New Timeshare Purchased... need RCI

I just purchased a timeshare at Grandview Las Vegas; week 4, annual two bedroom lockout. I would like to join RCI points. How do I do this?

Thanks!

Did you buy this from the developer, or on the resale market?

If you bought from the developer, when did you sign the contract?

Though above poster though didn't answer the question is actually trying to be more helpful by trying to find out if you can save $$$ , by determining if you bought from the developer vs resale.

RCI membership is easy your resort just verifies your an owner to RCI, then you pay $ to RCI to join.

drvic1969 said:

I just purchased a timeshare at Grandview Las Vegas; week 4, annual two bedroom lockout. I would like to join RCI points. How do I do this?

Thanks!

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If you bought a week that isn't already in points you would have to go back to the developer and pay a couple thousand to convert to points. It is usually cheaper to buy one that has already been converted. If you bought one that already is in points you will need to fill out the RCI points transfer form and have the former owner fill out their portion of the form. That form would have to go to RCI along with the fee to set up your points account.

If you bought a week that hasn't been converted to points you would join RCI weeks. Once the unit is in your name you would join RCI paying the membership fee.

Response and follow-up.

Thanks guys. Answering your question, I bought it on the resale market for $1,150 total, including closing costs. It's a fixed week without RCI points attached. I don't know the difference between points and weeks. I think I like the points system because I've used my friend's RCI points when I stayed in their timeshare and it seemed very easy and flexible.

Is it better to join RCI points or RCI weeks? What is the cost to join either?

drvic1969 said:

Thanks guys. Answering your question, I bought it on the resale market for $1,150 total, including closing costs. It's a fixed week without RCI points attached. I don't know the difference between points and weeks. I think I like the points system because I've used my friend's RCI points when I stayed in their timeshare and it seemed very easy and flexible.

Is it better to join RCI points or RCI weeks? What is the cost to join either?

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One is not better or worse, but RCI weeks (TPU - trading power units) is far less expensive to join than "points."

With weeks/TPU you only pay about $100 in membership fees to join RCI.

With points, you will probably have to pay $2,000 or more to join the points system.

I believe at Grandview conversion is around $4000 and you have to go directly to sales department at the resort to do it. They will finance but there really aren't any weeks that you can't find pre-converted for that price or less. For most weeks points are probably better at this resort. Most unconverted weeks with the possible exception of week 52 have less than a $500 resale value and many weeks are worth $0.

In points, an already converted week that gets 124,000 rci points for the $720 MF has a resale value around $2000-$3000. The ones that get 98,000 have a resale value of over $1000. The EOY and 1 br that get the half equivalent of the above have some resale value but they will be lower. Some got those converted weeks for less but in recent months the resale value (from a reputable seller or an individual after due diligence) has been on the higher end.

1) joining RCI points is NOT more expensive than joining RCI weeks. There's a $98 joining fee for both RCI weeks and RCI points, and the annual membership is the same for both. The biggest difference between an RCI weeks membership and an RCI points membership is that you are REQUIRED to maintain your RCI points membership together with your RCI points timeshare (in other words, bad things happen if you do not keep your RCI points membership paid), while the RCI weeks membership is optional (nothing really bad happens, other than you cannot use RCI Week's website anymore). On the plus side, the RCI points membership includes a FREE RCI weeks membership, but to use your FREE RCI weeks membership, you must have an RCI weeks timeshare in addition to your RCI points timeshare.

2) it seems OP bought an RCI weeks timeshare that has not been converted to RCI points. As a general rule, it is not economic to pay to convert an RCI weeks timeshare to an RCI points timeshare. It is much cheaper to simply buy an already converted RCI points timeshare.

3)Therefore, OP, since it seems that you do not have an RCI points timeshare, your best option is to simply join RCI weeks. You can learn a lot about both RCI weeks and RCI points by reading the stickies.

Points is more expensive. Multi-year weeks account will average $75 a year and they often have 2 for 1 year specials so you can get 2 years for $90. Points never have specials for membership and with multi-year renewal, you still average about $100 a year.

They know you are held hostage and have to keep the points membership, where as it's not the case with weeks.

tschwa2 said:

Points is more expensive. Multi-year weeks account will average $75 a year and they often have 2 for 1 year specials so you can get 2 years for $90. Points never have specials for membership and with multi-year renewal, you still average about $100 a year.

They know you are held hostage and have to keep the points membership, where as it's not the case with weeks.

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I wasnt aware of that, thanks tschwa2.

Points can be cheaper for exchange fees. I booked 13 nights for whale season on Maui in a 1 bed at Sands of Kahana and paid $159 total for that exchange. 13 nights for $159 + my points (don't remember how many points I used).

Something most TUGgers don't know about is Pres Villas at Plantation Resort in Myrtle Beach, when purchased resale, can be converted to points for $3,000, no matter how many weeks you convert. I don't know if Grandview is the same. Maybe.

I had to convert because trading power in weeks was really going downhill for Pres Villas. It was a no-brainer for me. Point values don't change in RCI Points, but weeks do change. Our weeks were worth 101 points, and now I am lucky to get 72 for those weeks.