Selling DRI Points Rules & recommendations

[Mavo]

It has to be noted that points can only be sold on to existing members or purchased from existing members or DRI themselves.DRI will not sanction the purchase or sale of points via agents who are unapproved.
 Use of an escrow agent such as the one offering his services on here is strongly recommended.
 Anyone offering to pay more than the current value of approx. £10 per old point (100 new points) should be treated with extreme caution. Under no circumstances should monies up front be sent other than to a recognised escrow agent.
We for our part will try to protect your email address from spamming by adding a letter Z to the front of any email address contained in your advert and a note requesting that this letter Z be removed before contact is made.    

To place an ad for your points on here is absolutely free and at present we have not discussed the length of time that the adverts can run for. If there is a build up of sellers then we may delete adverts after a period but at present there will be no reason why the points if unsold cannot be re advertised.

hello
I wonder if you could help me get my head around the value of points. I was at a stay in Pine Lake and they were offering 5,000 points at about £9, 500 ish including legal fees. Is this the initial £ per point average ie 1 point = £2? as in your email you mention £20 per 100 points. In the end we went for the trial package of 1 free week with flights and then 5 weeks over a 38 week period for £2,450 - to be used at any time of year in any resort.  Any info or support would be great.

[daveandmaureen]

Hi Teesval,

Sorry this is quite long.

Yes the points mentioned at Pine Lake on offer for about £2 each or as many people understand it £200 per 1(00) points are the same commodity as the £20 to £30 per 1(00)point mentioned on the "second hand" points market.

You will see that this is a dramatic rate of depreciation, there are lots of reasons for this two of them are as follows

1. Many people find it difficult or even almost impossible to get value from their Club The Former Company Points purchase. For example those who work in education or have school age children. They are limited to school holidays when points per week and indeed flight prices are at a premium. If you are in this quite wide category the 50(00) points you have been told about would struggle to get you much more than 1 week of school holidays accommodation on average each year. Some people who find themselves unable to use the points along with those whose circumstances have changed (divorce, bereavemnt, ill health etc etc) decide to sell the points and second hand they might indeed fetch no more than £30 per 1(00) point.

2. The other part of the equation is this. You can only buy "second hand" points if you are already a Club The Former Company Points holder. Therefore your first tranche of points have to come from The Former Company themselves.

Where does this leave you, if you are a teacher, or will have schoolage children for the foreseeable future you might be better advised to think again. If you are not inconvenienced by holidaying only during the school hols my advice would be attend the free week. If you like the product haggle like mad to buy as few points as possible for as little money as you can (you will get credit for the cost of your trial package). Once you have your first points top up with second hand points at a very preferential rate.

I am sure others will give you lots of other advice, I have tried to give a balanced response, some think I have Rose coloured specs as far as The Former Company are concerned, read all the views do as much research as possible, try the product (you might as well since you have already paid for it). Evalaute the standard of the holiday(s) you receive then decide.

Cheers Dave K

PS where is your freebie going to be at???

Hi Dave
we are going to Villa de Golf in Portugal. on this trip we also get them to pay for our flights. we then have the 5 weeks for the next 3 years but we have to find flights and pay a booking fee 50 for a studio, 100 for 1 bedromm and 150 for a 2 bedroom. at anytime during this 'trial time' we can join for the 9.5k. This os not much of a problem as our kids are 20 and 25 so anytime is ok. howver, the other interesting thing that is about is stuff in papers about The Former Company and its money problems, Board problems, american stock exchange problems etc etc .....but i am still happy to have the trial. thanks again..kev

[daveandmaureen]

Hi Kev,

My wife and I went to VdeG last September, I am sure you will be impressed with The Former Companys resort and the area (its just up the road from where the England's Soccer team were "team building" last week.

Give some thought to hiring a car as VdeG is very quiet and you will be a bit of a captive audience for some very nice but also very expensive evening meals.

Perhaps by the time you take your freebie other matters in the wider world of The Former Company may have settled down a little.

Cheers Dave K

[David160]

I note you say that points can only be brought by existing members or from The Former Company. Is this a restraint of trade, and therefore illegal?

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by David160

I note you say that points can only be brought by existing members or from The Former Company. Is this a restraint of trade, and therefore illegal?

It does seem to be legal as The Former Company have been doing it for years though it does cause member debate from time to time.
 It is an effort by The Former Company to stop people buying in to the system on the cheap and they will contend that by doing so it enables them to plough back large sums into the development of the resorts. There are those who contend that rather than investment in resorts it just gets filtered and trousered by those in high places. I do not have a current view on this as we wait for investigations into irregularities to be completed. It would be nice to think that these investigations will and are being conducted in such a manner as to allow the truth to unfold. -- Yes, that would be nice and a surprise to some.
Getting back to your point. Perhaps things will change with the shake up or sale of Europe but I can see the reasoning behind the present  restrictions on the sale of points.

[allan313]

Taken from Timeshare Consumers Association. Archives 1999

"(21 May) Members of   Grand Vacation  Club ('GVC')  resist proposals which could restrict their choice of how to sell their points -  GVC Members Group .

(18 June) GVC Members vote at their AGM to lose the right to sell their points on the open market. The vote, by apparantly less than 10% of the total membership, came as a surprise to those at the AGM who thought that the feeling of the meeting was firmly against the Resolution."

Why? Were the members directors officiating at the poll? That would explain the members interest being looted.
The state of the company and the present low value of the points is like the joke about the difference between a Barrat house and a sexually transmitted disease.You can get rid of a sexually transmitted disease.


Allan Thompson


 
 

I am so sorry if this has been covered before but we were so disgruntled with our The Former Company points that we decided to sell them. However we were told by The Former Company that you could not sell points but just fixed weeks. So we  exchanged them for 3 fixed weeks and advertised them with 2 companies recommended by The Former Company.
Guess what we are getting nowhere. We just  want out- Any advise?

[tomkat]

It's generally easier to sell points quickly than to sell fixed weeks despite the restriction of only being able to sell points to existing members. Some fixed weeks are virtually unsaleable, their value being less than the management fee added to the transfer fee that a buyer would have to pay. You may have to give them away for a nominal sum of 99p on Ebay, or just let The Former Company reposess them for non payment of fees.. Good weeks can be sold for a reasonable price but you may have to wait for months (or years). The problem is that it is a buyers market and you are up against sellers that may be desperate to unload so as to avoid paying maintenance fees.

I would be interested to know what weeks The Former Company gave you and how many points you surrendered for these weeks. I may be able to help.

David (email dmt1942(at)hotmail.com)

I have edited your reply to stop your email being harvested by spammers - doggy50k

Hi Mavo, have you got that right? £20 per old point that values my 6000 points at £1200?

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Tristar

Hi Mavo, have you got that right? £20 per old point that values my 6000 points at £1200?

Yes I have got that right and often, at this time of year their value is even less as members, who cannot afford next years rise in fees, scramble to sell.

Points values have been very low for a few years now, as the impact of the misdemeanors at The Former Company was driving down prices.

 Now a new broom is promising changes, by way of improvements, then perhaps the points values will begin to rise once more.

[maryhome2003]

can anyone tell me how i can sell my diamond vsi weeks due to ill health i can no longer use them?

[Doggy50k]

Hi Mary

What sort of weeks are they?  And where are they?

You can advertise them on here and on a couple of other sites (some of which you have to pay to join).

Why not post a few details of where and when the weeks are (possibly with some pics) and how much you are hoping to sell them for?

Create yourself a new thread here: http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=75

And see what people come back with?

Regards

Graham