What is the best way to sell HGV Points

[kmbat]

My husband died this past year and we have these points. Without his income I can't afford to maintain this. I am not sure what to do. Hoping to get some guidance.

 

[geist1223]

The first question is "What do you actually own?" The next question is "Is there still a loan on the Account or just ongoing Maintenance Fees?" If these are HVC (previously DRI) they are pretty worthless on the resell market.

 

[hurnik]

If the deed is paid off, and all you owe is the maintenance fees, then I believe Hilton does have a deedback process. I *think* if your husband was the only name on the deed, you can then contact Hilton and basically inform them he's passed and they should be able to begin the process to take it back. But not exactly sure how all that works.

My condolences, BTW.

 

[kmbat]

There is no loan. This is bought and paid for. I own 5000 pts every other year. Maintenance is like $650 a year.
They do have a program to take the points back. You have to apply and hope you meet all there criteria after 2 years. It's will been 2 years the end of March. We did these as an "upgrade" to a property we were given by his parents in Sedona so that we could use it in other places. I am listed on the deed so it's not just him or I would have given them back that way. My fees are charged in Jan and was hoping to see if there ws a way to get rid of them before. I would give them away if someone would take them. They me of value to someone who already has points and wants to add.

 

[1Kflyerguy]

Sorry for your loss. That is not a large package, so the appeal will be limited. IF HGV will take these back in March, that is probably your best option. I understand the desire to avoid the 2026 fees, but the reality is that reselling or even giving them away will take a long time, months in the best case, and quite possibly much longer. You won't be able to transfer them without the fees being current.

 

[PGH15227]

My husband died this past year and we have these points. Without his income I can't afford to maintain this. I am not sure what to do. Hoping to get some guidance.

If you only MF, no loans/liens, you have 4 options:
1. On the Hilton site look for the "Transitions Program". Fill out the questionnaire and submit. If they accept ( I think they always accept points), they will give uouj a price to exit. Usually 18 months of MF. No time window is offered. I've done this.
2. Google "Timeshare Exit Companies" and look for sites that give reviews of many companies. There are several and they give good reviews where you can compare the best ones. They will charge you to handle the entire process. If go this route, be sure to ask if there could be additional charge for lawyer fee, or TS requiring a transfer fee. Learn the expected time window for completion and if they offer a refund for failing to exit.
3. Contact a timeshare resale company. SellMyTimeshareNow is the biggest. For a fee they will advertise and handle the resale. Reviews from buyers are 4-5 star. Reviews from sellers are 1-2 stars. The fee is for 2 years (I think). There's no guarantee for sale nor refunds if it doesn't sell. Points have no intrinsic value.
4. Just walk away. Ready your contract!! Look for the Default section. But is you only owe MF, which allows you to use the points, there no lien they can place on you. They have the option to terminate you membership is you don't pay for several years. Big deal, you don't want it anyway. But, if for some reason you want to keep the membership, you will have to pay ALL MF for all years not paid to be able to restart using your points.

#2 & #4 are your better options. #2 guarantees there will no repercussions, but you pay. #4 has no cost but the timeshare company may place a bad report to the credit ratings bureaus. If credit rating is above 750, and you're not planning any major purchases requiring a loan (car, mortgage, etc), it's no big thing, and you can go to the ratings bureaus and challenge the bad report.

 

[TUGBrian]

Very sorry for your loss! does he own hilton GRAND vacations, or hilton vacations club?

it is an important distinction!

 

[kmbat]

Very sorry for your loss! does he own hilton GRAND vacations, or hilton vacations club?

it is an important distinction!

This is what it says in the account "HGV Max US Collection Biennial." I would assume that means Hilton Grand Vacations.

 

[RX8]

If you only MF, no loans/liens, you have 4 options:
1. On the Hilton site look for the "Transitions Program". Fill out the questionnaire and submit. If they accept ( I think they always accept points), they will give uouj a price to exit. Usually 18 months of MF. No time window is offered. I've done this.
2. Google "Timeshare Exit Companies" and look for sites that give reviews of many companies. There are several and they give good reviews where you can compare the best ones. They will charge you to handle the entire process. Some are: Resort Victory, Lonestar Transfer, Wesley Financial Group, Newton Group, Vacation Ownership Consultants. If go this route, be sure to ask if there could be additional charge for lawyer fee, or TS requiring a transfer fee. Learn the expected time window for completion and if they offer a refund for failing to exit.
3. Contact a timeshare resale company. SellMyTimeshareNow (SMTN.com) is the biggest. For a fee they will advertise and handle the resale. Reviews from buyers are 4-5 star. Reviews from sellers are 1-2 stars. The fee is for 2 years (I think). There's no guarantee for sale nor refunds if it doesn't sell. Points have no intrinsic value.
4. Just walk away. Ready your contract!! Look for the Default section. But is you only owe MF, which allows you to use the points, there no lien they can place on you. They have the option to terminate you membership is you don't pay for several years. Big deal, you don't want it anyway. But, if for some reason you want to keep the membership, you will have to pay ALL MF for all years not paid to be able to restart using your points.

#2 & #4 are your better options. #2 guarantees there will no repercussions, but you pay. #4 has no cost but the timeshare company may place a bad report to the credit ratings bureaus. If credit rating is above 750, and you're not planning any major purchases requiring a loan (car, mortgage, etc), it's no big thing, and you can go to the ratings bureaus and challenge the bad report.

Disagree wholeheartedly with your options 2 and 3. This is bad advice and will result in the timeshare owner being fleeced for thousands of dollars.

Your option 2 is to contact an exit company. An exit company will do nothing that the timeshare owner couldn’t do themselves. Many exit companies will charge thousands of dollars and simply tell the owner to stop paying (with the exit company knowing it will result in a foreclosure). Glowing reviews of many exit companies are suspected fake reviews. If there are real glowing reviews, they would be by unknowing timeshare owners that were intentionally kept in the dark by the exit company about legitimate and cheaper options they could have done themselves. If the timeshare owner had $5000 to give to an exit company they could instead give a new owner a $2500 gift card at closing to take it off their hands and likely be rid of it in 24 hours.

Your option 3 is a timeshare reseller like SMTN. The OP’s timeshare has zero resale value. SMTN and other timeshare advertisers are in the business for the upfront fees. They will provide a “market analysis” showing that an otherwise real world worthless timeshare has significant value and therefore could be sold using their services. It should be criminal for a company to lie about the value of a timeshare just to collect an upfront fee but that is what they do. To make matters worse, SMTN charges an excessive closing fee that turns many buyers off. Once these companies have the upfront fees they have no real incentive to do anything else. Some of these companies (likely even most) are a sham and provide no resale or marketing services. SMTN at least has been around awhile but it is guaranteed that they will convince any timeshare owner that their timeshare is worth thousands of dollars (even the OP whose timeshare is worth zero, or likely even less than zero). They will do that to get the upfront fee because no one would pay $2000 to list a timeshare for sale if they knew it was worth $0. SMTN has thousands of ridiculously high priced timeshares that have been there likely for years. They were all told their timeshare could be sold by SMTN.

For a timeshare with no resale value, there are only three options:

1. Give it away (and one would likely need to sweeten the deal with free closing, free usage and/or a gift card.
2. Contact the HOA to see if they would accept a deedback in lieu of foreclosure (or through their deedback program if they have one). A hardship letter may improve the odds.
3. Stop paying and let them foreclose.

That’s it for the options. An exit company will only have those three options available themselves but will charge many thousands of dollars and pretend they are doing more than that.

The Dirty Secret Behind Timeshare Exit & Cancellation Companies

Learn how timeshare exit and cancellation companies really operate, the red flags to watch for, and safer owner-to-owner options—backed by 30+ years of TUG experience.

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[vacationtime1]

Disagree wholeheartedly with your options 2 and 3. This is bad advice and will result in the timeshare owner being fleeced for thousands of dollars.

Your option 2 is to contact an exit company. An exit company will do nothing that the timeshare owner couldn’t do themselves. Many exit companies will charge thousands of dollars and simply tell the owner to stop paying (with the exit company knowing it will result in a foreclosure). Many reviews of exit companies are suspected fake reviews. The real reviews are by timeshare owners that were kept in the dark about legitimate and cheaper options they could have done themselves. If the timeshare owner had $5000 to give to an exit company they could instead give a new owner a $2500 gift card at closing to take it off their hands and likely be rid of it in a day.

Your option 3 is a timeshare reseller like SMTN. The OP’s timeshare has zero resale value. SMTN and other timeshare advertisers and in business for the upfront fees and the owner would be throwing money out the window since the OP’s timeshare has no resale value. Even if given away, SMTN charges an excessive closing fee that turns many buyers off. Once these companies have the upfront fees they have no real incentive to do anything else. Some of these companies (likely even most) are a sham and provide no services. SMTN at least has been around awhile but it is guaranteed that they will convince any timeshare owner that their timeshare is worth thousands of dollars (even the OP whose timeshare is worth zero, or likely even less than zero). They will do that to get the upfront fee because no one would pay $2000 to list a timeshare for sale if they knew it was worth $0. SMTN has thousands of ridiculously high priced timeshares that have been there likely for years. They were all told their timeshare could be sold by SMTN.

For a timeshare with no resale value, there are only three options:

1. Give it away (and one would likely need to sweeten the deal with free closing, free usage and/or a gift card.
2. Contact the HOA to see if they would accept a deedback in lieu of foreclosure (or through their deedback program if they have one). A hardship letter may improve the odds.
3. Stop paying and let them foreclose.

That’s it for the options. An exit company will only have those three options available themselves but will charge many thousands of dollars and pretend they are doing more than that.

This ^^^^^^ is correct.

@PGH15227's option #2 is identical to option #4, the difference being that you pay a few thousand to one of the exit companies to "handle" the default for you (which is all they do).

Option #3 fails on its face; note that the post says that the seller's reviews of SMTN are 1-2. No one will buy an overpriced timeshare on the resale market and SMTN has no incentive to tell you its real value.

 

[TUGBrian]

This is what it says in the account "HGV Max US Collection Biennial." I would assume that means Hilton Grand Vacations.

that is a diamond resorts ownership in the US collection.

 

[TUGBrian]

If you only MF, no loans/liens, you have 4 options:
1. On the Hilton site look for the "Transitions Program". Fill out the questionnaire and submit. If they accept ( I think they always accept points), they will give uouj a price to exit. Usually 18 months of MF. No time window is offered. I've done this.
2. Google "Timeshare Exit Companies" and look for sites that give reviews of many companies. There are several and they give good reviews where you can compare the best ones. They will charge you to handle the entire process. Some are: Resort Victory, Lonestar Transfer, Wesley Financial Group, Newton Group, Vacation Ownership Consultants. If go this route, be sure to ask if there could be additional charge for lawyer fee, or TS requiring a transfer fee. Learn the expected time window for completion and if they offer a refund for failing to exit.
3. Contact a timeshare resale company. SellMyTimeshareNow (SMTN.com) is the biggest. For a fee they will advertise and handle the resale. Reviews from buyers are 4-5 star. Reviews from sellers are 1-2 stars. The fee is for 2 years (I think). There's no guarantee for sale nor refunds if it doesn't sell. Points have no intrinsic value.
4. Just walk away. Ready your contract!! Look for the Default section. But is you only owe MF, which allows you to use the points, there no lien they can place on you. They have the option to terminate you membership is you don't pay for several years. Big deal, you don't want it anyway. But, if for some reason you want to keep the membership, you will have to pay ALL MF for all years not paid to be able to restart using your points.

#2 & #4 are your better options. #2 guarantees there will no repercussions, but you pay. #4 has no cost but the timeshare company may place a bad report to the credit ratings bureaus. If credit rating is above 750, and you're not planning any major purchases requiring a loan (car, mortgage, etc), it's no big thing, and you can go to the ratings bureaus and challenge the bad report.

outside of option 1 and 4, this might be the worst advice ever given to someone on TUG

I dont know of any legitimate owner who would ever suggest options 2 or 3 to another owner unless they hated that person.


your legitimate options are to surrender the ownership back to hilton/diamond paying their 1250 (or whatever it is now) fee. or defaulting.

there is almost no resale market for dri points.

 

[kmbat]

If surrendering with a fee is an option, I would think it is better than paying for them year after year indefinitely.

 

[vacationtime1]

If surrendering with a fee is an option, I would think it is better than paying for them year after year indefinitely.

Agreed. If the timeshare is worthless or close to worthless, a deedback is the best way out, even if you have to pay a year of MF's.

 

[PGH15227]

outside of option 1 and 4, this might be the worst advice ever given to someone on TUG

I dont know of any legitimate owner who would ever suggest options 2 or 3 to another owner unless they hated that person.


your legitimate options are to surrender the ownership back to hilton/diamond paying their 1250 (or whatever it is now) fee. or defaulting.

there is almost no resale market for dri points.

This was not advice as what to do. It was a listing of options, none are particularly good. By the way, Hilton charges 18 months MF to exit. That's not chump change. Defaulting with a loan balance is even worse of an option, as there are legal issues involved. If there is no loan balance, yes walk away, but the threat of a bad credit report still looms, as the SOBs threatened me with. How big a threat that is depends if one needs to get a loan/mortgage in the next 5-ish years.

 

[RX8]

This was not advice as what to do. It was a listing of options, none are particularly good. By the way, Hilton charges 18 months MF to exit. That's not chump change. Defaulting with a loan balance is even worse of an option, as there are legal issues involved. If there is no loan balance, yes walk away, but the threat of a bad credit report still looms, as the SOBs threatened me with. How big a threat that is depends if one needs to get a loan/mortgage in the next 5-ish years.

Your response came across exactly like advice to the OP when you said "#2 (exit company) & #4 are your better options.".

You also stated that a benefit of an exit company is that they guarantee no repercussions on the credit. Some exit companies do provide credit repair services, in many cases for an additional fee. It is just another money grab by the exit companies. They can't make a legitimate negative credit bureau disappear. They can file disputes and that is it (and so can the consumer). The fact that they offer credit repair also implies that one of their strategies is to have the timeshare owner default and fall into foreclosure. Who needs to pay someone $$$ to default? By the way, there are MANY timeshare exit companies who went belly-up leaving many victims wondering how to use their "100% guarantee".

 

[TUGBrian]

your "options' are written like endorsements especially as you originally posted specific names and links, and will result in an owner throwing away money.

its a terrible post.

 

[dlferree]

At one time, a timeshare purchased in Arizona from Diamond Resorts could be deeded back to DRI for $250. DRI lost a court case in Arizona. Is that legal ruling still in force since Hilton bought DRI. The OP listed the property as Sedona, so this might be the least expensive way to get out of the timeshare if the law is still in force.

Dave

 

[TUGBrian]

yes that is absolutely correct! 250 bucks would be a very simple solution to end this ownership.

 

[chapjim]

If you only MF, no loans/liens, you have 4 options:
1. On the Hilton site look for the "Transitions Program". Fill out the questionnaire and submit. If they accept ( I think they always accept points), they will give uouj a price to exit. Usually 18 months of MF. No time window is offered. I've done this.
2. Google "Timeshare Exit Companies" and look for sites that give reviews of many companies. There are several and they give good reviews where you can compare the best ones. They will charge you to handle the entire process. If go this route, be sure to ask if there could be additional charge for lawyer fee, or TS requiring a transfer fee. Learn the expected time window for completion and if they offer a refund for failing to exit.
3. Contact a timeshare resale company. SellMyTimeshareNow is the biggest. For a fee they will advertise and handle the resale. Reviews from buyers are 4-5 star. Reviews from sellers are 1-2 stars. The fee is for 2 years (I think). There's no guarantee for sale nor refunds if it doesn't sell. Points have no intrinsic value.
4. Just walk away. Ready your contract!! Look for the Default section. But is you only owe MF, which allows you to use the points, there no lien they can place on you. They have the option to terminate you membership is you don't pay for several years. Big deal, you don't want it anyway. But, if for some reason you want to keep the membership, you will have to pay ALL MF for all years not paid to be able to restart using your points.

#2 & #4 are your better options. #2 guarantees there will no repercussions, but you pay. #4 has no cost but the timeshare company may place a bad report to the credit ratings bureaus. If credit rating is above 750, and you're not planning any major purchases requiring a loan (car, mortgage, etc), it's no big thing, and you can go to the ratings bureaus and challenge the bad report.

#2???? You can't be serious! Or, you work for one of those despicable companies.

 

[PGH15227]

My husband died this past year and we have these points. Without his income I can't afford to maintain this. I am not sure what to do. Hoping to get some guidance.

KMBAT.
I assume your read all these comments. Here's what you need to do before anything else. Go back and read the contract(s). See if there is anything that requires you to keep paying. I don't mean MF to keep the points. I mean a real obligation, such as an existing loan payment. If you have outstanding debt, you have to resolve that. If it's only MF, then just walk away. It's like any other club: stop paying dues (MF) for benefits (points usage) and you lose the benefits, nothing else. The only reason the use an exit company (which will cost $$), is that you have a lien you need to escape AND you believe they will get you out with no further expense or hit on you credit rating. If you use an exit company, DO NOT believe they will recover any of your investment. Even if they did, they will keep 30%..

Selling your points contracts is a low probability. Might even cost you more $$$. High risk.
Renting the points means you have to pay the MF and hope the market exists to rent & break even. High risk.

Lastly - REREAD THE CONTRACTS. If you are in the "MF only" world. Stop paying. Send the TS a letter, if you wish, and tell them you are stopping payments to not contact you. Still expect they will badger you to keep paying. They want your money.

 

[kmbat]

KMBAT.
I assume your read all these comments. Here's what you need to do before anything else. Go back and read the contract(s). See if there is anything that requires you to keep paying. I don't mean MF to keep the points. I mean a real obligation, such as an existing loan payment. If you have outstanding debt, you have to resolve that. If it's only MF, then just walk away. It's like any other club: stop paying dues (MF) for benefits (points usage) and you lose the benefits, nothing else. The only reason the use an exit company (which will cost $$), is that you have a lien you need to escape AND you believe they will get you out with no further expense or hit on you credit rating. If you use an exit company, DO NOT believe they will recover any of your investment. Even if they did, they will keep 30%..

Selling your points contracts is a low probability. Might even cost you more $$$. High risk.
Renting the points means you have to pay the MF and hope the market exists to rent & break even. High risk.

Lastly - REREAD THE CONTRACTS. If you are in the "MF only" world. Stop paying. Send the TS a letter, if you wish, and tell them you are stopping payments to not contact you. Still expect they will badger you to keep paying. They want your money.

This has been the best option I have heard yet. Can they come after my credit if I stop paying the maintenance fees?

 

[TUGBrian]

What Happens If I Stop Paying My Timeshare Maintenance Fees?

Wondering what happens if you stop paying timeshare maintenance fees? Learn likely outcomes—collections, credit impact, foreclosure risk, and practical owner options.

tug2.net

 

[PGH15227]

This has been the best option I have heard yet. Can they come after my credit if I stop paying the maintenance fees?

They can send in a bad report to the credit bureaus. I don't know much impact it might have. If they do, you can challenge the report. If you have a good credit rating now, like 750+ and you're not planning to take out a loan (car, mortgage, home remodel, etc), any downgrade is not likely to hurt. I've never had to challenge and don't know anyone who has, so I don't know how difficult it is or how it gets resolved. There are companies who will help - for a fee -. I have no idea if they are worth the fee. It all rolls back to if you will need a loan in the near (5yrs?) future. Maybe a phone call to one of the bureaus would give you an answer.