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Wyndham Club Access Advice

Joined
Nov 4, 2015
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Location
NYC
Greetings.
I'm looking for some advice as far as my Wyndham Vacation Ownership is concerned. Sorry in advance for the length.

I unwillingly attended a presentation back in September 2014 in Las Vegas because of a cheap hotel discount. I didn't want anything to do with the timeshare, but my colleague mentioned that based on the way I travel, it'll be worth it. It was for 64,000PTS/yr at $207/mo. + approx. $40 in maintenance. The sales rep said it would be a great idea to sell the timeshare online to people to get money to pay for it since I had "UNLIMITED Bonus Weeks" I thought, "okay, I can deal with that".

Time goes on and I look at locations when I get home and realize that I'm not going to travel to these places and most of these places have a ridiculous amount of points. I'm thinking I need to find a way out.

Fast Forward: September 2015
I finally get to use my timeshare for a trip to New Orleans, all well and good and then I need to go to an "Ownership Update". I realize this is basically what I went through in Vegas and now the salesman is saying that I'm mismanaging everything and I can get so much more out of it. I'm intrigued, he runs numbers, and tells me about deals and such. I'm very lukewarm to the idea about paying more money, but he keeps pushing and pushing. I've already been there for an hour or more. He says he can get me an additional 70,000 pts a year for ~$200 more. In my head I can use this go to to Australia. Only stipulation is the downpayment which is more than I want to do at $3,000 since I have other financial obligations which I mentioned at least 5x, but he doesn't take that as a No. He puts it on a Wyndham Rewards Card, and off we go to signing contracts and getting that big book of information that I'll never need.

What options do I have?
I'm paying roughly $400/mo. for the next 10 years on something I will probably hardly use because the locations are not ideal for me as a 31 year old. I'm not married, very much single and I can't see myself using this except once every two years. It is 134,000pts a year now.

I'm looking to travel to London, Iceland, Croatia, and Japan and this "vacation ownership" from what I see would do absolutely nothing for me to get there.

This is totally a huge financial burden since I can do more with that almost $5500 a year. That's roughly 17% of my post-tax income.

I know I have a huge sucker stamp on my head, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
 

Ty1on

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
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Greetings.
I'm looking for some advice as far as my Wyndham Vacation Ownership is concerned. Sorry in advance for the length.

I unwillingly attended a presentation back in September 2014 in Las Vegas because of a cheap hotel discount. I didn't want anything to do with the timeshare, but my colleague mentioned that based on the way I travel, it'll be worth it. It was for 64,000PTS/yr at $207/mo. + approx. $40 in maintenance. The sales rep said it would be a great idea to sell the timeshare online to people to get money to pay for it since I had "UNLIMITED Bonus Weeks" I thought, "okay, I can deal with that".

Time goes on and I look at locations when I get home and realize that I'm not going to travel to these places and most of these places have a ridiculous amount of points. I'm thinking I need to find a way out.

Fast Forward: September 2015
I finally get to use my timeshare for a trip to New Orleans, all well and good and then I need to go to an "Ownership Update". I realize this is basically what I went through in Vegas and now the salesman is saying that I'm mismanaging everything and I can get so much more out of it. I'm intrigued, he runs numbers, and tells me about deals and such. I'm very lukewarm to the idea about paying more money, but he keeps pushing and pushing. I've already been there for an hour or more. He says he can get me an additional 70,000 pts a year for ~$200 more. In my head I can use this go to to Australia. Only stipulation is the downpayment which is more than I want to do at $3,000 since I have other financial obligations which I mentioned at least 5x, but he doesn't take that as a No. He puts it on a Wyndham Rewards Card, and off we go to signing contracts and getting that big book of information that I'll never need.

What options do I have?
I'm paying roughly $400/mo. for the next 10 years on something I will probably hardly use because the locations are not ideal for me as a 31 year old. I'm not married, very much single and I can't see myself using this except once every two years. It is 134,000pts a year now.

I'm looking to travel to London, Iceland, Croatia, and Japan and this "vacation ownership" from what I see would do absolutely nothing for me to get there.

This is totally a huge financial burden since I can do more with that almost $5500 a year. That's roughly 17% of my post-tax income.

I know I have a huge sucker stamp on my head, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

First, don't attend any more presentations.

Next, at your age, you need to decide whether the $5,500 you would save every year would be worth the hit on your credit report for 7-10 years. That's a lot of money for still very few points. You aren't going to sell it for anything close to what you owe, so it's keep it or stop paying and take your credit lumps.

The upside is that if you stick it out, you have some points that have so far been at a good maintenance fee ratio once your loans are paid off.
 

Vacationfuntips

TUG Member
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In order for you to go to other destinations (outside of Wyndham) using your timeshare, you will need to set up your RCI account. Call Wyndham to do this. Ask for your account # too. You can search directly on RCI if you have this. Otherwise, you must use the Wyndham portal to search on RCI.

You may or may not need to use your Wyndham points with RCI. There IS additional $ involved to book an RCI vacation. Some RCI vacations are $209 or under $300. RCI has special sales, Extra Vacations, and Last Call vacations. You get an RCI membership at no additional charge (which is included and paid for with your Club Wyndham dues and maintenance fee bill).

Keep reading here in TUG BBS. Read the Club Wyndham Member's Directory and set up your account online ( if you haven't already)? Wyndham has an online learning center.

It takes a while to learn how to use your points, but you must do it. Use the points you paid good money for. You can credit pool your Wyndham points, or deposit them into RCI if you need to? Book a reservation for yourself, friends or family. Wyndham points expire at the end of your use year. It is important to use, or do something else with them.

Good luck,

Cynthia T. :)
 

ronandjoan

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2005
Messages
2,404
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Location
Seattle area
Resorts Owned
Telemark, Townhouses at St Augustine Beach and Tennis Club, Stoneridge Resort (ID)
I think using the "RCI/Wyn" portal; is a poor use of your points , because not only do you have to pay the Maintenance Fee for your points, then you have to pay an additional $209 RCI exchange fee. It may be, however, some good finds for you in the Extra Vacation or Last Call listings, and those do not require using your Wyn points.
I would suggest also joining DAE and TPI for free and examining their exchange inventories and bonus weeks as you could reserve a week in Wyndham and deposit it in their program for exchanging for somewhere you would like to go.
check out their webpages: www.daelive.com
www.tradingpalces.com
Good luck.
 

MaryBella7

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
649
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293
Location
NJ
Greetings.

What options do I have?
I'm paying roughly $400/mo. for the next 10 years on something I will probably hardly use because the locations are not ideal for me as a 31 year old. I'm not married, very much single and I can't see myself using this except once every two years. It is 134,000pts a year now.

I'm looking to travel to London, Iceland, Croatia, and Japan and this "vacation ownership" from what I see would do absolutely nothing for me to get there.

This is totally a huge financial burden since I can do more with that almost $5500 a year. That's roughly 17% of my post-tax income.

Thanks!

Other than what others have suggested, there isn't much you can do. There are, however, some locations near you that wouldn't be bad for someone single, or single with some other single friends (who may be willing to contribute something toward the trip). I don't think you are going to get the locations you want, so you might have to rethink how you look at the locations you can get. Just a few you could drive to (so you wouldn't incur the expense of flying):

Newport - there is a lot to see there, and there are some bars and restaurants on the main strip to "crawl" with some friends with no need to drive. Many with live music on various nights.

Bentley Brook - skiing right outside of your door

Atlantic City - gambling and nightlife

Lake Lure - fishing, zip lines, golf, etc.

Poconos - skiing and also nightlife in the area

Best of luck to you!
 

weems637

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2015
Messages
281
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130
Location
Brandon, MS
Resorts Owned
Hilton HGVC Tuscany
Hurricane House in Sanibel Island (managed by Hilton
Wyndham Cypress Palms
Wyndham Glades
Club Wyndham Access
With that small of an allocation of points, you may want to consider either pooling them and take a trip every other year, or consider taking a couple of "weekend getaways". You own it, might as well enjoy it......
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
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Thanks for your replies.

So, the way it looks like I’m stuck with unless something remarkable happens (win the lotto and pay it all off). I’m definitely not giving them any more of my time and money in the future.

As far as taking credit lumps and saving $5500, I obviously don’t want to ruin my credit but as I told the sales person, I would’ve rather take that money and put it towards moving out or a car rather than a timeshare that doesn’t help me. I told him I didn’t want to deal with any down payment because I had other things to pay off, but now I’m scrambling to pay all these no interest promotions which all expire at the same time. I just wish he heard me the first five times.

I already looked at the RCI Exchanges with Last Call and Extra Vacations, and quite frankly I’m underwhelmed. I’m really not the beach resort/great outdoors/location in the middle of nowhere type person. I would rather be in the middle of a metropolitan area, especially since that's where I normally visit.

My travel is based on two things, baseball and major holiday breaks (April & October). I plan my trips well in advance (London/Iceland, Croatia, Japan in 2016) and I would love it if this timeshare helped. I guess, as suggested I can pool all my points into 2017, so I can visit Australia.

I’d feel so much better if I can use what I have towards those trips this year, but it doesn’t look promising. I’d be spending another $5,000 on top of what I put out on this timeshare. I’ve heard that using my points via PlusPartners for airfare is a terrible conversion.
 
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