People want to get rid of their timeshares for lots of reasons. Maybe you went to a Club Wyndham sales presentation to get free show tickets your last night in Las Vegas or Orlando, and the salesperson pressured you into buying something you couldn’t afford.
Or maybe you enjoyed the unit for a few years, but you can’t keep up with the annual maintenance fees or the fees for the mandatory “timeshare exchange” membership with Wyndham’s affiliated company, RCI.
Whatever the reason, getting out of timeshare ownership isn’t easy. That’s even the case for Wyndham. It might be one of the biggest timeshare companies in the world, but its contracts are just as complicated and difficult as those of any other company. (Maybe even more so. After all, they didn’t become one of the world’s largest companies by just letting owners out of their contracts.)
You do have options you can use to fight back, but you need to think about them carefully. Not all them will work for every situation. Some may even be destructive to you and your finances.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to get out of wyndham timeshares. Specifically, we’ll look at Wyndham Cares, their in-house exit program, and see how it might work for you despite what the website says. We’ll also look at an option that many owners are taking in these financially troubled times: foreclosure. Finally, we’ll discuss using a timeshare exit company like Centerstone Group to help you get the best legal and ethical exit possible.
You might not be a fan of how it does business, but let’s be real: Wyndham isn’t stupid. They know about the study showing that 85% of timeshare owners regret buying units. With numbers like that, it’s just a matter of time before someone wants out. So it makes sense that the company would try to use your desire as an opportunity to keep you in the system.
There are a couple different routes to take here. They can have wildly different results depending on how long you have owned your timeshare and who at Wyndham is supposedly helping you.
The vast majority of states have consumer protection laws that allow you to cancel or rescind a timeshare purchase agreement soon after signing it. Assuming that you live in a state with favorable laws (check your state laws here), this can be one of the easier ways of getting out of a timeshare contract. Keep in mind, though, that the gulf between theory and execution can be wide.
In plain terms, don’t expect Wyndham to make a timeshare cancellation easy on you. If you can find the right phone number to call (no small feat itself), they will likely only let you go after repeated attempts to get you to stay or buy something else. And even then, if you don’t follow the terms of the law exactly, the cancellation won’t be successful, and you’ll be stuck.
Canceling a timeshare contract is a good option for people in the legal rescission period, but it is important to know what you are doing and have an experienced person at your side to make sure that it is done right. Otherwise, it might not work.
If you are past the date set down by your state’s law for cancellation, you are going to have a rougher time. Wyndham does have its own in-house program, called Wyndham Cares (formerly known as Ovation), that ostensibly allows unhappy Wyndham timeshare owners to exit.
The Wyndham Cares program has a lot of caveats and exceptions that make it much less valuable than advertised. In many cases, it can make your vacation ownership problems worse.
First and foremost, Wyndham has to approve you for its exit program, and the requirement can be tough. The company usually only lets owners exit if they are up-to-date on all their payments. That means all annual maintenance fees must be paid in full. If you have a mortgage or purchase loan, it will also have to be completely repaid before Wyndham will even consider letting you out.
Unfortunately, many people are trying to exit timeshares because they can’t pay those amounts. So from the get-go, the best part of this program is barred from the people who are going to need it most.
If you have a balance on your loan, Wyndham Cares might help you find a real estate agent or timeshare resale company. But selling a timeshare is very difficult and probably won’t make you any money, even if you do manage to find a buyer. Some owners can only find buyers on sites like eBay and virtually give their units away. That’s not an acceptable option.
Even assuming you can get past all of those barriers, Wyndham doesn’t like to let its owners go without playing to keep them. Get ready to sit through another sales pitch (or three) where Wyndham reps try to convince you that leaving is a bad decision.
Or worse, they might try to entice you to purchase more Wyndham points. Owners have reported being told that buying into a new membership tier or getting more points will solve all their problems, but that’s never really true. When you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging. When Wyndham sells you more points, it’s just helping you dig faster.
So, you can certainly try to use Wyndham Cares. If you succeed, then great. But don’t hold your breath, and be ready to pay even more money.
Because the in-house exit options can be so hard, it isn’t surprising that many owners try to take things into their own hands by forcing an exit. If they are already so far behind on their fees and mortgage, they reason, why not just stop paying altogether and let Wyndham foreclose?
Allowing a foreclosure on your timeshare is a terrible idea, though. The fact that the resort takes the unit back doesn’t mean you no longer owe Wyndham money. Under the laws of most states, it can still come after you for a deficiency judgment and make you pay the balance of what you owe.
A foreclosure can also wreak havoc with your credit and prevent you from getting loans in the future.
Though some exit companies might suggest allowing a foreclosure, Centerstone Group emphatically rejects the idea. The damage to your financial health and well-being is too great to risk. The good news, though, is that there is a better way.
Centerstone Group is an exit company led by dedicated professionals with collective decades of experience in the timeshare industry. We know Wyndham as well as we know the other timeshare developers. We’ve helped many people just like you who felt like they were stuck and had no options.
After we examine your case, we will use one or more of our proprietary methods to get you to the best resolution possible. Maybe you need a pressure campaign to convince Wyndham to take back your unit.
Then again, maybe you have a serious legal problem. If that’s the case, we work closely with several expert timeshare lawyers and law firms who will use their skills to help you, whether in or out of the courtroom. And by working with us, you can get preferential rates for their legal fees as well.
As a BBB-certified exit company, Centerstone Group has an excellent track record helping timeshare owners get their lives and their finances back on track.
People get into bad situations with timeshares when they succumb to pressure and make quick, poorly thought-out decisions. Don’t do the same thing when it comes to an exit. Look at all your options and really take the time to understand them. We would be honored to help you with that process.
If you have a Wyndham timeshare and you need to get out, contact Centerstone Group today. We’ll sit down with you for a free consultation and case evaluation, so you can plan for what you want to happen next.
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