buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

tell me the pros and cons of both.

I am thinking that I'd like to take a yearly beach vacation as a family, mostly within the continental US b/c during the summer it's cheaper and we usually cdo Europe during soccer season soo....

I am tossing around the idea of a time share. my uncle bought one in South Africa and then joined RCI so he trades with people all over the place (he's actually never even been to SA, he just bought there b/c it was cheap and he still get acccess to the RCI pool) but not sure if it's really worth it.

the other options is to just rent houses in the areas I am interested in for a week each year, and if I don't have time or interest one year I don't have to worry about going and/or selling my week to someone.

anyone do one or the other...or both and have opinions?

thanks!

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

Honestly - I'd think you would be better off just renting a beach house somewhere different every year.

If you do decide to buy, check out in detail which properties RCI offers as swaps. We have Interval and imho, it sux.
If you do buy, buy into a name, such as Marriott Vacation Club, or Sheraton Vacation Club. Better swap locations.

DH and I have a time share. We bout a cheap one from his cousin, in Madeira Beach Florida (outside of Tampa/St. Pete). It does not really save us any money, and we are limited to the properties we can swap for.
We've tried to swap for a certain property in Aruba and can't get it. Interval offers us everything else but this one particular property (our friends have time share there and we travel together - to buy is just too expensive)

I pay $490 a year in maintenance, $96 in property tax, and an annual fee for belonging to Interval.
Costs me nothing but airfare to stay at my unit, but have to pay a swap fee to stay somewhere else. This year cost me $149 for the week to stay at the Sheraton Vacation Village in Orlando, in addition to the 'other' costs above.
I'll be in Madeira Beach in September.

If you plan on not swapping and using your unit every year, then you don't have to join RCI or Interval. You still have to pay property tax and annual maintenance on your unit.

hope this helps.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

yes, susibee, that was VERY helpful and sort of what I feel in my gut.

thank you!!!

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

We own with the Sol Melia Vacation Club and can exchange w/ RCI ( with an exchange fee) if we want to go outside of the vacation clubs resorts..

We don't own set "weeks" which I like much better than some traditional time shares...We are given a set amount of options ( points basically) to use and they can be carried over for 2 years, or can be transferred to RCI if you don't use them...I have yet to have an issue with the week I am looking to take being unavailable, and with the amount of "options" we own w/ the SMVC, I have even been able to travel twice w/ RCI in one year

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

We own with RCI and I have no complaints. We use our week and we also take advantage of a lot of the perks that RCY offers- like deals on last minute vacation ($269 for a 2bedroom for a week.) We have also booked trips for friends and they just also purchase a guest pass. My suggestion would be this... if you're planning on doing a lot of exchanges (and it sounds like you are) try to buy the cheapest timeshare possible with the lowest yearly maintenance fees.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

We own two timeshares, one thru the Disney Vacation Club at Animal Kingdom, and the Marriott in Hilton Head, Gold Season 2 bedroom! We've never had a problem trading the Marriott, as Hilton Head Gold Season is prime! As for Disney, it goes by points, we go 2, sometimes 3 times a year! We don't ever travel Feb break or Christmas week, we go off-times, like the 1st week in December or late Sept, early Oct! It depends, but I love our timeshares!!!

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

I bought a timeshare in Orlando off of Ebay. I paid one $1.00 for it and then paid closing costs of approx. $100.
I pay yearly maintenance fees for the unit and I paid to join RCI. I did not spend a lot of money obviously for my initial investment but I still am not sure whether I should have done it or not. I feel like I can find good deals without it.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

My ILs have 2 timeshares near WDW that are RCI. Trading is not as easy as they make it sound, even if your timeshare is one that is in high demand. Not worth it IMO.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

I *HAD* a timeshare with RCI and decided to sell it. I went on some really amazing vacations but the annual maintenance fee, RCI membership fee, and essentially paying a mortgage for the property was just too much after a while. And we bought ours cheap!

We had it for four years and in that time I spent a week in southern Spain, two weeks in Cabo and a week in Riviera Maya. Again, AMAZING vacations!

But we spent a lot of $$$ and I am convinced that if I had done my research we could have gone on those vacations for a lot less. Another thing to consider is that to get the nice places, you need to plan your vacations way in advance.

However, what I love about timeshares is that you typically stay in a suite and usually are surrounded by other families. I felt safe.

ETA: My timeshare was in Orlando - it was a 2 bedroom lockout so we could trade for a 2 bedroom every 2 years or a 1 bedroom every year.

Message edited 5/28/2010 11:17:54 PM.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

We bought ours second hand off of timesharesonly.com.

We paid about 2500 plus closing and have 300,000 points to use each year with Wyndham. We are also part of Interval.

We love it. Our maint fees are about 120 a month.

We actually went to see about upgrading through wyndham and they wanted an insane amount of money. The package we have would cost someone like 30,000

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

I just want to also point out that for couples with no kids, you can probably find good/comparable deals on your own. But for people with kids, there is nothing better then all of the space you get with a timeshare. The idea of sharing a hotel room with two kids makes me cringe.

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

We have 2, one through Disney and the other through Starwood. Trading is not that easy but overall i have no cpmplaints

Re: buying a time share and joining a share group such as RCI OR renting year to year in different areas without a "commitment"

thanks everyone!!!