Timeshare Trap Media
By Jeffrey Strain, March 19th, 2006 | 3 Comments »
Our satellite site Timeshare Trap received some good media coverage. I was quoted in an article by Gregory Karp in the Chicago Tribune titled Unloading Time Share Likely A No-Win Deal. It was nice to see a mainstream media outlet highlight this problem. The question of how to get rid of a timeshare is a subject I probably receive the most email inquiries about. Not only is it one of the worst investments you can make, many people compound their loses trying to get their money back on their timeshare instead of getting out of the timeshare unit as quickly as possible. Some advice from the article:
If you have a timeshare, take the time to sit down and run the numbers. It’s likely costing you much more money than it’s worth and if that is the case, the sooner you get rid of it, the better for your personal finances.
My wife and I had attended a time share seminar while visiting a hotel in Virginia.
I was amazed by the persisten closing language they used throughout the entire presentation.
“Are you ready for this?” “The commitment of a lifetime” “Make your vacations the best you’ve ever had” “This offer is only good for today” “Best of all you get the exchange program…if you sign up today” “The value of our properties keeps rising, get in now”
We were constantly pummelled.
If not for the fact we had just moved and experienced immense moving expenses, I think even with our natural skepticism, we would have been vulnerable.
What was truely amazing was how they equated their product with hotels and positioned hotels as their competitor. “When the hotels realized how revolutionary our product was, all the major chains decided to enter our market.”
We worked through the numbers and even though we spend quite a bit on holidays, we would never be happy with a constraint on our selection or the continuing monthly expense.
Regards,
Making Our Way