Fairfield timeshare vs. DVC. Difference?????

[cokegal19]

Pumpkin boy,

I am interested in renting your points, but can you tell me how much it would cost?

I STILL don't have my money back. It's been 4 days now that my checking account is negative. I'm really tempted to calling a lawyer. This absolutely rediculous!!!! My rent is due tomorrow, my car payment is due today, and my checking acount is almost 1,000 negative!!!!! they owe me 2000!!!! Plus I have received 165 of insufficient funds fees, and another $99 are comming tomorrow!!!!! if fairfield doesn't refund me those fees, i am DEFINATELY GETTING A LAWYER!!! and the worst part is , I leave for disney in 2 weeks, and if i don't get all my money back by then, i can't go!!!!! they have ruined everything!!! when i talked to fairfield resorts, the main company, they told me i have to go through my home resort, and that it could take anywyere from 2-4 weeks to get all of my money back.

they are sure fast to charge, charge, charge, but they don't want to give me my money back fast.

what can i do??? any suggestions????

 

[dlr25]

This has been SO interesting. I've been considering a Marriott timeshare (we already have DVC). Any opinions about Marriott vs. Fairfield? It sounds like Fairfield would be a much less expensive resale than Marriott. I am under the impression that Marriott is closest to DVC in terms of the quality of the resorts. I certainly have been spoiled by DVC. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Mush]

cokegal....just pm'ed ya.

Good luck!

 

[mikesmom]

Cokegal:
This may be unneccessary advice now that you are cancelling anyway, but if you thought that buying a timeshare would improve your credit, then back away from the deal now! First, real estate helps credit because it appreciates in value. This is NOT real estate, no matter what the salesman told you. If you defaulted on something else, a house has equity you can draw on and is real property a bank could go after. A timeshare is worth much less to a potential creditor trying to protect themselves. Timeshares depreciate and quickly, thus the much lower resale price of these things. Also, anyone who is evaluating you for credit (for a card, a mortgage, etc) is going to take into account how much debt load you are carrying. A $10000 load is NOT going to help your credit. If they estimate you can safely handle X dollars and you are already there (or past) they will refuse you credit. At best, they may extend you credit, but at a higher rate of interest.

 

[JLS]

dlr25 -

The main difference between Marriott and Fairfield is that Marriott is more of a traditional timeshare on the "week" system - you own a particular week and you go during that week every year, or you have to exchange your week. Even to book or exchange at another Marriott resort you have to "match" an exchange and then pay an exchange fee. Marriott will rent out your week for you and take a percentage of the rental as a fee. Fairfield is very similar in concept to DVC - you have points that you use by the night, with the point requirements varying by resort, time of year and size of unit. All of the new Fairfield resorts are points only - like DVC. But - older resorts that Fairfield purchased to become part of their system used to be on the traditional weeks system. Owners there have the option of keeping their week or "converting" their weeks over to the points system for a one-time fee (there are varying schools of thought as to whether it is economical to do this - that topic has been discussed at length on Tug and also on the FF Yahoo forum). The new Fairfield resorts are equivalent in quality to Marriott TS resorts. One benefit of FF is the ability to "trade up" - deposit a small amount of points and hope to match something that would have cost a higher point value. This totally depends on availability and luck, though. This topic is complicated and also has been discussed at length at the Fairfield Yahoo forum. If you are interested in Marriotts, Marriott has its own forum on Tug. Generally FF points are MUCH cheaper than buying a Marriott week resale. IF you buy an off-season Marriott week, you might be able to get it for under $5,000, but with off season weeks, your trading power, even internally within Marrriotts, would be limited, so you have to carefully consider when you want/need to vacation. You have a lot more flexibility with a points system.


cokegal - I don't have any suggestions for you. It is very unfortunate that this has happened, but it is true that it takes some time to resolve glitches when they are taken directly out of your bank account (as opposed to charged to a credit card where you don't have to pay). I do not see how getting an attorney is going to help this situation (unless they ultimately refuse to refund your money, of course). I am a lawyer so I say that in all sincerity. Just give it a few more business days. I hope that you do not have to cancel your Disney trip.

Usually people will rent Fairfield points for $5 per 1,000 points. You can look online at www.efairfield.com and go to the "resorts" link and for the Orlando Star Island resort you can see how many points would be required for your stay, and thus do the math on how much an average rental would cost.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Well CokeGal, it ooks like under JLS's formula it is cheaper to rent thru a Fairfield owner than thru my exchange: under the Fairfield formula it comes to $525, while my expenses are closer to $1,000.

I had always heard that the Marriott locations were particularly nice, and very spacious, especially the Grande Vista. Still, I have my DVC, so we'll stay on-site thx

 

[JLS]

To clarify for anyone who is interested in renting through Fairfield: Owners can rent points from Fairfield (if they don't have enough to cover a reservation) for $9 per 1,000 points for reservations more than 60 days out, or for $5 per 1,000 points for reservations within 60 days (believe it or not, these are often readily available - I booked 2 nights in a 1 bedroom over Easter weekend at Fairfield's Royal Vista resort right on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale about 4 weeks out). I didn't have points available to use for the reservation, so I just rented them from Fairfield for $5 per point - very easy. T

Fairfield VIP owners (300,000 points or more) are able to get a substantial points discount for reservations made 60 days out - that is one of the primary benefits of being a VIP owner.

Because of the very low resale prices, many owners of points (VIP or not) are willing to rent their points for about $5 or $5.50 per 1,000 per point. This would be available to non-owners and would be the cheapest way to get a Fairfield reservation. Someone with another TS who exchanged (unless it was a bonus week or something) probably would not be able to rent the reservation for that cheap. But you never know - particularly if the week was going to expire.

Once Bonnet Creek opens, there shoudl be a ton of availability for Orlando, particularly at the "offsite" FF locations, both of which are very nice.

 

[dlr25]

JLS - you may have talked me out of Marriott and into Fairfield. I like the point system, I understand it and I'm used to it. Also, it seems unneccessarily complicated (and expensive) to trade within Marriott which is what I would want to do most often.

If I decide to buy a Fairfield resale, are some properties more desirable than others or are all points created equal? DVC gives you the 11 month vs. 7 month window at your home resort but that is the only difference. What (if any) is the difference between your home resort and others with Fairfield?

 

[JLS]

With FF, at your home resort you have a 13 month booking priority. I believe it is 11 months for the rest of the population, but you should check on that. I am pretty new to the system myself, but the information I have received about the home resort importance is that it is very difficult to book certain prime weeks at the Myrtle Beach properties, and perhaps some others, but other than that, "points are points." FF has a lot of resorts to choose from (also an advantage of Marriott). I really like the fact that with Fairfield you can make an online deposit of a small number of points and have the potential for trading up. If you go to the FF Yahoo Group to the database, and look at the file "visible online deposits" you will see a large list of the trades that people have gotten when they have deposited small numbers of points and lucked out to trade up.

Fairfield is complicated, but worth it. But from what I have read, Marriott owners seem to be really happy with their timeshares too, and the resorts are high quality. Look at the Marriott message board on the Tug site before you decide for sure. But if you like the idea of being flexible with short stays vs. having a guaranteed week, I would say that Fairfield is the way to go. We have found it to be a great supplement for DVC. I can use my cheap FF points to get good trades, which I would rather do than to use the comparatively very expensive DVC points for trades. We also love to go to Vegas (we live in Southern California) and the Fairfield Grand Desert resort in California is really wonderful.

If you are interested in resales, join the FAirfield Resale Group on Yahoo (separate from the regular Fairfield Yahoo group). You will get emailed updates about point totals available.

 

[dlr25]

I will definitely join to get resale info because my first look at ebay didn't show anything close to $2000 for 154,000pts. I'll keep looking and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again for all of your help.

 

[betslinc]

dlr25:Here are some links on resale prices, it looks like they've drifted up a bit since the last time I checked. I bought mine cheap, have been really pleased other than some poor customer service at times. If it happens I just get off the phone quickly and politely and call back, hoping I get someone who knows more. http://www.resort-property.com/points.html, www.reid4florida.com

 

[dlr25]

betslinc: I'll check them out. Thank you.

 

[betslinc]

By the way, under 3 cents per thousand is considered a good price. The Yahoo site gives a list of all the maintenance fees for the different resorts. I noticed the Reid site had a Glade package for a good price, and as I recall that one has low maint. fees. Good luck! I love how my DVC points balance my Fairfield. DVC for Disney, and Fairfield for pretty much anywhere else!

 

[jekjones1558]

By the way, under 3 cents per thousand is considered a good price

This price can't be right????

 

[Lisa P.]

When you want to make a deposit with RCI using FF points, look at this chart of deposit weeks and select your desired unit size and time of year.

Size/Season - - - - - Blue - - - - - White - - - - Red
Studio - - - - - - - - - - 28K - - - - - 42K - - - - - 70K
1 BR - - - - - - - - - - - 63K - - - - - 77K - - - - - 105K
2 BR - - - - - - - - - - - 77K - - - - 126K - - - - - 154K

After you've chosen a type of week that you would like to deposit, just call FF and ask them to do this. You do not need to use all of your points to make an RCI deposit. Remember that upgrades are relatively easy so deposit less than you need to get in return (smaller unit) unless you are trying for a very difficult trade and it's under a year ahead of travel.

When trading to overbuilt areas (like Orlando & Williamsburg), offseason, quiet inland areas and/or other FF properties (due to the boosted internal trade power), especially when trading over a year ahead or under 60 days ahead, 28,000 points is sufficient. If it's not an overbuilt area but it's not prime time either, 42,000 would do. Prime season may need 70,000 points. I've never used more than that for an RCI trade. I've never needed a unit larger than a studio to do an RCI trade. By telling them that I need a unit for 5 or 6 people, I always get a larger unit.

These deposits are offline, generic deposits. They may not be used to trade online for yourself at the RCI website. There are specific instructions for obtaining a week which could be used to trade online with RCI. That's somewhat more complicated.

Details on trading FF are found in the "Files" section of the Yahoo group under "Worldwide Exchange Info" and "RCI."

Cokegal, I would go to my bank branch in person with a copy of the sales contract that states the amount that I had approved for them to withdraw. Ask the bank to correct this error. It couldn't hurt!

Jmminarik, EOY (every other year) is an option for purchasing many timeshares. It's what the OP stated she had purchased. Most owners purchase annual points contracts.

Dlr25, FF resales are usually less expensive than Marriott resales. Marriott is a more consistently high quality resort chain, though FF's newer resorts rival them, IMHO. FF has some older, renovated resorts, which I have not minded since they are very spacious and within driving distance of our home. Using other people's reviews (TUG & Yahoo) has helped us to choose according to our needs on each trip.

Jekjones, it's 3¢ per point or $30 per thousand resale compared with 14¢ or $140 per thousand from the developer - for annual points. HTH!

 

[jekjones1558]

Lisa P.

You are so generous with your time and expertise. Thanks for all the help!

 

[betslinc]

Sorry about my math guys! Lisa P got it right (as usual). She is a major Fairfield expert, when I was looking into this last year her info helped me so much. Thanks Lisa!
Betsy

 

[dlr25]

3 cents per point for a Fairfield resale is a good frame of reference. Does anyone know if there is a similar rule of thumb for Marriott (i.e. $5000 for 1 week Prime season) or does it vary by the home resort?

 

[JLS]

dlr25 - It is hard to say that there is a price "rule of thumb" for marriott weeks. The prices vary dramatically depending on the location and the week. It could be anything from $25-$30,000 or more for Week 52s at prime ski properties, o $5,000 or less for off season weeks. Marriott weeks are often sold on Ebay - track them there to get a sense of value, and you can always ask for advice on the Tug site Marriott board as to whether a particular deal is good.

 

[arminnie]

I don't own at Fairfield, but I have a friend that owns about 5 timeshares. She said that if she had it to do all over again she would only buy at Fairfield as it is easy to trade and they have so many properties.