Please Help, should I keep my HGVC?

[betty s]

My husband and I attended a presentation today in Hawaii.
We paid a little over $14k with maintenance fees of $1400 for 3400 points every other year.

Now that I’m back at my room, im having a bit of Buyers remorse. My husband thinks it’s a great deal... but after reading some forums I’m beginning not to think so.

I have 7 days to cancel and I just signed today... with that said...

1) should I cancel? My gut is telling me that I overpaid.
2) if I do cancel- could I just bring the bag and the booklet they gave me back to the sales office since I am here a few more days in Hawaii? (I understand the cancellation I will send certified mail via usps)

My husband is not very helpful and more of an impulse buyer than I am. Please help!!

 

[alwysonvac]

Welcome to TUG

Yes, you overpaid. Rescind while you can and take time to research to determine if Timesharing will work for your family. Learn about the resale market.

You can always buy from the developer later but you will only have one chance to rescind.

I don’t believe the booklet and bag need to be returned. Read the instructions for the cancellation. I would avoid the sales office. They will only try to change your mind.

For your husband

Resale brokers frequently recommended on TUG​

• http://www.sellingtimeshares.net/category/listings/hilton/
• http://judikoz.com/Search.
• https://www.timesharebrokersales.com/hilton-timeshares/index.php
• http://timeshare-resale.com/
• https://advantagevacation.com/hilton-grand-vacations-club-for-sale-and-resale/

​

 

[PamMo]

Rescind. Like Alwysonvac wrote, AFTER you do some research and decide what would work best for you, if you still want a timeshare, you can always buy a resale for pennies on the dollar.

Salespeople always make timesharing sound so easy and amazingly wonderful, it's hard to say "no" to buying into the dream! Your buyer's remorse is just your good sense kicking in. Congrats!

 

[DannyTS]

Was the sales person happy when you signed? Like very, very happy? Then it was not a good deal!

You can buy resale platinum contracts with very low maintenance fees for $1/point or less. So for 7000 dollars you can have 7000 points annually and pay $800-$1000 in maintenance fees per year. If the contract is EOY you should not pay more than $3500 upfront with the same $800-$1000 in maintenance fees EOY. If the maintenance fees/point are higher you should expect much less or nothing upfront although i do not recommend it if you intend to keep your timeshare a longer time (say more than 10 years). You have a list on TUG with contracts with the lowest MF per point.

I know most people recommend avoiding the sales office to rescind while you are still there. I agree that they will try to convince you not to rescind but seriously, how can they do it now that you know the reality?
Possible arguments they are going to use:
1) if you buy resale you do not qualify for the path to elite: true but a) the elite benefits are not worth much, maybe few hundred dollars if i had to put a price on that and b) you need 14,000 points every year to get to elite so you do the math how far you are in terms of developer purchases to attain that status.
2) buying resale is risky. That may be true but if you go through a reputable broker you have a zero risk IMO. You are going to pay few hundred dollars in commission but that is a small fraction of what you are paying now. If you stick around TUG long enough you can figure out how to buy even without a broker from the TUG market and redweek listings. Not everyone has the time and the passion to do it but either way you are going to save a lot of money.
3) if they tell you that the points are not points, that is not true (except the Hilton Club points but those contracts are much more expensive both retail and resale and 90% of the HGVC members do not own there)
You can use points from any resort to go anywhere, whether you buy resale or retail.
4) you probably also got bonus points so they are going to try to confuse you with that benefit. You have to see how much they are worth in reality: again look at the price you can pay retail for points and you will know the value of the bonus points. Say $1000 for 7000 points? $1500 if i am being very generous? How many bonus points did you get? How does that value get you even close to $14k you are paying?

maybe others will chime in with other possible arguments but you can see my point: I believe that they have a zero chance to convince you now. If you think it will be an unpleasant experience or that they will play tricks on you (like keeping your receding letter in a drawer until the time passes) you can just send the letter by registered mail. I know for a fact i would do both: cancel in person and send them a registered mail letter just to be sure. If I cancelled in person i would ask for a copy and ask for they to sign that they received it. In the end they are NOT going to make a big argument there in the proximity of other potential buyers. If you do everything right, they will want you out as soon as possible when they realize you are serious about it.

 

[bluehende]

Definitely rescind. That deal will always be available if by some miracle you have actually received a fair deal form the developer.

 

[PigsDad]

I would strongly recommend that you rescind as well. Not only is that a very high buy in price, the maintenance fee is extremely high for the points you are getting. With $1400 for 3400 points, you are paying $0.40/point. The best HGVC properties have a MF ratio of $0.09/point, and the average Platinum week is around $0.15/point.

Kurt

 

[Panina]

Hi, welcome to Tug, glad you found us in time. I agree with everyone Rescind. You can get 3400 points for free. There is no resale value for 3400 so all you money would be lost. I know as I have received up to 4800 points for free and to find a new home for my 3400 point unit I gifted it and paid all transfer and closing costs,.

 

[LannyPC]

I know most people recommend avoiding the sales office to rescind while you are still there. I agree that they will try to convince you not to rescind but seriously, how can they do it now that you know the reality?

We usually recommend not going to the sales office to rescind because the instructions for rescinding will likely be to send the request via certified mail rather than walking into the office. The OP wants to make sure that there are no technicalities that will allow the sales people to nix and invalidate the rescission.

If the instructions say to send via certified mail, then send via certified mail. Only if the instructions say to walk into the office to rescind would we recommend doing that. However, I have yet to hear of that method being stipulated in the rescission instructions.

 

[betty s]

Welcome to TUG

Yes, you overpaid. Rescind while you can and take time to research to determine if Timesharing will work for your family. Learn about the resale market.

You can always buy from the developer later but you will only have one chance to rescind.

I don’t believe the booklet and bag need to be returned. Read the instructions for the cancellation. I would avoid the sales office. They will only try to change your mind.

For your husband

Resale brokers frequently recommended on TUG​

• http://www.sellingtimeshares.net/category/listings/hilton/
• http://judikoz.com/Search.
• https://www.timesharebrokersales.com/hilton-timeshares/index.php
• http://timeshare-resale.com/
• https://advantagevacation.com/hilton-grand-vacations-club-for-sale-and-resale/

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Thank you so much for your response! I wrote this right before I went to sleep and woke up to everyone saying to rescind! I could barely sleep!
Reason why I say return the “swag” (beach bag and booklet of properties) is because the cancellation says to return any promo items within 15 days after cancellation. Not sure what they meant by that- but better safe than sorry? They can have their beach bag back.. I only wish I didn’t spend 4 hours there... my two kids were SO fussy and now I can’t get that afternoon back with them

 

[betty s]

Rescind. Like Alwysonvac wrote, AFTER you do some research and decide what would work best for you, if you still want a timeshare, you can always buy a resale for pennies on the dollar.

Salespeople always make timesharing sound so easy and amazingly wonderful, it's hard to say "no" to buying into the dream! Your buyer's remorse is just your good sense kicking in. Congrats!

For sure! The sales lady and finance guy totally had it scripted- they were actually pretty bad actors! Lol but we still were suckers and fell for it ‍‍‍ I just wish we got our afternoon back now. Lesson learned

 

[Iggyearl]

Here's another angle... Did you know that 50% of the price of a retail timeshare comes from administrative, promotion, gifting and commissions. That is - you are paying a huge markup over what it is really worth. There is a huge market filled with owners who have gotten older, have health issues, have money issues, or are just tired of timesharing. A "resale" timeshare is exactly the same as a "retail" timeshare.

You went to the presentation for the wonderful gift. In 3-4 hours, you were dazzled by the wonderfulness of the notion of timesharing. Ask your husband how much time he spends on researching his car purchases... Get out of this deal, and start studying. You have come to the right place, and asked the right questions. You just have to learn more about the industry to make an informed choice.

 

[betty s]

Was the sales person happy when you signed? Like very, very happy? Then it was not a good deal!

You can buy resale platinum contracts with very low maintenance fees for $1/point or less. So for 7000 dollars you can have 7000 points annually and pay $800-$1000 in maintenance fees per year. If the contract is EOY you should not pay more than $3500 upfront with the same $800-$1000 in maintenance fees EOY. If the maintenance fees/point are higher you should expect much less or nothing upfront although i do not recommend it if you intend to keep your timeshare a longer time (say more than 10 years). You have a list on TUG with contracts with the lowest MF per point.

I know most people recommend avoiding the sales office to rescind while you are still there. I agree that they will try to convince you not to rescind but seriously, how can they do it now that you know the reality?
Possible arguments they are going to use:
1) if you buy resale you do not qualify for the path to elite: true but a) the elite benefits are not worth much, maybe few hundred dollars if i had to put a price on that and b) you need 14,000 points every year to get to elite so you do the math how far you are in terms of developer purchases to attain that status.
2) buying resale is risky. That may be true but if you go through a reputable broker you have a zero risk IMO. You are going to pay few hundred dollars in commission but that is a small fraction of what you are paying now. If you stick around TUG long enough you can figure out how to buy even without a broker from the TUG market and redweek listings. Not everyone has the time and the passion to do it but either way you are going to save a lot of money.
3) if they tell you that the points are not points, that is not true (except the Hilton Club points but those contracts are much more expensive both retail and resale and 90% of the HGVC members do not own there)
You can use points from any resort to go anywhere, whether you buy resale or retail.
4) you probably also got bonus points so they are going to try to confuse you with that benefit. You have to see how much they are worth in reality: again look at the price you can pay retail for points and you will know the value of the bonus points. Say $1000 for 7000 points? $1500 if i am being very generous? How many bonus points did you get? How does that value get you even close to $14k you are paying?

maybe others will chime in with other possible arguments but you can see my point: I believe that they have a zero chance to convince you now. If you think it will be an unpleasant experience or that they will play tricks on you (like keeping your receding letter in a drawer until the time passes) you can just send the letter by registered mail. I know for a fact i would do both: cancel in person and send them a registered mail letter just to be sure. If I cancelled in person i would ask for a copy and ask for they to sign that they received it. In the end they are NOT going to make a big argument there in the proximity of other potential buyers. If you do everything right, they will want you out as soon as possible when they realize you are serious about it.

Yes the sales person was REALLY SURPRISED and HAPPY that we were buying. I actually wanted to just drop off the beach bag and the Hilton HGVC booklet off so I wouldn’t have to mail it back. The cancellation letter goes to Honolulu (I am on the big island) so I can head to the post office today to get that certified mailed.
Thank you so much for your input. I hope my husband feels the same with my decision.

 

[PamMo]

For sure! The sales lady and finance guy totally had it scripted- they were actually pretty bad actors! Lol but we still were suckers and fell for it ‍‍‍ I just wish we got our afternoon back now. Lesson learned

I love this quote! And congrats again for coming to your senses.

 

[betty s]

Definitely rescind. That deal will always be available if by some miracle you have actually received a fair deal form the developer.

Thank you! Planning on sending that cancellation to Oahu today! Def has a hard time sleeping and this knot in my stomach from all of this!

 

[LannyPC]

but we still were suckers and fell for it

I wouldn't say you "were suckers and fell for it". That's happened to a lot here on TUG. The sales people probably kept you there withholding your "gift" until either you or your husband were physically and mentally worn down and ready to do anything just to get out of there including purchasing something for tens of thousands of dollars, with money you probably do not have, for something about which you know very little.

Now that you've escaped their dog-and-pony show, it's nice to see that you can now look this deal over with a clear head and get a little bit of input from others who have had a similar experience.

 

[betty s]

I would strongly recommend that you rescind as well. Not only is that a very high buy in price, the maintenance fee is extremely high for the points you are getting. With $1400 for 3400 points, you are paying $0.40/point. The best HGVC properties have a MF ratio of $0.09/point, and the average Platinum week is around $0.15/point.

Kurt

God! That sounds much more cheaper than what I paid for! And it was for “gold” Bc platinum was going to cost us more. I really did feel like the maintenance fee was high... and when I expressed that they guilt tripped me by saying I needed to create memories with my kids (I have a infant and a toddler) and that I would save so much money in the long run. Thank you for your advice will def cancel now.

 

[betty s]

Hi, welcome to Tug, glad you found us in time. I agree with everyone Rescind. You can get 3400 points for free. There is no resale value for 3400 so all you money would be lost. I know as I have received up to 4800 points for free and to find a new home for my 3400 point unit I gifted it and paid all transfer and closing costs,.

Wow that’s amazing! So glad I decided to research this. Thank you for letting me know that 3400 points isn’t worth my money. Even after doing calculations all night I couldn’t really make it worth it!

 

[LannyPC]

that I would save so much money in the long run.

That's another ploy these sales people use. Of course, when they do number crunching trying to show you how you will save tens of thousands over the next couple of decades, they usually somehow neglect to factor in the ever increasing MFs. They never seem to mention that at times you can rent from a current owner for less than the MFs. BTW, that's one reason why some here on TUG would recommend renting first to see if timesharing is right for you before jumping into buying anything.

 

[dayooper]

God! That sounds much more cheaper than what I paid for! And it was for “gold” Bc platinum was going to cost us more. I really did feel like the maintenance fee was high... and when I expressed that they guilt tripped me by saying I needed to create memories with my kids (I have a infant and a toddler) and that I would save so much money in the long run. Thank you for your advice will def cancel now.

I assume you are buying in Hawaii. From the point total and reported MF's, maybe Ocean Tower 1 bedroom resort view? The only reason to purchase Hawaii is if you are going to use the home week booking advantage. Otherwise, points are points. You can use less expensive points in Hawaii at the 9 month mark. Vegas and Orlando have great buy in and maintenance fee points. Take a look at our Tug marketplace, redweek.com and other resale sites to see what's out there. Just to repeat what's been said above, there is very little difference between developer and resale purchased points. Same booking window, same MF's, same online portal. The only difference is you can't get elite status buying resale. Most say it's not worth it.

 

[betty s]

We usually recommend not going to the sales office to rescind because the instructions for rescinding will likely be to send the request via certified mail rather than walking into the office. The OP wants to make sure that there are no technicalities that will allow the sales people to nix and invalidate the rescission.

If the instructions say to send via certified mail, then send via certified mail. Only if the instructions say to walk into the office to rescind would we recommend doing that. However, I have yet to hear of that method being stipulated in the rescission instructions.

Thanks for your reply and advice! Instructions say to either send it in or fax it to their Honolulu office (I am on the big island) so I actually was going to do both. The instructions also state that I have 15 days to return their stuff (I have to look for their exact wording) and I did receive a beach bag and a colorful HGVC booklet of their properties (really I don’t want to lug that monstrosity home if they later want me to return it!) that’s the only reason why I would step foot in there again.

 

[betty s]

Here's another angle... Did you know that 50% of the price of a retail timeshare comes from administrative, promotion, gifting and commissions. That is - you are paying a huge markup over what it is really worth. There is a huge market filled with owners who have gotten older, have health issues, have money issues, or are just tired of timesharing. A "resale" timeshare is exactly the same as a "retail" timeshare.

You went to the presentation for the wonderful gift. In 3-4 hours, you were dazzled by the wonderfulness of the notion of timesharing. Ask your husband how much time he spends on researching his car purchases... Get out of this deal, and start studying. You have come to the right place, and asked the right questions. You just have to learn more about the industry to make an informed choice.

Wow thank you! You are spot on- def was all dazzled by and glamour and glitz of their presentation. And no I didn’t know that 50% goes to marketing material and what not. I def have a lot to learn and I’m really happy that I found this site. Will cancel today so I can enjoy the rest of my vacation.

 

[betty s]

I wouldn't say you "were suckers and fell for it". That's happened to a lot here on TUG. The sales people probably kept you there withholding your "gift" until either you or your husband were physically and mentally worn down and ready to do anything just to get out of there including purchasing something for tens of thousands of dollars, with money you probably do not have, for something about which you know very little.

Now that you've escaped their dog-and-pony show, it's nice to see that you can now look this deal over with a clear head and get a little bit of input from others who have had a similar experience.

Yes! They totally just kept talking and talking and at the end I was just intitalaing and signing whatever to get out (it was over 4 hours!) and my infant was being so fussy and my toddler was going bananas. Now that I think about it, my time spent to make memories with my kids was wasted. Lesson learned for sure.

 

[betty s]

That's another ploy these sales people use. Of course, when they do number crunching trying to show you how you will save tens of thousands over the next couple of decades, they usually somehow neglect to factor in the ever increasing MFs. They never seem to mention that at times you can rent from a current owner for less than the MFs. BTW, that's one reason why some here on TUG would recommend renting first to see if timesharing is right for you before jumping into buying anything.

Yes! They kept saying that we are young and that we have so many years of traveling.. it just made it sound too good to be true. They made us calculate how much we spent on accommodations on this trip and multipled it by the next number of years we are alive. I mean c’mon I’m not going to be traveling that much until I’m on my death bed. And now that I think about it. They sure didn’t calculate the MF into their cost.

 

[LannyPC]

Now that I think about it, my time spent to make memories with my kids was wasted. Lesson learned for sure.

Well now you will know what to do the next time you are on vacation and someone offers you a gift for attending a "90-minute" presentation.

 

[betty s]

I assume you are buying in Hawaii. From the point total and reported MF's, maybe Ocean Tower 1 bedroom resort view? The only reason to purchase Hawaii is if you are going to use the home week booking advantage. Otherwise, points are points. You can use less expensive points in Hawaii at the 9 month mark. Vegas and Orlando have great buy in and maintenance fee points. Take a look at our Tug marketplace, redweek.com and other resale sites to see what's out there. Just to repeat what's been said above, there is very little difference between developer and resale purchased points. Same booking window, same MF's, same online portal. The only difference is you can't get elite status buying resale. Most say it's not worth it.

Yes buying in Hawaii- Kingsland on the big island is where I got 4 hours of my life taken away!
Judging from all the responses the package I got def was not worth it. Ugh. At least I can enjoy the rest of my vacation and not have to think about it anymore.