points. Contract is paid in full and the maintenance fees are current. Does anyone know if we would be eligible for the Wyndham OUTRIGHT deed back program? Thanks in advance.

 

[Timeshare Von]

If it were me, I would be hard-pressed to keep just a 77K account. I'd either add to it, or liquidate.

No way I'm adding a plug nickel to it. We've made a lot of great trips on just 77k, but our travel interests continue to evolve away from timeshare ownership/usage.

 

[TUGBrian]

Hi, We have 7000 annual Shell Vacation Club points. Contract is paid in full and the maintenance fees are current. Does anyone know if we would be eligible for the Wyndham OUTRIGHT deed back program? Thanks in advance.

best way to find out would be to call and ask!

 

[paxsarah]

So to be clear - you gave back the contracts but kept others in the same account? I was under the impression that if they took back, then you could not be an owner again.

I’m pretty sure the only scenario where you can’t own again is if you fully exit and receive three free years of use via Certified Exit. This is the second time I’ve given back two contracts while keeping others (the first time was Ovation in 2019), and my ownership continued without much of a hitch both times.

But they treat you as if they can’t sell to you again - it landed me on the do not sell list in 2019 and I haven’t been asked since.

 

[chapjim]

I’m pretty sure the only scenario where you can’t own again is if you fully exit and receive three free years of use via Certified Exit. This is the second time I’ve given back two contracts while keeping others (the first time was Ovation in 2019), and my ownership continued without much of a hitch both times.

But they treat you as if they can’t sell to you again - it landed me on the do not sell list in 2019 and I haven’t been asked since.

So, if one wants to offload high maintenance fee contracts and acquire replacement contracts with lower maintenance fees, the acquisition should come first, right?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Wyndham does want Shell points back. I am sure you will be able to deed them back. They may even give you next year's use for free. Give them a call. It's the same number as Wyndham's certified exit program because it is Wyndham.

I asked my rep at Wyndham if I can deed back my Shell. She is trying to find out the answer. Wyndham didn't allow me to deed back my Wyndham contracts (resale). They pick and choose who they will allow to use the program.

Hi, We have 7000 annual Shell Vacation Club points. Contract is paid in full and the maintenance fees are current. Does anyone know if we would be eligible for the Wyndham OUTRIGHT deed back program? Thanks in advance

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

But they treat you as if they can’t sell to you again - it landed me on the do not sell list in 2019 and I haven’t been asked since.

 

[paxsarah]

So, if one wants to offload high maintenance fee contracts and acquire replacement contracts with lower maintenance fees, the acquisition should come first, right?

That’s exactly what I did both times.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Hi, We have 7000 annual Shell Vacation Club points. Contract is paid in full and the maintenance fees are current. Does anyone know if we would be eligible for the Wyndham OUTRIGHT deed back program? Thanks in advance.

We gave ours back several years ago, and if you search this thread for our username you’ll find our post on the process. It was very easy and relatively quick (took 4 months, maybe?). We’re so glad we did it!

 

[Timeshare Von]

We gave ours back several years ago, and if you search this thread for our username you’ll find our post on the process. It was very easy and relatively quick (took 4 months, maybe?). We’re so glad we did it!

Were you able to continue to use your former ownership for two years, as they promote in the Certified Exit Program? It's an interesting concept, if in fact it's legit.

 

[TheHolleys87]

Were you able to continue to use your former ownership for two years, as they promote in the Certified Exit Program? It's an interesting concept, if in fact it's legit.

No, that wasn’t offered to us, possibly because they were Shell points purchased long before Wyndham bought Shell. We were ridding ourselves of Shell because we couldn’t use it, and the trades into RCI weren’t as attractive to us as the trades into II were before the Wyndham takeover, so we didn’t really care.

 

[sforgues]

I have Shell - Hawaii and am looking at the Certified Exit program...2024 MFs will start to be billed in Janaury and our 2023 use year goes from 10/1/23 to 9/30/24. If I call to do the Certified Exit, am I still on the hook to pay the 2024 MFs starting in January as the process could take weeks or months? If yes, then am I obligated to pay for the full 2024 year or will the monthly fees stop once the process is finished? Is there any credit or refund of the monthly payments once the contract is "exited"? I'm just trying to understand the timing on all this. I would not be surprised if this is somewhere else on TUG, but if someone can point me to it or explain the timing of the exit program, I will really appreciated it!

 

[TUGBrian]

only way to get a solid answer on that would be to call and ask.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I have Shell - Hawaii and am looking at the Certified Exit program...2024 MFs will start to be billed in Janaury and our 2023 use year goes from 10/1/23 to 9/30/24. If I call to do the Certified Exit, am I still on the hook to pay the 2024 MFs starting in January as the process could take weeks or months? If yes, then am I obligated to pay for the full 2024 year or will the monthly fees stop once the process is finished? Is there any credit or refund of the monthly payments once the contract is "exited"? I'm just trying to understand the timing on all this. I would not be surprised if this is somewhere else on TUG, but if someone can point me to it or explain the timing of the exit program, I will really appreciated it!

What are your fees for 2024? I just saw someone post on Facebook, and the fees seemed extraordinarily high.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I have Shell - Hawaii and am looking at the Certified Exit program...2024 MFs will start to be billed in Janaury and our 2023 use year goes from 10/1/23 to 9/30/24. If I call to do the Certified Exit, am I still on the hook to pay the 2024 MFs starting in January as the process could take weeks or months? If yes, then am I obligated to pay for the full 2024 year or will the monthly fees stop once the process is finished? Is there any credit or refund of the monthly payments once the contract is "exited"? I'm just trying to understand the timing on all this. I would not be surprised if this is somewhere else on TUG, but if someone can point me to it or explain the timing of the exit program, I will really appreciated it!

We surrendered our Shell Hawaii ownership a few years ago via Certified Exit. We started the process near the end of the calendar year, extending into the next year, as you are. We paid the MFs monthly until the process was complete, then the monthly MF payments stopped. I think we paid 3 or 4 months’ worth. If you search for our username in this thread, you should find my summary report of the process, with a few additional details.

Edited to say our summary is post #135, April 19, 2021. For some reason, I can’t get the link to post.

 

[HitchHiker71]

So, if one wants to offload high maintenance fee contracts and acquire replacement contracts with lower maintenance fees, the acquisition should come first, right?

It's worth noting that Wyndham is not obligated to take back contracts via Certified Exit - and I've seen some cases with high MF contracts where Wyndham won't take them back via CE. In these cases, you have to figure out another way to offload those contracts in the resale market. The other option is, of course, to buy developer points from Wyndham, in which case they will likely take back the high MF contracts since you're spending tens of thousands of dollars with them.

 

[sforgues]

What are your fees for 2024? I just saw someone post on Facebook, and the fees seemed extraordinarily high.

They are $3,670 / yr for 9325 pts. Or $0.39/point.

They are high and they have been growing substantially each year...this year was 11.5% increase. (@TheHolleys87 I read your post about your experiences and that was helpful...thanks!)

After writing my question, I did an exercise to look at places we've booked in the last year and for the near future and the cost of these reservations versus what we would have paid if we had paid cash through extravacations.com and other travel sites. This is inexact because you really have to look at the comparison as you are booking a unit, but I found that in some cases like skiing locations and Hawaii, the savings was substantial over paying cash. In other cases, it was cheaper than paying cash. Using about two years worth of points in 2023, we stayed 29 nights in ski locations like Whistler, Beaver Creek (Avon) and Breckenridge plus the Big Island and San Clemente, San Diego (twice) and Scottsdale. Average cost per night was about $220 in maintenance fees. My inexact research suggests the per night cost would have been $376 per night because a couple of the ski locations and Hawaii were sky high. Again, I should reiterate that these numbers are probably inflated on the cash comparision because I'm not using a comparison of prices at the time of original booking. But still, I feel it's helpful in my decision process. I am going to continue to track again and find out for sure before next year comes around.

We've had the Shell points for probably 25 years and in the first 10 years or so I tracked these costs and found the savings made up for the price of the timeshare over that time. It seemed like that was not the case with escalating maintenance fees lately, but I think it may also be that during COVID, hotels were cheap. Now post-COVID, they are very expensive again. This examination was all precipitated by several Wyndham sales pitches over the last few months, with lots of mis-information and pressure tactics. The last one made us think that maybe we are just better off paying cash (as opposed to making us think we should buy more!). At this point, I feel like it's either a wash or a small advantage if we book the high value loacations, so we probably will continue to hang on with Shell.

 

[TUGBrian]

We surrendered our Shell Hawaii ownership a few years ago via Certified Exit. We started the process near the end of the calendar year, extending into the next year, as you are. We paid the MFs monthly until the process was complete, then the monthly MF payments stopped. I think we paid 3 or 4 months’ worth. If you search for our username in this thread, you should find my summary report of the process, with a few additional details.

Edited to say our summary is post #135, April 19, 2021. For some reason, I can’t get the link to post.

just for reference, you can right click on the post NUMBER itself and choose copy link for a direct link to any specific post on the forum.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Shell West Club is .31 per point. That is high.

How did you stay in Breck with your points? I really like Legacy Golf in Scottsdale, but we can get that with Wyndham points much cheaper.

Wyndham won't let us deed back Shell, either. I am stuck with Wyndham until I can give them away.

 

[TheHolleys87]

just for reference, you can right click on the post NUMBER itself and choose copy link for a direct link to any specific post on the forum.

Thanks! I’m reading TUG on my iPad without a mouse right now, so no right click available, but I’ll remember for when I’m on our desktop PC. I’ve been tapping the sideways-V “share” symbol, then Copy, to get the link, but that method didn’t want to work today.

 

[TUGBrian]

might be able to hold down your finger on the link to bring up the copy or share option?

 

[TheHolleys87]

might be able to hold down your finger on the link to bring up the copy or share option?

LOL, you’re right! I love TUG, the source of valuable information about much more than timeshares!