Timeshare owners put up with a lot. After a glut of timeshare maintenance fees, assessments, mortgage payments, and other assorted fees, many of them end up frustrated. “This thing is bleeding me dry,” you might be saying. “Can I just abandon my timeshare and be done with the whole sorry business?” A few unethical timeshare exit companies may even wrongly advise you to do this.
While we at Centerstone Group understand the temptation of just giving up and walking away, we urge you to take an approach that is less likely to hurt you, your credit score, and your overall financial health in the long term.
If your timeshare contract feels impossible to get out of, that’s by design. Timeshare developers work hard to make it seem that way. Never fear, though: You can get out of your timeshare purchase agreement in a legal, ethical, and cost-efficient way. You just need to be aware of the pitfalls that come with a timeshare exit, and the temptation to simply walk away is a huge, nasty trap. Read on for a more detailed discussion of why.
Unfortunately, no, you never pay off a timeshare. One of the sad truths of timeshare ownership is that the bills will literally never stop coming in. Sure, you might have finished making all your loan payments — which will cost you a 16% interest rate on average — but there is a lot more to the expense than that.
You will never stop paying annual maintenance fees on your timeshare interest, and the amount you pay will go up every year.
And there’s more. Special assessments — for repairs and improvements to timeshare resorts — will also cost you money from year to year regardless of whether your mortgage is paid off.
The sad truth is that the payments for your timeshare won’t end until you get out of your contract or you pass away, potentially leaving the timeshare as a burden to your family. With that sobering thought, it’s not hard to see why so many people want to walk away. But as we’ll see, that will only make your problems worse.
Throwing up your hands and walking away might sound tempting. That is precisely when your timeshare company will use the contract against you as a weapon. Depending exactly upon your contract and the local state law, terrible things can happen that will destroy your financial life if you simply walk away.
First, you might suffer a foreclosure. “But that’s not so bad,” you might think. “I don’t want the timeshare anyway!” Keep in mind, though, that when you are foreclosed upon, the timeshare company (which is usually the company that loaned you the money to purchase the timeshare) may also be able to get a deficiency judgment against you, meaning that they can take any money you owe them to pay back the loan.
Once you have a judgment against you, your wages can be garnished and assets seized. At the very least, you almost certainly start getting phone calls from a collection agency.
Second, walking away from a timeshare will certainly be reported to the credit bureaus, who will put the information on your credit report. If you have great credit, it will take a severe hit. If you are having trouble with your credit score anyway, an abandoned timeshare will likely sink it. Getting other kinds of credit, like a new credit card, will be difficult or impossible. The loans and financing you will be able to get will have much higher interest rates that will be financially devastating.
When faced with these consequences, some people get the idea that they can just sell their timeshare. You should know, though, that there is no real timeshare resale market. Once owners find this out, they generally have to forego real estate agents and try to sell their units on eBay for $1, or even give them away!
Even worse are the so-called “resale companies” that promise to find you a buyer. In reality, they are very often scams that charge you an upfront fee and disappear, leaving you with your timeshare.
Now that you have seen the reality of what running from your timeshare can do, let us assure you there is a better way to plan your timeshare exit strategy. At Centerstone Group, we have a team of professionals with decades of experience in the timeshare industry, and we can help guide you through the process so that you can really, truly, finally be free of your timeshare for good.
If you’ve just purchased your timeshare and you’ve already started to regret it, we may be able to cancel your timeshare purchase agreement during the legal rescission period. If you’ve had the timeshare for longer, we have experience negotiating with timeshare developers to take an owner’s timeshare back (for example, through deed-back programs) by using our proprietary pressure campaign.
And if your timeshare contract has a serious legal problem (like fraud by the salesperson during your presentation), then you might need help from a timeshare attorney or law firm. In that case, Centerstone Group has relationships with trusted lawyers to help you get discounted legal fees and expert advice.
The bottom line is this: If you are convinced that stopping payments is your only option, then you should contact Centerstone Group right away. Other timeshare exit companies might tell you to stop paying and wait for the issue to resolve itself, but that route is too destructive to you and your finances to be a good idea.
Centerstone Group will take a more proactive approach that preserves your financial integrity. We will actively pressure your timeshare company to let you out of your contract to limit the impact to your credit and avoid a foreclosure.
To the extent that you need help fixing or maintaining your credit in the wake of a timeshare contract, Centerstone Group also offers free credit support services to help mitigate the profound impacts of late payments and foreclosure.
Whether you’re dealing with a smaller regional timeshare company or a giant like Wyndham, Hilton, or Marriott, you need Centerstone Group on your side. We are an A+-rated, accredited company with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Our satisfied customers have given us a rating of 4.77-out-of-5 stars across a variety of situations. We can help you too!
So, “Can I just abandon my timeshare?” is the wrong question. It should be, “What’s the best way to get a timeshare cancellation without legal and credit headaches later?” For the answer, contact Centerstone Group today, and we can start with a free consultation and case evaluation.
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