Timeshares are bad enough, but...

Intervals International makes it an even worse "investment".

Just got my renewal for the timeshare we recently bought. They want
$138/yr just for the membership. If we want to deposit our week it's
free, but if we want to exchange it for another week somewhere else,
they want another $129. It seems to me that they are merely taking
advantage of people who find themselves unable to use their home
resort for one reason or another.

Just another reason to use better judgement in buying a timeshare. Do
not buy one unless you are fairly certain you will go back to your
home resort year after year. These II fees are almost as much as the
yearly maintenance fees.

Most people realize after the fact that the timeshare purchase was a
mistake, but they make the best of it and enjoy it when they use it.
It's not for everybody. Sad to say, though, that we might let a week
expire that we cannot use, before we pay for an exhorbitant fee to
exchange it.

On 7/21/2007 10:28 AM Russell Patterson exclaimed:
Intervals International makes it an even worse "investment".

Just got my renewal for the timeshare we recently bought. They want
$138/yr just for the membership. If we want to deposit our week it's
free, but if we want to exchange it for another week somewhere else,
they want another $129. It seems to me that they are merely taking
advantage of people who find themselves unable to use their home
resort for one reason or another.

Just another reason to use better judgement in buying a timeshare. Do
not buy one unless you are fairly certain you will go back to your
home resort year after year. These II fees are almost as much as the
yearly maintenance fees.

Most people realize after the fact that the timeshare purchase was a
mistake, but they make the best of it and enjoy it when they use it.
It's not for everybody. Sad to say, though, that we might let a week
expire that we cannot use, before we pay for an exhorbitant fee to
exchange it.

Please explain how this is relevant. Is your timeshare located in
either the USA, Canada or their possessions? Inquiring minds would like
to know...

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Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
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"Brian K" wrote in message
link.net...
Most people realize after the fact that the timeshare purchase was a
mistake, but they make the best of it and enjoy it when they use it.
It's not for everybody. Sad to say, though, that we might let a week
expire that we cannot use, before we pay for an exhorbitant fee to
exchange it.

Please explain how this is relevant. Is your timeshare located in either
the USA, Canada or their possessions? Inquiring minds would like to
know...


Are you sure? Inquiring minds usually don't care about the details involved
when a fool and his money are soon parted. KM
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website view over 3,600 live cameras or
visit NASA, the Vatican, the Smithsonian, the Louvre, CIA, FBI, and
NBA, the White House, Academy Awards, 150 language translators!
Visit Hawaii, Israel and more at: http://keith.martin.home.att.net/

Russell Patterson wrote:
Intervals International makes it an even worse "investment".

Overall, the service that II provides is good in *theory*. The catch
merely happens to be reality.


Just got my renewal for the timeshare we recently bought. They want
$138/yr just for the membership. If we want to deposit our week it's
free, but if we want to exchange it for another week somewhere else,
they want another $129...

bringinng the annual total to $267, even before the Home Resort's
maint. fee is added, or the per-year fraction of the original purchase
price (eg, a unit that sold for $12K for 30 years = $12K/30 = $400 per
use), plus all of the 'value of money' present-value calculations (eg,
interest).


Just another reason to use better judgement in buying a timeshare.

As a TS owner of many years, I would not recommend anyone to buy one
anywhere, ever. Suffice to say that the contracts are legally phrased
to essentially prevent the selling company from ever being obligated
for anything, and you're just along for the ride with virtually no
legal recourse.

The only good news is if your TS is in the USA, as then there's some
consumer protection laws and ability to file class action lawsuits.
Ones that are overseas (most notoriously in the Caribbean) typically
have in your contracts a stipulation that any disputes have to be
resolved in the country where the TS is at. In other words, you have
to try to find a lawyer in a foreign country to represent you.


Do not buy one unless you are fairly certain you will go back to your
home resort year after year.

I tried the "skip II, just go to the home resort" strategy with Divi
Resorts (HQ in North Carolina). It worked fairly well for awhile, but
Divi ended up running our resort into the ground, almost entirely due
to mismanagement, and we're paying the price. Because of the "foreign
courts" stipulation in our contract, we are essentially screwed; this
all happened within roughly the first 1/3rd of our contracts...so much
for all of that sales pitch about the money you'll save on the back
end.


These II fees are almost as much as the yearly maintenance fees.

Consider yourself very lucky. We're over $500 per week just for the
home resort fees, and its expected to go up again next year. If you
read through the contract, you'll find *no* information on how these
annual fees are set, so here's the answer: they set them and you have
no choice but to pay, or default. If you default, they'll effectively
foreclose on you, give you a bad credit report rating and then resell
the now again available inventory to the next sucker in line.


Most people realize after the fact that the timeshare purchase was a
mistake, but they make the best of it and enjoy it when they use it.

For about 10-15 years. After which, many buyers are no longer of the
age to take advantage of the recreational area that their timeshare
was built at, so they try to encourage their kids to take vacations
there. Eventually, it becomes something that gets put into the Family
Trust, since they generally do not have any reasonable marketplace
resale value. I'd be *delighted* to sell mine for 33% of my original
purchase price, but I doubt that I could even get 5%.



It's not for everybody. Sad to say, though, that we might let a week
expire that we cannot use, before we pay for an exhorbitant fee to
exchange it.

My advice is to let it expire...although it doesn't hurt to check with
the home company to see if they'll let you bank it internally at no
cost. Whatever you choose to do, since there's little sense to throw
good money after bad, put preference on the one that doesn't take any
more money out of your pocket today.


-hh

Russell Patterson wrote:

It's not for everybody. Sad to say, though, that we might let a week
expire that we cannot use, before we pay for an exhorbitant fee to
exchange it.

Or you can rent your week out to others as some do. At least you can
recoup some of your money.