Hi I am new to TUG. I am considering buying a timeshare and I have A LOT of questions. First let me give you some background on my situation so you know where I am coming from. I currently own two DVC contracts, so I am not entirely new to time shares. When I bought into DVC I did a lot of research before buying and bought my two contracts resale at what I still believe to be very good prices. I only looked into DVC at the time because of many of the concerns many people generally have regarding traditional timeshares (i.e. being indentured for life and never being able to get rid of it). I also have a young family of disneyphiles and we were looking to go primarily to Disney World. Also, the relationship that DVC has RCI meant that using the membership for other vacations was possible.
At this time I am finding that even with two DVC contracts I am always running out of points. Also, I have come to realize that DVC maintenance fees are high and trading them into RCI is not necessarily a great value. Additionally, I have read post on other boards from people who own other timeshares stating that they purchased their timeshares for next to nothing and used RCI to trade into DVC accommodations. Also the cost of the maintenance fees for the membership they used for the trade was roughly a third of what the accommodation would have cost me in maintenance fees on the points that it would have had to use to stay there. This leads me to ask the question is another DVC contract the best way to maximize my vacation dollar?
So now I am trying to find a contract to use to trade into RCI for stays at places that it would have been too costly to use my DVC contracts and to use for stays at DVC resorts when they are available for exchange. I also want to keep the overall cost of the membership down so want to avoid ADDITONAL FEES, so the idea of getting into another vacation club with a the availability to stay in other resorts with in the club without additional fees seems like a good idea.
Sorry for the long intro here are my questions:
1. Is there any advantage for me to purchase a fixed week contract?
I have read over the TUG advice articles and have from what I have read it would seem that for someone in my situation that the points system would be better since I would have access to the RCI weeks and RCI points exchanges without having to pay for two memberships. I know that each timeshare company treats point differently, but for the most part I think they work generally, like the DVC memberships I already have. Fixed week is just that. Same resort, same unit, same time of year. I don’t want that. So am I missing something?
2. How do they assign RCI points?
While reading over the article on RCI points I found a table listing the number of point necessary to secure a room at a resort in the different state at different seasons. I don’t know if it is really this straight forward. I also read that the value of your points is based on a number of factors like resort location, resort standing, how far in advance you deposit into RCI, etc. Do the charts come into play when assigning points?
3. How do I maximize my trade power at the most reasonable price?
I know that a highly desirable resort, with a gold crown status, during a high demand season will be most valuable for trading. This means places like Hawaii would have a lot of trading power, but the maintenance fees are sometime the buy in is very high. I read a post in the advice articles stating that South Africa was the place to buy a cheap timeshare with low maintenance fees that traded “like a tiger”, but the post was written in 1998. Is this still a good option? I found several ads in the market place. They were fairly inexpensive buy ins, with low maintenance fees. The resorts looked like nothing special, buy the ads say they trade very well.
Thanks for reading. I’m sure I will have more questions.
At this time I am finding that even with two DVC contracts I am always running out of points. Also, I have come to realize that DVC maintenance fees are high and trading them into RCI is not necessarily a great value. Additionally, I have read post on other boards from people who own other timeshares stating that they purchased their timeshares for next to nothing and used RCI to trade into DVC accommodations. Also the cost of the maintenance fees for the membership they used for the trade was roughly a third of what the accommodation would have cost me in maintenance fees on the points that it would have had to use to stay there. This leads me to ask the question is another DVC contract the best way to maximize my vacation dollar?
So now I am trying to find a contract to use to trade into RCI for stays at places that it would have been too costly to use my DVC contracts and to use for stays at DVC resorts when they are available for exchange. I also want to keep the overall cost of the membership down so want to avoid ADDITONAL FEES, so the idea of getting into another vacation club with a the availability to stay in other resorts with in the club without additional fees seems like a good idea.
Sorry for the long intro here are my questions:
1. Is there any advantage for me to purchase a fixed week contract?
I have read over the TUG advice articles and have from what I have read it would seem that for someone in my situation that the points system would be better since I would have access to the RCI weeks and RCI points exchanges without having to pay for two memberships. I know that each timeshare company treats point differently, but for the most part I think they work generally, like the DVC memberships I already have. Fixed week is just that. Same resort, same unit, same time of year. I don’t want that. So am I missing something?
2. How do they assign RCI points?
While reading over the article on RCI points I found a table listing the number of point necessary to secure a room at a resort in the different state at different seasons. I don’t know if it is really this straight forward. I also read that the value of your points is based on a number of factors like resort location, resort standing, how far in advance you deposit into RCI, etc. Do the charts come into play when assigning points?
3. How do I maximize my trade power at the most reasonable price?
I know that a highly desirable resort, with a gold crown status, during a high demand season will be most valuable for trading. This means places like Hawaii would have a lot of trading power, but the maintenance fees are sometime the buy in is very high. I read a post in the advice articles stating that South Africa was the place to buy a cheap timeshare with low maintenance fees that traded “like a tiger”, but the post was written in 1998. Is this still a good option? I found several ads in the market place. They were fairly inexpensive buy ins, with low maintenance fees. The resorts looked like nothing special, buy the ads say they trade very well.
Thanks for reading. I’m sure I will have more questions.