GVC Sunterra - Is it a freebie?

[bazrat]

Hi steve the part i find confusing is the �36400 where did that figure come from.
Lets say that it cost's �10000 to buy those points (only guessing because it sounds more reasonable)and you keep them 30 years for your own use,so for the first 10 years school holidays peak period 2 weeks so �10000 devided by 3 equals �3333
so 20 week divided into �3333 = �166.65 extra a week
the remaining 20 years off peak minimum 4 weeks holidays a year
80 weeks / �6666 = �83.33 extra.
But all this assumes you buy your points in one go not recommended what is recommended is to buy just enough to get you going than buy off other members.
obviously flights are extra.



Barry

[bazrat]

Ok lost interest each year for 10 years you pay �2500 for you holidays so each year you lose �150 in lost interest so thats �1500 in lost interest and what have you got left nothing.


Barry



one last thing if you buy a car for �36000 after 3 years you sell it would you get �36000 back or more than likely you lose money.

[bazrat]

So Steve if i never spent my money lived in a cave than i would be a rich man, your figures are laughable like your argument Fred asked a valid question which i answered with all the facts so it could be verified.
I have just bought a brand new car for cash loss of interest was never a factor i wanted the car.
i bought my house on a mortgage if i had save my money than i would never be able to afford the house i own now.
So loss of interest is such a pointless argument.



Barry

[Steve2]

Bazrat,

The cost of the 130 (old) points at �36,400 comes from information supplied by Steve1881 in his posting above. He wrote that the price of an old point was �280 and that to get 2 weeks in the school hols would cost about 130 old points so you'd need to spend 130 points * �280 per point = �36,400 to get enough old points for this annual holiday.

I agree that the annual costs will decline considerably if you only buy a proportion of your points from DRI and then buy more (at a much lower cost) from a member selling their own points.

For example, suppose you bought half of your 130 old points from other members. Now you pay �280 per point for 65 points and �140 per point for the other 65 points. The upfront purchase price is cut from �36,400 to �27,300. Maintenance fees are the same (at �880), but lost interest is cut to �1,365 and depreciation is now �364. The annual cost is therefore �2,609 instead of �3,428 (when all points were bought from DRI).

Ideally, you'd only want to buy one point from DRI and buy the rest from other members.

[FullMonty]

I must say I find this genuinely confusing.

Ther seems to be be two prices for the points.

One price is the price you pay when you join. How much per point is this? NB Barry - this is not asking for your own private information - so there is no need to be secretive about it.

Steve seems to suggest this can be as much as �280.00 per point and that seems a lot to me. I really have no idea where this figure comes from and I would love someone to tell me.

The second price seems to be when members sell points to each other - naturally this would be a lot cheaper since they are "used". And I do appreciate the price of these can vary depending how much the person wants.

Barry seems to suggest that to join the club you can buy some points at full price and then "top-up" with points which members want to sell. That seems fair enough to me - you wouldn't want to pay full price for something that is exactly the same when you can purchase it at a lower price. And clearly they are less than full price so they should be a bargain.

So what is the minimum number of points you can buy to start you off and what is the price per point when you do so, for it seems to me that this is something you cannot avoid - buying into the system at the start.

Then I would suggest we could more readily compare prices as Fred asked. .

[FullMonty]

As you have probably gathered - I started writing that and then posted whilst Steve was doing the same. Apologies if the same points have been made.

There was no intention to repeat.

[Steve2]

Bazrat,

The figures I've presented are drawn from what others have posted and what's on ebay so I'm not sure what's laughable about them.

The fact that you ignored the loss of interest associated with a car purchase is not really relevant here. If you were comparing the cost of buying a car with the cost of renting the same car then the loss of interest issue would arise there too.

I thought that we were trying to compare the cost of a standard package holiday (paid for on an 'as you go' basis) with the cost of the same holiday purchased via a timeshare/points operator. With the standard holiday package there is no upfront lump sum payment for future holidays so you could put that lump sum in the building society and gain interest on it. If you go down the timeshare route you forego that interest.

A similar issue arises with the 'house purchase versus renting' decision but here the appreciation of the value of the house usually outweighs the interest foregone so that people prefer to buy rather than to rent.

[bazrat]

I have no idea were Steve1881 got his figures for the cost of points from it bares no relation to the amount i paid,you must also take into account the cost of points go's up as well as down.
the original cost of buying the points cannot be added to the cost of holidays because it depends how long you keep them how many holidays you take with them,and do you intend to pass them on.so what you do is base it on yearly cost which i and the vast majority do we right off the original cost.
so my figures which i gave are as accurate as i can make them.
let me ask you this Steve/Fullmonty if you buy a car do you work out the deprecation cost each year,or do you accept that it will lose money which is exactly the way i look at my investment in Dri as i was told it was not a investment for future returns but a investment in holidays,which as paid off for me and the many hundreds and thousands of other members of DRI.


Barry

[bazrat]

Yet again Steve you totally missed the point what use is the money in the bank gaining you interest while your kids are growing up without holidays,because every time you dip into it you lose interest and heaven forbid we would not want to lose interest.
Fullmonty did not think that way when he paid his deposit on his villa in the sun.he did not say wait abit i could be earning interest on this money in the bank.
So Steve the cost of a holiday to me is what i pay year in year out not what i paid 6 years ago that money is gone, the loss of interest to me never even once came into any consideration what did come into consideration was i being ripped off and luckily for me no i was not what they promised i got.



Barry

[FullMonty]

I thought I had asked a very simple question - how many points do people need to join the club and what is the minimum amount you need to buy.

Clearly Barry despite being a member of the club you can't or won't answer this and I cannot for the life of me think why? No-one is asking how much you paid Barry, just how much is it now for ordinary people to join? Do you know?

You had no difficulty pricing a Thomson holiday, I would have no difficulty pricing a holiday via Owners Direct - why do people have so much difficulty pricing a points holiday?

Only then can anyone make a valid comparison as to the cost.

No blustering, no pointing to websites, no complaints about me. Steve has asked the same question more or less.

How much Barry?