Since we published last week’s Friday’s Letter from America, Inside Timeshare has received some very good news from one of our readers. It was concerning the “FAKE” law firm Amador Galeca Abogados, this reader had paid them by bank transfer to start “legal” proceedings against Royal Sunset Beach and Andrew Cooper. When she became suspicious, she found our articles on this group, which are part of the Litigious Abogados family of “FAKE” law firms.
We advised her to contact her bank and see if they could stop the transfer, this she did. Thankfully her bank has managed to do this and the money is now safely back in her account.
She then received another call from this “law firm” asking why she had stopped the transfer and why she was not going to continue with the “case”. She told them in no uncertain terms that they were a “scam”, to which they replied, have you been reading the Inside Timeshare Blog? They are the ones perpetrating the scam!
Well, it is certainly a great scam, considering Inside Timeshare never receives or asks for any payment for any help or advice we give. To be a scam there must surely be some financial motive.
The only ones perpetrating a scam here are Amador Galeca Abogados along with all the other fake law firms this lot have produced. If Inside Timeshare is wrong in what we publish we ask this very simple question, YOU ARE SAYING YOU ARE A LAW FIRM, SO WHY HAS INSIDE TIMESHARE OR OUR LAWYERS NOT HAD ANY NOTIFICATION OF YOU TAKING ANY LEGAL ACTION FOR PUBLISHING FALSEHOODS?
The simple answer is, YOU ARE THE FAKES, YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE DEFRAUDING VULNERABLE ELDERLY TIMESHARE OWNERS. THE AUTHORITIES ARE ONTO YOU AND WE WILL KEEP ON PUBLISHING ABOUT YOU AND EVERY NEW WEBSITE, FAKE LAWYERS NAMES THAT YOU COME UP WITH. THAT IS OUR PROMISE TO ALL OUR READERS!
Now on with this Tuesday’ article from Irene Parker.
Timeshare Lending Decisions
As Compared to Prenuptial Agreements
By Irene Parker
October 10, 2017
Mesmerized by the thought of endless vacations, while on vacation brain, staring at a finger pointed to a low monthly payment, the last thing on the mind of a timeshare buyer is “What type of lending, if any, should I select in the event my decision to spend thousands of dollars for a vacation plan does not work out?”
The decision made about how to finance a timeshare purchase has a dramatic impact on what happens if a buyer learns later they made a mistake.
Hopefully, you didn’t make a mistake. There are timeshare companies that work hard to keep up industry standards and provide a viable, if limited, secondary market.
Last week we published an article about timeshare Foreclosure. Out of 160 US timeshare complaints Inside Timeshare has received, the majority are about high interest rate loans and even higher interest rate credit cards. The toxic and compounding effect of this combination can spell financial disaster. It can mean the down payment is financed at around 25% and the loan 12% to 19%. Many tell us they were told any bank would refinance a timeshare at a lower interest rate only to learn banks do not finance timeshares. Comments include, “Banks would be crazy not to finance your timeshare. It is worth $500,000!” when it was worth nothing on the secondary market”. One complaint even stated specifics – the name of the bank, the term and an interest rate of 6%.
At the last timeshare presentation I attended, the sales agent told us, “When you get home, take out a home equity loan. No one would finance at our interest rates.” However, transferring to a lower interest loan like a home equity loan may not be the right decision either.
Inside Timeshare published its first Nightmare on Timeshare Street article one year ago. The family was struggling to pay maintenance fees. As so many of our readers have reported, a common solution, as suggested by unscrupulous sales agents, is to sell the existing member more points as this will afford them maintenance fee relief or the ability to sell points. Unfortunately, the programs were non-existent. Fortunately this family walked away from this deal. Unfortunately, they had taken the financing advice and took out a home equity loan transferring the loan to a third party lender. When the kids said they wanted nothing to do with timeshare, and the maintenance fees escalated, they were forced to deed back $60,000 worth of vacation points and were left with a $33,000 home equity loan and a high school graduate starting college.
Should timeshare buyers ever consider third party lending?
Timeshare Attorney Mike Finn of the Finn Law Group says NO!
Mike posted this comment after reading “Foreclosure, Is it Survivable?”
http://insidetimeshare.com/timeshare-foreclosure/#comment-10000
Another tremendous and informative article! I think the one major, major admonition I have for anyone, client or not, who has purchased a timeshare with developer financing and may want to reconsider the merits of the purchase (and, of course, assuming the rescission period has passed), do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances, attempt to re-finance the purchase via a home equity line or a transfer to a lower interest credit card, or, for that matter any other methodology that has as its objective, re-paying the developer with other third party money.
For that matter don’t even think about using your own funds either! Assuming you soon may conclude that you do not want to continue with your timeshare obligation for whatever reason, legally based or economically driven or a combination of both, you will come out much better in the long run (no matter the developer’s interest rate) if you are left dealing with the developer as your creditor, as opposed to any other third party you opt to transfer that debt to! If you have any sort of legal argument that the resort debt was accompanied by any sort of misrepresentation or fraud in its inducement at time of contract of purchase, you will lose the benefit of that position with any other third party creditor save the resort!
Respectfully,
Mike Finn
This leads me to the comparison I made in today’s title, comparing a timeshare lending decision to a prenuptial agreement. Being in love is a little like being on vacation. A marriage often starts with a vacation. With love all around, the idea of signing an agreement that casts doubt on the “till death do us part” seems distasteful.
From what Mike Finn says, if you must buy a timeshare, begin with a negative end in mind. Buy it on the developer’s high interest rate nickel because in-house loans are easier to cancel. For my part, if this is the appropriate strategy, then a timeshare should never be purchased. Would I buy our timeshares again knowing what I know today? Yes, I would buy Port Elsewhere in the Ozarks and Maui Hill fixed-week timeshares again. Ambiguous right-to-use programs I think not.
Can we stop unethical timeshare business practices?
I doubt it. In Florida alone, $70 billion a year flows into the state in tourist dollars. Lawmakers, some influenced by lobbyists, have turned a deaf ear. Regulation is by design at the state level, disguising and diminishing the scope of the problem. For some industry players, the culture of deceit on the front end of the timeshare sale is so ingrained it is the established norm. Until the problems associated with perpetual contracts with no secondary market and deceitful and overly aggressive sales tactics are acknowledged and addressed, buyers should consider carefully the choice between buying a timeshare and booking online. To my knowledge not one timeshare company has ever admitted wrongdoing.
The following self-help Facebook pages offer members a safe place to express concerns and share experiences. Petitioning a timeshare company can be frustrating and intimidating. Contact Inside Timeshare or one of these self-help groups if you have a positive or negative timeshare experience to share.
We seek to provide members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.
https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
Thanks Irene for that article, also our thanks to Mike Finn of the Finn Law Group for your contribution.
Inside Timeshare welcomes contributions to our pages from you the readers, we are also looking for more contributors from Australia, Asia, Mexico Central and South America, India and anywhere that timeshare consumers exist. Let us all get together and share our experiences, the industry will only change when we all speak with one voice.
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