New timeshare owner- getting more confused by the minute

[Andrea J.]

YES you must pay maintenance.
the special assessments are spread out thru all of the bluegreen members.

the maintenance fees for my 10 units/ gazillion points IS less than if i held the units individually as lacabana approx $4000+ if i had held these units without converting to bluegreen, the maintenance fee would be over $5000 and the special assessment for the renovations wold have been approx $14000.

bluegreen works out for us, sometimes ;-)

[dipeblnd]

this is all super useful information... exactly what I was looking for. Thank you all SO much!

[Kris10]

Originally Posted by Andrea J.

the thing about rolling your points over with blugreen

1. they now charge you a fee to carry points over to the next yr :-(

2. those carry over points/roll over points are only allowed to be used during blue or white seasons. (LOW SEASONS)

there are NO blue or white seasons in aruba or in florida using the bluegreen program.

i caution all about reading the fine print with bluegreen or any of the other timeshare programs.

They haven't charged me anything to carry points over, that's odd (I'm surely not going to bring this to their attention, lol)

Ehh but if you plan ahead for a red season, you're fine. Plus we had enough points for us (me and hubby) and a couple friends. I don't know, like I said if we used it I'd be golden but we don't use it regularly and I've been losing out.

Originally Posted by Arubalisa

Using points with Bluegreen you do not have to pay maintenance fees or assessments? These are the two things that are always in the fore front when dh ever considered purchasing a timeshare. These are two factors which are totally out of our control.

We have annual fees of about $600, our monthly payment is $180 but it'll be paid off by 06/2015.....can't wait! LOL

We could pay it off though, there's about 6K left

[Linda VH]

Go over and visit the forums at Timeshare Users Group (www.tug2.net) which are free to visit. I've been a member for years and joining gets you reviews, etc. It is a great site to use to really really educate yourself before you buy. We own a lot of timeshare, mostly in Aruba!

[AndyM]

Buying a fixed week timeshare you are surrounded by many of the same people every year. That can be good or bad. We have been fortunate to be with a good group and established a friendship that continues all year long outside Aruba.

[Arubalisa]

I had a thought this morning reading through some reviews of timeshares on an online travel review website. It is interesting to see the comparison between how an owner see their property, their investment vs. how a renter, an outsider, see the property. Definitely may be worth the research for some comparisons.

I do know that in reading some reviews today, it was a good reminder that renters at timeshare resorts are treated as "outsiders" and are more often than not, made not to feel very welcome. I always thought we were the only ones who were made to feel that way. We certainly felt that way on most if not all occasions staying at a timeshare resort. I suppose that may be a good thing for an owner, but bad for a renter?

Just food for thought...

[Andrea J.]

we have never encountered that using INTERVAL trades except at a resort which i will not name publicly.
some of the resorts where we have traded into where we were treated perfectly
ABC
Paradise Beach Villas
Renaissance
Caribbean Palm
Lacabana (our home resort and we did trade into there too hahaha)
divi village
personally i think folks get a little too uppity at times and they should get their noses down out of "nosebleed altitudes".

the reports i get back from my "renters at lacabana" have always been positive and never heard any of them say they were treated as outsiders.

[Arubalisa]

The resorts we have had experience with or I had read about are not any of the ones which you mentioned.