RCI Points

[jacisis]

I am interested in purchasing RCI Points and wondered if anyone could put me in the right direction for a good deal with low maintenance costs. I have noticed that both the costs and maintenance charges differ so much between agents
Many thanks

[KARL]

I would advise strongly against buying pure points, but do instead consider buying a week in a standard timeshare and "cede" that for points with RCI. You are correct as to maintenance and fees - they vary a lot and it is important to know what to go for. Do NOT buy timeshare from the developer, but instead from the resale market. This means you are buying at or near the true market value of the week, not at the hugely inflated initial market placing of a new development which includes fat agent fees. Look for a week in a resort that has low annual maintenance fees, find out how many points that would give you with RCI (the more points, the better the resort's standing in that week) and how much entering your week in RCI points would come to. If you look around you can get an entry cost of �350 or less per week and weeks at less than �1000 - this compares with up to and beyond ten times this total in the case of new resorts (yes, �13,500). The annual maintenance may be �250 or less at such a resort and you could get 30,000 points or more for it. That gives you serious holiday possibilities with RCI where the annual membership fee is around �70 and each exchange costs around �120. An apartment for six for a week in lots and lots of places around the world for �440 plus your initial �1300 or so investment (at least half of which you could recoup if you decided to resell). Look into it for yourself but beware of people trying to put you off for their own agendas. Most resale agents are quite legit but you can contact the appropriate regulatory body for advice. I have three weeks of timeshare, two in weeks and one in points - it has worked extremely well for us within the RCI system.

[jacisis]

Very useful information, thank you for that Karl

[buildersmate]

Some good advice from Karl. But I wouldn't even bother buying timeshare secondhand. Since the market is now saturated, you can easily RENT at many of the good quality resorts for little more money than the maintenance costs. And you have not made a long term commitment you can';t back out of.
Yes, I'm a timeshare owner who has used RCI for many years but have now got out of the organisation. They have wrecked the market with Points - persuading people they can trade up to get a better quality resort. Think about it - their is only so much quality timeshare resorts around - not everyone can get into them.

[KARL]

buildersmate is correct regarding the possibility to rent. However, renting is easiest in those parts of the world where there is as much as or more supply than there is demand (and) at the times when this occurs (Southern Spain, Tenerife, Florida). To rent at the best resorts where demand exceeds supply at or near peak times is considerably more expensive than at other times - if it is even at all possible. By playing the RCI system carefully, you can (as we have) get into higher rated resorts than your own at more popular times also. You would learn to do this as you go. While I see certain advantages in the point system, there are also good reasons to be in straight forward weeks. Everything rather depends on you managing the account(s) well yourself rather than leaving things late and then being disappointed when you can't get what you want. I should have said that once you have identified an interesting resort, it is worth trying to find out how well run it is because if badly run it can slip in value. Note that RCI.com allows you to browse the resorts directory and see which resorts receive a good rating.