5 Simple? Points Questions

I have a weeks rci account and am thinking of getting a timeshare that is a points resort.

Some questions that I have:

1) Are there any notable resorts that are points only?

2) Are there any benefits of keeping my weeks account and points account separate?

3) Is the points cost of a 1 night stay simply = 7 night stay/7 - so a week that would cost 70,000 points, would cost 10,000 points?

4) Can I stop the points account and have the resort return to a weeks resort?

5) Can I put my points membership on hold for a few years (or more) if I know that I want to use the week myself (in order to save on the annual points dues)?

I can only speak to your 4th question, and the answer is yes..I did it. RCI will have you sign disclosure forms, so you know that if you want to come back you will have to pay the resort to do another conversion.

When you have a points account the RCI weeks account is included in the price. I think the weekend may be a little more than week days in terms of number of points but it is pretty proportionate. No you may not simply suspend your account but you can roll over points for I think 1 year. There are also options to extend you points life for a fee.

If you have a Weeks account, a Points account is free. Or vice versa. Own a Points account and the Weeks account is free. Same deal.

I can't answer about notable resorts, because I don't search both sides. My Points are for exchanging, I use my Weeks resort. I DO think there are some different resorts on both sides of the aisle.

It's my feeling that nightly stays are not simply 1/7th of a week's point cost

Oh, and agreeing with Ron on #4. Just be sure of the underlying week that would be deeded if you drop out of points. They might give you a 'mud' week with very few TPU's or value.

Jim

Passepartout said:

If you have a Weeks account, a Points account is free. Or vice versa. Own a Points account and the Weeks account is free. Same deal.

I can't answer about notable resorts, because I don't search both sides. My Points are for exchanging, I use my Weeks resort. I DO think there are some different resorts on both sides of the aisle.

It's my feeling that nightly stays are not simply 1/7th of a week's point cost

Oh, and agreeing with Ron on #4. Just be sure of the underlying week that would be deeded if you drop out of points. They might give you a 'mud' week with very few TPU's or value.

Jim

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Jim, I dont think its a question of what they might give you . You should already know what you own. That didnt change when it was originally converted to points, and wont change when you drop the points affiliation.

I do agree that you should know how what you own trades on the weeks side before you drop the points. In my case it was a week that I will probably use myself and not exchange at all. But if I do exchange it I was satisfied that Ill do better with the weeks account that I get with my Wyndham ownership rather than a points account that I had to pay extra for

Points, Shmoynts.

swj said:

Are there any notable resorts that are points only?

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Lots. But that doesn't mean all the units at the points resorts are points units. Unconverted units at points resorts remain straight weeks & exchange that way through RCI Weeks.

swj said:

Are there any benefits of keeping my weeks account and points account separate?

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None. And why would you do that anyway? I mean, weeks are weeks & points are points. Plus, when you join RCI Points, you get a side-by-side RCI Weeks membership at no added cost. (But it is not a 2-way street. That is, when you belong to RCI Weeks, you don't get a free side-by-side RCI Points membership. Why not? Who knows?)

swj said:

Is the points cost of a 1 night stay simply = 7 night stay/7 - so a week that would cost 70,000 points, would cost 10,000 points?

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Not necessarily. You can look up the points values for partial-week resort stays.

swj said:

Can I stop the points account and have the resort return to a weeks resort?

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Not exactly. You can stop your points account & have your unit return to a weeks unit. The points resort keeps on being a points resort.

swj said:

Can I put my points membership on hold for a few years (or more) if I know that I want to use the week myself (in order to save on the annual points dues)?

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You're only paying for 1 membership (in RCI Points), so where's the saving? If you drop your points membership, your unit reverts to straight weeks & you run the risk of having to pay major money for points conversion all over again if you decide after a few years that you'd rather be in points after all.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

AwayWeGo said:

You're only paying for 1 membership (in RCI Points), so where's the saving? If you drop your points membership, your unit reverts to straight weeks & you run the risk of having to pay major money for points conversion all over again if you decide after a few years that you'd rather be in points after all.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

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The savings for me was that I dont pay for my weeks account. and now that I dont have a points account I dont pay those annual fees

Also I think I save on exchanges, at least it looks like I will because my week seems to get better trades or more of them as a weeks account

resposne to your questions

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Passepartout said:

If you have a Weeks account, a Points account is free. Or vice versa. Own a Points account and the Weeks account is free. Same deal.



Jim

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Jim: Are you sure? I have several Wyndham weeks and a "free" RCI memeber ship I pay for via my POA fee.

I ownd a points resort for about a year and had to pay $119 for RCI Points Membership. Wyndham said since my weeks membership was free I could not get me POA fee reduced by $89 even though points gave me another free memebership.

pacodemountainside said:

Jim: Are you sure? I have several Wyndham weeks and a "free" RCI memeber ship I pay for via my POA fee.

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A Wyndham membership is a different animal. It's my understanding that you can't 'piggyback' a RCI Points membership on a Wyndham 'RCI' membership. That's why Ron let the Points resort he bought resale go back to Weeks- to avoid having to pay for a Points account.

If you re-read the OP, he doesn't mention that his Weeks account has anything to do with Wyndham.

Jim

Is there a way to get an idea of what TPU you would get if you change something back to weeks?

hypnotiq said:

Is there a way to get an idea of what TPU you would get if you change something back to weeks?

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I guess you'd play realtor and do 'comparables'. Look up TPUs of similar weeks/unit sizes in the same resort. First you'd have to know which week is on your underlying deed.

What is a TPU?

TPU Answer

The TPU is used in the RCI "Weeks" system. When you deposit a week it is assigned a value (referred to as TPU). When you go to exchange a week each week that you are looking to exchange into also has a TPU.

If you Deposit a week that had a TPU of 32 and the week you are wanting to exchange into also has a 32 value then you are even.

It is possible (for an additional fee of course) to combine your TPU from one year to the next or from multiple resort deposits. So if the week you want to trade into has a TPU of 48 you can combine two years of 32 and get the 48 TPU week and have 14 TPU left over which of course can be used for another exchange (of course you pay the exchange fee for both).

It is really a mini point system...but since RCI already has a point system they can't say that weeks is the new points (even though it is).

Passepartout said:

If you have a Weeks account, a Points account is free. Or vice versa. Own a Points account and the Weeks account is free. Same deal.

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If you have a POINTS account the weeks account is maintained as long as you pay your points account membership. Not vice versa. If you pay your weeks account membership it will not pay the points account.

Is the points cost of a 1 night stay simply = 7 night stay/7 - so a week that would cost 70,000 points, would cost 10,000 points?

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I recently read that a weeknight is 12% of the weekly point total. A weekend night is 20%. I don't know if that is specific to my resort, though.