glgrissom
TUG Member
I am sitting in a Diamond property right now and trying to decide what to do because I own both deeded property and Club points with Diamond. They are telling me that I "should" buy more points and transfer my deed into the club. I currently have deeded property that is worth 10,000 annual points and club points of 5500 - making me an Elite level owner, which I purchased in 2 transactions - the points from Sunterra and the deeded property from the 2nd market about 4-5 years ago. Diamond is telling me that I "should" purchase a few more points and transfer the deeded property into The Club. Then:
- I would have better access to rooms. Seems I have access to only 30% of the room inventory because of my club points level...whatever that means. If I had more points with the club I would get access to over 60% of the inventory???
- I could trade better with II, again because I only really have 5500 points to trade with them (the deeded point would only trade week for week.
- They also told me that maintance fees for deeded points will only be going up - and rather fast as more and more owners are exchanging deeds for the Club.
- Maintance fees are really getting expensive - and since I purhcased they have gone up each year. With the 2 accounts we are paying almost $2000 a year now!!!! If I combine they might be a bit lower????
My issue is I don't really want to spend more money to do this, but looking to the future - is what they are telling me true? I've learned that I cannot fully trust the salesmen/educators in these places.
In reading these posts, some are saying that owning the deeded property is a very good thing - but I don't see value in the land as any real value because it's not worth anything either - is it? You can't sell it either way. The value is in the vacation experience and what you want to do with your travel.
We like to trade around and see different areas - taking 2 vacations a year for a totaly of about 3 weeks now. We are 10 years away from retirement and don't have more vacation time to use anyway. With the points we are able to accomplish our goals well now with a few point to carry forward each year usually.
We have visited about 10 different properties now through Diamond/Sunterra, enjoying some more than others - but are basically happy.
What we are not happy about is the feeling we are being pulled into and by the "system" with no ability to really know what is the best thing to be doing.
Back to the original question, Have others moved totally into the Club or in our case is it better to keep the 2 accounts - and is there any truth to inventory availabliity and II trading that I just learned about. I'm feeling sucked into a program that is taking us down a big expensive hole!!!
Sorry this is so long, but it's 3AM and I can't sleep thinking about it.....
- I would have better access to rooms. Seems I have access to only 30% of the room inventory because of my club points level...whatever that means. If I had more points with the club I would get access to over 60% of the inventory???
- I could trade better with II, again because I only really have 5500 points to trade with them (the deeded point would only trade week for week.
- They also told me that maintance fees for deeded points will only be going up - and rather fast as more and more owners are exchanging deeds for the Club.
- Maintance fees are really getting expensive - and since I purhcased they have gone up each year. With the 2 accounts we are paying almost $2000 a year now!!!! If I combine they might be a bit lower????
My issue is I don't really want to spend more money to do this, but looking to the future - is what they are telling me true? I've learned that I cannot fully trust the salesmen/educators in these places.
In reading these posts, some are saying that owning the deeded property is a very good thing - but I don't see value in the land as any real value because it's not worth anything either - is it? You can't sell it either way. The value is in the vacation experience and what you want to do with your travel.
We like to trade around and see different areas - taking 2 vacations a year for a totaly of about 3 weeks now. We are 10 years away from retirement and don't have more vacation time to use anyway. With the points we are able to accomplish our goals well now with a few point to carry forward each year usually.
We have visited about 10 different properties now through Diamond/Sunterra, enjoying some more than others - but are basically happy.
What we are not happy about is the feeling we are being pulled into and by the "system" with no ability to really know what is the best thing to be doing.
Back to the original question, Have others moved totally into the Club or in our case is it better to keep the 2 accounts - and is there any truth to inventory availabliity and II trading that I just learned about. I'm feeling sucked into a program that is taking us down a big expensive hole!!!
Sorry this is so long, but it's 3AM and I can't sleep thinking about it.....