| There is a dirty little secret to timeshares. Takes most people by surprise. But…in most cases…there is no actual – or, at least, no specific – property involved. They are clever. Listen closely. It says so right in the name: you’re buying a “share” of “time” – a financial product, not a vacation property. Sure, timeshare companies will show you an apartment they say you could “own” – but what they really want you to buy is “points.” And it’s like Monopoly money. That way they can profit from all the financial arrangements that go along with the timeshare: …down payments and loans no bank will refinance… …constantly increasing maintenance fees… …even the credit cards issued so they get your REAL money up front. If there’s one thing we’ve learned while examining the 2,170 page of complaints against Diamond Resorts in the Florida Attorney General’s office, it’s that Diamond representatives will say anything to get you to play their financial game. John from Suffolk, Virginia has learned that too. Here’s what he wrote in his complaint: “I am age 55 and 100% Disabled Retired Marine 1st Sgt. My wife is age 52 raises our children; one of whom is severely disabled with Down syndrome.” “We first heard of Diamond Resorts while in VA Beach at one of their timeshares that we traded our points to stay there. While there we were told we needed to attend a meeting because DRI was up and coming as the premier timeshare company in America.” “After spending over 3 hours in the presentation that was to be 90 minutes with our disabled son that was very agitated at the time we gave in and bought the sampler for $2500.00.” See what they called it? A “sampler”… not a property. It’s just Diamond funny money. “In July 2017…they offered an Event of Lifetime in Orlando at Mystic Dunes Resorts and we accepted. We needed to use our Sampler package anyway.” “This is where the real nightmare began…” “We unwittingly participated in a sales presentation; [the agent] kept saying she was NOT trying to sell us anything but, as an owner herself, she wanted to tell us about the benefits of owning Diamond Resorts through the eyes of an owner, not a salesperson.” “She continued to explain as Platinum members, when we had enough points we could pay our maintenance fees if we wanted or use the rewards from our Barclay credit card to pay fees…” “She said she uses her reward points to pay the maintenance fees and has never paid any maintenance fees out of pocket.” Hmmm… we’ve all heard about that move before. “We were asked to sign papers to see if we qualified for a down payment and later were advised we had been approved for the down payment and new credit card that we needed to pay maintenance fees…” Wait… what??? “We did not know it was a credit card application!” A bank error in John’s favor? Not likely when Diamond’s involved. “When we received our first bill from Barclay Bank we found out the card was used for the down payment. I thought that we would have some rewards built up for maintenance fees, found out no points are given on down payments and to get enough reward points to pay maintenance fees I would have to charge over $300,000 a year on the card.” $300,000 A YEAR? That’s pretty much where the fun and games come to an end. Think Diamond should “STOP” and not pass “GO” on another round of financial games? Let’s email Mark Wang, the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021. His email is mark.wang@hgv.com. Tired of the timeshare funny money foolery? Tell Jason Gamel, the President and CEO of ARDA, the American Resort Development Association, which represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. His email is jgamel@arda.org. Maybe your own timeshare company’s leaders can help stop this not so fun game. You can find their contact information in this list of ARDA VIPs. Have you been gamed by a timeshare company? Let us know at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
