Trying to Get Rid of an Unwanted Timeshare?

The internet is flooded with companies promising to get you out of your timeshare—many even offering so-called “guarantees.”

Here’s the dirty little secret:

Most of these companies charge owners hundreds or even thousands of dollars to help them do something they may be able to handle themselves for free—or far less.

So how do these companies stay in business?

Because most owners never discover their real options first.

Timeshare Users Group (TUG) has helped owners understand their options, avoid scams, and make informed exit decisions for over 30 years.

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How do I get out of my Timeshare?

Every single Timeshare owner has 3 options available to them to get out of an existing Timeshare ownership:

• Find a new owner on the resale market
• Give the ownership back to the resort/Developer
• Stop paying/walk away

Every solution provided by the companies you see advertising the ability to get you out of your timeshare uses a variation of one or more of these 3 solutions despite these same solutions being available to every single owner you are charged a staggering amount of money for these companies for these solutions you can do yourself, in many cases completely free of charge!

The fact is, all of these companies share something in common with the salesperson who sold you the Timeshare in the first place, and that is they rely on you not doing your research and believing everything they tell you at face value! If you were told the whole truth that you will find here in this free guide, you would never pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to these companies!

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Giving Back a Timeshare

One of the best-kept secrets in the timeshare industry is that many major timeshare developers already offer official surrender or deedback programs that allow owners to legally give back an unwanted timeshare directly to the resort.

In many cases, owners can handle this process themselves with a simple phone call or email—without paying thousands of dollars to a third-party exit company.

Common requirements for many deedback programs include:

• The ownership must be paid in full
• Maintenance fees must be current
• The account cannot be in active collections

Many major timeshare systems currently offer some type of surrender, deedback, or responsible exit option for qualified owners, including:

Diamond Resorts • Wyndham • WorldMark • Holiday Inn Club Vacations • Bluegreen • Capital Vacations • Shell Vacations • Marriott • Hilton Grand Vacations • Sheraton • Westin • Vistana • Welk • Westgate

This is such an important topic that we created an entire YouTube video explaining how official timeshare surrender programs work:

You can also review the current list of official developer surrender and responsible exit programs here:

Official Timeshare Deedback & Responsible Exit Program List

While not every program is free, contacting the resort directly to understand your real options costs nothing—and can help you avoid expensive timeshare exit scams.

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Giving away an unwanted Timeshare

Option one, which is the most difficult involves you offering your Timeshare up for sale on the resale market for a single dollar in the hopes of attracting a buyer you can transfer the ownership to! Most timeshares sell for between 0 and 10% of their original retail sales price, so offering it up for free is far more common than you think! In fact you can find countless hundreds of active resale ads for resorts all over the world being offered for free to any willing buyer by owners who just want out.

The obvious downside to this is that there is no real expectation of finding a buyer quickly, as it could take weeks or months to find someone who is looking to pick up an ownership at your resort/point system and discover your ad!

TUG provides a free guide with tips and tricks on how to give away your timeshare without having to spend a dime out of pocket, we urge everyone to read this article and execute these options as a FAR better solution than paying some random company a fortune in the hopes they can actually help you!

You can find this info here: Give away your Timeshare for free and have your ad up in mere minutes in front of thousands of potential buyers.

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Stop paying for Timeshare

This is a solution we are somewhat hesitant to recommend, but after helping owners for decades, we recognize that in certain situations it may be the least harmful of the available options.

While we strongly encourage owners to first explore surrender, resale, giveaway, or transfer options, it is important to understand the truth about all possible timeshare exit strategies.

The reality is that every timeshare owner has a guaranteed way to eventually end their ownership:

Stop paying.

When owners say there is “no way out” of a timeshare, what they usually mean is that there is no way out without potential financial consequences. Just like defaulting on any other financial obligation, the impact can vary significantly depending on:

• Whether there is an active loan or mortgage balance
• The resort or developer involved
• Your financial situation
• Whether the account is already delinquent
• How aggressively the creditor chooses to pursue collections

There is also a major difference between:

• Defaulting on maintenance fees
• Defaulting on a timeshare loan or mortgage

Owners with an unpaid loan balance often face much more aggressive collection efforts because a lender is directly involved. Owners whose timeshare is already paid off may eventually lose the ownership through foreclosure and could experience credit reporting or collections activity depending on the resort.

Choosing this route should never be taken lightly. However, many owners face genuine financial, medical, family, or life hardships where continuing to pay maintenance fees is simply no longer realistic.

It is also important to understand that unpaid maintenance fees do not usually hurt the resort itself as much as they affect the remaining owners, who often absorb those unpaid costs through higher maintenance fees and delinquency assessments.

We cover this topic in much greater detail in the video below:

TUG also provides a detailed guide covering this topic here:

👉 What Happens If I Stop Paying for My Timeshare?

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What if I still owe money?

Unfortunately this is a very ugly (and common) situation that many owners find themselves in after buying a timeshare recently

As mentioned above, defaulting will indeed end your ownership, but with a loan balance attached it is a very real possibility that the creditor who provided you with the loan is going to do a good bit more than simply report the default to the credit agencies.

One option many owners take is to pay off or transfer the loan balance to a separate line of credit depending on the amount/balance leftover.

However there is one universal truth, there is no magic solution that will simply make a legitimate loan balance disappear or be forgiven. Throwing good money after bad is an even worse choice! If you are approached by a timeshare exit or cancellation company offering a solution that guarantees they can get you out of your timeshare, you should read this first! How Timeshare Exit Companies Guarantee Success - and why you should avoid them!

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The final word on getting out of an unwanted Timeshare!

Despite what any other company tells you (remember, these companies rely on misleading you in order to get your business, telling you the truth is not profitable in the Timeshare industry), there are no hidden secrets or strategies to allow you to exit your timeshare, every one of these is known and available to any owner without you having to pay a dime!

We urge any Timeshare owner who has reached the end of their Timeshare lifetime to investigate these options to get out of their unwanted Timeshares!

Come check out our free Timeshare owner Discussion forums! if you have any additional questions or concerns! There are thousands of other Wyndham owners on this forum who answer questions all day every day!