DRI conversion questions

First I would like to say thank you to everyone that posts here. I've been surfing all night and have gotten some valuable info, so thanks again.

I got off the phone earlier today with a DRI sales rep who said I only have 2 more weeks to convert my GKR week into DRI points. He did a lousy job explaining the process or what points where, how everything works and absolutely no costs over the phone. Hence why I went looking for answers and wound up here.

I currently own Week 39 at Beach Quarters Resort in VA Beach. My wife and I bought directly on one of those package weekends and got the good sales pitch. I thought it was a good deal because it was half the price of what they started with and it was something we could afford. The plan was to get the loan paid off and then see about upgrading to a better summer week because we have young kids and we can never use our week so we just use it for exchanges at this time.

I had to learn about the Club and MFs on this site, the sales rep said nothing about them. He told me that my week is worth 3500 points but it sounded like I was keeping the deed but that's what I would get for an exchange. He told me the average exchange week costs about 7500 points and right now points cost $8.20. He was telling me that that is low, he mentioned Marriott and Disney saying their points are something like $35/pp and that's what they were trying to get to. He didn't explain that points are recurring or any additional costs, except the $225 annual cost. I thought the points were like airline miles or stays, use and lose.

My question is is it worth it to go with the DRI points system? We got the timeshare in 2014 and used II for our honeymoon (not an exchange, we thought we could use certificates that GKR gave us, they didn't tell us it didn't work in Hawaii) and we did two short exchanges for a long weekend with two suites for extended family. We're planning on doing another exchange for the summer for another long weekend and two suites for another extended family vacation. GKR offered us a free II certificate a year for 10 years as a bonus, I'm hoping to use one of them this summer. They seem to be a pain because of the 45 day window.

It seems from what I've read that converting to points will be more expensive in MF and we're really not in a good place to be taking out another loan just to buy more points. But I read that owner's MF is going to increase as well.

Are we just stuck?

Thanks for any replies.

in most cases its an absolutely terrible deal for an owner to pay to convert to points...especially since you can pretty much have your pick of DRI points intervals on the resale market for literally free.

What is the cost they are quoting you for the "conversion"?

Gold Key Weeks

You don't want to exchange your deeded week for points. DRI now lists the points value for the gold key weeks. Keep your deeded week use it or rent it.

stephen

If you don't convert you will have exactly the same reservation rights as you have now. That doesn't change or go away. The sales people will try to make you think that you are losing out if you don't convert. First, that is not true. Second, even if it were true, you should ask yourself why you would want to give money to a company that screws the owners in its resorts like that - or that manipulates the owners into believing that so that they can get more money from them? That is a train that you don't want to ride.

As to fees, if you join the Club you will still pay the fees on what you own. But you will now be paying a Club membership on top of that. So you are not going to save money by joining the Club.

Now there can be good reasons to join the Club, we are Club members. But IMHO you clearly don't have enough information now to make that decisions intelligently.

Also, as many of us can attest, if you say "No" to that offer now, it will not go away. If you go to a future owners updated, and keep saying "No",at some point they will pull out that old offer and find some reason why it wasn't appropriately closed out, and hence is still available to you. I think we have about ten offers from DRI that we explicity waived, where we signed papers saying that we were declining the offer and it would be clossed, and you the offer still comes back four or five years later.

Don't let them browbeat. And for sure, don't do anything because you feel afraid or worried or anxious. Those feelings are seldom associated with good decision-making.

Belcharlie - You are getting great advice

Dear Belcharlie,
You are getting GREAT advise from 3 experts. I regularly scan / read the NEW POSTS.and have learned lots about TS systems I don't own.

T_R_Oglodyte aka Steve N- understands DRI and its clubs as an owner and his posts are very informative and well written / easy to read and understand.

Rural Engineer- knows a lot about Gold Key and is well informed on the DRI purchase and transition.

TUG Brian - is the reason this forum exists .

You can read prior posts using the search function .
You can also PM ( private message ) a TUG member by clicking on their name ( in blue).

I joined and paid TUG last year after occasionally reading in spurts for a number of years It is the best MF fee in the TS world.

It sounds like you are so far- using what you bought effectively . Keep your focus on learning more so that you can keep doing that and have WONDERFUL family vacations with your young children and extended family.

USE , USE , USE and the value to you will be there .

TUG is a great tool to help you learn and many members are always willing to explain & give helpful information.

belcharlie said:

GKR offered us a free II certificate a year for 10 years as a bonus, I'm hoping to use one of them this summer. They seem to be a pain because of the 45 day window.

It seems from what I've read that converting to points will be more expensive in MF and we're really not in a good place to be taking out another loan just to buy more points. But I read that owner's MF is going to increase as well.

Are we just stuck?

Thanks for any replies.

Click to expand...

We also purchased directly from Gold Key, unfortunately before we got any real experience about the re-sale market, and before we found TUG.

I can tell you that we have no interest whatsoever in converting our deed to points or buying points. I know some DRI members love the points system, and so I am sure there may be some benefits to it, but I fail to see the value proposition from a financial perspective.

I would go even farther and say that any of us that bought directly from Gold Key are already in the hole because we already overpaid (significantly) for our deeded week. Paying DRI for points or converting our deed to points, just seems like digging deeper into that hole.

As far as MF's go for a deeded week, DRI already hit Gold Key owners with a 10% bump last year. I am sure more increases are coming. My position on that is that if DRI wants to charge Marriott level MF's on the former Gold Key properties, they better step up and get busy making corresponding improvements and adding to and improving amenities.

The former Gold Key properties were a decent investment and fair to own at those former Gold Key annual MF rates. I paid too much to Gold Key for what we owned, but we still liked dealing with Gold Key. At the rates DRI seems to plan on charging, the properties will no longer represent good value unless DRI starts making some significant improvements.

This is just my opinion only. FWIW.

Wish you the best though in whatever decision you make.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for the great advice.

I think after reading different threads and the responses given, I'll be keeping our deed. My wife and I like having the opportunity for vacations but def don't want to spend more money at this point.

Now that I've found TUG I'm going to keep reading and hopefully learning and be able to make better decisions in the future if we come to the conclusion DRI isn't what we want anymore.

Thanks again everyone and I look forward to talking all in the future.