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?
Sell it for $0.01 or die with no heirs.
Great episode with John Oliver about this. My in-laws paid $1500 to sell it to someone else.
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Link for the lazy.
I am lazy! Thank you!
Damn. It made a new industry of exiting timeshares but those were also a scam. That’s brutal. Imagine getting duped twice.
I feel like you might get away with creating a corporation, selling it to that for 1 cent, then stop paying dues. Might give some protection? Idk
Arson.
Edit: oh like, legal ways. Sorry about that. Ignore me.
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.
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.
Here’s an AARP article: https://www.aarp.org/money/credit-loans-debt/info-2020/3-ways-to-get-out-of-a-timeshare.html
Getting a hold of her agent has been an issue.
Why are timeshares so bad? Never looked into it but the concept seems to make sense on the surface.
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
Holy shit I never knew they were that bad.
It gets worse.
The idea sounds great, but the implementation is shit and the fiduciary duty isn’t for those who bought the timeshare.
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.
Best way to get out of a Timeshare?
Have you tried the door?
Is there not a contract to read? Sorry if that sounds unhelpful but that’s the first place I’d check.
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’m a lawyer. I’ll gladly read over the contract and advise you how to resile.
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Just move to an alternate reality where you never bought the timeshare to begin with.
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?)?
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.
Wow. What a horrible markup.
Yes, take the special offer to hear the pitch, and never buy.
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)
We have only done it once, and the people were pretty cool about it. A couple quick last minute pitches and we were out the door.
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?”
They’re that bad. Maybe there’s a good one out there, but why risk it
if there was a good one, they wouldn’t need gimmicks and scams to sell them.
The good ones don’t use those tactics, I’m assuming.
If there are good ones.
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)
She lives near a nice beach already and it’s the point timeshare.
Could you put it up on AirBnB?
It generally isn’t. The few that are worth it are places you will visit over and over again for the next generation.
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.
You’re a timeshare representative, aren’t you?
Lol no
Imagine they keep selling slots though and suddenly the only dates available to go skiing are in the middle of July.
Na, they sold ski weeks and non aki weeks, so if you have a ski one you put your name down for the dates you want . Happy with it.
Some people who are stuck with timeshares will book rentals and resell them just to recoup some losses.
I forget the site but there’s one where you can basically sublet a rental. I’ve never done it cause it seems sketchy AF
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.
It’s pretty cheap to buy off of ebay.
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Doubt that’s gonna help since she’s a widow.
Vegas exists for a reason.
