VDP Offer.

[AlbertaTravel]

I received an “offer” yesterday in a presentation. Need someone in the know about points. I own a gold older contract no 16 two weeks winter expires 2033. 1700/yr maintenance. They offered 250000 pts reg 250000 summer so 5000pts per yr reg. They said my two weeks were worth 4400. Offer amount is 32740k.
1. I don’t understand the summer offer. If I buy points they are points I thought.
2. Is this a good offer. I know the perks. Better rooms, taxi, pay for things with points and I can pull from the back end and take everyone. Maintenance fees are 2200 so that’s higher.
Opinions from VDP owners please.

 

[rboesl]

$32k sounds really high to me. The summer vs winter weeks really just refers to seasonal priority for making reservations. Summer season runs from 1st week of May to last week of October (approximately).

A summer season membership with the ability to bank points (basically save for following years) and to pull points from the back end of the contract you could easily have enough points to request a winter season week reservation. But, someone with a winter season membership would have priority over you.

Also, the number of points you mentioned (250000) seems way out of line. A summer season studio runs about 1200 points while a 1 bedroom will run about 2200 points. Simple math says with that number of points you could stay 100 weeks in a 1 bedroom and have points left over. Just doesn't sound right.

BTW having the ability to pull from the back end of your contract says you're a Senior Certificate member. In other words you were 60 or older when you signed your contract.

 

[LannyPC]

Offer amount is 32740k.

32740k means 32,740,000. Why would you need over 32 million points?

 

[AlbertaTravel]

This is a winter season of 250000 over 50 yrs which is 5000 per year which I will pay a maintenance fee for with ability to pull in another 250000. Pts if I choose to.

 

[AlbertaTravel]

The amount of the contract is 37K. sorry to have confused you Lanny.

 

[EJC]

Sounds to me like you'd be buying a 5,000 reg point membership. I believe you'd also get an optional 5,000 for summer use by paying an additional mtnc fee. It's like Gold time with the older gold memberships. With the older gold memberships, you own a winter or holiday week that you pay mtnc for, but you also get a summer week, if you choose to use it, for an additional mtnc fee. My guess is the 5,000 reg points can be used any time of the year and you MUST pay mtnc for them; I also assume the "summer" 5,000 points will only require a mtnc fee is you elect to use them during a given year--and they could only be for summer season use. I believe reg points have been selling for appx $15/point. If that is true, 5,000 points would cost $75,000. If that's the case, $32,740 for 5,000 reg points sounds like a great deal to me. My question is why would you do this "upgrade"? Are the minimal benefits/perks worth $32,740 PLUS the higher mtnc fee?

 

[EJC]

The amount of the contract is 37K. sorry to have confused you Lanny.

To me, the most appealing feature of the points system is you can accelerate the contract. I might be wrong (I don't think I am), but I don't believe you can use accelerated points for holiday weeks. Other than the higher mtnc fees, the inability to use accelerated points for holiday weeks was a deal killer for me.

 

[AlbertaTravel]

The contract says we can pull points for holiday time. Also the contract states elite pints.But you are correct about the winter and summer points.

 

[EJC]

The contract says we can pull points for holiday time. Also the contract states elite pints.But you are correct about the winter and summer points.

This quote is from the 2019 VPA rules and regs:

Members are entitled to Holiday Season use for a minimum stay of at least seven consecutive nights, and thereafter for another consecutive seven nights, for a total duration of either seven nights or fourteen nights, exclusively, with check in on Saturday which must not involve Banked, Borrowed, Rented or Accelerated Points.

That's where I got the idea that accelerated points could not be used for holiday use.

Perhaps they've changed the rules since 2019.

 

[EJC]

The contract says we can pull points for holiday time. Also the contract states elite pints.But you are correct about the winter and summer points.

From the 2017/2019 VPA rules and regs, I thought the following quote was interesting:

Preferred Points. A Member may use additional Preferred Points up to the amount of Club Points purchased but not in excess of a maximum aggregate of 14 days of Club Points each Calendar Year. Those Preferred Points may be used between May (Week 18) and October (Week 43) of a Calendar Year and are based on space availability. Preferred Points may not be converted to Club Points. Preferred Points may be split into smaller amounts. A Member shall pay a full Maintenance Assessment for a full Week of Preferred Points or a prorated Maintenance Assessment for use of less than a full Week of Preferred Points. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may be exchanged with an Exchange Company (if allowed) but cannot be Banked, Borrowed, or Rented. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may be requested up to 12 months prior to the actual date of use of the Preferred Points in question. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may only be combined with Club Points and used to upgrade a Suite Type 60 days or less prior to the Check-In Date. Consecutive reservations using different types of Club Points within the same stay are not permitted 61 days or more prior to Check-In Date and thereafter solely based upon availability.

--So, even though you'd be buying 5,000 reg (Club) points, you'd only be able to reserve 14 summer season days with your 5,000 Preferred points. I also found it interesting that you can combine point types for a suite type upgrade 60 days or less in advance. Notice it doesn't say you can make a reservation with combined points--just a suite upgrade.

Again, perhaps the rules have changed since 2019.

 

[AlbertaTravel]

So I think I may keep my contract the way it is. However can I just buy 1000 points and then buy points off the resale market

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

............. I own a gold older contract no 16 two weeks winter expires 2033. 1700/yr...........

So I think I may keep my contract the way it is.

However can I just buy 1000 points and then buy points off the resale market

Hi @AlbertaTravel,
You may want to look for a resale gold contract similar to what you already own.
I am assuming your goal is to spend more winter weeks away from Canadian cold & snow.

TUG Marketplace & Redweek are good search options for Villa / VDP rentals and resales.

 

[rboesl]

From the 2017/2019 VPA rules and regs, I thought the following quote was interesting:

Preferred Points. A Member may use additional Preferred Points up to the amount of Club Points purchased but not in excess of a maximum aggregate of 14 days of Club Points each Calendar Year. Those Preferred Points may be used between May (Week 18) and October (Week 43) of a Calendar Year and are based on space availability. Preferred Points may not be converted to Club Points. Preferred Points may be split into smaller amounts. A Member shall pay a full Maintenance Assessment for a full Week of Preferred Points or a prorated Maintenance Assessment for use of less than a full Week of Preferred Points. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may be exchanged with an Exchange Company (if allowed) but cannot be Banked, Borrowed, or Rented. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may be requested up to 12 months prior to the actual date of use of the Preferred Points in question. Preferred Points, or portions thereof, may only be combined with Club Points and used to upgrade a Suite Type 60 days or less prior to the Check-In Date. Consecutive reservations using different types of Club Points within the same stay are not permitted 61 days or more prior to Check-In Date and thereafter solely based upon availability.

--So, even though you'd be buying 5,000 reg (Club) points, you'd only be able to reserve 14 summer season days with your 5,000 Preferred points. I also found it interesting that you can combine point types for a suite type upgrade 60 days or less in advance. Notice it doesn't say you can make a reservation with combined points--just a suite upgrade.

Again, perhaps the rules have changed since 2019.

We just did a small upgrade to include Winter season. The clause you quoted above hasn't changed.

 

[EJC]

We just did a small upgrade to include Winter season. The clause you quoted above hasn't changed.

When I looked into purchasing a resale points contract a year or so ago, the particular contract I was researching would transfer as points with limited benefits. I believe I made a post about that around that time. For that contract, you wouldn’t get preferred time, you wouldn’t be able to accelerate the contract, and you could only book holidays 60 days out. For those reasons, I didn’t purchase. However, I believe another Tugger did buy it and she said she reserved holiday way more than 60 days out. So who knows. It’s a crap shoot. There is some rules and regs verbiage out there that says VPA points contracts transfer as premiere contracts—no points and less desirable than gold contracts. If you’re thinking you could buy 1000 points from the developer and then add resale points, I highly doubt they’d combine the contracts. My guess is 1000 points from the developer would cost appx $15k. It takes very appx twice that amount for a 1-bdrm winter unit. One bedroom winter resale gold contracts seem to be running around $3500; they are getting harder to find. I believe I saw one on Redweek.com. On that site search for “Villa Group.” It might be under the Cabo resort. You can tell they’re likely gold by the mtnc fee.

 

[EJC]

So I think I may keep my contract the way it is. However can I just buy 1000 points and then buy points off the resale market

Just checked redweek.com. Under VDPM Cabo, there is a winter gold 1-bdrm for $3900. Under VDPM Cancun, there is a 5,100 point membership for $5000. 2900 points are VPA optimal and 2200 are CNC (Cancun) optimal. The listing says it transfers as VPA. I don’t know enough about the “optimal” classification, i.e., I don’t know if the 2200 CNC optimal points can only be used at the Cancun resort. BTW, it’s like pulling teeth if you try to contact ResortCom for clarification of how a particular resale points contract will transfer. I’m in the process of buying a “full service” Redweek listing right now. Lindo Mar Resort (wonderful spot) in case you’re curious. The full service process seems slow. You can only communication via email and through an agent. I bought a VDPM two holiday weeks timeshare via Redweek in the past, and it was not full service. That went much more quickly because I could actually communicate with the seller.

 

[beach.bar.bob]

Hi Alberta -

Via private message you asked me to comment on this thread - so here goes. A lot if it depends on your situation and your personal answers to a number of questions. Understand, I'm asking these rhetorically - no need to respond to them - just think about it:

1) I think you've already rec'd plenty of good advice (I'm happy to see so many knowledgeable contributions to a UVC thread!)
2) Unless you plan on serious summer travel simply ignore the summer/preferred points in your analysis - sales reps only trying to sell a benefit you don't need/won't use.
3) What's not working for you regarding your current contract? If it works fine then what problem are you solving? Is solving the problem worth $32k?
4) A new contract will give you 50 more years - realistically few if any of us will use that. Your Gold contract has 10 more years to go. Is that an issue for you?
5) The magic about the 250k points contract is that it's 5,000 points per year which makes it an Elite contract. How important is being an Elite member to you? Will you use and leverage the benefits? Will it make a meaningful ($32k) difference to your travels? Not judging - I'm an Elite member after all!
6) Is 5,000 points per year the right number for you? Could you forgo the Elite membership and its benefits for say 2,500 points per year and leverage borrowing from front end and assuming you qualify for the senior benefits borrow from the back end as well and have the same usage benefits of 5,000 points per year but likely spend less for the privilege.
7) How hard are you willing to work at this? If you invest some time researching and working with Resortcom (time consuming and frustrating) to accomplish a resale as EJC suggests above you will certainly get a much better deal. But remember regardless of the number of points a resale won't qualify you for an Elite contract. If you pursue resale, watch the details to make sure if transfers with full usage capabilities.

The $32k price for 5,000 points doesn't sound terrible. They're giving you some credit/tradein value for your gold weeks but still I haven't seen many quotes under $10 per point and usually in the $12-15 range.

FWIW

bbb

 

[AlbertaTravel]

Thanks bbb
Ok. I’ve forgotten the summer points .. I don’t care about the taxis from airport etc. I just spoke with someone who is here At VDP Flamingos right now and has enough points for 6 months and she said normally you can’t get into an upgrade unless it’s available and there are not many units available at Estancia next door to Flamingos. So that takes care of Elite. I was only doing it so I could stay longer during the winter months. I don’t need the Elite membership. As long as I can borrow from the back end. thanks to everyone for their assistance with this. If you all were only sitting beside me at the presentation.

 

[EJC]

Thanks bbb
Ok. I’ve forgotten the summer points .. I don’t care about the taxis from airport etc. I just spoke with someone who is here At VDP Flamingos right now and has enough points for 6 months and she said normally you can’t get into an upgrade unless it’s available and there are not many units available at Estancia next door to Flamingos. So that takes care of Elite. I was only doing it so I could stay longer during the winter months. I don’t need the Elite membership. As long as I can borrow from the back end. thanks to everyone for their assistance with this. If you all were only sitting beside me at the presentation.

I'm thinking, if you're going to buy from the developer, 2,200 credits would make some sense. That's what a winter 1-bdrm del Arco costs. If you can accelerate 5 years each year (that's a big IF), that would give you 5 weeks in a 1-bdrm during winter (non-Holiday). If your goal is to stay longer than 2 weeks, that amount of points might be enough.

 

[EJC]

Thanks bbb
Ok. I’ve forgotten the summer points .. I don’t care about the taxis from airport etc. I just spoke with someone who is here At VDP Flamingos right now and has enough points for 6 months and she said normally you can’t get into an upgrade unless it’s available and there are not many units available at Estancia next door to Flamingos. So that takes care of Elite. I was only doing it so I could stay longer during the winter months. I don’t need the Elite membership. As long as I can borrow from the back end. thanks to everyone for their assistance with this. If you all were only sitting beside me at the presentation.

On second thought, 2,200 points might cost $26,000-$33,000. You could keep your present two gold 1-bdrm winter weeks and buy 3 more 1-bdrm gold weeks resale for $4,000 each. That would total $12,000 for the additional three weeks. AND, mtnc fees would be less than the mtnc on 5 accelerated weeks.