Worldmark advice

[serjco]

My wife and I have 6,000 Worldmark points that we purchased about 20 years ago for around $13,000.

We use it every year and end up buying bonus time weeks for around $450 to make up for only having 6,000 points (we vacation several weeks each year).

My wife thinks we should buy more points, and I'm not sure how that works. I know there is a transfer fee, but do the points purchased second hand work the same way as points purchased directly from the timeshare company? Are there any restrictions on points purchased directly from owners who are selling their timeshare?

I've researched a little and found points tend to sell for around 20 cents these days, but more points mean more maintenance fees.

Is it better to just keep buying bonus time or is there some benefit to owning the points?

Also, I see a lot of people saying how great some of the other timeshare companies are. If we are happy with Worldmark, is it better to buy more Worldmark, or is it better to have a variety of timeshares in your portfolio?

If this topic has been covered, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

 

[DaveNV]

Resale credit accounts have some restrictions, but you'd have to decide whether they're important to you. No Travelshare, for example. You can't book WM South Pacific or Australia. (I think Fiji is as far west as you can go.) Things like that.

You can combine accounts, so you have only one bill, but I don't know if the resale credits would dilute your Developer purchased account. With only 6K credits, you might be ahead of the game to buy another 6K account resale, and keep the accounts separate. You'd get more housekeeping tokens that way. If you have a NHK (Non HouseKeeping) account, definitely keep things separate. NHK accounts are like gold - hang on to it.

Check on eBay for resale bargains. I got a 12K account there a few years ago for about $1500. And the only transfer fee is the $299 Worldmark charges.

Others will have more to say, but that'll give you some things to think about.

Dave

 

[JohnPaul]

If you combine accounts it has no impact on existing points.

 

[sherakay]

My wife and I have 6,000 Worldmark points that we purchased about 20 years ago for around $13,000.

We use it every year and end up buying bonus time weeks for around $450 to make up for only having 6,000 points (we vacation several weeks each year).

My wife thinks we should buy more points, and I'm not sure how that works. I know there is a transfer fee, but do the points purchased second hand work the same way as points purchased directly from the timeshare company? Are there any restrictions on points purchased directly from owners who are selling their timeshare?

I've researched a little and found points tend to sell for around 20 cents these days, but more points mean more maintenance fees.

Is it better to just keep buying bonus time or is there some benefit to owning the points?

Also, I see a lot of people saying how great some of the other timeshare companies are. If we are happy with Worldmark, is it better to buy more Worldmark, or is it better to have a variety of timeshares in your portfolio?

If this topic has been covered, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

We just bought a 6000 credit account in April of this year on Ebay for $910 (plus $299 transfer fee and $325 closing fee) and just got access to it three weeks ago and already have three vacations booked! Next week we're going to Anaheim for DL using Inventory Specials. I also just purchased credits from another owner from WMOwners dot com for $0.07.

Instead of buying more credits and committing yourself to more maintenance fees, I would just once a year, buy 12k credits from another owner for $0.065-$0.075/credit. That price will beat paying more maintenance fees. For example, you can transfer in up to 2x the amount of credits you own, so for example, for a 6000 credit account, you are paying $771.31 in maintenance fees. If you bought another 6000 credit account resale and kept it separate to get the extra housekeeping token, your annual cost would be $1542.62

But if you combine the two accounts, your maintenance fee is only $1130.93, a $411.69 savings. Even accounting for buying a HK token at $116 to make it even with keeping the accounts separate, you are still ahead $295.65. $1246.93 annually.

For me though, as a DVC owner it is amazing to now own a system that has something like bonus time/inventory specials, etc. The fact that I can buy more credits for $0.075 to use within 90 days is crazy! That's only $450 for another 6000 credits usage. And that includes HK. It's like having a 12k credit account for only $1221.31 annually. But if you need the 13 month advantage, definitely buy credits from a trusted owner when you need them instead.

 

[nightnurse613]

I also buy extra points when I need them but, for regular resrvations (not Bonus Time) you can no longer buy extra Housekeeping Tokens from an owner so, you have to pay for them. Used to be $60-$65 now double that!

 

[77JC]

Keep your eyes open-you can find some screaming deals on Ebay to purchase if you choose. I had a 7000 credit account and added 8000 via Ebay for $500 last year.

Renting credits is a great option as well-as others have said, you can rent up to 12000 credits yearly for .06-.08 cents a credit. This is one time use-no ownership transfer or maintenance fee obligation. Even with my additional credits purchased I still had to rent points this year-it is an easy process.

I'm pretty happy with my WM as well.

 

[easyrider]

My wife and I have 6,000 Worldmark points that we purchased about 20 years ago for around $13,000.

We use it every year and end up buying bonus time weeks for around $450 to make up for only having 6,000 points (we vacation several weeks each year).

My wife thinks we should buy more points, and I'm not sure how that works. I know there is a transfer fee, but do the points purchased second hand work the same way as points purchased directly from the timeshare company? Are there any restrictions on points purchased directly from owners who are selling their timeshare?

I've researched a little and found points tend to sell for around 20 cents these days, but more points mean more maintenance fees.

Is it better to just keep buying bonus time or is there some benefit to owning the points?

Also, I see a lot of people saying how great some of the other timeshare companies are. If we are happy with Worldmark, is it better to buy more Worldmark, or is it better to have a variety of timeshares in your portfolio?

If this topic has been covered, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

We bought multiple 6000 and 7000 point memberships. Currently we are down to two, a 6k and 7k. I like this because we can use bonus time with two accounts and we receive two house keeping tokens. It is easy to obtain extra points. For personal use, two small accounts seems to work pretty good.

We also have eight other weeks with in two other resort systems but I think we might get some more WM in the future. The price has been going down but Wyndham has been making rules that have ruined bonus time for Interstate travel by requiring a two night stay.

Bill

 

[DTKENT1]

We just bought a 6000 credit account in April of this year on Ebay for $910 (plus $299 transfer fee and $325 closing fee) and just got access to it three weeks ago and already have three vacations booked! Next week we're going to Anaheim for DL using Inventory Specials. I also just purchased credits from another owner from WMOwners dot com for $0.07.

Instead of buying more credits and committing yourself to more maintenance fees, I would just once a year, buy 12k credits from another owner for $0.065-$0.075/credit. That price will beat paying more maintenance fees. For example, you can transfer in up to 2x the amount of credits you own, so for example, for a 6000 credit account, you are paying $771.31 in maintenance fees. If you bought another 6000 credit account resale and kept it separate to get the extra housekeeping token, your annual cost would be $1542.62

But if you combine the two accounts, your maintenance fee is only $1130.93, a $411.69 savings. Even accounting for buying a HK token at $116 to make it even with keeping the accounts separate, you are still ahead $295.65. $1246.93 annually.

For me though, as a DVC owner it is amazing to now own a system that has something like bonus time/inventory specials, etc. The fact that I can buy more credits for $0.075 to use within 90 days is crazy! That's only $450 for another 6000 credits usage. And that includes HK. It's like having a 12k credit account for only $1221.31 annually. But if you need the 13 month advantage, definitely buy credits from a trusted owner when you need them instead.

Hi

you seem very knowledgeable and I am looking into purchasing a 20k WM point package resale. I'm not looking to travel abroad just in the states. What do I not get with a resale? I understand per 10k points I get 1 HK token? so this would land 2. So if I stayed 2 times I would be covered. but if I broke it into 3 stays I'd need to pay HK cost? I've been looking at so much on Tug that sometimes I get so confused. Also would this let me stay at normal wyndham club properties? or would I need to trade thru RCI?

thank you in advance for the help. if I'm in the wrong area for this please point me in the correct direction.

 

[JohnPaul]

If you buy resale you can only book WM properties (not Wyndham).

 

[sherakay]

Hi

you seem very knowledgeable and I am looking into purchasing a 20k WM point package resale. I'm not looking to travel abroad just in the states. What do I not get with a resale? I understand per 10k points I get 1 HK token? so this would land 2. So if I stayed 2 times I would be covered. but if I broke it into 3 stays I'd need to pay HK cost? I've been looking at so much on Tug that sometimes I get so confused. Also would this let me stay at normal wyndham club properties? or would I need to trade thru RCI?

thank you in advance for the help. if I'm in the wrong area for this please point me in the correct direction.

If you buy direct you can pay even more per credit for travel share along with the maintenance fees. That lets you book into Wyndham resorts for a fee. The additional travel share cost includes wifi during your stays at WM resorts. Travel share isn’t really a savings though. It’s more like pre-paying for a service/option you may not use.
If you want to stay at Wyndham resorts you’d have to trade via RCI.

 

[easyrider]

Hi

you seem very knowledgeable and I am looking into purchasing a 20k WM point package resale. I'm not looking to travel abroad just in the states. What do I not get with a resale? I understand per 10k points I get 1 HK token? so this would land 2. So if I stayed 2 times I would be covered. but if I broke it into 3 stays I'd need to pay HK cost? I've been looking at so much on Tug that sometimes I get so confused. Also would this let me stay at normal wyndham club properties? or would I need to trade thru RCI?

thank you in advance for the help. if I'm in the wrong area for this please point me in the correct direction.

There are currently many 20K point memberships offered resale. I have never seen resale WM memberships selling as low as they are now. With a resale you have access to all of the WM's in the USA and I think the Fugi resort.

Because we live driving distance to many WM's we use bonus time. Having 2 accounts allows us to use bonus time in a way that works well for us.

We trade our WM with RCI, II and SFX. Each exchange company has different inventory and ways to max out the exchange for the WM owner. RCI and II has a reduced point per week ( 4500+exchange fee) for any inventory available at 45 days RCI and 60 days II. SFX often has a two weeks for one promo.

Bill

 

[DTKENT1]

There are currently many 20K point memberships offered resale. I have never seen resale WM memberships selling as low as they are now. With a resale you have access to all of the WM's in the USA and I think the Fugi resort.

Because we live driving distance to many WM's we use bonus time. Having 2 accounts allows us to use bonus time in a way that works well for us.

We trade our WM with RCI, II and SFX. Each exchange company has different inventory and ways to max out the exchange for the WM owner. RCI and II has a reduced point per week ( 4500+exchange fee) for any inventory available at 45 days RCI and 60 days II. SFX often has a two weeks for one promo.

Bill

thank you just seen the response!

 

[DTKENT1]

If you buy direct you can pay even more per credit for travel share along with the maintenance fees. That lets you book into Wyndham resorts for a fee. The additional travel share cost includes wifi during your stays at WM resorts. Travel share isn’t really a savings though. It’s more like pre-paying for a service/option you may not use.
If you want to stay at Wyndham resorts you’d have to trade via RCI.

thank you just seen this. I appreciate your time!

 

[geist1223]

With a resale you have access to all of the WM's in the USA and I think the Fugi resort.

Bill

Resell WM accounts have access to all 90+ Worldmark Resorts. This includes USA, Fiji, Canada, and Mexico.

 

[easyrider]

Resell WM accounts have access to all 90+ Worldmark Resorts. This includes USA, Fiji, Canada, and Mexico.

I should have said North America. I do like the WM resorts I have been to in Mexico and Canada.

Bill

 

[geist1223]

I should have said North America. I do like the WM resorts I have been to in Mexico and Canada.

Bill

I am always happy when I see another person that recognizes that Mexico is part of North America.

 

[Mongoose]

My wife and I have 6,000 Worldmark points that we purchased about 20 years ago for around $13,000.

We use it every year and end up buying bonus time weeks for around $450 to make up for only having 6,000 points (we vacation several weeks each year).

My wife thinks we should buy more points, and I'm not sure how that works. I know there is a transfer fee, but do the points purchased second hand work the same way as points purchased directly from the timeshare company? Are there any restrictions on points purchased directly from owners who are selling their timeshare?

I've researched a little and found points tend to sell for around 20 cents these days, but more points mean more maintenance fees.

Is it better to just keep buying bonus time or is there some benefit to owning the points?

Also, I see a lot of people saying how great some of the other timeshare companies are. If we are happy with Worldmark, is it better to buy more Worldmark, or is it better to have a variety of timeshares in your portfolio?

If this topic has been covered, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

Keep an eye open on ebay and look for good values that end at strange hours in the morning. I picked up 14,000 credits (plus 14,000 banked) for $1K. There is a break for MFs at I think 11K and 15K and so on. So basically the MFs for 12,000 credits is the same as 15,000. There is also a big savings per point for 1- 12,000 credit account vs 2 - 6,000 credit units. You might want to pick up a second account that maximizes this advantage and combine the accounts. This could save 300+ in MF per year. Its worth paying a little more for accounts that are loaded with prior year credits.

 

[Mongoose]

Resale credit accounts have some restrictions, but you'd have to decide whether they're important to you. No Travelshare, for example. You can't book WM South Pacific or Australia. (I think Fiji is as far west as you can go.) Things like that.

You can combine accounts, so you have only one bill, but I don't know if the resale credits would dilute your Developer purchased account. With only 6K credits, you might be ahead of the game to buy another 6K account resale, and keep the accounts separate. You'd get more housekeeping tokens that way. If you have a NHK (Non HouseKeeping) account, definitely keep things separate. NHK accounts are like gold - hang on to it.

Check on eBay for resale bargains. I got a 12K account there a few years ago for about $1500. And the only transfer fee is the $299 Worldmark charges.

Others will have more to say, but that'll give you some things to think about.

Dave

I was concerned about some of the resale limitations. In my discussions, many people feel Travelshare is smoke and mirrors and not worth the cost an RCI is a better value. You can use both developer and resale for WM, but you can't combine resale with WMA or WTS to access WMA or WTS only locations.

 

[loosefeet]

Are you liking how WM is going? No one night reservations, check out is at 10 AM (was 12 P), guest certificates needed (and not changeable), no credit returned if you cancel and they re-rent the unit, etc. If you are OK w/ all these restrictions, great--but I can see more problems down the line since Wyndham took over--they are a VERY greedy company.

 

[Mongoose]

Are you liking how WM is going? No one night reservations, check out is at 10 AM (was 12 P), guest certificates needed (and not changeable), no credit returned if you cancel and they re-rent the unit, etc. If you are OK w/ all these restrictions, great--but I can see more problems down the line since Wyndham took over--they are a VERY greedy company.

Most of these changes are in line with the majority of TS companies. Obviously no one likes to lose benefits. Would be nice if WM had a location in Sedona!

 

[HudsHut]

@serjco
With a 6K account, you may rent in 12K from other Owners every anniversary year. That gives you access to 18K, plus 6K to borrow. Is that enough for your needs? You need an account large enough to be able to book the hard to get reservations at exactly 13 months in advance.
In addition, you may use the "cash options": Inventory Special, Monday Madness, Bonus Time. For shorter stays, use the cash options whenever possible, as they include the Housekeeping Fee.