What Happens if I Stop Paying My Timeshare?
This question comes up a lot on timeshare forums and blogs, and it can be complicated depending on the exact procedures outlined in your particular contract. There are a few main points that stay the same regardless of whether you have a deeded timeshare or right-to-use, and whether or not you have paid off the entire amount of the timeshare. The following is a description of the steps that will take place if you decide to throw in the towel and allow your timeshare to go into default, leading to timeshare foreclosure.
Timeshare is treated equal to real estate in the eyes of the law, and it follows the same rules and regulations as a homeowners deed. Your timeshare can foreclose in the same way as your home if you stop making payments – and this does not just mean payments on the principal balance, it also includes yearly maintenance fees. After your first missed payment, whether it be a monthly payment on the principal balance or your maintenance fees, you will start receiving calls from your timeshare resort’s collection company attempting to collect a payment. You will also receive information by mail detailing the amount due, including any applicable late fees, and their intentions on reporting your delinquency to the IRS.
The harassing telephone calls and letters will continue if you choose to not pay the balance due on your timeshare, and after anywhere from 6-24 months (this is dependent on the procedure of your resort company) your timeshare company will begin foreclosure proceedings on your timeshare. Timeshare companies will try to avoid this at all costs because a foreclosure means they have to take the property back and pay legal fees for the proper paperwork to be processed. I have heard instances of resorts offering to lower the amount due on the principal, changing contacts to make maintenance fees due only every 2 years, adding extra perks into your vacation package such as extended stays, rental cars, airfare, and sometimes even offering to forgive the amount owed if the two parties can reach a suitable agreement for payments to continue.
If your timeshare does go all the way through the foreclosure proceedings you will be notified by mail that your deeded timeshare will be part of a trustee’s sale or public auction. At the given date, time and place your timeshare will be sold at a sheriff’s auction to the highest bidder. The auction is public record and the transaction can be recorded and reported to the IRS and credit bureaus, effectively ruining your credit for the next 7 years. This strike on your credit score can make it difficult to finance a car, obtain a loan or even buy a home. Since timeshares rarely sell at auction for the amount owed on the deed, the timeshare resort company has the option to take legal action and sue you for the remaining balance owed. Read more on timeshare foreclosure and credit scores in the post – Timeshare Foreclosures and Your Credit Score
Timeshares can be hard to wiggle out of, but most anything is better than letting the property foreclose and take a major hit on your credit score – especially if you are anticipating a major purchase in the near future. Timeshare foreclosure should be your last resort if there is absolutely no way you can make the monthly or yearly payments. It is wise to contact your timeshare resort if you are having financial difficulties and anticipate missing a payment, some properties will even offer to take your timeshare back under some circumstances; some resorts will also offer a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure. You will also want to check out possibly donating your timeshare if the principal amount is paid off in full – this is not an option if you still owe money on a loan.
Helpful Timeshare Foreclosure Links:
Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure for Timeshare –Â http://rcivip.com/deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure-for-timeshare/
Timeshare Foreclosure and Your Credit Score – http://rcivip.com/timeshare-foreclosures-and-your-credit-score/
Alternative Timeshare Sales Options – http://rcivip.com/alternative-timeshare-sales-options/
Everyone must make the effort to file complaints against these timeshare crooks. I got tricked in Palm Beach Shores Florida. I filed complaints with five agencies. I files with Pam Bondi–Florida Attorney General, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida, Federal Trade Commission, and Broward County Permitting, Licensing and Consumer Protection Division. Even if you issue cannot be completely solved by filing complaints, the timeshare companies with be investigated and your complaints will be added to existing complaint files on these timeshare companies.
I will look for attorney General in TX and will complaint.
They were also calling n calling to go to orientation and right there they tried to get me into an expensier program and collect 20000 grand that day. I walked out and forgot they have my driver license, they kept it for a week till I told them send it ups, they wanted me to go there and get it after 12 hrs shift Ans past 9 pm after my work!!.
I really don’t have anything more to lose as my credit had been damage for other reason prior to this, u rent my apartment and I’m paying my vehicle, I was told by a guy in timeshare answer that they can Sue me and garnish my check. This guy said he charge 2595.00 to get me out easy for the way the use scare tactics to get me into this but if I don’t have the money to pay the mortgage to this suckers what make him think I have that kind of money to pay him to help?
the TS could sue you, bnut first they have to foreclose on the TS itself and they don’t want to — they also know that there is no point paying a lawyer to sue if they would just cause a person to go bankrupt.
Do not pay someone to take your timeshare, or you will still have the timeshare and be out what you pay.
Thanks bill as I said I’m already in bankrupt so I will really will only have to sit and wait and see if they sue me.
Okay all I wanted to know was if I will be working only to pay this thieves. I haven’t even step a foot and get any service from them nor I have bring home a peace of there hotel home , nor i borrow 13 grand from them and spend it and now refuse to pay. I have far more this.gs to worry about. My surgery and how to bring family here to care for me.
con_amor27, did you declare the TS debt with your bankruptsy fillings… ?? if you did then you have absolutely nothing to worry about as an insolvency agent will act on your behalf and your debt with them will be wiped out… you may find depending on your financial circumstances and disposable income after bankruptsy is complete that you will have to make token gesture payments to the insolvency agent who will dispurse that themselves. This may carry on for a couple of years or so.
Not worried stu.
Unfortunately. I didn’t enter that. The ti
eshare scam was after I declared myself in bankruptcy. I was worried about been sued. N sent them a money order two days ago and just minutes ago they called for the remain 162.00! I happen to attempt to cancel the money order with money gram but seminar they didn’t the refund claim on time!.
I had been reading how many people have been victimized. By this people. I presently got robbed and cheated on this. My TS is with the Holly lake ranch. In TX. The sales man named David followed me home to collect my down payment!! I was scared actually, I should have called the police. When I saw their intention to collect the money out of my bank card as a despair attention to get out I told them I had the money at home the the David guy became my shadow, they also keep my driver license. Anyone have experience with TS in TX? Can they Sue me and collect my check? . I have read all this message and I stop paying but for TX I don’t know what they can do. Any comments please
you cannot have your wages garnished for a commercial debt. And they would first need to foreclose, than sue, and then get a judgement — and they still could not garnish
Bill were you a victim of this people or u just here to give some advice?
when I was young, I bought some resale TS weeks that I planned to rent. But during bad times, people have no money to rent, but they still want maintenance fees. And then it became time to retire, so there was no extra money to cover losses. I did it to myself — lol
I live in the UK, bought a TS at Orange Lake back in 2010, a huge mistake, work has now changed and I cannot afford the payments. I spoke to Orange Lake but they were not interested and said if I did not pay they would make me bankrupt and obtain their money from the sale of my UK property. Please help as I do not want to risk my family home.
They can’t make you bankrupt. No one can. You are the one who would have to file for bankruptcy. They can’t do anything but take back their worthless timeshare. They can’t take your home either. I’m sure it’s not even legal for them to threaten you with that, by they do because they are scum. Just ignore them and they will go away eventually.
Don’t believe them. They are lying liars who will say anything to get more money out of your. We had a timeshare with Orange Lake but had to stop paying when my husband lost his job. They harassed us with phone calls for a while, then gave up and cancelled our contract. It never even showed up on our credit report.
Was it deeded like Westgate? I’m looking to walk away. Every year we call to book, our float, that week is “extra” money. In 5 years we have been able to use it one time.
Hi Peter
We also have an Orangle Lake TS and being in the UK as yourself. Our financial situation also changed putting us into the same situation of not being able to afford to pay the TS.
Thankfully i found this Blog and had a good read through, it was only the input from this site that gave us the confidence to cancell our payments. We did contact them (by traceable letter and phone). We are now entering month 3 of non payment and have only had a few phone calls, over due account letters and emails (which are both of standard format and non threatening). With the calls however they have implied that we are lying about our situation but this is all a front, a scare tactic to make you part with your money.
Please be reassured by another UK Citizen that they simply cant force you to into bankruptcy or to sell your home to settle their debt. In the UK its the individual that has to file for Bankruptsy and even then you have to have personal debts of over £50,000 oweing to a minimun of 4 creditors.
They will pester for a few months but eventually they will foreclose and then you wont hear from then again.
If you look into the Orange Lake finance system you will notice that the finance company (Wilson) has the same address on Bronson Memorial Way suggesting that they are totally self financing these mortgages which i do remember our sales guy also saying. There is no external finance company involved.
Your credit status will not suffer either as they dont report internationally. I still have 5* credit as reported by Noodle (this is free where Equifax and Experian charge)
Take time to read through this blog as there are many helpfull and reassuring posts from international TS owners.
I guess your financed this via a bank card of somesort like Visa debit etc, if so then you may wish to close the bank account and re open a new one as they can actually apply to VISA and obtain your new card details if they feel you still owe them money. This i found shocking but my Building Society confirmed this (odviously why they prefer to take bank card details). They also confirmed that they cant actually stop them from taking payments because it is a bank card transaction, you will actually have to call or mail them and ask them not to take anymore payments. (they will do this but only if you specifically ask.)
Have a read through the posts, Robert, Baldspot, Bill, Marianne and many others are very informative.
Forgot to mention that i also did some research into the TS industry in general and found that there are a lot of TS companies that are being taken to court for inapropriate financial activities.
Amen! Finally somebody is doing something about this thieves.
Exactly, and from what i remember reading it came across that this is and industry that is long overdue intervention and an overhall. Either way Florida especially cant afford the loss of too much tourism as this brings huge amounts of $$$$’s into the local economy every year and i understand Florida is quite a poverty stricken state when you scratch the surface.
Thanks for all the info. About the visa issue, I already changed my bank card number and they have not attempted to get the money from the new card even though I was in arrears. I felt very scared and somehow made all the payments upto date, now I wish I hadn’t. Anyway I will have a problem getting another bank account and so I don’t really want to cancel the only card I have. Any suggestions?
If any charges show up on your card from them dispute them. Your credit card is not responsible for paying the timeshare and tell them you no longer authorize it. They can’t force the credit card company to charge you. Keep disputing any charges. :Let the CC company know they will not be paid and you are not responsible for any charge made to your account from that Timeshare company. A CC company is not a court and can’t force you to pay for the timeshare. Let the timeshare company take you to court. They won’t anyway, and if they win, just say you can’t pay them.
Ask the CC company how they can help you move the account if they find your new CC #, Lie if you have to and tell them that you are not allowed to use the timeshare so you won’t pay for it.
send a certified letter to the ts teling them to no longer bill your credit card account. the law requires that they stop charging your credit card, so you can both have the card company do a chargeback and you can also file a complaint with the FTC
Peter,
Was the card a Visa CREDIT card or a DEBIT card. If a credit card then call or write to them and ask them to stop authorising payments to the TS. as Robert states the TS cant force the CC to pay as the original agreement is with the TS and yourself. If its a Debit card then the best option is to call or write to the TS and ask them to stop taking payments. They have to honour your request and they do have this fascility on their systems as its exactly what i had to do. You cant stop payments through a Debit card just through your bank because this is a repeat Debit card transaction which the bank cannot stop, if the card expires or is changed then the TS can actually apply to VISA and obtain up to date card details and then continue billing (this is the reason why they offer loans of many thousands of $$$$’s with absolutely no back ground checks at all and are so keen to lend to anyone and everyone). Regardless of which type of card you used, you will still have to contact them and ask them to stop taking payments.
In my case i sent a registered letter explaining our financial situation then called 2 weeks later to see if they had recieved it, i found out even though the letter had been recieved and an account manager had made notes on our account, they were still going to take payments until the mortgage had been paid off before taking back the unit, this was because we had not told them to stop taking payments in the letter.
You MUST tell them not to take anymore payments. Just stating you cant afford it wont do the trick.
we also brought a time share in FL in August at Westgate. we tried to cancel it the next day but were told we could not do that and instead they exchanged it for a cheaper one. the closing officer told us not to worry about making payments as we didnt live in USA. however now returning from there and reading the comments, i think we should have been more harder.
we have only paid a deposit and havent had any letters or phonecalls yet. we are not 3 months behind on payments. we have changed the card numbers we left with them(again advised by the closing officer)
What i wanted to know is what would happen as i live in the uk?
will i still get debt collection letters and phone calls? if so for how long?
Will it also effect my credit history in UK?
thaking anyone who answers in advance
Jane,
You should have had a 7 day cancellation period which should have been explained to you during the sale. The fact that they didnt says it all, and then only let you scale down just goes to show the underhanded tactics they use to get your money.
As i understand it all TS companies should give you a 7 day cancellation period and i believe this is state law.
Our experience is with Orange Lake so i cant comment on Westgate proceedings. We are also 3 months in of non payment and have experienced a few calls, letters and emails. This is only to be expected as the will hound you, for us the calls seem to have dwindled away. If becomes a problem for you then you can always send them a “Cease and Desist” letter which they have a legal obligation to take notice of and then can only contact you with suggested remedies for the account. Generally “Foreclosure” is the remedy.
As far as your credit score/history is concerned then stop worrying, you can check this at Experian, Equifax or Noodle which is free to register. Credit scoring is not international!
As you were told you couldn’t cancel and were down graded instead just suggests that they really dont care about you and they are just after your money, the fact that the closing officer suggested that you stop paying and change your card details as you are a U.K. resident, well that just says it all. They just conned you out of your deposit.
Hope this helps.
Hi Not Worried Stu,
Thanks for your answer. That does make me feel a bit better. We have only had one phone call but didn’t answer, that was a while ago. Will see what happens. I can’t believe how they can do this. As of this month we are behind by 3 payments.
What I don’t understand aswell is that if so many people are defaulting on their payments then how do they make their money????
Thanks again hope it all goes well for you too. Keep us all updated I will update you when I hear anything.
I can’t afford to pay the payments on my gold key timeshare ! Can they garnish my pay checks?
I got sucked into buying a timeshare turtle cay in Virginia beach through Gold Key .. I can not afford to make these payments and have told thin this every time they call!! I tell them just to take it back!! The keep telling me they will garnish my check if I don’t pay:( can they do this I’m scared !!!!! What should I do?
Mo they can not garnish your wages, only the government can do that for unpaid child support or back taxes or other money owed to the government. They are just trying to scare you. Do not try to reason with them. They will take any reply as a weakness. Just don’t talk to them or reply to any mail they send you. They are flat out lying to you and are bullies.
Robert – I cancelled my automatic payments to Shell vacations club but once they don’t receive payment can they start taking it out of my bank account again? Thanks,
Yolie
Check with your bank. They will probably resubmit any refused payment. Make sure you tell your bank that it is now fraudulent (due to a dispute) and you do not authorize any further withdrawal from them. If your bank won’t do it than you may need to close the account or have it transferred to another account number.
Also put the request in writing to your bank or get some kind of confirmation.
Will do. Thanks!
it would be illegal for them to take money from your bank account after you tell them to stop. you could then sue them!
I am also not able to make payments to Gold Key, Ocean Beach club LLC. I have no Idea what to do. They are dishonest and will not talk to me about this. I will not pay any more. Do you have any advise? How has your issue been with them?
Has anyone dealt or defaulted on a Wyndham vacation resort program in Australia or just wyndham in general? The wheels are in motion but some reassurance would be great. Thanks
Hi,
we purchased a TS in Aruba with Occidental 3 years ago. We are still making payments towards our balance but we realized that we are wasting money. We want to stop making payments but we are not sure if that will hurt our credit.
Any suggestions?
Do some math – Do a “What If” analysis
1. How much will it cost you to continue making payments, and then continue making maintenance payments for the rest of your life?
2. How much will it cost you if your credit score goes down a couple of points, which most likely, it won’t? Write the amount in dollars.
Compare.
If you are still having trouble with this question, please call the Dave Ramsey radio show so he can yell the answer at you. We are Dave Ramsey disciples. We are out of debt, have stopped paying our maintenance fee, and are saving tons for retirement. What’s my credit score? I don’t care. I’m paying cash for my next car and for my next house. I’m never going to sign a credit contract again in my life ever. I’ll die first.
Another question: How much are you spending each year for this vacation thing? Are you able to use it? If not, consider what you could have done with that money – each year. Like, actually go on a vacation.
Each year, I save enough money to buy a brand new iPad. Or a set of snow tires. Or to do all the maintenance on my car. etc.
Isn’t it funny how we buy the other brand of canned peas because they are five cents off today, but then we turn around and readily hand over thousands upon thousands of dollar to crooks for nothing. Aren’t we the biggest bunch of fools that ever walked the earth. Time to get smart.
We defaulted on 2 Wyndham properties in the U.S. We were harassed by phone calls for many months. They finally stopped calling and writing and the last we heard from them, we got one of those IRS forms saying they had written off the balances. So that has to be counted as income, but we went to H&R Block and whatever they did, we ended up breaking even, so it worked out okay. On my credit report it is still showing as us being 180+ days past due. It has been over two years since we paid them anything. We actually used the time shares, so I kind of miss them, but after my husband lost his job, it was ridiculous for us to try to keep paying. It just wasn’t possible. We also defaulted on Orange Lake (yes, we were 3 times suckers) but that has never shown up on our credit report. They harassed us for a while, but then we got a letter saying they were cancelling our contract and that was that.
The horrors only get worst. I was put on disability from my job in May 2012. my income went to 1/2 of what I normally make. We made the Wyndham payments for May June and July. We stopped after considering financial concequences of keeping the property paying the increasing maintenance fees and not being able to trave as much because of my illnesses. BUTthe decision was made after I attempted to re finance my home and get cash out to pay the wyndham balance. The bank ould not allow me to get 40K out because my income no longer qualifies. I have been getting threatening calls from Wyndam daily, I have been contacted by VO finicial(Crooks and former Wyndham employees, busted 4th of July weekend) and another company wanting me to pay them a huge amount of money to get me out of my Wyndham contract. I sent that letter to an attorney and was advised the verbaige and contract was not in my best interest. So I tried dealing with Wyndham. THEY DO NOT CARE I may never work again.and keeping that property will cause huge finicial issues in the long run. They are not interested in decreasing the amount of time so we can pay it off. They have informed me I will be turned into the IRS, One supervisor told me since I have no deed it will be a repossession yet another person called the next day and told me regardless of a deed or no deed it will be a foreclosure.I want to do the right thing, but money I have saved in retirement has to last me 20 years if I live to be 73. Plus pay for complimentary medical care not covered by insurance, pay household bills, meet daily living expenses. I think for my sanity I will block their calls.
stop talkng to them. send the cease and desist letter about calls to you so that you only get letters. Just block or do not answer their phone calls. The clowns you are talking to on the phone get income from getting you to send them money, so they don’t care what you say, they only want your money. Just do nothing and eventually they will send you a deed to sign to them — and do not pay them for it, cause they save money by your signing instead of having to file foreclosure to get back the deed. If you were really lucky, you signed a membership instead of a deed, since the member ship just ends if you do not pay.
You are lucky the bank didn’t let you get a loan to pay off a worthless and useless timeshare that will always be a headache with increasing maintenance charges. Just forget about it and deal with the consequences. No matter what happens it will be a win win situation. like you said THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. You could tell them you have become blind and lost and arm and both legs and have cancer and they still would not care. They may report it to the IRS meaning you may be charged the forgotten loan as forgiven debt. I forget what it is, but talk to an accountant if that happens and it will be much cheaper than keeping it and paying for it. The IRS is much more caring and understanding than they are. As far as I am concerned these companies are crooks offering unsecured loans for worthless properties that they don’t even want back which is really all they can do. Don’t talk to them or respond. If you respond they take it as a weakness. They prey on decent kind people because they are scum.
Hi
I live in the uk and have a ts as westgate resorts, the ts is pain in full but cant afford maintenance should i just stop paying it or write to them and let them know
Don’t write to them. All it will do is let them know that you are worried about not paying and they will harass you for the money. There is nothing you can write in a letter that will have them say that it’s fine and you don’t have to pay. Just don’t pay.
due to this site it has made me feel so much better that other people are in the same situation, as i have been really panicking about it all, and what they can do to us. so it is great to read everyone’s comments.
another question is what do you think if i just write to them and send the deeds of the property back, and say i dont want to hear from them again, or is it best to just not contact them at all???
Sending the deeds won’t do you any good. It costs money to transfer property from one owner to another. I would not communicate with them unless they are going to for real let you out of the contract – some others here have had that experience and can speak better to this. But if they say they are going to let you out of the contract as soon as you pay the $500 fee, forget it. Do not pay another dime no matter what.
How many times have I heard that you can sue someone, and the court can mandate they pay you, but in the end, the person never pays and there’s nothing you can do about it within the law.
I’m a living experience of sueing some one, a drunk driver and court order him to re-pay me 36 grand and he had only pay 200.00 since 2007. Part his fault I end up in bankrupt, as I end up with many medical bills and lost my job then.
Robert is right. The bloodsuckers will just play you for anything they can get. You must make a commitment to yourself you will not talk to them or pay them another penny.
What do you think these people do all day? They sit around dreaming up ways to manipulate people into giving them money. They have no power over you. Forget them.
i’ve had enough of it. keep getting calls from aspen national collections about my outstanding debt of the grandview las vegas. i just keep talking in my native language (dutch) wich confuses them, giving me the time to hang up the phone. thinking about sending them a cease and desist letter. looked up their address on one of their letters, but only finding a PO box number. i’m sure with a PO box, they can just claim to have never received the letter, can they?
You can block their phone number
You can simply lay down the phone and walk away
You can act like a jolly senile old person and talk real slow (this has all sorts of options for having fun)
You can promise to send money every time they call but never do it
You can use celebrity sound boards, record the conversations, and post them on YouTube and then post the links here
I am getting hounded as well by pinnacle. They call 3 times a day using different numbers each time. We are worried about getting sued by SPM resorts for not paying taxes and maintenance fees on our Orlando Florida nightmare.Can the collections agency sue us?
they are just harassing you to get commissions
first, they need to foreclose, and then you won’t get sued because it was their sale to you and their remedy is to take back the property
Thank you for the reply. I am so glad to have found this site. My hubby and I have lost sleep over this and he was ready to take from his 401 to pay the debt to collections and the fees for this yr as well.My thoughts go out to all that fell victim to this scam.
Hello,
I would love some advice. I was a teacher for 6 years, and midway through that time, I was suckered into buying a timeshare from Massannutten Resort, which is a Great Easter Resorts Inc. resort. I paid my monthly payment faithfully until August of this year, but I no longer teach, am planning to go back to school, and simply cannot afford it anymore. I have received several letters from them about my failure to pay my monthly payments. When I was called, I answered and explained to the representative my situation and that I simply cannot pay. They are refusing to help me with resale because I have not fully paid for the timeshare. I told the lady I don’t know what to do, and the only thing she told me was that it would go into foreclosure eventually.
I really don’t want that to happen, but I don’t see any other way out of this. I’m 28, and I know my credit is going to be ruined. Does anyone have any advice, or anything at all, to share?
Thank you!
If they truly are going to foreclose, you are lucky. The best thing that can happen is for your name to be blotted out of their records. Just make sure you do not pay them another cent. They may try to tell you there are charges for getting foreclosed or some other silliness. The whole idea is that you cannot afford to pay them anything. And don’t worry about your credit score. Think about this: Is it worth it to keep paying money for nothing to these crooks just so you can avoid a few points drop on your credit score? Others have said they have not suffered any hits in their credit score. I haven’t paid my timeshare for well over a year and I have no regrets. Saved a ton of money. Good luck to you.
can the ts company put a lien on my home or car? I live in The U.S.
We are with bluegreen corporation. Told that this is one of the harderst timeshares to get out from under from. Same boat as many others, can barely afford house morgage, much less 300 a month and 900 yearly maintenance fees! Stopped automatic payment from bank account today. Any suggestions?
If you get a certified letter in the mail, refuse it. You are NOT required to sign and accept it.
They will harass you on the phone. Put a block on their number. If they use different numbers, write them and tell them to cease harassing you. Keep a copy of the letter. Include in your letter you are unable to make the payments.
Do not waste your time trying to discuss the matter with a timeshare rep. They DON’T CARE! They only want to mess with you and try to get something out of you. Cut it off and leave it off.
They will send letters with any sort of threats. Keep all of them in a file. Make sure the dates they arrive are on the letters. If they call you for any reason, keep a log of all calls and what they say.
If you read this entire blog, you will not see where anyone has been taken to court or lost their home, etc. The last thing the timeshare industry needs is the news telling everyone about what a rip-off the timeshares are.
Hi there, we were suckered into a TS with Westgate Resorts back in 2011 and like many others above felt pressured to purchase. We have not been able to pay our monthly payments and have now received foreclosure advices. As we are Australian Citizens is there anything they can do to effect our credit rating or cease assets we own in Australia?
Thanks
There are thousands of Americans who have stopped paying their timeshares. The timeshare companies are going to go after them before they spend the time and money to chase after people in other countries. And like I’ve said before, the last thing the timeshare industry needs is for you to contact your local or national investigative reporters to do a hit piece on the timeshare industry.
If they want to foreclose, you are lucky. Just make sure you refuse to pay foreclosure costs. The whole idea is that you are not going to pay them any more money – period. You have already paid them too much.
Thanks for the response – helps put me at ease with the whole thing now. Cheers!
I am so glad I found this site. Does anyone have any experience with timeshares in the Bahamas? We just came back from a week in the Bahamas where we went to a sales presentation for RCI. Because we already own two timeshares (we were scammed a few years ago acquiring the 2nd timeshare)there was NO WAY we were buying into another timeshare!! However, the sales people offered us $6000 for EACH timeshare, deducting it from the value of this new timeshare. Of course there is no paper trail as to the offer for $12000.00 for our existing timeshares, just the final cost of the new timeshare. After filling out the transfer papers that they said were to transfer the title from our name to them I asked “So, just to be clear…this is a DONE DEAL?!” the reply was “Yes M’am, a DONE DEAL!” I said “So in January when the maintenance fees are due we will NOT see a bill” the reply was “That’s right, this is a DONE DEAL!” So YES, we went with it thinking we were getting out of 2 timeshares and going back to just ONE! We really believed we were going in with our eyes open! 4 days after we got home, consequently 4 days AFTER the cancellation period we got a call from the Director of sales who wanted to make sure we understood HOW the transfer worked (Blood draining from body). I said I didn’t understand as we were told it was a DONE DEAL. He said he isn’t sure who would have said that…but it has to first go to a Transfer company. That company would end us forms for power of Attorney so they can sell our other 2 timeshares (which we ALL know is near to IMPOSSIBLE!!) They have assured us it will all work out and they have a company that will take our weeks and pay for the maintenance fees until the transfer is complete. They also sent us an email saying this tranfer company will take over our timseshare assuming all responsibility for fees…I sent the transfer company this email for confirmation and they have been unable to comment! (Strange? I think so!) I saw a lawyer today and he advised that we continue to insist that the contract is null and void due to complete misrepresentation. We have filed a dispute with our credit card company in the hopes of retrieving our deposit and cancelled the card so no future payments can be taken out. We are Canadian and it’s my understanding that refusal to pay can not effect our credit rating.
Any other advice anyone has regarding this situation? I don’t want to just walk away. From all the research I have done these companies keep messing with people, causing stress. They can’t be trusted!
I feel foolish because we were scammed once and in our attempt to right that wrong we were scammed again!!
My husband and myself were taking a dream vacation to Belize &on our way went through Cancun..got suckered & bought a timeshare for the Mayan Palace in Cancun…gave them a downpayment & have monthly payments for balance…we now want yo stop payments but we’re afraid they can inhibit our ability to visit Mexico…we also own a sailboat down there…anyone have any experience with this?…
You have to think about the millions who cross the border every year. The border agents, the police, etc., and not going to focus attention on people who haven’t paid their timeshare stuff. They are not interested in people who owe a debt. They are concerned about criminals, which, in this case, would be the timeshare scamsters.
With all the murder going on, with the US government advising federal employees to stay out of Mexico because of the out-of-control violence, I wonder why you would go there at all. If it was me, I’d get that sailboat and sail for the USA and never go back.
We bought a timeshare about 25 years ago in Aruba, which we paid in full because as dual income couple with no kids, we could afford it. Our son was born a year later, and we never used our week at the resort, but exchanged it almost every year for a more local location once our kids were born and did lots of exchanges for family vacations, such as Disney, through about 2002. I think the last time we made an exchange was in 2003. Around 2004, they raised or maintenance fee to a one-time $1000.00, which we didn’t pay. Since then, we haven’t paid the exchange fee because we were never able to get a good exchange with Interval, but still kept memberships in RCI and Interval International for lowcost Getaways and Extra Vacations. In fact, we took a couple of those lowcost “extra weeks” through RCI. I have been reading about how the home resort will instigate collections and foreclose if we don’t pay the maintenance fee, but it hasn’t happened to us. We just get the bill every year for the maintenance fee, but we don’t pay it. If we chose to exchange our unit, we would, but my husband has been traveling a lot and we’re also getting a lot of free hotel/flight deals because he’s getting perks that way. I wonder if the timeshare company hasn’t pursued us because we already fully “paid” for our timeshare (we don’t have a mortgage on it), or if it will catch up with us sooner or later. By the way, we have great credit, so the nonpayment isn’t showing on a credit report; I just bought a car with no problem.
They cannot do anything to you because they are billing you for services not rendered. The only thing they can do is deny you access to the property you own. I paid the mortgage on our timeshare and, like a fool, paid the maintenance fees for years. Then it hit me – why am I paying this? They have never allowed us to stay there – always said there was no vacancy. So I wrote a note to the guy who was sending me emails about my late maintenance fee and explained the following:
1. I have never been able to stay at the resort due to “no vacancy.”
2. I cannot sell the property, I cannot give it away, and the company will not take it back.
3. The maintenance fees are eternal – they will never stop.
4. The maintenance fees increase every year.
5. I will eventually have to stop working and suffer a reduction in income.
6. Eventually, I will not be able to pay the maintenance fees, and you will start your process of threats and of doing everything you can to destroy me financially as your way of thanking me for paying you over $30,000 for nothing.
5. So why should I pay my enemies another nickel?
6. Good-bye.
The emails stopped immediately, and instead, they send me a FINAL NOTICE every month telling me if I do not pay the maintenance fee by the end of the month, they will send my account to collections. It’s the same letter each month, only with the date and amount changed. I stopped paying two years ago, and have saved enough to buy a couple of beautiful new iPads. There is no hit on my credit, but, since I am a faithful Dave Ramsey disciple, I don’t care about my credit score anyway. Next month, I will be completely debt-free. (Thanks, Dave!)
In 2004 my husband and i purchased a TS in Las Vegas for 20k and fully paid it right away.They sent us a bunch of papers including documents that I should have returned within 45 days to have the ownership transferred to us .They also asked us to pay 799 for the closing cost.I remember the sales person told me we don’t have to worry about that because we can start using the resort anyway without that. So we did, and totally forgot about it. Recently we thought of donating our timeshare and we were asked for the deed and that’s when we found out that the deed was never transferred to our name, that’s after checking with the county clerk. We got a lot of advise that if we are trying to get rid of the timeshare , just walk away, we never owned it anyway.What about the maintenance fees? Can anybody give us advice? we really want to get out of this TS.
The only thing they can do if you stop paying the maintenance fees is prevent you from using the timeshare. I stopped paying mine a year ago and all I get is a letter each month telling me they are going to send it to collections if I don’t pay by the end of the month. They tried sending a certified letter, which we refused, and they can’t call us because our phone number changed. So all we get is the monthly threat. They don’t dare take us to court because they do not need the exposure on national TV. Imagine if one of these investigative news organizations like 20/20 or Dateline did a report on timeshares. End of the industry.
I wish they would do something on 20/20 some investigative reporting. They talked us into buying so many times on top of our 1st TS. Making it seem like it would cancel the last one and somehow we were going to save $$. my husband always misunderstood the question can we afford this? we are soooo behind on our bills. we have a child with special needs and now we are behind on therapy bills. I hate those liars.
As promised an update..
Firstly we would like to thanks all those making positive comments on this blog especially Robert for his continued input and Bill and Marianne for there replies as this has given us the confidence to just stop paying.
We sent our letter explaining our financial circumstances and sent it fully registered nearly 3 weeks ago, having heard nothing i contacted Orange Lake to clarify that they had recieved our letter. I spoke to a gentleman called George who i have to say was full of sympathy for our situation and fully understood the financial strain were are currently under. He did confirm that the letter had been recieved and notes had been made on our account, the notes were less that satisfying just stating that as the mortgage was not paid up then they would not take back the TS. I asked if they would still request payments and they reply was “yes”, asking how do we stop payments as our UK home is now at risk is these payments continue, he said that if i asked he could cancel the payment requests there and then but the account would then go to collections and they would start calling. If our situation fails to improve and payments not brought up to date then the account would go to foreclosure.
Having learnt from this blog that effectively that will be the ens of it. There was absolutely no mention of debt collection agencies, or being taken to court. Just that we would start to recieve calls and letters.
A payment was due out yesterday the 18th, checking my account today it has not been taken. So we now wait for the inevitable calls and letters.
After talking to George we do not feel under any further threat (at the moment anyway!) and are sleeping much better for it. I guess there is at least one good guy working in the TS industry, i hope i havnt made that comment too early!
Again we will try and keep you up to date with the process as it developes.
You said, “A payment was due out yesterday the 18th, checking my account today it has not been taken. So we now wait for the inevitable calls and letters.”
You need to change your account number so that they cannot take out any more money. As long as they have the information to withdraw money from your account, you are in danger. Remember – these are thieves you are dealing with. Nobody with any integrity would work for a timeshare company.
As far as I can remember,I made a simple business( more informal) letter to my bank that I ceased doing business with my greedy time share & highlighted in that letter NOT to allow them to auto deduct from my account. That was it. I still maintained my original bank account. I didn’t have to close it & my life has been going on timeshare-worry free, maintenance & monthly mortgage free. That was the biggest investment mistake I’ve done so far & hope it ends there. 🙂
One thing, I never encountered any people from collection agencies, or where ever they may calling from, any threats or such arguments with those crooks & liars, because you know why? I don’t entertain them, I let the phone ring, I don’t answer my landline phone( phone number attached to my TS account)I answer everyone who called me thru my cell number cuz I know those calls are worth answering for.
Just let it go, Sleep tight, & stop worrying about it
I was fortunate enough that I had already switched phone companies (check out Ooma – we love it) so they could not call us. Shortly after we notified the scamsters we were not going to pay anymore, the mailman presented a certified letter to me at the door. I asked him who it was from. He said it was from the Postmaster. In other words, it was from someone concealing their identity – the scamsters. I refused to sign it and he said “Okay.” and that was the end of that.
Hi Stu,
I’ve only just seen your update – just wanted to add that there is something you can do if you don’t want to receive the harassing phone calls.
I found out from THIS FORUM that you just need to send a “cease & desist” letter – similar to the text below (google cease and desist debt letter). I can’t remember if I did this or not, but I do remember that after the first couple of months I did not receive any more phone calls – only letters.
Hope this helps
Marianne
——————————————————————————–
Date
Your Name
Your Address
City, State Zip
Collection Agency
Collection Agency Address
City, State Zip
RE: Account #xxxxx-xxxxxx
Dear Collection Agency,
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Section 805 (C), it is my right to request that you cease contact with me. I am exercising my right to do so with this letter. I request that you immediately CEASE and DESIST all contact with me.
With this notice, under the law, you can now only contact me to:
1.To advise me that your company’s further efforts are being terminated;
2.To notify me that your companie may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or
3.Where applicable, to notify me that your company intends to invoke a specified remedy.
GIVE THIS LETTER THE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION IT DESERVES.
Sincerely,
Your Signature
——————————————————————————–
OH…. just wanted to add that you should cancel the direct debit or card, so they can’t get any more money.
And another thing…. in August I had a look at my credit report from both agencies here in England (Experian & Equifax). Neither one showed anyhting regarding the timeshare purchase – not the original credit agreement or even the default.
My credit history is completely fine.
Thanks Marianne for your replies.
We are getting fed up with the calls although they are not to persistant so i guess the next step for us is the cease and decist letter.
Thanks again for your input.
we went with a little call blocker from Amazon — also to block all the election calls and telemarketers — we can block them after the first call
Last July,my wife and I were stupid enough to get scammed by RHG/RCI points timeshare through RGH vacation club in Collingwood Ontario, Canada. We’re close to being “seniors” who are raising two grandchildren on a very limited income (Gov’t pension),don’t own our home,(we rent) and have credit cards maxed out,3years left on vehicle loan,but own an atv which is paid for. We simply cannot afford to pay on this timeshare anymore and we had dreams of being able to take our grandkids on vacations with this plan. It was explained to us This would be such an easy way to do this. Just trade your points for the holiday of your dreams! Ya right! They didn’t tell us we had to still fork out extra money for a “dream vacation”. We don’t have a pot to “p”in, and I’m wondering what will happen when the payments that are due for Oct. 1st. come up and we don’t pay. Have already closed the bank account and opened a new one which they don’t have, however they still have a record of my visa card that I used to make the down payment on this scam. When we asked questions,they glossed over everything.We were not told how many points we would need to use to stay at our home resort which is what we were most interested in.It was almost 3 years of points. To stay at another cottage which we asked specifically for they said they had many when in fact there are only one ot two that are booked almost a year and a half in advance. We were not made aware that it costs extra if you have not booked a year plus in advance. Many of these things we only found out as we were trying to book a vacation. We have not used it at all! The math was not done for the maintanence fees but put down as per point. What do we do?
stop makng payments. they will call and send you letters and have collectors call you and maybe even put a collections notice on your credit report. That is the most they can due, even thought it is a real nuisance. Just stop paying and eventually they will foreclose and it will be over.
What about them coming after you for the balance. Like wager garnishment or coming after our house?
If they have your credit card number, call your credit card company and have them issue you a new number. If they will not do it just because you want them to, hang up and call back in a few days and say you lost your card. They will issue you a new card with a new number. Just remember to update all your accounts where payments are automatically deducted from your card.
I stopped paying my maintenance fees last year. Every month, I get a FINAL NOTICE saying if I don’t pay by the end of the month, they will send my account to collections. The problem is that they are billing me for services not rendered. Very hard to collect for that. The only thing they can actually do to me is deny me from using the timeshare, which they did already from the beginning. I have never been able to make a reservation and use my timeshare because they always say No Vacancy! So much for “owning” a week. They “owned” me!
Hi I’m looking to see if someone can help me,
Me and my partner were sucked into timeshare convention in west gate resort Florida on febuary,the sales rep sweetened it all up how good things were and all what a pile of S**T,I’ve recently contacted them stating that I’d been reduced in work hours and can no longer pay the payments,they obviously didn’t want to help,I’ve tried convincing my partner to just stop paying it and let it foreclose and that be end of it,but we holiday from northern Ireland to Florida every year with our kids and she is scared that if the timeshare went to foreclosure that it would mean that we could not enter america again because we would be arrested or something,I’ve telling her how silly she is,I am hoping that someone can help me thanks so much
Not paying or foreclosing on a timeshare is a civil (monetary) matter. They can’t even report you to any government agency, not even a credit bureau if you don’t have a Social Security number. It’s not a crime to not pay for a timeshare, you will never be barred from entering the US for that.
Hi Robert thanks reply,
I’m just off the fone with a timeshare resale firm from America,he said that if I foreclosed on the timeshare that there would be high possibility that we would be strewed at the airport,that if it forecloses he would advise not to return to the us,I’m baffled how I can find out more on the matter,thanks your input
Sorry to say that your fear might be true, they will report you to the FBI,CIA, alqueda, IRS, CNN, Facebook, ESPN, Disney, Time Magazine,Ripleys. your crime buying timeshare.
I couldn’t reply to your other post, so I had to do it to this one. They are just trying to scare you to get money. Just Google and you will find out the truth. The resale companies are bigger crooks than the timeshare people. You can’t give these things away for free after they are paid, they can’t resell them, they are thieves and liars and look to prey on weak scared people. Just stop paying.
Thanks for the reply Robert
I’m doing my best to search google to see if we will be arrested at airport,I’m just worried that my children wil do as the oldest is only 6.
You can’t be arrested at an airport for owing money. We don’t have debtors prisons in the US. All they can do is send it to foreclosure and try to scare you. If they threaten anything else like arrest have them put it in writing and then you can sue them for threats. They can’t stop you from coming in to the US and you will not be arrested at the airport.
Robert your a true gentleman thank you so much for your help,I wish u all the best and good luck for helping me,I’m going to call the us embassy in Belfast just to confirm what your saying thank you
They, the lowlife crooks, scammers , liars etc, cannot do you a damm thing. I stopped paying maint about two years ago on a ts in florida. I’m from canada, and have since travelled to the US and no worries. These dirtbags just want to keep you forever on their gravy train.
Hey Robert, the best thing you could’ve done was stumble on this blog. It was my saviour 3 yrs ago and I hope you’ll take the advice like I did. I’m from Jamaica and was going through the same thing you are now. Since I stopped paying, I’ve been to the US approx 23 times…never once been stopped
I’m another one who just can no longer pay. My husband and I bought a timeshare with Hilton in Orlando in 2007. My husband died very suddenly 2 years ago. I struggled to make the payments for another year, but have had to stop. I did ask them if I could give back the timeshare but they said they have no buy back option ‘at this time but may in the future’. My income now is well under half of what it was when there were the two of us and I have no one to discuss my fears with. Today I have received a summons from the clerk of the court. They have also summonsed my late husband, even though I have told them many many times that he has died. This has upset me greatly and I just don’t know what to do. I live in the UK. I am scared of what will happen. Any ideas folks? has anyone else had a court summons?
What does it say on the summons — it should give you information on what you need to defend, but my guess is that they are trying to foreclose on the timeshare. You need to see what the summons refers to, but if it is a foreclosure, you should not respond and the foreclosure will go through and you will no longer own the timeshare. You should also ignore any claim for payments if they send you one. We were foreclosed and never heard from them again
Hi Bill, thanks to all the good advice on this forum Hilton finally foreclosed on me last week.
They did continue to send demands for money – maintenance fees and loan payments right to the end. At last I got a letter from the Orange County Court saying the deed had been foreclosed and the ‘property’ sold to the highest bidder for $100. Not surprisingly the highest bidder was the Hilton Corporation. I told them 2 years ago I could not continue to pay following my husbands death and asked them if they would just take it back from me. At that time they said they couldn’t possibly do that and went on to try to sell me even more points, which I obviously refused. They could have saved themselves a lot of administration and legal fees if they had taken it back from me then.
I feel like a weight has been lifted from me. I live in the UK so know they can’t send anyone to my door looking for money.
This forum has been my saviour and has kept me from being beside myself with worry these last 8 months or so – thank you to all posters.
Julie
UPDATE..
Posted our letter today to Orangle Lake detailing our financial situation, will take upto 7 days to get there so not expecting a responce for at least 2 weeks.
Popped into the bank to see if we could stop the payments and were told that debit card payments cannot be stopped, even if the card goes out of date they can contact VISA and obtain new card details and keep on taking money if they feel money is still outstanding. So this totally backs up some previous comments. I was told that the only way these can be stopped is by totally closing my bank account and openning a new one.
Now i fully understand why they are so keen to lend thousands of dollars without seeing any proof of income.
We shall give them a chance to respond and see what happens.
Will keep you all posted.
you should call them or send a certified letter, return receipt telling them to stop taking money from your account. That means they have no authorization to your funds and you can counter-sue them for damages if they continue to take funds without authorization.
Thanks for the input Bill. Letter we sent is fully traceable, so i will get a reciept that the letter as been recieved. Will wait and see what happens from there, if more money is taken then will go down that route.
Again will kep you all posted!
Hi All.
Well im afraid to say that my partner and i have joined the exclusive “sucker” club and want out.
We jointly purchased a 2 bed unit at Orange Lake resorts in Nov 2011 while on holiday. My partner was made redundant from her job just over 3 months ago making the financial side of things difficult. Now i have recently been informed that i will have to take a reduction in hours at work or face redundancy as well. Obviously our home in the U.K. is far mor important to us than a TS we can no longer afford.
I remember the 2 hour presentation lasting for 5 hours and almost feeling pressured into signing, every time we said no the rep would dissapear for a few mins to speak with his manager then come back with a cheaper deal, 3 times he dissapeared and finally he came back with his manager which just added more pressure for us to sign. We were not told about the 10 day cooling off period and as we were in the first of a 2 week holiday it had expired by the time we got back to the U.K. Part of the sales mans patter was the we would get 100,000 points each year which we could use within the Holiday Inn Club or exchange to RCI and take advantage of further offers. I recently looked into using some of our points to find that 4/5 days in Vegas works out at about 150,000 and thats on a special offer.
So our financial situation aside, we were also “Duped” into buying a worthless TS, putting down about $2500 deposit, incurring $300 monthly mortgage payments and approx $900 a year maintenance fees.
We were initially told that the loan/mortgage was for $18,000 over a maximum 10 year period but if we made 1 extra payment every 3 months then this would bring the duration down to just over 5 years. It the extra payment were not made and the loan/mortgage went full term then this would work out at arround $34,000. Im writing “loan/mortgage” because in the UK mortgages are generally over 25 years and loans are no longer than 10 years. so not sure if we are really paying a loan which they are calling a mortgage. Can anyone shed any light on this.
We are now thinking about just stopping paying the TS mortgage and maintenance and foreclosing.
I have been reading back through the posts and see that as we are NON U.S. that there seems to be almost nothing they can do apart from the relentless calls, emails, and letters then foreclosure.
My concern is that for $34000 + maintenance they may think that we are worth comming after even given our current financial situation and living in the U.K. can anyone share there international experiences with these figures involved.
Many thanks
Hi Stu,
Just saw your post and wanted to respond as a fellow UK citizen, that there isn’t much they can do to you besides the letters and annoying phone calls.
My Mum & I got roped into ‘buying’ a 2 bed TS in Orange Lake back in April 2011. By October 2011 we knew we had made a mistake, so we just stopped paying.
They made all the usual noises, letters & phone calls stating that my credit would be affected. I just told them to stop phoning me as it was harassment (which I learned from this forum) – I didn’t even bother put it in writing. Last month I finally got round to opening all of the letters they had sent, and found one dated March 2012 which stated they had cancelled our account and foreclosed on the TS.
I also know that this hasn’t affected my credit here in the UK, as last month I got a copy of both my Experian & Equifax report and nothing relating to Orange Lake is on either of them.
So don’t worry… because as you have read on previous posts, they’re not going to waste their money pursuing anyone abroad.
Hope this helps.
Marianne
Hi Marianne
Many thanks for your input, its exactly what i wanted to hear. Although many posts point to exactly what you say its always worrying when your going through it. Hearing it from a fellow UK citizen is very reasuring.
Again i will keep the blog updated as to what happens.
Thanks again Marianne from a No So Worried Stu.
Sorry.. meant to ask if you were looking at similar values to us?
I hope that ours is sorted out as fast as yours.
Thanks again.
Has anyone got put of a Shell Vacation timeshare in Canada?
My husband and I got suckered into a timeshare at Carriage Hills(Shell Vacations) in Ontario Canada. We were vulnerable and got caught up in the dream of a vacation. Well we have paid the payment but not the maintenance fees. My husbands career went down hill and so did his health and we are unable to pay for this and don’t know how to get rid of it. We were stupid we know but after paying on it for 4 years @ $220.00 per month we were shocked to learn we have only paid off about $2000.00 of the principle and have 6 more years to pay the whole thing off. Should we put it in just his name so both of us don’t get the bad credit hit. Do we just stop paying? We are in dire financial straits due to my husbands health and need to cut our losses ASAP! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Leanne,
Have come across a few blogs with Shell Vacations posts but for some reason this blog wont let me post any links.
Try putting this in your search engine
Shell Vacation Club Fraud & Misrepresentation jack conway
Jack Conway is a former Shell Vacations Sales Rep and makes a reply to the blog.
Try also searching the same but without “Jack Conway”, there is quite alot more that comes up.
Hope it helps
Does anyone know how do Westgate handle their foreclosure procedure? How long does it take for them to foreclose? We stop paying and starting to get phone calls from them and I just ignore them. My only concern is if they would start calling my in laws, we had their contact down as our next of kin. The strangers thing is they have not contacted my husband yet.
I don’t know but you should contact your in laws and tell them to ignore any calls if they get them, that you were duped into this and the only way out is to not pay them. Your in laws might think you are in a financial mess or maybe they will make a payment for you which would be worse.
Hi Mel, just wanted to know how your getting on. We brought a time share with wedtgate in August but are not going to pay it but worried about what will happen.
If would be useful to know how long they took and what they done.
Thank you
Hi Jane, we did not pay them a cent since we found out that we have been scammed. we just have to close one eye and let the deposit go for an experienced! we have not heard from westgate after ignoring their calls for few weeks. Strangely we recently received an invoice for 2013 maintaineance fee from Hilton vacation even though we bought it from westgate and still owe on our TS. All we knew was Hilton was buying this particular property off westgate that may explain why we are getting an invoice from Hilton for the maintaineance not westgate…..
Robert, do you have any advice for us on this? We obviously are not going to pay for it but just wondering the circumtance of not paying? Is that mean that we are now in trouble with both westgate and Hilton? We are also curious why there is no mention on the invoice for the amount we owed on the TS?
No, my only advice would be to not pay and don’t respond to Hilton either. If Westgate sold your property to Hilton you can’t owe both of them. If I were you if asked on a credit report or any other instance just reply that you never bought a timeshare with Hilton.
I found an update regarding wage garnishments. First of all they have to sue you in court. Most likely it would be small claims court, which is the cheapest way, but there are state limits as to how much they can sue for usually under $5,000. Then you refuse to pay and they have to find a way to get the money.
If you are on social security they cannot garnish it. Only the Federal government can touch that money if you owe them money, not for private debts.
Otherwise they can, but most likely won’t. Certain states don’t allow for garnishments for private debts. Others have limit where it’s beneficial towards you. Check the laws in your area, but most likely they won’t sue because they know they probably won’t see a penny and are just throwing money away.
Also if they are foreclosing I don’t understand why you would owe money. When a house if foreclosed you don’t have to keep paying for it.
Hello, Does anyone know where can I file a complaint? RED? We bought a timeshare at PH Westgate Las Vegas. Want to get out of it.
If it’s less than 10 days you better find out how to get out by reading your contract and finding out more info online. Those crooks will not help you, in fact they will lie and stall until the time is up and you are trapped.
Once you are trapped you have to stop paying, foreclose, pay any tax penalty, and take a hit on your credit report, which may not be as bad as you think. Otherwise your only other solution is to throw good money away and in the end own something that is worth less than worthless. Get out as soon as you can by never paying another penny to them. All they can do is harass you because they are dishonest bullies.
Hi Robert,
We purchased it about 2 months now. We were not told about the cooling off period and apparently there is no recession period anyay for the contract we signed. We wrote to them but they won’t let us out. We are not Americans so we don’t really care if it go foreclosure unfortunately we will lose our deposit. The only worry we have is we do not want to be haunted by this for the rest of our life and hope this will end once is foreclosed?
If you only lost your deposit be happy, most people lose 20, 50 0r 100 times more than that with their timeshare. You will never see that money again but they can’t take any more from you. If you don’t live in the US just stop paying, basically there is nothing they can do but harass you and make false threats, just ignore them and they will go away. Don’t bother writing to them or even ever contacting them again, they do not want to help you, they just want your money, The only way to win in to realized it’s just a learning experience and to never send them another cent.
And yes it will end once it’s foreclosed. It will end as soon as you stop paying, but they won’t tell you that because all the do is lie.
Hi Robert, yes it is an expensive horrible learning experience for us. It ruined our exeperiece we have in Vegas and is terrible to have to experience this during our honeymoon. We now have come to a point that we just have to forget about the $4k and be positive about it.
I also realized that they are a lot of TS victims out there. Why no one do anything to stop this? If we live there and have easier access to resources we definetly would take actions! And would not just simply walk away.
Hi
Has anyone out there ever stoped their maintance payments at Lake Okanagan Resort in B.C.
Canada.
Hey everyone join the forums and post in there.
The dumb blonde chick with the short hair on Survivor this last season was a Time Share salesperson. She’s the dummy who at tribal said that it was funny when someone gets blindsided and then a few minutes later when it happened to her she was almost in tears. Her cousin who joined her for the relatives competition was also a time share salesman and on the show they mentioned how creepy their relationship was.
They can’t put you in jail, they can’t kill you. They are not going to hire lawyers to fight you and pay court costs when they can’t guarantee that you will pay the judgement anyway. All they can do is harass you and give you a bad credit score if you are in the US. You bought what you were told was property. I bet you don’t even own the land, just a 1/52 share of one unit. You really don’t own anything, you just got suckered.
And what is the resort losing? A sucker. They gave you a worthless property and then they take back that same worthless property, but they won because they took your money and will look for another sucker to take your place. The only way to win now is to never pay them another cent.
Oh and if you have an old relative that owns one, make sure they default so that you are not stuck with it, and refuse it and do not sign anything saying you take ownership. I know there is more involved so look into your legal responsibility, but you are not getting something of value, you are inheriting a debt.
Don’t worry, be happy.
You know things are bad when people are not even concerned with getting their money back and just want to walk away and can’t after already having lost thousands of dollars.. For the most part timeshares are legal robberies that you can never get out of. A mechanic can be arrested for over charging you too much or for putting in a used part and charging you the new price, but a timeshare company is allowed to sell you something that is worthless and has no resale value for as mush as they can and lie about what a great deal it is, and basically not take no for an answer and make you feel trapped. It’s all politics and as long as they can donate to politicians they can continue their scams.
Thank you for this site! After reading all of the complaints and answers I feel I am not alone in the RV Resort membership scams. I joined Silent Valley, Banning CA, 4 years ago, and find that this company can do just about anything that they want and make it impossible to get out. THey have over 50% delinquencies so are in trouble. They cut service, impose large increases of fees and can also assess any amount that they want. I know buyer beware! but we are senior citizens that just wanted to have a summer place to go, and the legal forms don’t make any sense anyway. I have never had one delinquency in my 74 years, so this is my first default….We will just go default and take what comes and follow the suggestions that have been posted on this site. It is time that laws are passed to help the members that get sucked into these scams. Thanks for being on line.
Oh yeah and good luck trying to get the thing donated. Even if you have the maintenance fee paid for a year most of those things are just further scams where they want to sucker more money out of you. Some that will take if or free, if you can find it won’t transfer the deed so if they don’t sell it you are still stuck with the fees.
Don’t even think of those companies that say they will sell or rent your timeshare. Even I know a scam without getting into it. People think you are a sucker when they hear Timeshare. While some can be good if you do have a large family and plan to use it every year, where it can be cheaper than two hotel rooms for the week, in the end there is still no easy way to get out when you don’t want it anymore. Oh and if it’s ever in a will or your parent owns it and passes away you have the right to refuse it. Never burden another person with it and let them know their rights.
There is some Karma. David Seigel of Westgate had to stop building the largest house in America. What moron wants to live in Orlando in a hillbilly palace. A billionaire wants to live in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons or Palm Beach. Regardless he will always have enough money to live a millionaire lifestyle. He will never be homeless or hungry which is what he wants the suckers paying for his lifestyle to do.
If I ever get a call again from there collection agency I should ask if I should skip my rent and be homeless so I can pay for my maintenance? I know they will say yes. Because they are garbage. They don’t care about anything or anyone. They just want your money.
I stupidly wrote a letter demanding they let me out of the timeshare as soon as I realized what a trap it was. All they said was that it was past the 10 days. I was basically trapped so I paid, like a sucker. At least I enjoyed it twice, and gave it as an expensive gift to my sister once (not that she offered to pay any of the transfer fees).
So don’t waste your time writing to them. It just lets them know that you care. When a bully try to poke and harass you it’s best to ignore them.
I’m also surprised some people are paying $600 a month for their timeshare. That’s $7,200 a year, plus maintenance and you own NOTHING. You can rent a studio walking distance to the beach in south Florida in the winter for 6 months for $750 a month, which would only be $4,500 for 6 months, and you would get to live somewhere for your money. Or you can get a small studio apartment all year round a few miles from the beach for that same $600 a month.
Remember with a timeshare you are paying a mortgage that is not even underwater, it’s WORTHLESS.
What can they do, take back that worthless timeshare, they don’t even want it. If they were smart they could let you out and offer to sell your timeshare to people who got suckered into the presentation but keep saying no and sell it for a few grand plus maintenance. But they don’t because they know you are a sucker for falling for the TS scam.
Your credit score might take a small hit, but you can explain to lenders that you got scammed and paid in full (yeah you can lie like the TM companies do too if you didn’t pay it in full) and can’t get out of it. Show them that you paid all your other bills and otherwise have good credit. If it’s a person and not a corporate machine, they should understand.
There are no debtors prisons, they can’t take your house, your car, or withdraw from your bank accounts without authorization. IF you were dumb enough to give them your bank account info change your account numbers with your bank, tell them you suspect fraud and just pay for new checks if you have to.
People in other countries who bought timeshares in the US have less to worry about. just stop paying and all the can do is offer empty threats and phony scare tactics.
Basically just stop paying. You don’t own anything. All you own is a rental agreement to stay at their place once a year and you have to pay a large amount in maintenance to do it. You are not going to be sued. They know they won’t get money because if you had it you would pay. They are bullies who use scare tactics.
So far I stopped paying my maintenance that was due in January. I did take a call from them early on and I said that if my financial situation improved a lot I might be able to pay it at a later time. Then they already added a hundred or two to what is owed. It’s like they don’t want you to pay.
They won’t take you to court. Even if they did you might lose. But you really don’t have to pay. If you don’t voluntarily pay a judgement they have to find your assets to get their money and they can’t take your house. They won’t sue you because they know it will cost them more to do it than they can regain. It’s just a scare tactic.
I think these loans they offer you are just their side company doing it. They don’t require any collateral for the loan and the timeshare itself is worthless. What do they lose if you stop paying. Nothing. Most people already paid a lot anyway.
I read on here if they guy didn’t make a typo that he owed $129,000. For that amount you can buy a small or 2 bedroom condo in south Florida. I didn’t get taken that bad. I had an odd year deal. I got talked into it because every time I said no, his manager would come over and pressure me into it. I felt trapped like I was being held hostage and they wouldn’t let me leave without buying. Finally they gave me a number which was $5,000 which was reasonable. Instead of a monthly payment with interest, I just sent them the $5k all at once. So with the maintenance and transfer fees I paid about $2.500 for each of the 3 times I used it. It’s a learning experience. I don’t even like to admit to anyone that I even got suckered into it. That $100 they promised me to go to the presentation, which I never got, they just deducted it off what I owe them, cost me a lot of money and worry.
So far the calls have not been harassing. They told me if it has to go to collections that those people are nasty, but I don’t care. I will just hang up. I have caller ID that I can see when they are calling. They called from another number and I let the girl speak for a few seconds and then hung up. Now they leave voicemails, but it’s not even people calling. They leave automated messages that I have to call them. Yeah right.
They won’t get anything else from me. All I will do is pay for a notary to fill out the Deed in Lieu. I won’t even send them $5 to settle the deal. What are they losing? Nothing. They are just getting another person upset.
I won’t do a cease and desist at the time because then they can’t offer me a deed in lieu. I will only do a C&D if to the collection agency.
So if you do a C&D can they no longer bill you or ask you for current of future maintenance fees?
Remember they will use bully tactics to scare you, all they can do is lower your credit rating for a while. You made them a promise to pay for something that is so worthless that you can’t even give it away for free. It’s so worthless they don’t even want to take it back. Just let everyone know how bad it is. It may work for some people, until it stops working and the fees go up and you can’t use it and you can’t get out out it, or so you think. I wish there was a TSA Time Share Anonymous meeting where we could spread the word. I don’t watch mush TV so I don’t know if there are still talk shows, too bad Oprah is still not around to do a show on time share nightmares.
Remember all they can take back is their worthless property that they don’t even want. Maintenance fees are not that, they are profits, otherwise they would gladly let you out of the deal and sell your property to someone else. This really should be regulated so that people are not stuck paying maintenance fees that are really corporate profits and they should regulate it so that if you want to get out of it after it’s paid in full that you can freely do so.
I have a Westgate timeshare that is paid for and I refuse to pay any more maintenance on. I think my maintenance and taxes are between $600 and $700 and I don’t use it anymore. The good thing was that it was an even year thing where I only had it every other year. I just had to pay almost $100 a year for interval. I did use the timeshare 3 times in 6 years but I had to switch to a different property each time so there was an extra cost involved. They do set you up in nice places. The first year I used it with my sister and her family. They stayed in the main part that had a big bedroom with a Jacuzzi and a loft for the kids and I had my own little hotel sized room with two beds and a bathroom across the hall.
Second year I switched and came alone to Fort Lauderdale, I got a very nice one bedroom apartment in the Marriot Beach Place in Fort Lauderdale, I just had to pay a little more to use it thru Interval International. and I had to pay extra for parking, like $70 for the week. The third time I gave it to my sister to use. I had to pay for the transfer to another property and a guest usage fee. It was a decent place, I lived in Florida by that time and went to visit them there.
The problem in that two years later I paid the maintenance and tax and had no where to use it because I was in south Florida and didn’t need to go anywhere to vacation. I didn’t offer it to my sister because it would have cost me a few more hundred dollars to transfer it to where she wanted it and to use the guest voucher. It’s good if you use it all the time and want to save money cooking your own meals in the kitchens, and also if you have a large family it’s great because it’s like renting an apartment for the cost of s cheap hotel.
I offered it to my sister to take over and she doesn’t want it, which is fine with me. I’m done with them. I’m not too worried about bad credit, I’m not buying a new car or house in the foreseeable future. The only thing that would suck would be if my car insurance went up, but if it does I will have to deal with it. I’d rather be homeless then give The Queen of Versailles Mrs. Seigel and company another dime. I’m so glad that their goal to build the biggest house in America failed. I wish much worse for them. So fat I got a few calls and got threats that collection people are really mean, but I don’t care. What collection company would waste their time accepting this lousy debt.
Warn anyone you can to stay away from timeshares unless they know they can pay a hefty maintenance every time it’s due plus other associated costs for life. Maintenance is obviously artificially high and they get about $30,000 a year from each unit in a building. So if a building has 20 apartments it gets $600k a year.
It’s a shame that this is considered physical property when in effect you own absolutely nothing with no value, not even enough to give it away for the cost of maintenance and taxes. if you do have one and go to a different location and they tell you they want to schedule a presentation you have the right to refuse. If you give it to a friend to use make sure they also refuse it. They will lie and try to tell you that it’s mandatory, but you are on vacation, you paid, and it’s not required.
I am from Canada, I joined “Just Dreams” vacation club thinking we were going to get some nice vacations from them…well that was a waist of time, they have junk places to stay at and none of the places they showed us in the presentation are locatable. Instead they give us crap to stay in, needless to say we are wanting to tell them to take a hike and let the payments drop off, we never used them once and never used any of their money for anything, I’m hoping they cant come after us in Canada. Any Thoughts?
We too are Canadian. Owners at Starwood Vistana resorts since 1991. Stopped paying maintenance fees this year. Received a letter this week saying there was a special offer – a one time alternative to foreclosure. Association offering to release us from the amounts we currently owe in exchange for deeding owndership to the Association. I’m assuming this is the deed in lieu everyone talks about. They send a package, wwe get everything noticed and transfer is done. Has anyone else had this happen? Starwood also has a short video on a webiste … 3 easy steps … ask for the package, get forms notarized and sent back, transfer of clear title, release of liability for past due and future assessments and/or real estate taxes. I’m a little leary of anything to do with timeshares now. Need to know if anyone has followed through on this. Thanks.
This is the first bit of good news I have heard so far. Tell them you aill stop paying fees and they will release you of all further obligatins, Am I understanding correctly??
No, don’t tell them anything, just stop paying.
have you completed their request? Have they required anything further from you? We are Canadian and are owners of a timeshare at Grand Seas in Florida. They apparently filed chapter 11 in 2010. I have read on other forums that we can’t convert our week at GS to points at Club Navigo nor can we exhange it externally at Interval International because GS owes to both of them. We still have 6 yrs on our mortgage and our maintenince fees keep going up. We want to know if we walk away, if it would affect our credit rating in Canada
Hi
As anyone out ever tried to get rid of a TS at LAke Okanagan Resort in BC?
WE oen 2 and would like to get rid of both or even one of them. We stopped the maintenace payments on one of them but the resort siad we could use the other one because on non payment. Has anyone had this happen to them? Any suggestions?
I agree. I own my ts at westgate for oh 7.8 years now. Paid off! I was paid ahead partially for taxes and maintenance, however couldn’t come up with the full amount. I made a payment in following year towards that and they conveniently said my payment didn’t go thru. Rrriigghhttt! It was the same account I always pay, now it’s in collection and theyve tacked on fees and interest. These guys do lie and are scams. You’d think they would treat their owners with dignity. Is there anything u can do to sue them for that? And what about my equity? I paid 26,000 dollars includes the 18 percent interest, you know, My friend owned at orange lake resorts and when they couldn’t pay at least orangelake offered to take it back even tho they paid half of it off anyway and didn’t have bad credit! Why can’t westgate follow the big boys example? Really westgate Is a snar and a racket! Any one want to buy a timeshare real cheap?
I have a 2BR Christmas week — same story.
you’d think they wold want it back to resell it, but who knows what they are thinking. I can certainly ignore the calls from the collectors. it did trade well — marriott st thomas 2 years ago and hyatt key west last year.
I’m reading all this for the first time, and my Wyndham timeshare has been such a burden for me. I recently found out that Wyndham took out credit from Bill Me Later for a down payment on a contract I agreed on last October 2011. From all the pressure tactics, I had no idea they had me sign a contract where I had to pay Bill Me Later for the down payment, which I cannot afford along with the mortgage and maintenance fee. I plan to stop payment on all of this soon, but maybe I can work something out with Bill Me Later where my monthly’s are not so bad. Should I just stop payment on everything all together? This is really taking a toll on me. Thanks for any advice!!!
The same thing happened to me. I can’t afford the timeshare and the bill me later. Someone please help me. I don’t even know what to do next.
Hi! got 1099-A 2010 Tax Yr. I put in a sch D since it is higher than a FMV so far zero_ I havent received 1099-C which is cancellation of Debt that will be an Income if I receive that from Wyndham so far nothing yet..1099 -A is only an acquisition back,it wont be an income unless they send 1099-C . My advice to everybody is to stop paying, and be ready for a hit in your credit for a year. My credit was hit , I cant buy a home but I saved my money I was then paying $600/month and $123/month Maint fee, I got sick and got divorce so I have no choice but to stop paying it is so unpractical to have it is only for rich people. I would rather have bad credit (which I regained again now) than giving my $700 a month and pass my on stupidity to my children and , TS was treated as Real Estate property, it should have been like an Insurance that if we stop paying ,we cant have their facilities or just simple cancel the benefits, unfortunately it is not that way. It was a nightmare and thought of it and i was scared to ruin my credit,until this time i am declined to buy a house when they see that unpaid TS, so I keep saving the money to buy in a next 2 yrs and pay bigger DP,anyway buying a house is not my priority now, im still renting but at least I saved my sanity.
good for you!
it is extortion for them to ruin your credit if you won’t pay the $700 per year for life
So you did not have to pay any legal fees? I want to stop payment but I am worried about any repercussions afterwards. I don’t mind the bad credit, I purchased a condo 2 years ago and a new car recently. Credit is the least of my worries now. I just realized a huge scam they played on me regarding a down payment, and that was the last straw.
We never paid any legal fees. We just waited them out. Of course, our credit will be pretty bad for a while, I guess, but we really had no choice.
Has anyone had any experience trying to extricate yourself from a time share with Festiva? We have just recently stopped our payments and are receiving all kinds of threats reference our credit ratings. We are now within 2 days of the default date. Also, we told Festiva that we would only communicate with them by email. Easy if you have caller ID and refuse to answer any caller who does not identify themselves. This has probably frustrated them more than anything else we have done.
Anyone with experience with Festiva?
Ours is currently with Festiva but we are still using it
curious about what happened wtih Festiva…i am in dire financial trouble and am considering just not paying anymore. Please advise
I am also with Festivia and this will be the last month that I make my payment also. I am tired of not getting anything for my money. I purchased the point system and then was told by a realtor that it was only worth about $3000. they have gotten my money now for 6 years now and I still owe 90 more month. Please let me know if anyone has had any dealings with Festivia. thanks
Has anyone had to deal with Vaction Village Park Place in Orlando? I stopped paying last year, the collection calls continued from Lando Resorts daily until about 4 weeks ago, and now nothing.
My husband and I got sucked in to a Westgate timeshare when we were on vacation in Las Vegas at the PH. I felt uneasy about the whole thing after signing and discovered all this horrible stuff online about them. The following day I wrote a letter to cancel the timeshare. I faxed it and sent it Priority/Certified mail to 3 addresses. I just hope I caught it in time. I also called my credit card company and reported fraud and had the credit card number changed, so they wouldn’t be able to get any more money from us. I have no intention of paying them a dime after hearing all the bad stuff about them. I could care less if the thing forecloses. I live in a great house that my in-laws own and don’t ever have to worry about buying a house, so if my credit sucks for 7 years I don’t care all my credit cards are maxed out anyways and nobody with give me credit anyways. So @#$! those con artists. I hope they all burn in hell for ripping innocent people out of their hard earned money.
So, I was contacted by Westgate and they told me that because the timeshare was an assumed loan we couldn’t cancel it. I am so angry with this whole mess. They just keep on lieing and I can’t afford to hire an attorney to make sense of it. Oh well…good bye timeshare, hello foreclosure.
Today I reported Westgate to the BBB. I found un-dated and falsified paperwork (falsified by the Sales Rep) amoung the copies of the Agreement they gave me. I am also planning on reporting them to the Attorney General. I guess we will see what happens. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Heather, You might want to find some sort of free or low cost legal clinic near you that might be of assistance. If there is a law school near you people there might be able to help. Better to pay them than to pay for a timeshare in perpetuity!
I am very happy to say that I think I won this little battle. I recently recieved a letter from Bill Me Later – Webank in correspondence to a purchase at Westgate. It said they could not approve me for the loan because they didn’t have a physical address. Then I got a credit from Westgate on my husband’s credit card for $300 which was the amount we paid up-front at the closing. They certainly wouldn’t return money to me if they were planning on taking more. Somehow I slipped out of that one with very minimul effort. I guess I am just lucky that all my mail gets sent to a PO BOX.
I finally heard from Westgate and they sent me a Cancelation letter. It’s over. I did it!
Hi Heather, caught my attention reading your comments. My husband and I were lied to purchase this timeshare while we were in Vegas just 2 months ago. We came back home and found out all their lies and deceptive sales practice we are very unhappy and could not stress enough on what we have gotten ourself into!! We were not told about the cooling off period and we started to write tot them after a month our signing the contract but before the closing date of the loan. They come back to us and said there were an acting agent selling a loan not a timeshare so there is no recession period! we have paid them few thousands in deposit!! We felt we have been ripoff by them! Could you please let me know of you have to go on a battle with them to get them cancel your contract and get your deposit back?
You have 10 days by law to cancel a timeshare purchase. You should be just fine. You sent it priority certified, very smart!
hello everyone, So I have received the warranty deed in lieu of foreclosure for my POS westgate timeshare and they are asking for $250, which I will definitely not be sending them. I have signed and have had the document notarized and it’s ready to go back to them, minus the money. but the question I have is how will this affect me tax time? Will I have to owe the irs?
We faced this situation this year because we defaulted on two timeshares through Wyndham. The ‘forgiven’ debt is considered income, which is absurd, but that’s how it is. However, if you can show that your assets are less than your debt, you may not have to claim it. Quite frankly, when we did our taxes on TurboTax, we came out owing almost $10,000. So we took it to H&R Block and, I don’t know what they did, but we ended up pretty much breaking even. So it was worth the $335 they charged us. I would also add that we had another time share from Orange Lake that we also stopped paying on after my husband lost his job. They had sent us a letter saying they were cancelling our contract. We never got any IRS forms from them, so I guess that’s that.
We have our Timeshare through Wyndham also and we can’t pay for it anymore. I called to tell them and they didn’t offer any solutions. What has happened with yours? Did you stop paying or what?
We have our Timeshare through Wyndham also and we can’t pay for it anymore. I called to tell them and they didn’t offer any solutions. What has happened with yours? Did you stop paying or what?
Elaine, how did you got rid from Orange Lake? I recently recieve notice of laid off and they didn’t offer anything… The exact message was:
“Your patronage is important to us, and we hope that you’ll continue to give us opportunities to serve you”. WTF I just told them I will be lay off by May 31th.
We just stopped paying. I think I probably sent them a letter explaining that my husband was unemployed, but I can’t remember for sure. Eventually they sent a letter saying our contract was being cancelled. That’s the last we heard from them. They did not send an IRS form for the cancelled debt, thank heavens.
After 3 years of not paying our Orange Lake Kissimmee maintenance fees (we paid off the mortgage some years ago), we finally got the Warranty Deed papers arrive in the post, to hand our week back. YAAAY!!! We’re off to get it signed & stamped by a notary (if you are in the UK – you can not use a solicitor, Orange Lake require it to be a notary – some solicitors are both though. The fee is £70 from the one we’re using)). We have never answered a phone call from Orange Lake, never written to them, we simply stopped paying when they said they would not accept the week back 3 years ago. We got the usual voicemail messages, the usual ‘your account is delinquent’ letters, and then the letter saying a lien would be put on the property (property? We never owned any real ‘property’ there!) and it would then foreclose. Clearly they don’t want to have to pay for that, so we just sat tight and waited for the paperwork to come through with them asking for us to sign it back to them. And it did, which is about a year after the lien/foreclosure warning. Being from the UK this has no impact on our credit score. So stay strong people, you can do it!
Hi…i need some advice who got out of Wyndham TS. We are not from the US, but recently victimized by misrepresentation during the sales. We are asking for cancellation but we are being told that we cannot get out. Any advice? Thank you!
We had Wyndham and just stopped paying, finally, after trying to get them to cancel. We stopped paying in October of 2010. They harassed us for a long time, then finally gave up. We never got an official notice that our timeshares were cancelled, but they sent us the tax forms that indicated that they had cancelled our debt, and we haven’t heard from them since. If you are not in the U.S., you probably don’t need to worry about the tax forms.
Elaine…..you stopped paying in Oct 2010, did you owe both mthly payment and maint. fees at that time? How long did the collection calls lasted? What’s the difference between getting DIL vs. tax forms?
Sorry for all the questions. Thanks!!!!!
From what I’m hearing from everyone, bottom line is do not pay these scammers and just be ready for whatever happens to your credit rating.
We owed both maintenance fees and monthly payments on two Wyndham timeshares and one from Orange Lake (I know, we fell for it more than once, but when my husband had a good job, we did actually use and enjoy them). After he lost his job, we tried to keep up payments for a while, but finally realized it was crazy to be paying all that money for these things. I can’t remember exactly how long the calls kept coming. We stopped talking to them after a while and just didn’t answer the phone. I want to say it was somewhere around 6-9 months. Wyndham never sent a letter saying they were going to do anything; no DIL or anything like that. At tax time we got the forms saying the debt had been cancelled. Orange Lake eventually sent a letter saying our contract had been cancelled and that was that.
How did you get a warranty deed in lieu.Did you request one, did they foreclose and then offer one. ??? Thanks
They never sent us anything. We didn’t request a warranty deed in lieu. The only papers we got were the IRS forms indicating that the debt had been forgiven.
If they foreclose, then the deed is worthless and does you no good. It depends on the place. People on the up and up will accept your deed in lieu, but most places are scams and frauds, like my crooks. Their whole goal was to defraud their victims into crazy rising maintenance fees which are worth more then the value of the hotel room. In this case, they don’t want a deed in lieu, because the whole idea is to try and scare, trick and defraud you into keeping the fraudulent agreement in place. It is essentially extortion, holding the threat of credit reporting over your head.
There is only one way. Walk away!!! Just as you would walk away from any criminal who was trying to rob you. It is a shame that apparently the travel industry bribes our congressmen to look the other way while this legalized extortion takes place. I guess the bad guys are winning. Sorry for the not so cheerful, yet accurate advice.
Hey Keith,
We simply stopped paying our Orange Lake Kissimmee maintenance fees. They threatened foreclosure, we ignored that (so it forecloses, who cares?!), then finally they sent us the papers for giving the timeshare week back to them, that way they get to avoid the costs of foreclosure. The whole process from stopping paying, to getting the papers through was about 2 and half years. The deed in lieu papers came through about a year after the letter saying they were going to foreclose it. We’re from the UK and the cost of getting our papers signed by a notary here, which is what they require, was £70 (about $110). A bargain to get rid of this rubbish! We didn’t contact them at all. Just stopped paying then ignored all their phone calls, letters & bills.
Hi Mayra, is your TS PH Westgate in Vegas? Could you pls let me know how long does it take for them to foreclose? You still have money owin or just maintenance fee?
We got lied in to buying ours few months ago. We stop paying and started to received phone calls from them now.
Even after reading many of these posts there seems to be some disagreement between paying/not paying balance and maintenance fees. Either way here’s my details. Purchased a TS in Vegas in 2006. Currently not past due and current fees paid but still owe about $5K on balance. Being active military, if I decide not to pay any more as most suggest what are the chances they can garnish wages, effect my 22+ yr career and/or anything else that could hinder my status as a military member? Honestly, this entire TS business is a joke, but of course sometimes some of us do feel consequences later, whether it be on a credit report of financial status. The reality for military members is if you are having financial difficulties the military can actually prevent you from getting a security clearance, which in turn has career impacting consequences. So if anyone has some insight on this please reply. I would appreciate your thoughts.
You need to first talk to your security people and explain what is going on. You need to clarify that this failure to pay is not because of financial problems, but because you got scammed. They may or may not know anything about the problem with timeshares. We recently went through our “re-investigation” at our base right when I had decided to stop paying maintenance fees on my paid-up timeshare. I called the security people and learned they had no clue about timeshares. In my paperwork for my re-investigation (for you non-government types, this is where you have to sort of re-apply for your security clearance.) I explained that (1) We had paid off the mortgage. (2) Had never been able to stay at the facility because there was never a vacancy, (3) I was refusing to pay for services NOT rendered rather than real property, so the only thing the time share could really do is deny me the privilege of using the facility, which is what they’ve been doing anyway from the beginning. I further explained that we are in very good financial shape, almost ready to pay off our house and we have no other bills, so I am not a security risk from the financial aspect. I don’t care if the timeshare puts a mark on my credit report because we are students of Dave Ramsey and are paying cash for everything now.
So my point was after all that, is get to know the security people where you are and let them get to know you and understand what the deal is with your time share and you should not have a problem in my opinion unless you have total jerks. If they are jerks, then go get your superior officer to stick up for you and tell the dogs to go bite someone else.
Good luck with this mess.
I’m going to make just one other suggestion–namely that you discuss this matter with a military attorney and get a professional, legal opinion.
One potential problem that I see is that personnel departments, (including govt. personnel depts.) don’t normally tell an applicant why they didn’t get a position or promotion, at least not the REAL reason. If you press them, they may tell you that the position was already filled, or another applicant was more qualified, but that type of explanation may just be the standard response used to protect themselves legally, also known as CYA or “cover your ass”.
An initial consultation with an attorney is almost alway either free, or provided at a nominal charge (normally, less than $50.)
I have a timeshare with Tahitti Village in Vegas. What a nightmare, I bought this thing several years ago, and have been paying for it, never been able to use it. Don’t know how we got roped into this, I didn’t think we were that dumb. We went to one of those meetings, and we spun a wheel to see if we could win extra free vacations, and we won 6 free vacations. When we called to try to use one of the free vacations, we were told that the company had gone bankrupt and the new company would not honor the free vacations. I just plain can’t afford it now that I have lost my income. Tried to sell it back or work with them, and believe it or not, no one even can tell me who owns the note. the company I bought it from went bankrupt, and the timeshares got sold off to multiple companies. I have spent hours trying to find out who owns our timeshare. With every call I just get different information, and no one can tell me what to do. What will happen to me if I just stop paying? I really don’t have much of a choice right now.
We bought Club de Soleil from the same company who owns Tahiti Village. We paid off our mortgage, and now have stopped paying our maintenance fees. We have never been able to stay at the resort because they never have vacancy. Which means they stole our week every year. They have sent three letters, one per month, saying they are going to send my account to collections if I do not pay by the end of the month. They can send my account to collections if they want. Will not affect me. My credit score means nothing to me now. I am not going to pay for something I cannot use. I am not going to pay for services not rendered.
Here is what all of you must think about:
(1) The maintenance fees increase every year.
(2) You are obligated to pay them for the rest of your life.
(3) You will not be able to pay these fees forever.
(4) The inevitable will come some day when you will be forced to tell them you can no longer pay. Once you have stopped paying, you will be subjected to the hell of their harassment for a period of time. And then you will be free.
Why not stop paying NOW and get it over with so you do not have to deal with this in your old age. Why not stop paying NOW and keep your money for yourself instead of paying it to people who hate you? The more of us who stop paying, the more we hurt the bacteria who are preying on us and others.
I did the same thing too. I stopped paying and now the collection agency is after me. Will they hit my credit?
My ex-husband and I bought a timeshare in Sedona, AZ in 2008 while we were still married…honestly, I never would have bought the damn thing, but the agent convinced my ex he would make an excellent sales person and he should get his Real Estate License and they would hire him. Using this same schpeil they convinced him we had to buy so he could sell. Sadly, to keep the peace in our turbulent marriage, I agreed. STUPIDEST mistake (apart from marrying him) ever!!!!!! When we divorced in 2009 the Timeshare and all debt there in was placed on his shoulders. I had been making payments up until January of 2010 when I gave up, couldn’t afford it and why the hell was I paying for it and he was using it anyway????? All contact infor the company has is for him…so I’ve received nothing in the last 2 years about what is going on.
That being said, it was brought to my attention by 2 mortgage companies I am trying to obtian a home loan thru that they will not underwrite a loan because I have a foreclosure on my record…WTF??????? Apparently, in May of 2010 the TS went into foreclosure and is now showing “Proceedings Pending”. I have looked in the county where the “property” is, where I live and where the collection/loan comapny is and to date nothing has been filed.
My dad spoke with two different associates (one a bankruptcy lawyer and the other a judge)…both told him that I am totally screwed. A divorce decree is NOT A LEGAL DOCUMENT (so why the hell did I get one???) and that the TS company will most definatly come after me and do whatever they have to to re-coop their money.
This totally screws me, as I have no contact with my ex-husband, I know he doesn’t give a crap about paying any of the debt we aquired together (I’ve already paid close to 15K in marital debt to date) and I don’t want to be stuck with this either.
Its creating a huge problem for my current husband and I as we want to buy this home but thus far both the companies we’ve talked to say the divorce decree isn’t legal and we have to get the timeshare foreclosure COMPLETELY removed from my credit if we want to get a home loan.
How the hell do I get out of this???? The only thought we have come up with is to contact the agency (blocking phone number of course, just in case) and see if they will settle with me for half of what is owed (my portion) and take the negative off of my credit report.
I know that Mary and others all say “don’t worry, don’t pay, they can’t touch you” but I’m finding that as far as the State of Arizona is concerned, this is not the case…has anyone dealt with trying to settle a portion of the debt and letting them go after the other party on their own????
For all I know, he has been sent DIL’s, served with Foreclosure paperwork, gotten the 1099A and 1099C all without telling me anything…and seeing as how his philosopy is “You left me, not my problem” when it comes to debt, this is not surprising. I just want out of this mess!!!!!
I’m sorry for the problems you are having, but you are mixing up too many things at once.
Your divorce decree is a legal document, but it does not affect any debt you have signed for. The creditor can some after you for payment if you signed, no matter how you divided property. What it give you is the ability to sue you ex for debt he agreed to pay, so ou can sue him if you have to make any payments.
Foreclosure is filed by the TS so that they can reclaim the TS from the property deed. This is filing to take back the deed. Coming after you for payment of any difference between the value of the property and your agreement is separate, and it is very unlikely that the TS would come after you for a difference since you could easily argue that what was sold was not what they said it was. Not a can of worms that they want to open.
The warning here for stopping payment on a TS or maintenance fees is that it will appear on your credit report, and like anything on the credit report, it means less and less over time. A current foreclosure will prevent most banks from giving you a reasonable rate on a mortgage, but after a few years you will be able to get a mortgage, just like after a bankruptcy.
I believe you will find that the foreclosure is already complete, and you can pay all you want and it will still remain on your credit report
It does all appear a jumble as I read it again now a few hours later. I think it’s just frustrating that people go thru the process of getting a divorce decree to protect them and it doesn’t…eh, se la vie at this point.
I did call the TS company today to see what the heck, and you are right…the timeshare foreclosure is totally complete. They also told me that if I haven’t heard from an attorney by now (and they do have my correct phone numbers) then I never will because they were able to sell the “property” for what was owed.
And just let me say…don’t let them tell you that it’ll ruin your credit!!!!! This has been on mine for 2 years…no ding in my credit, in fact…my credit has increased by 130 points in the last 2 years since this all started…that was a big factor for scaring me as well.
Can you tell me which timeshare you bought in Sedona? We are threatened with foreclosure with Premiere Vacations, who is now owned by Diamond, and I don’t know if they’ll report this on our credit report. I’m hoping to have same experience as you.
Jeri – First of all, never use your real name on the internet.
You are worried about a foreclosure from a thief having an impact on your credit report. Please stop and consider your choices. Is it worth a few points on your credit rating to keep paying all that money for nothing? Remember that your maintenance fees go on forever, so eventually, you will have to quit. And then they come after you anyway. So why not quit now and put all that money in the bank you would have paid to the thieves and then you won’t need credit.
I wish everyone here would get Dave Ramsey’s book or course or just listen to him on the radio. You will find out your credit rating, especially these days, is not that important. What is important – get out of debt!
We quit paying our maintenance fees and every month, we get a letter saying we are late and if we don’t pay by the end of the month, they will send it to collections. We get the same letter every month. No collections. They can’t call us because we changed our phone, and we don’t talk to them or respond to anything they send us. We also refused to accept registered mail and packages sent by “Unknown” or “Postmaster.”
here are the numbers on credit score for collections and foreclosures which disappear after 7 years. these are from creditkarma
1 notice costs 80 points,
the 2nd costs 35 points,
the 3rd costs 20 points and
more than four a total of 35 more.
so even if they do report, this is all it hurts your score
Stephanie,
The only way would be for the timeshare company to agree to take your name off the contract, and write up a new contract, placing the timeshare interest and debt, in your ex’s name alone.
It is possible that the reason some of the others here believe the timeshare company won’t (or can’t) come after you, is because they haven’t been able to come after them. That only really applies to debtors who do not have substantial money/assets.
If you have a good job, credit, assets, etc., it is very possible that they can, and will pursue you for the balance owed on that timeshare, as well as the annual maintenance fees/taxes, etc.
However, if they were able to resell the property for more than the debt owed, that should end your financial obligation.
Omg thanks for the info about resort in Williamsburg that’s the one we have and they lied I’m def gonna check out the info about lawsuit I wanna be a part of it I wanna get out of this nightmare! Thisblog is such a blessing I was losing sleep over this TS!!!!
in 2010, we were talked into buying a TS from grandview in las vegas. stupidest thing we ever did, but i guess you keep telling yourself its not so bad for a while, they never told us about the revocation form, and build lie upon lie to get us signed. we didnt know, were from the netherlands and were made to believe we made a good deal. yesterday we send their mortgage department an email, saying they could keep their TS, and we stop paying right away. kinda scary to do, but we cant be bothered anymore paying for what we never use, and got tricked into signing. have the feeling no one in that company can be trusted, so i wont respond to calls. just downloaded an app for my phone that can record calls, so if they start getting rude and abusive, they are in for a treat. will keep you guys posted on what happens. wish us luck!
well they sent me a reply to our email, and they mention something about a Secured Promissory Note? anyone know anything about this?
If you live in the Netherlands, the chances of a U.S. timeshare corporation pursuing you legally is probably slim to none.
However, when you signed that note, what you secured it with, is your interest in the timeshare property. What that means is if you don’t pay, they can repossess your interest in the timeshare property. Big deal, huh?
However, from a legal standpoint, if they do not get enough from reselling your interest in that time share property, technically, they could then go after you in court for the difference, PLUS their legal fees, court costs, and interest.
But whether they will actually take you to court? Well, if timeshare companies took everyone to court who defaulted on their payments, they would probably spend more time and money than they would ever end up recovering, and this is something they calculate in making that decision. Especially the cost of pursuing someone in the Netherlands? Chances are probably pretty good it would be in their best interests to write off the debt instead.
Unless, of course, you have lots of money and assets, and they are pretty sure that they would not only be able to win, but also know that they would be able to collect on that debt. In which case, they just might.
So for you, it becomes a risk that you have to decide on whether or not you are willing and able to take. I highly recommend consulting an attorney before making that decision.
I would like to know if it will hurt my
Credit rating in Australia?
Timeshare in Nevada!! Some advice would be great. Thanks
From what I have heard credit reporting agencies only report on what happens in your own country. So it should not affect your credit rating there.