I can not get out of a timeshare, it is a judgement now, and I have to pay maintenance and we have NEVER used it! What can we do?

patti templeton March 09 2010 6:36 PM

We are looking at how to sell the timeshare or where to list? Paid $12,000 in Az. Kierland Commons Maintenance $650 a year? How to sell or give up in Bankruptcy? Looking for direction???? Help!!!!

Joe March 09 2010 4:48 PM

We are just getting started on the total money makeover and really wish we didn't have the burden of our timeshare. Does anyone know how to get rid of it? We have tried to sell it with no success.

Michele March 07 2010 5:51 PM

NEVER pay anything upfront! I should be able to sit because of the nasty bit marks I have received. If you find someone that works off commission with no upfront fee, I would gladly give a very nice bonus!

Concerned Owner March 01 2010 11:12 PM

We just returned from one of those "get out of your timeshare now" seminars. The claim that if we paid the closing costs up front we could be out of our time share today, is this a legitimate way to get rid of our timeshare forever? No one can explain to me why we have to pay this fee up front. We're trying to give the thing away and we still have to pay additional charges just doesn't make sense to me. Thank you P.J.

P.J. February 28 2010 2:10 PM

We were totally lied to during our presentation by salesman Corbin Ferarri at Welk Resorts San Diego. He told us all "getaways" with Interval International were $199.00 we couldn't believe it so he reiterated that "In fact" they were at least 10-15 times. Our recission period expired before we found out we've been had. I have no intentions of trying to sell at a loss or anything like that. Within legal bounds I'm going to be such a P.I.T.A. I think, I can get them to cancel my contract.

Kurtis February 24 2010 6:59 PM

I disagree that Timeshares are bad. We like to travel with family and this is the only way for all of us to be together that is affordable and comfortable. You have to buy in the right location such as Hawaii and a good company. No it's not perfect and it takes work but we think its worth it.

Kathleen February 19 2010 9:45 PM

We have a timeshare "Horizons by Marriott" we need to get rid of. Does anyone remember the company Dave recommended that you could donate to charity?

David February 16 2010 4:35 PM

Oh Dave, How I wish I had found you 15 years ago. We've done everything right, paid off our mortgage early, have our emergency fund, have 3 months in the bank, saved for college for our kids, but this... it keeps me up at night. The maintenance fees alone are more than the holiday is worth. Hate it, hate it, hate it!!!!!!!!!

Sue February 11 2010 7:45 AM

Own timeshare with Wyndham in Orlando (inside of Disney ) Daytona and it is taking up too much of our income. Trying to get rid of time share and don't know what we should do. Help!! Currently trying to work the money makeover but if we didn't have timeshare the process would go alot quicker.

Marcie February 08 2010 11:16 PM

What would happen if we just stopped payment on our timeshare? I know it would go on our credit report. But, would that be any worse than being in debt by $10,000 and having to pay association fees of $800.00 on up each year? Like so many others, we are stuck, and owe so much that there's no way we can get rid of it. Is there anyone that's just stopped paying for it? and what has happened to you since you stopped paying? I need to know because that is what we are seriously considering.

debbie February 01 2010 5:47 PM

What if you just quit paying your taxes and maintenance fees?

Lori January 28 2010 1:27 PM

We bought a timeshare for $7000 in Tahoe 14 years ago. It is a studio, Christmas/New Years week every other year. We used it as a trade and took several wonderful vacations to places I know we would not have gone otherwise. Six years ago we bought property in another state and that became our permanent vacation. Next we were scammed by two different "sell your timeshare" companies. Paid stupid fees upfront. Duh. Now we tried to GIVE our timeshare back to the resort and they want to charge us $260 for a Lot Book Title Report and $125 in administrative fees. Cannot believe it.

Linda January 26 2010 7:38 AM

I own timeshares in Wyndham. I have been trying to sell it on sellmytimeshare now. I get no bites. I'm selling it for almost nothing. I applied to donate it and have heard nothing from that place. Now there is no connection to it on Dave's article. Any suggestions?

Tony January 25 2010 11:58 AM

my husband and I bought a timeshare ormond beach florida and they told us we'd have a wonderful vacation every year and guess what? it was an "every other year" even years to be exact and we are paying yearly maintenance fees. i just cant stand this...

Brenda D January 21 2010 5:37 PM

Never EVER pay anyone any money upfront to do anything with your timeshare...despite how "good" it sounds. this industry is littered with scam upon scam upon scam to part you with your money. Despite any "guarantee" you may hear, noone can guarantee you a sale of your timeshare...and remember, these people rip others off for a living...they will tell you exactly what you want to hear right before asking you to fork over your hard earned cash!

TUG January 20 2010 4:27 PM

We made the biggest mistake of our lives about 15 years ago and bought a timeshare. It's paid off but now the association dues are SO expensive and go up every year. We can't sell it; we can't rent it; we just want to be rid of it. It is an agonizing expense.

Patty January 15 2010 10:56 PM

How do I get out of this timeshare that I have now owned for over 20years. I bought it for about $6000, I am not sure it is worth anything now. I owe about $900.00 in fees for last year and this year. I want to sell it fast. Should I just give it away? to whom?

sam January 14 2010 9:09 PM

I am so glad I have found Dave! My husband and I "won" a vacation in a drawing. All we had to do was show up and stay for a presentation. It was a really good presentation. The place was great, and in a way I really wanted it. When they started talking about the price the salesman said $15,000 for the cheapest package; we said no way, that's too high. So he went "to talk to the manager" who personally came to visit with an offer for the best package for only $8000 with all access ground usage year round and unlimited free facility stays during weekdays. That sounded really good; I even had cash in the bank for that, so they offered to knock even more off! Now two years ago I would have jumped on that deal in a heartbeat and just asked where to sign. This time I said it sounded like a great deal, but I have learned from Dave Ramsey that you should never make such a big purchase without sleeping on it first. That pushy salesman, who didn't like hearing that, actually insisted that Dave Ramsey was a huge FAN of timeshares because you own your own vacation. He insisted we had to act right away or lose all the benefits he had mentioned. That was the tipping point and I completely stopped talking to him. I wasn't really sure of how Dave felt about timeshares, but I did know how he felt about rash decisions with finances. After reading about the nightmares of fees and selling the timeshares, I am so glad for everything I have learned. Thanks Dave!

Pauline January 14 2010 11:39 AM

Does anyone know anything about Transfer Smart? They claim to be able to get you out of your timeshare-guaranteed. Evidently someone in their family went through this.

Linda Whiting January 14 2010 9:30 AM

I hate our time share! My husband and I went on a great deal to Hawaii 4nights at he Waikiloa Village Resort in 8/05 it was the only great deal we had $400 crammed 5 people in 1 rm, but all in all it worked and we love our trip. But we got sucked into the whole time share thing and bought the smallest amounts 13k,187mth! maint fees are increased now to from 500, 600 now 700 dollars. Really you only get 3400pt per year and only get a week or you can "rescue" the pts for more money and roll them for 1 or 2 years to same Hilton or RCI. The whole problem with this is that you have to book with only a few Hilton RCI resorts atleast a year out, that does not work for our family. What a mistake this is, we want to get out of it so bad. Besides our mortgage we are almost dept free this is the only thing holding us down! Dave help we need to get out, what do we do.....I really dont want to pay it off and then still sell it......so frustrated!

Maria January 08 2010 12:32 PM

I would like to know this. if i cant afford the maintenance fee could i still sign-up with interval and use it for getaways? My sister owned a timeshare but with trying to pay for 2 kids college education she could not afford the maintenace fees anymore. so she stopped paying it. My benefit on this was that i can use her interval account and and book getaways for my family. So can this be possible?

jose January 06 2010 10:04 PM

So, Dave says not to sell it to a listing service. What is the alternative, to sell it on Craigs List, eg.?

Marsha December 29 2009 3:12 PM

My husband and I bought into the Wyndham Time Share not just once but twice plus we added more points. The salespersons are great and we bought hook line and sinker. Now we are in a predicament where, with the economy as it is and the markets nosedive, we are unable to fulfill our obligation and live daily and we have no way out. We need help and advice before we lose everything we have. I don't believe we can donate what we don't own outright so what other options might we have? I hope someone can help us.

Cynthia Conner December 17 2009 12:58 AM

I just want to know what happens if I stop paying the maintenance fee. I bought one in arizona I dont own it yet. I want to stop paying the monthly payments and the yearly mainteance fees. Can they sew me for the balance or not. Can anyone tell me what they can do if I stop paying on everything to the timeshare.

Paul Cooper December 14 2009 12:20 PM

I'd like to know what site Jason went to to sell it at 25% - at least it's something back and out of the fees.

Elsa December 09 2009 1:43 PM

So i've got these two timeshares and owe roughly $50k for both and 10+ years. I can no longer afford them due to my income being cut almost half of what it was last year. Question: Do I really care about my credit if I am able to put $1,000/month back into my family and its needs....Are they going to come take my couch? What if I just don't pay? I am stupid, I admit it....my stupid tax is heavy and the burden is great!

JP December 07 2009 4:41 PM

We have a deeded share of a resort in Florida, which is a departure from a typical timeshare. Instead of using or trading our week (which "floats," we sign up annual for our week) we rent our week (for exhorbitant fee...we need to learn how to do our own brokering!) rather than use it. The maintenance fee is high, but we can deduct it as an expense in our rental "business." We were so shocked by the different setup at the sales meeting (we had scored 3 good meals and a couple nights' free lodging in that week's vacation!) that we let our guard down a bit and bought in. Overall, it hasn't been totally negative, and now that we live near the resort, we get to use the facilities as a health spa.

Rich Steinke December 04 2009 6:42 PM

I bought a timeshare outside Disney 2 years ago. I have since had a major reduction in my income. I still owe over 9K on the timeshare. I called the company and told them I could not longer afford this timeshare. All they said is if I missed payments they would report it to the credit agencies. I offered a deed in lieu of foreclosure which they refused. No one is going to pay 9K for this timeshare and I can not budget enough to continue payments. In addition the maintenance fees went up to $700 this year. Seeing it is not paid off I can not donate it. Does anyone know of any other options to get rid of this cancer?

Mark November 29 2009 2:25 PM

If I were to buy a timeshare again, I would buy it for pennies on the dollar directly from someone who is trying to unload it. I would consider the appraised value according to the tax assessor. Some management companies are better than others. Audited financial statements are available and I would also get a history of what the annual assessment fees have been over the past 10 years. additionally, I would make sure that I got a timeshare that is prime time verses off-season. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths is a must and the timeshare must have the highest ranking in order to be able to trade for other locations via Interval International (dealing successfully with Interval Intl is a whole separate issue. If you are a workaholic, a timeshare will force you to take a vacation and enhance your family's memories.

Charlie Elwis November 28 2009 5:12 PM

I also agree that the deal we have with our timeshare is a good deal. We too would not be able to afford to travel to some of the places that we can go. Not to mention the other deals we can get on Cruises and other getaways. I think it is with anything. Yu have companies that are good to deal with and then you have companies out there to scam you as much as they can.

Shery Rowe November 25 2009 5:04 PM

We bought a timeshare 22 years ago and got years of use out it. We didn't pay a lot for our week, $7000. We would not have gone on vacation to Disney (which we have grown to love) so many time. The accommodations were better than anything we could have afforded even with the maintenance fees, but now the resort is assessing a $1500 fee for remodeling which was supposed to have been part of our fee for the last 22 years. In this economy we can't go anywhere so we have several weeks in "the bank" unused. We want to sell it but can't because resellers want a fee to list it. Sounds stupid you have to pay them before they will list it not pay a commission after they sell it like when listing a house with Realtor. I don't think we can donate it because we still owe the $1500 that we just don't have and believe we have already paid over the 22 years. So, were stuck. Until this year our timeshare was great.

Christine November 24 2009 9:39 PM

We bought our timeshare at Hilton Head in 1999. The company promptly went belly up and we then were owned by Sunterra. They went bankrupt a few years later and Diamond resorts took over. Since then our maintenance fees have jumped from about $500 to $1600!!! I'll donate it this year!!! No more of this craziness. Thanks Dave for the tip!

JohnD November 24 2009 5:55 PM

Any body know of a decent timeshare company that sells World Mark by Wyndam/ Trendwest. Any help would be great. Maintanance fees go up every year. Inflation goes up on the 'credit points' to reserve a resort but my annual credits don't unless I buy more. I'm not a financial guru but I'm losing 'purchasing power' every year. The company's I contacted require a up front fee to 'garentee the sale', sure what ever, so I run far away from that scam. Please help I guess by blogging on this site. Thank you for your help.

Tim November 24 2009 1:18 PM

Well, now that we brought two time shares and paid them off. I have mixed feelings about having buyers remorse. Just say no in the future. Timeshare presentations are mysterious magic sessions. We gave one to our brother and his wife one of our time shares and he loves it. You do get tired of the fees if you can't vacation three weeks out of the year. It just cost him the maintenance fees and he is greatful. He uses it yearly, enjoys the fact that it's large, it's in Genoa Neve, nice view, near golf courses. But the worse beds in the world. A definite bate and switch on the beds. Hard as a rock. After you buy a timeshare you think, I could never pay $700 a year for a two bedroom suite for a week. Until you look back at the $23,000 you paid for it in the first place. Hello...was I in a trance. Of course we paid $23,000. We should have just rented a week from someone else who has posted their week. Our second one, people are right. Taxes and maintenance goes up yearly. We've exchanged our timeshare (thisis this our other one) all over the world. Spain, Africa, England. Now, that worked. But when we think that really cost us $13,000 for one and $23,0000 for the other; I guess we could have rented a few suite in the first place. But realistically, when you are in timeshare, you are in the zoombie zone! You can't think straight because they keep you captive. You've brought into the dream world of travel. My word, wouldn't be nice if savings guru's could impact audiences to save or invest like the time share sharks! One year we saw the same shark selling time shares in Mexico. An amazing scan business. So, either half full or half empty, I am enjoying my time share since we've paid for it. It's too late to go back. We have travelled to places and enjoyed the ventures. But listen to Dave. Save and invest and pay cash for your vacations. Mmc

Mischwa November 20 2009 1:18 AM

I am so grateful my Achilles heel is not vacationing, or I believe I would find myself in a bad situation as commented on by those of you who wish you had never heard the word timeshare. Your woeful stories will prevent someone else's pain; thank you.

Linda November 19 2009 1:43 PM

my girlfriend and i bought into worldmark by wyndom. we get 14,000 shares per year. we originally got 14,000 bonus shares which cannot be caried over and expire in dec. we had planned on using them but since purchasing, i have been laid off from work a few times and am now. we can carry over 3 years of points. we have 2 years now + bonus points we can't use and 1 more year coming up. after that we start losing points because we cannot afford to use them. we tried to sell with no luck. we paid about $800.00 to a company in florida and they never return calls. now we fight about it because i told her no but she insisted she would pay it but it's my credit getting screwed if we can't pay it. i now i dumb for giving in but can anyone please HELP!

troy November 13 2009 2:09 AM

I know from experience that timeshares are a definite rip-off. When we first bought ours, we could get in a resort during peak time most any time with 3-months advance reservation, but as time went by, it kept getting longer to get a reservation. I found out that many of the timeshare companies are advertising and filling their inventory from websites like hotels.com, giving the website customers a great deal and leaving the owners with paying the maintenance fees. The maintenance fees go up almost every year or two. When the resort falls short and need to replace amenities or make repairs not covered under insurance, they bill the owners an additional fee, and those who do pay make up for those who don't pay. And guess what? If a disaster hits the resort and insurance doesn't cover all the cost of repair, the owners are assessed the difference. In most, if not all contracts, there is a clause that states the property passes to the heirs of the estate when the owner dies. Guess what. The maintenance fees also pass on to your children or other heirs. Do you want to pass on an expense to someone who doesn't want or can't afford the maintenance fees? We also went to a presentation by a "we buy timeshares company." Sure, they would take off our hands for about $3600. Another rip-off. I told my wife going in that we weren't going to pay anything to a company that would be making money on our loss. Afterward, I learned that some of them only transfer the maintenance fees but not the property title. Want to get out of it? It isn't easy. Don't bother listing it with a "sell your timeshare" website; they don't sell it, the merely post it in a list with other people trying to dump theirs. I finally sold mine by advertising in a local free classified paper. We had two contracts totaling about 12K plus interest, and sold both for $500 total, and I felt lucky at that. A friend of ours only got rid of his by getting nothing and paying the closing costs. I paid my stupid tax. Don't you pay yours on a timeshare. They are not real estate; you are only buying time to use the facility.

Tony November 12 2009 7:24 AM

Here is a different view: We own 6 weeks for many years and are quite happy. I think if you really use these weeks then it is worth while. We paid about 10k average per week and 800$ maintenance per week per year. Now if you think that a decent hotel suite, that is comparable to our timeshare apartment costs at least 300$x7=2100$ per week then you get a pretty good deal with the timeshare. Also with the timeshare we know that we are getting a certain level of comfort and size of the apartment. We own 2 and three room apartments.

Bruno November 11 2009 2:31 PM

We have been trying to get rid of our timeshare weeks (4 of them!)ever since we started paying off debt - two years ago. We are working with a company that claims to transfer title and take over your timeshare weeks for about $1500 per week. The company is called Timeshare Relief, Inc. It is NOT a listing company. It claims to be a bulk-buying company. Does anyone know anything about this? We are desperate to get out from under our "stupid tax" maintenance fees.

Dianne Barrow November 10 2009 6:21 PM

We are buying a timeshare. I say buying because we've been paying on it for 3 years now and we still owe $23,000. We can't donate it because we don't own it. Consolidated Resorts won't let us sell it back to them. We are stuck! Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Wendy November 10 2009 2:22 PM

I have a little different story. I have one week of a timeshare in Tahoe (no growth high demand area) and can trade it for two weeks at another location. Originally purchased because are daughter was living in Tahoe and did not have room for us to stay with them. they have now moved. Also did not take out the loan, paid cash. For what it would cost us for two weeks in a nice hotel (I am debt free and have been for twenty years or more, and buy only used cares for cash). I would agree for most people it is a bad idea but I estimate I'm making 10% or more on my money by not having the hotel bill.

John October 29 2009 7:47 PM

I agree with almost all of Dave's advice; however, this is one time I whole-heartedly disagree. I have owned timeshares since about the year 2000 and don't regret it one iota. My wife and I go to Hawaii every other year for "a song." We would never have been able to go as often as we do without timeshare. Also, as an owner, we have access to numerous weeks at major discounts, which we take full advantage. Hey, if you LOVE to travel (as we do), then timeshare is a way to ensure that you can. It's like joining a gym, in my opinion. It's only a good idea if you use your membership. Too many people join a gym with good intentions, but never go. I feel that Dave is doing an injustice to the timeshare industry with his flat-out negativity. Lastly, once you stay in a timeshare villa, you won't ever want to stay in a crummy hotel room. We have a master bedroom (or two), a living room, dining room, jacuzzi and a lanai/patio/deck. It's like being home, but without the headaches and upkeep. Best move we ever made, regardless of what dave says...no disrespect intended.

joe October 08 2009 3:20 PM

I found a site online that buys world mark points based time shares. I only got about 25% back from what I paid for it, but no more monthly dues! Thank you for the inspiration to get rid of it and start getting out of debt. THANKS DAVE!

Jason September 21 2009 9:02 PM

Please, please, please listen to Dave! We bought a timeshare before we started TMMO, and it has been awful. We paid $8800 for 2500 points (enough for a weekend unless you roll points over). And of course, we financed that amount, so that we paid a lot more in interest. The maintenance fees were $450 the first year; within two years, they were close to $700. We kept it for three years and used it twice before we decided "To heck with the cheese, let me out of the trap!" We paid another $250 to get out of the thing. Overall, we probably spent about $6000 each on two stays. NEVER AGAIN!

Melissa September 21 2009 7:17 AM