Timeshare - a Concept Forever Associated With Scandal

At the idea of timeshare, do you imagine carefree breaks in wonderful locations achieved at a reasonable cost? Do you imagine saving your cash and boasting to your business partners and relatives about how far-sighted your ownership of timeshare was? I think not! If you're anything like me the concept of timeshare immediately brings to mind the following issues:

Rude marketing meetings.

Being bothered when in a resort by touts.

Losing my investment.

High annual fees

An Unusual Statement About Timeshare!

Whilst enjoying a Birthday celebration with friends, a couple mentioned their recent break. They unwisely stated that they had arranged it through the timeshare that they had owned for 10 years. After having suffered some discussion about their stupidity they told us that, for them, timeshare had been a good arrangement. They had been delighted with holidays at a number of expensive locations during the period that they had owned the timeshare. They were happy with the annual maintenance fees. They had no motivation to dispose of it and were quite happy with owning it. Manors meant that I could not check the details (purchase cost, annual charge etc.) but I think the fact that someone I know claimed to be happy with a timeshare was interesting enough to make me write about it!

Can You Enjoy Using a Timeshare?

The most significant thing to understand here is that my associates did not purchase their timeshare new from a timeshare developer, but on the timeshare resale market. This is the only possible way that a timeshare can (sometimes) be a good life choice. Timeshares are usually disposed of for a tiny fraction of their new cost on the resale market. I once knew a friend with connections to the timeshare industry who would frequently sell new timeshares to clients. Of course the timeshare that he invested in he had bought on the resale market.

Summary

The most important issues to consider when considering a timeshare are:

If you are wondering about purchasing new - THINK AGAIN! You will always be able to buy it cheaper resale.

Find out whether the timeshare you are purchasing entitles you to exchange it for weeks at resorts in other locations of a suitable standard.

Find out how much the annual charge is. Often if timeshares are on the resale market for an extremely low price it indicates that the maintenance charge is very high. Find out what the agreements are for changing the maintenance charge.

Do a sensible calculation of what your vacation costs for the remaining period of the timeshare would be. Judge this with the capital cost of the timeshare (and don't omit to allow for the investment returns that you could get from this amount) and the annual charge.

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