My mom got roped into buying a Wyndham timeshare on a trip and procrastinated herself out of the grace period. Is there anything she can do to get out of it now?
I've heard a lot of shit about timeshares, but is it possible to get a good deal on one? Does that require someone to actually pay you to take it from them (are they THAT bad, really?)?
They get so mad lol. I did this once, and when the guy realized we never intended to buy, he said “Never come to one of these again”. And I was like, “Stop sending me free vacation offers then!” (at least that’s the comeback I came up with a few days later)
Yeah, they did keep cutting the price to try to get us. The last offer was half the price of the one before it, which just made me think “if you can offer this, how much of a rip-off must the original price have been?”
I have two weeks at a good one I’m super happy with.
We use it to snow ski. The yearly maintenance fee for a weeks use is equivalent to a single night accommodations at the same time. Cost me $4k to buy. I’ve used it for a decade so far.
It’s heavily dependent on the specific contract, but if you like to Vacation at the same location every year or most years it can work out better than having the even greater cost of owning a full blown vacation home. You can also iirc rent out your slice of the time share if you don’t or can’t make it a specific year (Contract dependent, you really have to read the contract you sign if you even want a sliver of hope of getting a decent value out of it)
Sat through a pitch. Their last ditch “Alright, I got special permission from my manager for this” price was like 1/4 their initial price, and even then just the additional maintenance fees alone was more expensive than just booking a room once a year.
I bought into a thing that’s kinda like timeshares, but it’s through the company that runs most of the resorts. You get like 2 weeks a year for $300/week as long as you book within 45 days of the stay. Plus discounts on hotel rooms, flights, etc.
Basically it’s where they rent rooms they’re not likely to be able to on those days, so they’re at least making some money.
So, if you like to travel in the off seasons, it works out really well.
It was only like $6k and $300 a year in maintenance fees.
A 10 year estimate of cost: That’s 900/year + buy in and opportunity cost 1200/year. That’s 2100/year for 14 days. So roughly 150-200/day locked in for a decade of short notice off season bookings. It’s not bad, but it’s also not good unless the rooms start going for 400+ in the future. Which even then you’re only saving 2-3k/year for the restrictions, and if you don’t use it fully the value quickly swings in their direction.
Apparently the scammers will rush you through so you miss the nuances in the very finely-crafted contract – they’re professionals at this. I think John Oliver did a thing on the whole seedy setup.
I just stopped paying everything. The balance and the dues/fees. They threatened lawsuits and never did anything. They put debt on our credit report, waited 10 years for it to go away.
My father did the same with a timeshare in Mexico. Every time he called to book a room they were full, even booking 8 months out. So he just stopped paying for it. They got mad and called him several times over the years.
Finally he said ‘Fine, I want a room in 3 months time for 2 weeks. I’ll even be pay all the owed fees.’ “sorry we’re full then” ‘Ok, well then I’m never paying you a dime, stop calling me.’ that was that.
As far as I know his credit was never hurt, but he’s also got amazing credit so maybe it was enough to offset that hit.
It’s like a plane where they’ve way overbooked the flight, yet everyone still contractually obligated to pay the full fare regardless of whether they’re allowed to board the flight or not.
For vacation properties and stuff, it’s sometimes far from worth it. Some timeshares work for people, though. For example, it’s common for aspiring pilots to own a timeshare on an airplane so they can fly on their own and log hours without actually owning a plane of their own. If it’s something you’re actually going to use, it can be ok. I went on a trip with a family who owned a timeshare on a giant houseboat in Lake Powell. It was pretty freaking awesome, actually. Each year, the family members pitch in to help pay for the trip, and you can fit a lot of people on a houseboat. Nobody wants to actually own a houseboat and deal with all the bullshit that comes with something like that. A boat is a money pit to begin with, so a timeshare on one actually looks much more desirable to some people.
That being said, the sales tactics some companies use are designed to fool people into buying something they won’t get the value out of. They don’t care. I’ve always imagined that those little seminars they give to get you to buy one have another table right out the back door when you’re leaving that will sell you help to get rid of it. There’s NO WAY there’s not people covertly playing both sides of that.
They are amazing, for only 12K [1] it is like owning [2] a place in the resort. You can book any time [3] on our easy to use site [4]. Once you have had enough you can simply sell your timeshare back to us [5,6] or to someone else [7].
Plus 700 a month for maintenance.
No, you don’t own a stake in the unit.
If you book between the previous solstice and the closest new moon to your preferred holiday time.
Online booking only available in the pro package or beyond.
No guarantee we will buy it.
A fee equal to 2 years worth of maintenance costs will charged on dissolution of the contract.
You receive no proceeds from sales to third parties
My parents bought into Wyndham but luckily were able to get out of it by contacting the AG (attorney general), I think of our home state - iirc they got conned into it when visiting vegas.
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