What's the Point of PIC Express When There is PIC Plus?

[dioxide45]

I am just trying to understand the purpose of PIC Express. Reading over how it works it just doesn't make sense. Would you use it if you somehow had weeks that were eligible for PIC Plus but are okay for PIC Express? Do weeks at resorts like MVC, Vistana, Hilton eligible for PIC Express? Are RCI Points weeks eligible for PIC Express? Why would someone go for PIC Express if they can get more points every year in Club Wyndham if they had PIC Express instead? Are the buy in costs to get VIP with PIC Express less than with PIC Plus?

 

[paxsarah]

The only reason to use PIC Express is if you were planning on buying from Wyndham anyway, and you already owned a timeshare that didn’t qualify for PIC Plus but did qualify for PIC Express. If you already own something that qualifies for PIC Plus, there’s zero reason to choose PIC Express.

 

[raygo123]

I am just trying to understand the purpose of PIC Express. Reading over how it works it just doesn't make sense. Would you use it if you somehow had weeks that were eligible for PIC Plus but are okay for PIC Express? Do weeks at resorts like MVC, Vistana, Hilton eligible for PIC Express? Are RCI Points weeks eligible for PIC Express? Why would someone go for PIC Express if they can get more points every year in Club Wyndham if they had PIC Express instead? Are the buy in costs to get VIP with PIC Express less than with PIC Plus?

The only reason I can think of is to fill a gap between purchases till you get to a VIP level.

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[Pink_Warrior]

No PIC Plus are the eligible weeks. PIC Express are not in RCI, hence no deposit. We once had a salesman try to get us to go PIC Express with DVC points. He just called it a three bedroom when, in actuality, there was no such creature.

It is a sale (used to be 98k, maybe 105K now.) And if they get you into PIC Express, they figure that you will need to buy in again to renew it. PIC Plus doesn't expire.

PIC Express cannot deposit. PIC Plus does but it is not mandatory. That makes absolutely no sense to me but then again, it is Wyndham.

 

[Jan M.]

Points weeks aren't eligible for PIC Plus, only PIC Express. Depending on what you own, in some cases you can withdraw a points week from points and return it to a fixed week thereby making it eligible for PIC Plus.

When you make a purchase you must already own the eligible PIC Plus weeks. No exceptions. They cannot be in the process of transferring as Wyndham will call RCI to verify them. If they aren't there, you lose. You cannot use a points week that's in the process of being converted back. If you don't already own the weeks you intend on getting to PIC Plus them, make sure you ask which resorts are PIC Plus eligible.

With PICs a 3 or 4 bedroom will get 254k points, 2 bedroom is 154k, a one bedroom is 105k and a studio is 77k.

You will pay the program fee of $0.72 per thousand points on your PIC weeks. Also when you deposit your weeks to get the Wyndham points for them you'll pay a fee of $259 or it might be $289 for each week every year you deposit them. Sorry I don't remember how much the fee is. It went up last year, a lot, after I deposited our weeks.

Most likely you won't be able to get the Wyndham points for your PIC Plus weeks that first year. You have to deposit them, and have it confirmed, which takes another a few days, at least 9 months ahead of time. So that first year you'll have two options. Use the week or deposit it in RCI and get RCI TPUs, Trading Power Units, to use to go to other resorts in RCI. We have two 4 bedrooms that are our PIC Plus Weeks. Our first year I split the 4 bedrooms into four 2 bedrooms. I deposited 3 them and we used the 4th one. The TPUs are good for 2 years.

PIC Express Weeks are only for 5 years. The points associated with those weeks do count towards VIP levels. However you can't deposit the weeks and get Wyndham points for them. I've been told they can write the sale up so that if you don't actually own the weeks for PIC Express yet you can add them at a later date.

PIC Express is a hook sales uses for the owners who aren't knowledgeable. They serve a dual purpose. It gets you to buy that day and again when you're about to lose your VIP level. If the owner or potential owner were more knowledgeable they would walk away and not buy until they had their PIC Plus Weeks in hand. Then call telesales.

You must buy 49k points for each week you PIC Plus or PIC Express. Every few months telesales changes the promotions they offer; discounts and rebates. The discounts usually start at 100k points. Sometimes spending maybe $3k-$5k more and getting another 20k-30k more points gets a bigger discount and rebate making it a better deal. If they aren't offering more than a basic discount on say 100k points and you aren't in a hurry it might be worth waiting another 1-3 months to see what the next promotions are. Also they should give you the matching number of bonus points too. Those bonus points are good for 2 years.

 

[dioxide45]

So when you deposit your PIC Plus week into RCI in exchange for Club Wyndham points, do you do that through the included Wyndham RCI account or do you need to maintain your own individual RCI account with it's annual fee?

 

[Jan M.]

So when you deposit your PIC Express week into RCI in exchange for Club Wyndham points, do you do that through the included Wyndham RCI account or do you need to maintain your own individual RCI account with it's annual fee?

You can only deposit PIC Plus weeks to get the Wyndham points.

I looked at our RCI weeks account and don't see a date the membership is paid through. Our weeks we PIC are at Massanutten so maybe that gives us a free weeks account? Or maybe it's our Wyndham RCI account?

 

[dioxide45]

You can only deposit PIC Plus weeks to get the Wyndham points.

I looked at our RCI weeks account and don't see a date the membership is paid through. Our weeks we PIC are at Massanutten so maybe that gives us a free weeks account? Or maybe it's our Wyndham RCI account?

I seemed to have mistyped there. I meant to ask about depositing PIC Plus weeks. Do those have to go in to a separate paid RCI account when depositing for Club Wyndham points?

 

[Jan M.]

It's my understanding from what the RCI rep told me that we have 3 RCI accounts. Our points account, the Wyndham account and the weeks account. The only one I've paid a membership fee for is the points account.

Here's the process. First you have to pre-pay the next year's maintenance fees. Next, deposit the weeks. Depending on your resort you might be able to do that online. For one of ours I have to call the resort to have them deposit it. Once you get the email confirmation that the weeks were deposited, 3-5 days, then you can call Wyndham. The rep checks that the weeks were deposited and then has you pay the fee. They did ask me which use year I wanted the points in. The points show up in our account in the next day or two.

 

[dioxide45]

It's my understanding from what the RCI rep told me that we have 3 RCI accounts. Our points account, the Wyndham account and the weeks account. The only one I've paid a membership fee for is the points account.

Here's the process. First you have to pre-pay the next year's maintenance fees. Next, deposit the weeks. Depending on your resort you might be able to do that online. For one of ours I have to call the resort to have them deposit it. Once you get the email confirmation that the weeks were deposited, 3-5 days, then you can call Wyndham. The rep checks that the weeks were deposited and then has you pay the fee. They did ask me which use year I wanted the points in. The points show up in our account in the next day or two.

So the units get deposited to the weeks account? Both your PICs are at the same resort?

 

[tschwa2]

So the units get deposited to the weeks account? Both your PICs are at the same resort?

You can use your included Wyndham rci weeks account. You do not have to maintain a separate rci account to use for PIC. If you have another rci account for whatever reason that you pay for and you use it for your eligible rci week, I think that is ok too.

I am not sure if you understood this but you can only get a PIC week added with a retail purchase of at least 48,000 points or 2 PIC weeks with a purchase of at least 96,000 retail wyndham points. The PIC has to be added at the time of the purchase. So even if you have a retail purchase of VIP eligible points but didn't add the PIC into your contract at the time, you need another purchase before you can add an eligible PIC week.

The only reason to do PIC express is if you already own an II week (that is not associated with rci) or a week at an rci points resort and don't plan on buying another rci weeks resort. PIC express will give you a limited time bump up to a higher vip but no extra points. So if you own DVC on Hilton or Marriott or something like that, you can get a bump to your vip level using PIC express.

 

[dioxide45]

You can use your included Wyndham rci weeks account. You do not have to maintain a separate rci account to use for PIC. If you have another rci account for whatever reason that you pay for and you use it for your eligible rci week, I think that is ok too.

I am not sure if you understood this but you can only get a PIC week added with a retail purchase of at least 48,000 points or 2 PIC weeks with a purchase of at least 96,000 retail wyndham points. The PIC has to be added at the time of the purchase. So even if you have a retail purchase of VIP eligible points but didn't add the PIC into your contract at the time, you need another purchase before you can add an eligible PIC week.

Yes, I understand the requirements for adding PIC Plus weeks. I just wasn't sure what RCI account they had to be deposited into. Is the requirement 48K or 49K? Your post seems to contradict another above by 1,000 points per PIC. How much would 49K generally run through telesales? How much for 100,000?

 

[tschwa2]

Yes, I understand the requirements for adding PIC Plus weeks. I just wasn't sure what RCI account they had to be deposited to. Is the requirement 48K or 49K? Your post seems to contradict another above by 1,000 points per PIC. How much would 49K generally run through telesales? How much for 100,000?

It might be 49,000/98,000
My guess would be around $17-18K for CWA points. Sometimes they can do better if you are willing to do piggy back deeds at HOA's with extra high MF's that they are trying to get rid of. I have heard of deals in the $13-14k range but MF's per 1000 on those cheapy one's are in the $10-12 per 1000 point range.

People with older PIC contracts could do more than 2 weeks and are grandfathered with up to 4. Wyndham no longer gives unlimited HK with silver and above VIP and if you run out of HK with short stays, it is now an additional $175 starting next month regardless of unit size or length of stay. If you average 70,000 points per stay you won't run out but if you are getting upgrades and discounts and averaging 40,000k per stay even with the extra vip tokens, you will run out.

 

[Jan M.]

Through telesales in May 2022 we paid $14,375, after a $1k rebate, for 100k CWA annual points with 100k bonus points. The bonus points are a one time thing and good for 2 years.

Yes, it is 49k points for 1 PIC week and 98k points for 2 PIC weeks.

As far as I can tell we might only have one active RCI weeks account now. It doesn't show us owing anything or when we're paid up to like it does on our RCI points account. I don't know if our weeks account is a free account we get as Massanutten owners or there's a connection because we also own at a Vacation Village resort.

The Wyndham RCI account number we had with our first purchase 21 or 22 years ago doesn't exist anymore. The last time I deposited points into that Wyndham RCI account was 14 or 15 years ago. When I look at our Wyndham RCI account through the Wyndham website it shows our Wyndham owner number as the account number.

Our weeks we PIC are in the Woodstone association and Summit association at Massanutten.

 

[Pink_Warrior]

The PIC Plus gets deposited to a weeks account but that seems to be a holding place while they move things around. When I make a deposit, the weeks show up there. But they are removed when I am paid in Wyndham points for those deposits. I am paying to deposit those weeks so there is not an extra RCI account charge (yet.)

 

[dioxide45]

The PIC Plus gets deposited to a weeks account but that seems to be a holding place while they move things around. When I make a deposit, the weeks show up there. But they are removed when I am paid in Wyndham points for those deposits. I am paying to deposit those weeks so there is not an extra RCI account charge (yet.)

I am trying to determine if they can be deposited to the included Wyndham RCI account or if one would have to maintain a separate RCI account that carries and annual membership fee with RCI.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I am trying to determine if they can be deposited to the included Wyndham RCI account or if one would have to maintain a separate RCI account that carries and annual membership fee with RCI.

It can be done with the included Wyndham RCI account - that's all I actually have within RCI - and I've deposited my PIC Plus weeks almost every year since 2018 when we became VIPP (now VIPG) owners. To be clear - I don't use the Wyndham RCI account to deposit my weeks online - I call into the Wyndham RCI phone number once a year and perform my RCI weeks deposits over the phone - then wait for the deposit confirmation - then I call into the Wyndham VIP phone line and perform the PIC Plus points conversions using the RCI deposit confirmations. I don't believe you can use the Wyndham RCI account to add your RCI weeks online - at least I haven't figured out how - since I'm a VIP - my Wyndham RCI account seems to be a points account. Confusing I know. I believe if I created a separate RCI weeks account I could then add my existing RCI weeks to it - and perform the deposits online - but since I only do this once a year - it's not really worth the hassle for me to do so.

 

[Pink_Warrior]

I am trying to determine if they can be deposited to the included Wyndham RCI account or if one would have to maintain a separate RCI account that carries and annual membership fee with RCI.

You basically don't touch the weeks account. I just happened to have found it and figured it out. There are no fees for the account other than the deposit fee (which just increased last year.) There are no fees for the Wyndham RCI one, either. It "should" be absorbed by the program fee. I didn't have any extra charges for my RCI account that came in with DVC (no longer own that.)

The only RCI that I to have a membership fee for is my straight points account (which is a different points system than the Wyndham one.)