Thinking of Buying a Timeshare?

-  How do they work?

Lets say that you have just recently purchased a Timeshare in Miami. You may use your own resort in Miami or you can use a resort in a different location each year. Each year you have the choice of where you want to go. You may be thinking "Wait, I thought that I had to use the same resort, each year?" That is incorrect, you can make your own plans, on your own time.

To do this, you would have to call an exchange company and tell them what you want. There are 2 of these exchange companies that link Timeshare resorts together world wide, Resort Condominiums International and Interval International. They each offer exchange programs that you have to join to use their exchange opportunities, this costs around $100 a year and gives you the ability to exchange your resort/week for another. After joining one of the programs, when you want to 'trade' your week/resort for a different week/resort, all you have to do is call the exchange company and tell them what you want. Doing the exchange will cost you anywhere from $180-$230 each time that you make an exchange.

The exchange is based on a value for value system, this keeps the exchanges fair. Value for value means that you will only be able to trade for something that has the same value as your Timeshare. A week in January probably wont get you a week in July at the beach. If you want the best weeks and the best resorts, expect to trade something in the same category. This system would work something like this; Prime season gets you the in demand weeks, while off season will get you off season weeks. The location of the resort will also play a role in what you get, a resort in an unknown location will not get you a resort in Maui. To help you make the right decisions on what Timeshare to buy and what you can exchange for, the exchange companies publish catalogs that show the various Resorts worldwide and color code the weeks of the year for each resort. These show which weeks are in demand and which are the off season or in between and are a big help when it comes to what you can exchange for.

Sometimes the inevitable happens, one week before your vacation week and your boss calls you into work. "We need you to work next week, you are the only person with the experience. Sorry, but your vacation will have to hold." So what do you do? Waste the vacation and wait until next year? There are many options available for a problem like this, you could always let a friend use the vacation, or a family member. Another option is to call the exchange company and do half of an exchange, this means that you could give the week to someone else but not ask for anything in return and you will have two years to call back and get the vacation at a better time. This also means that you can save or stack vacations.

So what happens if you have experienced many years of vacationing and are ready to be done with it? Well, you could give the deed to your kids if you have any, let them experience vacations at resorts located around the world. Or you could resale it, which is a hard thing to do unless you buy the Timeshare right in the beginning.