I’m just curious about this after seeing that Transitions is $1000/contract now. Has anyone just stopped paying the maintenance fees and let Diamond foreclose? I suppose someone who did that may not have much occasion to hang out on TUG but I thought I would ask. I’m curious how many years they let go by and how damaging it actually is to your credit rating. We have 7 paid off contracts and don’t intend to stop using them soon, but there seems to be a pretty clear trend of declining benefits and I suspect that soon we won’t think the MFs are worth it anymore. If we don’t need credit for any major purchases coming up... why not?
I'll tell you my experience. I had 10k in points, completely paid for, but bought them way below what they are selling them for now. So long story short, wife had serious medical issues, my father passed and left my mother essentially homeless, etc. Long story short, bought a place super cheap for her, took a hard hit on my credit. No way in hell I was going to make the 2k payment in time. I called DRI (when Cloobeck ran it) and explained the situation and told the agent I could make the full payment with late fee's once I got my bonus in spring. He explained that I could post date the payment and avoid the late fee's, I was thankful. I also told him that given the circumstances, I'm probably going to be late for a couple of years. He stated he didn't see a problem with that and just call if I couldn't make it by the due date. One problem solved...so I thought....
Next year, still trying to keep the screws down, with both my wife's and mothers health. Again, wasn't going to make the MF payment until spring. So I called, like I was instructed...and the agent said they could not do that (Cloobeck was pretty much out of power by this point). So he referred me to the manager....that bitch was giddy with the fact that I might lose my timeshare. I made the payment in spring with the late fee's...and they hit my credit report on one of the companies.
But something happened shortly after that, I got a promotion with a huge pay raise, my Mom was taken care of and my wife was well. So we decided, to "go for it" and take that European Vacation. But when I was looking at booking the DRI resort near Paris...noticed the obscene point cost. Points to dollars, it was about $1200....yet Interval had the week for $450 in January. I booked through Interval....and I was pissed, fyi, this was in May. Fast forward to September, we were staying at the Polo Towers for the weekend....and gave in to the "Owners Update". Said "no" to everything...then the closing manager came by and said "Well, if you buy the Sampler, we will waive your Maintenance Fee's for next year". I inquired the price, surprise, surprise, it was the same price as the MF's, but slightly higher. And as someone who works in Marketing Analytics, seemed plausible, they were on the hook for the MF's already. So I make payments with interest, slightly higher than my MF's while trying to sucker me into buying more later via hard sell. I get it, I'm still paying for the MF's in a round about way, but also subsidizing their cost a little. Make's sense to me. On top of that, the Sales Manger stated that I will get a MF bill, but to just ignore it as it's pre-programmed into their system.
I really underestimated their greed....
So I had the cash on hand to pay for the maintenance fee's on time for the first time in two years. But since it wasn't all "due at once" being waived and in the form of payments of the sampler, decided to splurge a bit while in Europe. And we had an awesome time...and used Interval the whole time as DRI points didn't make any economical sense.
So, we get back home. And about late February, given the threatening notices...I call DRI. Long story short, Sales Manager was fired, and MF's would not be waived AND I was still required to pay the MF's with late fee's. I had one thing on them....the Sales Manager wrote the MF's waiver on paper...and texted me the guarantee, which I kept. In this rare case, I got my money back on the Sampler. But it was too late....
I had spent the money for the MF's already on a false pretense. My patience had come to an end. Given the false assurance from the Sales Manager, the cost per point on a off season vacation and the rude manger who was all to happy to wish me misery....I had enough. No point in throwing good money after bad...even if I do take a hit on my credit report....which I was prepared to challenge.
I emailed DRI, given the circumstances (mentioned above), I would not make any MF's.
I got one email that someone would reach out to me. We got one message on our phone from a rep from DRI....I didn't return the call. I wanted to see if they would make more attempts...they didn't. End of story, I logged into my account on DRI, and it said I no longer had a membership. No hits to my credit report (aside from what I mentioned above).
But what's weird, they are still paying for my II membership. but have not used it. I have bought Worldmark on Ebay since then for less than the MF's for DRI...and we are enjoying it. I think about buying DRI on Ebay every once in awhile, because I do like some of the resorts...but then I see the price of MF's for 5k points...and it brings me back to my senses.
