FAQ

What is timeshare bonus time?

Some timeshare resorts propose you buy bonus time, which is additional rental at your home resort. This is usually offered at deeply discounted rates. This privilege is only extended to timeshare owners at that resort.

Bonus Weeks (Also known as ‘Getaway Weeks’ or ‘Extra Vacations’) Timeshare broker companies provide their surplus weeks for rent at deeply discounted rates. This privilege is extended to owner consort members only. Timeshare ownership is required as a prerequisite to acquiring an owner consort membership. How long can I stay at my timeshare unit? Typically, seven or fourteen nights. Many timeshares accept you to acquire additional days (known as Bonus Time) at a low rate. This is usually because the days or weeks would be vacant, and are depending on availability.

Bonus time is a only offered to owners by some timeshare resorts. For owners, it is days spent at a unit that does not fall within the allocated week. These Developer Bonus Weeks ( DBW) can come in the form of low rates for daily-rentals (sometimes as much as 50% off), or can be in the form of free weeks issued by the use, because some additional income created by owners’ utilization of this bonus instance helps to equilibrate operating, maintenance and marketing costs.

Bonus timeshare becomes valuable to owners because its usage has no change on right-to-use contracts or deeded arrangements. It is simply a bonus offered by resorts where both parties can benefit. These weeks are issued directly from the use as unsold developer-owned weeks. They are often times offered as a sign-on bonus. Bonus Time can also be issued by an owner consort such as RCI or Interval International. Exchange companies use Bonus Time as incentives to owners to deposit their high-demand use weeks into the owner consort inventory.

Bonus instance can add additional life to a resort. When buying your annual week, a lot of the resorts permit owners use the unit for bonus time if a space/time is available, doing this at a preferred rate. If owners who can utilize either/or mid week instance and low season instance it will be to their advantage and they definitely will goodness from it! If a consort that handles some resorts plus has an broker program, the bonus times could really add up.

Maintenance fees in another country

What happens if you do not pay maintenance fees for a timeshare in another country?

Can a resort in another country sue you in America?

Can a collections company in the US collect on a debt ?

If you quit paying maintenance fees your week will go into foreclosure affecting your credit negatively. Try to use it, trade it or sell it for $1 and offer to pay the closing fees, that’s about the best you can do to rid yourself or your albatross. Try perusing the different timeshare ad sites to see what a comparable week has sold for. When you sign on the dotted line of any contract the terms must be met or there will be consequences.

Any body can sue you. They merely have to file against you in your home country. They can also just hire a collection agency in your home country, that can come after you. This is probably what they will do in fact.

What is the difference between fixed and floating weeks with time shares?

Buying a fixed week timeshare allows you the use of the unit for that specific week each year for as long as you own the property. The advantage of a fixed week is that you know when you’re going each year. If you choose to go a different time of year, you may make your week “floating” by exchanging it for another week or for a different resort. Buying a floating week timeshare allows you to use the unit anytime during the year based upon its availability. Some timeshares sell their ownerships by season. For example, you may have an option of purchasing a Winter Season floating week or Summer Season floating week. In this case, the resort guarantees you a week in the season which you purchase. The week you use, depends on when you book it. The advantage of a floating week is that you have the flexibility of booking different weeks each year.

In a fixed week system, your occupancy right is guaranteed to be the same week and the same unit every year. In a floating week system, you have the right to use a unit during a specified season but you must contact the resort to reserve a specific week during the float period. If you usually vacation at the same time every year and are interested in returning to the same location frequently, a fixed week will suit you best. This way you know the week the timeshare will be available to you and exactly what unit you will occupy.

Timeshares and taxes

When tax season comes around many time share owners want to know what they can deduct, if anything.

Interest paid on a mortgage loan to buy a timeshare is often deductible. The tax law allows deductions for most interest expense that an individual pays on a primary home and one other home, such as a timeshare or other vacation home.

You can treat a home under a time sharing plan as a deductible interest qualified home; if it meets all IRS requirements. The interest is deductible only if the loan is secured by the timeshare as a mortgage and you deduct no other mortgage interest except on your primary home. Note that most timeshare loans do not qualify because they are written as consumer loans rather than as mortgages.

If you have loans on more than two eligible homes, you may choose which two homes (one of which must be your primary home) you will treat as qualifying for interest deduction purposes. You may change your choice of qualifying properties from year to year. Many people with multiple properties, choose the one they have paid the most interest on, resulting in a bigger deduction.

If you have a timeshare week on a long-term lease (a Right-to-Use or “RTU”timeshare), the interest on a loan secured by that week will normally not be deductible. To be entitled to a tax deduction for interest expense in connection with such a purchase, you should finance it with a mortgage or home equity loan on your primary home.

Normally, interest expense and/or property taxes will be the only deductible expenses in connection with your timeshare ownership. A loan must be carefully structured for you to be entitled to that interest deduction. Property taxes may be deductible for timeshares if the property tax is separately billed or separately shown on the maintenance fee billing. This would usually be the case if you receive a property tax bill from your county of residence.

It may be wise to consult a tax expert with all your available loan and tax bill receipts. They would be able to narrow down what if anything you are able to deduct.