Free Vacation Certificate Comes with Fine Print

We’ve all gotten them – nice looking certificates that arrive in our mailboxes – usually at the end of winter when we’re starting to dream of spring break – advertising for a free vacation. Some certificates include lodging in a hotel or timeshare resort for a certain number of days and nights. Other offers include airfare or a cruise, or provide one complimentary ticket with the purchase of a second. Some certificates include discount coupons for restaurants, tours or attractions in the resort area.

Your momma taught you there is no such thing as a free lunch, right?  True here, too.  To start with, many require a non-refundable processing and handling fee or a refundable deposit of $50 to $100 to reserve a vacation offer.

But that’s not all you need to watch out for:

Read the rules carefully. Do you meet the required conditions, such as age and marital status or income level?

Determine all costs involved in using a vacation certificate. It will be your responsibility to pay for anything not specifically mentioned.   Will you be expected to pay for:

Hotel, timeshare resort or other lodging? Meals?

Transportation from your home to the resort? Do you have to travel to a distant location before the company pays for “free” travel?

Transportation from the airport to the lodging accommodation?

Additional fees for the peak tourist season? When is the peak season? Are there any port taxes when visiting a foreign country?

Remember, timeshare presentations are often long, grueling and difficult to walk away from.

Timeshare Resales: Hand Me Down Vacations?

In this economy, most families are learning to save pennies wherever they can.  Fashionable consignment stores have sprung up in even the most metropolitan of cities, selling brand-name clothing at a fraction of the retail price.  Other resale stores sell everything from sports equipment, furniture, and wedding dresses, to high chairs, electronics and kitchenware.

Depending on what you need, buying a used item saves money-sometimes as little as 10-15%, often as much as 50%.  Timeshare properties are no exception.  Owners are often looking to get rid of timeshares.

Timeshare developers accumulate significant marketing related expenses – primarily through costly timeshare promotions which offer free giveaways in exchange for consumer attendance at high-pressure timeshare sales pitches. Even if you don’t attend a timeshare presentation, when you purchase directly from a resort, you pay to absorb all of the administrative and marketing costs associated with the sale of the property. When buying from a current owner, you pay only the fair market value of the timeshare – a price that’s often 65 percent less than the developer’s price.

However, unlike buying golf clubs, the price for a timeshare also includes future debt- the amount of money you will be required to pay in the future – from annual maintenance fees to surprise surcharges that you might not expect.  Regardless of where you buy, do your homework.

Timeshare Maintenance Fees Explained

The idea of maintenance fees makes sense.  They are mandatory fees that the resort management company or homeowners association charges its owners for the upkeep of the timeshare property.  These fees are usually defined as covering property taxes, utilities, insurance, and any other maintenance expenses.  But, they also need to meet the needs of future expenses like office furniture and appliances.

The amount of the fee varies widely.  Some fees are as little as a few hundred dollars a year, while others are several thousand.

Maintenance fees are generally levied on annual basis, however certain resorts may levy them monthly or biennially.   What you may not be told is the extent to which the annual maintenance fee will increase over the years.  What may be affordable now may not be with double-digital percentage increase every year.  And for new resorts, what you may not realize is that when a developer is in control, maintenance fees may be temporarily subsidized by the developer as a marketing tool while there is sales activity. After the homeowner association takes over, fees may quickly rise to unsubsidized levels.

However – this is the big problem:  timeshare operators also may force owners to pay unexpected but obligatory special assessment fees.

Timeshare Relief Review – John & Sue Livingston

John & Sue had tried to get rid of their timeshare numerous times, paying fees to companies that never followed through on promises.  They recognized Timeshare Relief as a company and a group of people who want to help timeshare owners remove the financial burden that their timeshares have created.  With the guarantee that they will not pay never more maintenance fees, special assessments, or any other timeshare-associated fee from that point forward, John & Sue were very happy to finally be rid of their timeshare.

Timeshare Relief Review – John & Mary Dexter

John & Mary Dexter loved their timeshares.  But, with hurricane damage and refurbishing of their timeshares, the special assessments became too costly to the tune of around $5,000 with another $3,000 due the next year.  They simply wanted out of their timeshares. Timeshare Relief came to the rescue.

These unforeseen costs that timeshare owners bare are incredible.  It’s hard to imagine that anyone would ever buy a timeshare if they knew what they needed to spend on their timeshare vacations over their lifetimes.  Like most services that you prepay, you’ll probably end up paying more than you originally intended.  The business model is simply set up for more people to NOT get their money’s worth, else the business model would break down.