There’s nothing inherently wrong with buying a timeshare. The problem is that the sales pitches can be misleading. They promote the positive aspects of timeshare ownership but often fail to mention the hidden costs. This article will focus on nine of them to make sure people are making informed decisions.
Table of Contents
1. Extra Transaction Charges
Every timeshare salesperson lets their customers know how much the upfront purchase price will be for their week at the resort. However, they don’t always tell people about added transaction charges. These can include fees to bank or trade weeks, special assessment charges, and more. Visit https://acagroup.org/ to learn about legal options for getting out of a timeshare after finding undisclosed charges.
2. Travel Costs
Buying a timeshare only means that the room and board are covered. Timeshare owners still need to figure out travel costs to get there every year, and they can add up fast.
3. Annual Maintenance Fees
Most timeshare salespeople don’t try to hide the fact that there will be annual maintenance fees for each week purchased. What they often fail to mention is the fact that these fees tend to rise each year, and not always at predictable rates.
4. Property Taxes
Often, property taxes are included in maintenance fees, but buyers shouldn’t just assume that’s the case. They could be in for unpleasant surprises upon realizing that the property taxes get tacked on as extra, hidden fees.
5. Currency Fluctuations
Most timeshares aren’t in the United States. The properties are in foreign countries that use currencies other than the US dollar. This creates yet another level of hidden costs for timeshare owners, as currency values fluctuate. If the value of the US dollar goes down or the local currency goes up, that can lead to unreasonable living expenses in the timeshare location.
6. Special Assessment Charges
Reading through a timeshare purchase agreement thoroughly may leave owners wondering about some of the seemingly harmless terms. Special assessment charges are a good example. These charges are levied against timeshare owners to complete larger projects at the resort, making them unpredictable and often expensive.
7. Added Finance Charges
Some resorts allow timeshare owners to finance their purchases. As savvy consumers know, financing any purchase can lead to substantial interest and often hidden fees. The salespeople may make it sound like financing a timeshare purchase is a great idea, but it’s just another example of the buy-now-pay-later mentality not working out in consumers’ favor.
8. Exchange Costs
Some timeshare programs allow owners to trade weeks not just for other times at the same resort but for other places, entirely. This can sound like a big perk, especially to adventurous vacationers who like to see new things. However, the fees associated with the exchange are often exorbitant.
9. Cost to Sell
Some people get lucky. They buy timeshares for popular resorts and find that when it’s time to sell, there is a strong resale market. That’s rarely the case, though. Most people who choose to sell their timeshares get just a small fraction of what they paid.
What to Do About an Unwanted Timeshare
Everyone makes mistakes. If buying a timeshare that comes with a lot of hidden costs is one of them, the best thing to do is to hire a timeshare cancellation attorney. Attorney-based timeshare cancellation offers owners of unwanted timeshares the best possible chances of getting out of their contracts without spending a fortune.
