Beware Timeshare Trial Programs

Timeshare trial programs are being used as a selling point to get uneducated vacationers interested in timeshare ownership. Many people have never heard of a timeshare trial program and might think it’s a good deal. It’s really just another attempt to lure you into buying a timeshare. Don’t fall for it.

Timeshare developers have found that 60% of the people who purchase a trial program can be more easily persuaded to buy a full timeshare. When they sell a perspective customer a trial program they include a mandatory presentation in the purchase. Then they make sure that the trial period is an easy, relaxing, all-around-wonderful experience. At the mandatory presentation they apply all their slick sales tactics and Bam! they get an easy sale.

If you are planning a vacation please be aware that you may be approached by a timeshare developer or salesperson. They might offer you a lot of great prizes, such as free accommodations or even money. No matter how great it sounds, say no thank you. It’s just another sales tactic to get you to purchase something you will have to pay on for the rest of your life. -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshare Owners Bear Cost of Others Misfortune

We all know that the economy is bad. Some people are having trouble paying the expenses of their primary home and putting food on the table. Vacation ownership is at the bottom of their list of priorities. People are abandoning their timeshares. They don’t have the money to pay on the ever-increasing maintenance fees and mortgage costs. This is causing a trickle down expense for other timeshare owners.

A deeded timeshare owner is responsible for covering the additional debt caused by other timeshare owners walking away from their responsibilities.

A deeded ownership in a timeshare means that you and all the other owners share the maintenance costs of the facility. When one owner walks away the cost goes up a little bit for each other owner. When several deeded owners choose to abandon their responsibilities, then the cost is exponentially higher for all the other owners. As the cost continues to rise, more owners will not be able to pay their bills.

This looks like a vicious circle that will only continue to get worse as the market struggles to fight off the depths of the current recession. So here is yet another reason not to buy a timeshare. -- M. Beddingfield

Buying Timeshares on eBay

Even with the bad economy, timeshares are selling on eBay. All the big names are there, Disney, Hilton Head, Wyndham, plus timeshares in exotic locales like Aruba and Los Cabos. Many of them are listed for less than $100. Some of them for a little as $1. Uneducated buyers are hoping to get lucky and win the vacation spot of a lifetime.

You might be as lucky as one buyer. He bought a timeshare in the Catskills for $2. What he got was a $75 resort fee, a $400 closing fee and an $800 maintenance fee. He had to pay all of that before he could use the timeshare. Then it wasn’t quite what he had in mind for a yearly vacation, so he had to pay more to join an exchange club. Now he pays over $1000 a year for a beautiful vacation spot that he doesn’t use. He’s so lucky that he will have to pay fees on this timeshare for the rest of his life or until he can unload it on another unsuspecting eBay buyer.

EBay is known for its bargains. Timeshare sellers are jumping aboard and hoping to purge themselves of yearly fees and unwanted mortgages. Right now there are over 1,700 timeshares listed. Before you go off half-cocked at the sight of a real bargain – understand that a timeshare is never a bargain, even at the unbelievable price of $1. -- M. Beddingfield

Timeshares for Nudists

The Valhalla Vacation Club, a timeshare community featuring a nude swimming pool and spa area, was once a 390 unit, family community. Originally called The Arbors at Branch Creek, this apartment complex in sunny Florida has had difficulty attracting tenets.

The apartment complex was slated to become condos with a European theme. Apparently the market for condos isn’t any better than it is for apartments. Eric Dukes, who is the director of sales for the Valhalla Vacation Club, says plans have changed and the units will become timeshares. Timeshares targeted to attract nudists.

Eric Dukes is also the owner of Attraction Realty. According to the St Petersburg Times, Attraction Realty’s website claimed that its number one goal was to help create wealth in real estate. The website has recently expired.

I’m all for nudity. However, when nudity is exploited as a means to promote timeshares, I think perhaps someone is not telling the naked truth. Do I see a cover-up? - M. Beddingfield

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Timeshares and the Bad Economy

The bad economy will have an affect on any timeshares that you own, and that affect will not be good. Even if you have been responsible and have always paid your timeshare fees and timeshare loans on time, you are going to end up paying more because of those people who don't:

1. Your fees will increase. When people stop paying their timeshare fees and their timeshare ends up getting foreclosed on, the timeshare resort loses money. They have to make up that lost money somewhere and it is usually in the form of higher fees for all the other timeshare owners.

2. You will Likely see timeshare surcharge fees: With less of a base to support the timeshare and a credit crunch that is making it hard to finance the timeshare projects the timeshare resorts already have going, you will likely see special surcharges added to your yearly bills to help defray these timeshare resort costs.

3. Your timeshare is worth less: It wasn't worth a whole lot before, but it is worth even less now. Very few people want to buy (or can afford) a timeshare in a bad economy and that means prices of timeshares are falling like a rock to the ocean floor.

These are some of the reasons that the faltering economy will mean your timeshare costs you even more money...

Timeshare Inheritance

One of the biggest shocks that many people receive is when they inherit a timeshare from their parents. They assume that they are inheriting something of value and not something that will suck money out of their bank account. It doesn't take them long to figure out that the timeshare isn't what they had expected.

What many people don't realize is that they don't have to accept a timeshare that they have inherited. It's perfectly within your rights to refuse it:

You have to file your Disclaimer of Interest within a certain time period, usually nine months from the date of the death of person you inherited the property from; unless you are under the age of twenty-one, then the time period begins when you turn twenty-one.

It doesn't stop there of course. If you refuse it, it goes to the next person in line so each person in the family must disclaim it. For more information you can read
How to refuse a timeshare inheritance.

Richard Petty is not Selling Timeshares

If timeshares were a decent deal, it wouldn't take the sleazy efforts that timeshare resorts go to to try and get you to hear their pitches. Since they aren't, they use anything they can to try and take your money and lock you into lifetime payments. One of their latest below the belt tricks is using the good name of Richard Petty.

There’s a new scam circling the racetrack. It’s a telemarketing ploy. If you get a phone call saying that you have won a Richard Petty Driving Experience, don’t get behind the wheel! What the telemarketers are really selling is a timeshare presentation. They are taking advantage of a real Richard Petty sweepstakes that does exist and trying to confuse potential customers. Remember -- don’t ever give any personal info to an unknown telemarketer, especially your credit card information. -- M. Beddingfield

http://contests.about.com/b/2008/11/01/warning-about-timeshare-calls-disguised-as-richard-petty-sweepstakes-wins.htm