An extremely common situation many owners find themselves in with their Timeshare ownership is a pressure or pitch to convert their legacy/original Deeded Timeshare week into a Point system. Or otherwise buy more of "something" into a new point system or similar that is pitched to you as the only way to maintain your level of ownership moving forward etc!

Firstly, no matter what you are told, you do not have to convert your deeded week to points under any circumstances. While there may or may not be benefits of doing so, falling prey to hard sales tactics and high pressure pitches trying to convince you to convert for a hefty fee is never a good idea! Learn the pros and cons to both before making ANY decision. Education is key, being pressured into making decisions before you are ready is the biggest mistake you can make in timesharing! Rest assured that NOTHING offered to you during a Timeshare Sales Presentation is a limited time offer!

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In some systems there are absolutely benefits to being a part of the Points program, the real trick is to doing your research to figure out if it is worth the cost to you to PAY to enroll or convert from your deeded week just to participate! In most cases the "conversion" fee is negotiable, so at the very least never accept the first offer! Alternatively some systems provide the ability to enroll at no charge, but again an owner should think long and hard before giving up your deed to simply own points! If you are happy with what you own, conversion is never required or necessary! However if participating in the features that the point system provides, it might be a good decision to investigate just how much it would be worth to you to convert, if not attempt to covert/enroll in the point system at no charge!

TUG Tip! There are timeshare ownerships for sale on the resale market for all resorts and point systems for pennies on the dollar, if you can give away your ownership and or purchase a separate membership already enrolled in the point system you are interested in, that is far cheaper than paying thousands to simply convert what you have! Especially for systems that do not penalize resale buyers!

Real World Examples from owners

The following quotes are taken directly from a recent thread discussing this very topic, so I felt obliged to include them here!  You can visit the topic using the link below!


"The fact of the matter is that your timeshare deed spells out what you own; how you get to use it, mox nix whether the timeshare switches over to the points system.

If the resort goes points -- or already is points -- your regular, plain-vanilla non-points timeshare week staysnon-points just the same as always unless you shell out big bucks to convert. You can still show up & check in for your paid-for time each year (as long as you keep on paying the annual fees on time). You can rent out your timeshare to other people & spend the money any way you want. You can bank your timeshare week in the conventional straight-weeks timeshare exchange system for trades into other people's timeshares.

All you can't do is get any points for the week, which is also mox nix if you just want to use your conventional timeshare week the conventional way.

If a timeshare seller's lips are moving, chances are he or she is fibbing, or at least spinning & stretching.

Many if not most TUG folks have found out for themselves that there is nothing -- zero, zip, zilch, zorch, nil, null, nada, not anything -- that timeshare companies sell for big bucks that's worth the money. That goes for timeshare weeks, timeshare points, timeshare upgrades, Solid Platinum VIP Priority Presidental Priority Status & I don't know what-all."
-AwayWeGo

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"most TS resorts have been told that to convert their members from weeks to points the best way is to hire a "high pressure" sale team to convert as many owners to points as possible and that the average rate to convert is $3000. This info your resort has isn't true!! RCI charges abaout $200 ( not $3000) to convert an owner from weeks to points. The rest of the $3000 the resorts charges to convert owners is to pay for the high pressure staff and profit to the resort.

IMHO, never pay over $500 to convert to points. If the resort want more than that, tell them hell no, that you'll buy a resale week which is already converted to points. It likely will cost you much less than the $3000 or more it cost to convert a week you already own to points."
-Bill4728

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"IF you have a high demand fixed week, think long and hard before converting---the "converters" really want these weeks and then you have no assurance you can make reservations for your week. Plus, I still find that high demand fixed weeks trade very well thru RCI"
-Elaine

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"It cost us $250. to join RCI points, when we bought our resale. That's right RCI charges $250."
-Tamzeng

As you can see from these quotes, converting from a deeded week to points is not always in your best interests, despite what the salesman says.  And in the case of RCI points, paying an exorbiant fee to GIVE your deeded week up to be included into the points program is in many situations a large waste of money when it can be done for much cheaper through alternate methods!  To read this etire thread, you can visit it here on the TUGBBS online forums:  Do I have to convert just because they told me so?

More information on Timeshare Point systems?

Comparison Chart of all major Timeshare Point systems

Timeshare Exchanging / RCI Points Forum
Get info on RCI Points and Timeshare Exchanging!

Hilton Grand Vacations Club Points Forum
Hilton Grand Vacations Club owner discussion forum and information

Marriott Vacation Club Points Forum
Marriott owner forum and information

Vistana / Westin / Sheraton / Starwood Points forum
Vistana Signature Experiences owner forum and information

Wyndham Vacation Club Points forum

Disney Vacation Club Points forum

Diamond Resorts International / Embarc Points forum

Hyatt Residence Club Points forum

Bluegreen Vacations Points forum

Worldmark The Club forum

The Final Word on Converting your Timeshare to Points!

This is almost universally NEVER a good idea to purchase retail from a sales presentation. Even if a points ownership offers you additional benefits you find valuable, it is still almost always cheaper to look to the resale market! After all if you give away your own timeshare, and take over someone elses for free that is already enrolled in that point program, why would you want to pay thousands of dollars instead?

For more specific questions and answers on point systems from other owners just like you, visit the TUGBBS online forums here:  TUGBBS online forums Points System Discussions    

Also here is a list of helpful faq's and links describing various point systems!  FAQ and Links for Point-based timeshare systems