My parents were the victims of one of those timeshare companies, and it almost ruined them financially before they came to us (their adult children) for help.
The thing is, “timeshare exit companies” are scams too. If you’re paying for a timeshare and want to get out, you just stop paying. Despite their dire warnings, these timeshare companies don’t actually report to credit bureaus; if they did, they’d get smashed out of existence by new legislation almost immediately.
We talked to lawyers, and my parents simply stopped making payments. When the TS companies called, I indicated that further communication should be by mail only. Nothing happened except some more mail. The entire financial impact of the ordeal was the part where they missed some other payments because they were struggling to make their timeshare payments.
Once they stopped making timeshare payments, that stopped and it was over. It probably didn’t even hurt their credit with the timeshare company – I fully expect the company would happily sell them another onerous loan despite their nonpayment of the first one.
So unless this “timeshare exit” company charges no more than a nominal fee, and advises as above, they’re another scam themselves.
The LA times called up Timeshare Exit Team for details of their costs and services. They refused to say how much they charged, or even on what basis they charge. After the story ran, Exit Team called up to claim that their average fee is $4,000, which probably means that the absolute minimum fee ever paid is $4,000.
From a half hour of Googling, I’m still unsure about what exactly these exit companies actually do to get out of the contracts. What they do do is post a lot of self-serving comment posts on the internet promoting themselves, making it hard to tell which, if any, are legit, or what they do that you couldn’t do yourself. What does eventually come out is that Timeshare Exit Team / Reed Hein & Associates sounds like a law firm isn’t a law firm and charges big fees up front,.
Try Aruba without timeshare…25000for 2 bedroom 2 weeks in Feb…forever and $1500 per year main fee. $450 per night on beach with no timeshare. Plus we rent occasionally and easily get $2500 per week or $5000 per year. Plus Aruba backs up timeshares… pro rated in case they dissappear which they haven’t for my 20 + years there
I’d figured it was always high season in Hawaii, but Google suggests the off-season is late spring, and fall.
When my dad worked for an airline, we went to Kauai 3 times when I was a kid (as the airfare was cheap for him). Last trip was 36 years ago but I’ve never been interested in visiting anywhere else in Hawaii (other than transferring at HNL). I’m trying to convince the wife & kids to go sometime, but it’s a hard sell – living on the east coast, I figure it’s at least twice as long as flying from LAX (where we used to live for 2 of those trips).
I looked it up and the condo where we always stayed is still there (in Kapaa). I wonder how well it has aged…
I’m actually going to Maui next month to, ironically, stay in a timeshare with my partner’s family; being on the east coast myself, it’s not a short trip indeed. Never been to Hawaii at all, so I’m excited.
Like credit card rewards or airline miles, you can work it to get the free stuff as long as you are aware of the scam and are going in guarded against unwanted and unwise purchases. It just takes discipline and a little research. I’ve seen people do it, it’s not impossible.
Yup, not impossible. But these high pressure sales tactics work well. This is what these slimeballs do for a living. They have more experience at overcoming resistance than most people have at resisting. It’s why, for example, I would never “join” Scientology just for a lark. The risk just isn’t worth the reward.
That’s when we go, either May or November. May is nice because they don’t change their clocks so when we’re DST, it’s only 2 hours behind. Leave here at 1030a and get there by 130p. Hit the Costco on the way to Poipu and have plenty of time for an afternoon swim and a drink for sunset.
Flying out of San Diego is nice because Alaska has several non stops a week.
my parents went to a timeshare seminar that was about three hours long
or at least it felt like it, they dragged me along. the condos looked pretty lame; I think we got something out of it that wasn’t really worth the time it took to see the presentation.
