Timeshare Trap

Timeshares are one of the worst investments you can make. This journal is to inform people who are thinking about purchasing a timeshare not to do so and help those trying to get rid of their timeshare.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Timeshares For Dummies Book


We really wish that the book publisher had asked us to write this book rather than an industry insider who recommends that you can get good deals on a timeshare from the timeshare developers. This is just plain incorrect and you'll watch 50% or more of the value of you purchase fly our the window the minute you sign on the dotted line if you take this advice.

We could have written this book in two succinct lines.

1. For the vast majority of people, timeshares are a complete waste of money - don't buy one.

2. If you happen to be the exception to rule number 1, buy used (a resale unit) - never from the developer.

We just saved you $19 on the cost of the book and gave you better information. If you think our review is unfair and that the book may shed some light that will help you in regard to timeshares, borrow it from the library. Then when you see that it doesn't give you quality information you can use, you still haven't wasted any money on it.

posted by savingadvice @ 6:15 PM  

1 Comments:

  • At 12:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'll have to wait for this book to hit the shelves at my local library. I'm interested in seeing how it lays out the calculations for the cost/benefit analysis of a timeshare. I sat through a timeshare sales pitch last month and then I crunched the numbers myself, knowing what the answer would be, but not knowing exactly. Some of the highlights of what I learned are:

    The salesperson rolled airfare into the estimate of our current vacations, but ignored it as a cost in using the timeshare. For a family of four, getting there is not an insubstantial cost.

    Also ignored as a cost was the annual membership fee in the swapping network and the fee for actually swapping weeks.

    The salesperson completely ignored the finance charges for taking out a loan to buy this timeshare.

    Those alone added up to a couple thousand dollars every year. The interest goes away after the first 10 years, but the other costs linger. At least she admitted that there were going to be maintenance fees and taxes. They were going to run almost $900 for the first year, and presumably they would be increasing.

    The reality was that this timeshare was going to cost about $25,000 for 1 week/year. Assuming that any given unit will be unavailable occasionally for maintenance, let's estimate that they are selling 50 weeks/year per unit. The unit is selling for $1,250,000 with an annual maintenance and fees of $45,000. At prices like that, it doesn't surprise me that developers are eager to build timeshares.

     

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