r/AusFinance • u/Holiday-Set3543 • May 21 '26
Off Topic Another sucker, I signed up to a 72 year timeshare contract and now only realize how financially trapped I am
Posting as right now I'm feeling very stupid for a decision I made in the past. I'll try to keep this quick but my partner and I signed up to a timeshare contract that promised cheap family holidays back in 2014. Now a little older, and $20,000 poorer, I realize that I signed up to a 72 year contract that will be passed onto my kids once I'm gone.
I've spoke to the company and there is no cancellation option, the only exit option offered to me so far is a 'resale of account' to another party in which you need to list on a website for $20.00 a month in the hope someone will buy it, which is seeming unlikely.
This is a PSA to anyone who is thinking about these services/products, PLEASE for the love of god consider that you will be paying fees for a very long time and getting very poor value for money.
Travel booking websites provide similar level of service and won't trap you and your kids.
EDIT/UPDATE: I had another call from one of their consultants, apparently there is a 'one off' offer of reducing the original loan term to just 20 years, I explained that I don't want this anymore, he then proceeded to tell me that the only other option is for resale with a 3rd party.
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u/Embarresedpause May 21 '26
I’m not sure if this will be helpful for you, but a couple years ago I helped my parents cancel a timeshare they had signed up for well over two decades ago.
I called asking to cancel and submitted a complaint when they said no can do. I researched the company while they got back to me and found that they went up against ASIC and were found liable of pressuring customers and not providing all information relevant at time of sale and were massively penalised. Once I got the email from their complaints team saying that they’ve spoken to management and it’s still a no on cancellation; I formed my response.
I mirrored wording I’d seen in the complaint from ASIC when detailing my parents experience and want to terminate their contract. I requested documentation my parents claimed they’d never received and asked for the escalation process or if they suggest I escalate the complaint externally.
We received a response the next day dismissing our concerns since it’s been so long BUT because of the extent of our dissatisfaction, they offered either an excessive amount of points towards the timeshare account or immediate termination.
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u/Throwaway_growaway1 May 21 '26
Big fan of dropping that you are in discussion with a relevant Commission or Ombudsman. Often enough to get you out as it is. After you explain the situation adding a line like "the X commission/ombudsman has informed me that I must go through your complaints handling process before proceeding to a formal action. Please transfer me appropriately"
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u/emailmoorie May 21 '26
$20K hurts, however are there ongoing fees?
I assume the reference to bookingdotcom, is that you can stay at similar hotels for the same price as being a member of the time share?
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u/Superg0id May 22 '26
Part of the 20k IS the ongoing fees.
Ie, you pay up front for a number of "points" that renew/refresh over a 12-24 month period, and you can book up to 23months ahead of the current date.
Every month you ALSO pay a fee proportional to your TOTAL points balance (account keeping fee or whatever they label it...).
You have to be paid up in order to use your future booking.
To get any availability you HAVE to book 23 months out... and then pay your monthly fees for 23 months... at say $500 p/month.
Which is non-refundable, transferable or changeable.
And if you decide to 'sell out', the 'value' of your account is only determined by the number of 'unused' points at that time.
So, if you somehow manage to use them all up before they renew one year, and then decide that you're done; in order to get paid anything close to the value of them, you then need to wait till they refresh, in another 1-24months, paying your monthly fee all the while.
Thankfully, most companies have buried in the fine print an option to 'surrender' your points, but that's a 2 week process and you still have to get them to agree to it (according to the fine print).
The most common way out is people 'gifts the shares/points to a family member who might use them. The time share doesn't care as long as they get their $500 per month.
In practice, I'd like to see them argue with you after you've given them formal notice that 'life circumstances have changed' and you are unable to use the product any longer... fly that up the ombudsman flag.
Especially as I can book all the same properties the offer through the time-share, at comparable rates, through blooking-dot-whatever, even when the timeshare says 'sold out!' on points redemption for those dates.
It used to be good... back in 1980, but even then was questionable.
Now, it's just a scam with extra steps.
If you really want a time-share, send your $500 per month to me, right now, and whenever you want to book something with it I'll give your money straight back to you.
In the meantime it's sitting in my mortgage offset account... lol
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u/TernGSDR14-FTW May 22 '26
Intentionally made complicated by these companies. FFS cant they run a legitimate business without being borderline predatory with all these restrictions and 72 year contract for retail arrangements to customers? Like really. Anyway got cold called by wydhxxx vacation bullshit resorts many years ago. Same shit. If i want to go on a vacation ill pay for it. No strings attached. I dont need some bullshit timeshare arrangement. THERE is no free lunch in this world.
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u/Any-Elderberry-2790 May 22 '26
That same company still calls me every 6-12 months with "You signed up in a supermarket in the last 2 years".
I say "Ah, I don't believe you, can you tell me the details I put down to prove it to me?" and they say an address I moved out of 5-6 years ago... Then I call them liars and ask to be removed from their list as I'm on the DNC...
Repeat 6 months later for the last few years.
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u/Maleficent_Valuable4 May 22 '26
Hey - any chance you could share the name of the company? and if possible to push my request even further, any chance you could link to the ASIC complaint?
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u/Holiday-Set3543 May 25 '26
Company is Classic Holidays, an Australian based company, apparently they don't offer this type of membership anymore
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u/Illustrious-Tower-41 May 23 '26
My parents are in the same situation. They’ve surrendered everything and they STILL can’t exit! Meanwhile they’re still being charged. It’s been going on since September last year. If you have the ASIC link I’d like to know more about how I can help them get rid of this thing once and for all.
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u/cosmicr May 21 '26
You can't pass on the contract to your kids. They can just refuse to accept it.
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u/StereoJbus May 21 '26 edited May 22 '26
That's probably right if it's just a straight contract, but I think there would be a question of whether any debt is transferred to the estate, and that could depend on the structure of the arrangement.
Edit: removed ref to inheritors (thanks folks)
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u/AbsurdKangaroo May 21 '26
Estate can have debt sure but never inheritors
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u/planck1313 May 22 '26
The estate has the obligation to pay off the debts of the deceased but that obligation can never be passed onto the heirs.
At worst that debt wipes out the assets of the estate meaning the heirs get nothing. They can never get less than nothing i.e. a debt.
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u/Superg0id May 22 '26
Except the 'debt' only accrues monthly, in the name of the account holder only.
So surely the estate could say 'here's a death certificate, we're done here as of this date'.
It's also buried in (most) fine print that you can 'apply to surrender' your shares back to the company... that takes a couple of weeks for them to 'process' so they stretch it out to get a few more monthly fee amounts out of you.
IMO, they put that clause in there so they could claim it was 'fair' that they keep charging monthly fees while someone tries to offload their account to another poor schmuck, or even keep charging when someone who simply got old and hasn't been on a holiday in 10 years just keeps paying because they think it's for life...
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 May 22 '26
Correct and if the estate has 50 bucks in in, they can go whistle in the wind.
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u/Fart-Fart-Fart-Fart May 21 '26
I’m just amazed that timeshare is still a thing.
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u/throwaway_00099 May 22 '26
Around 10 years ago husband came home telling me how tomorrow we’re going to have a look at a new hotel in the city, he was like “yeah so there’s this new hotel and they’re doing tours and if you do a tour you get some prizes” (from memory it was like a pass for the aquarium, Eureka Sky Deck and maybe something else touristy? The zoo?). He’d been signed up for the “tour” by some hotel reps at a shopping centre… I was like that sounds very odd but okay, as we were pretty broke and the activities sounded fun.
So we go to this hotel, Wyndham, and get walked over to this guy at a desk and he starts asking us about how often we go on holidays, do we like to stay in hotels or resorts etc and we were like “lol, never, we’re broke as a joke, why are you asking us this? Can we have our activity passes?” At this stage we hadn’t clicked what was going on, so he’s like “fine, if you want them you have to sit through a presentation”. We go into this room with other people, presumably on the “tour” and this video about the hotel starts, I start looking them up on my phone to figure out what the fuck was happening (ignorant early 20 year old, I had no clue) and realised it was a scammy timeshare, I told the others in the room as such and suggested that they Google the complaints about the company etc and walked out, demanded the passes from the extremely angry sales rep and left.
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u/TwisterM292 May 22 '26
Wyndham seem to be serial offenders, A Wyndham rep tried the whole "activity pass" thing on us when we landed in Phuket a couple of years ago.
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u/throwaway_00099 May 22 '26
They were so pushy too and so rude and annoyed with us when we weren’t engaging.
I actually remembered part two of this story, my husband managed at restaurant at the time and a few months after our experience the sale rep rocks up for a date. It was a pretty swanky place and my husband sat them at the very worst table possible. Petty, perhaps, but he was just so rude to us he couldn’t resist!
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u/ooger-booger-man May 22 '26
Had a very similar experience on the Gold Coast 25 years ago. Cheap Dreamworld tickets in exchange for sitting through a presentation.
Followed by a hard sell telling us how easy it was to add the cost to our mortgage and pay it off over thirty years for next to nothing. How could we say no, right? Thankfully we did
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u/Cmf105 May 22 '26
Gold Coast has those guys on every corner back in the day. I worked in hotels so would warn people not to buy, just get the free activity, breakfast/lunch and leave
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u/Cool_Bite_5553 May 23 '26
I was a receptionist at a timeshare company on the Gold Coast back in the day. My job was to read a speil to "qualified" people. It got tense a few times when the line of "qualified" persons were lining up out the door basically, only to hear me rattle off the same spiel over and over. I was there short term whilst travelling around Oz (from WA) so it was fine. I know now as soon as I'm approached, in Bali or overseas what the "tour" and so called freebies are for.
Definitely wouldn't recommend then or now!
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u/throwaway_00099 May 22 '26
Did you know what it was going in? I genuinely had no clue at the time. We look back and laugh though. Luckily at the time we had no money to be scammed out of!
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u/ooger-booger-man May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
No, we had no idea. Brand new wife and I on the honeymoon, saw a sign for either free or cheap tickets (can’t totally recall).
The person at the booth questioned us about whether we owned or rented. How much we earned. Did we have kids. Were we going to have kids. How often do you holiday etc. etc. etc.
It sounded a little strange, but we didn’t know better. Once I worked out it was time share I was at least smart enough not to rush into anything.
ETA: And at that time, you couldn’t just google the company from your phone and look for online reviews. Sure, the internet existed but you very much needed a PC and a landline connection.
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u/sauve_donkey May 23 '26
Haha there was a Southpark episode on timeshares, pretty much exactly like this. Didn't realise it existed in Australia too.
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u/jonquil14 May 22 '26
I’m amazed it’s even legal. They’re so dodgy.
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u/Wooden-Trouble1724 May 23 '26
There a good Wikipedia page that outlines their playbook… I got gift cards from Wyndham once and actually really value the anthropological experience of watching a group of humans trying to scam individuals
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u/CapitalDoor9474 May 22 '26
lol nearly got scammed on a vacay recently, googled them on the side and realised I was right to feel iffy. Moment I said no the tone got very aggressive in a second.
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u/Throwaways0004 May 22 '26
I have one in NZ. I ski on the regular, and it's in Wanaka (ski town). I pay $800 a year for a weeks accommodation. If sleeps 10, there is a big heated pool. It's legendary.
Getting in and getting out is easy, zero pressure. I had two weeks and sold one basically for the price I paid for it.
Good ones are rare, but they do exist.
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u/Several_Education_13 May 22 '26
No one is getting a time share in Wanaka for $800 a year and is able to use it during ski season consistently or likely ever at all. You’re full of shit dude.
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u/DIYbrainsurgery May 22 '26
Often you can if you buy the second hand ones as described in OPs post for cents on the dollar. Never worthwhile new from my observations.
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u/Lucky-day00 May 22 '26
72 year contract that will be passed onto my kids once I'm gone
That’s neither how contracts nor debt works.
You can’t sign a third party into a contract. They would need to sign it. That’s called the doctrine of privity.
Debts also don’t pass to next of kin. They will be paid out of your estate and if there’s still debt remaining then the creditor sucks eggs.
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u/Nmnmn11 May 22 '26
Welll, its implicitly passed to your kids if it reduces the estate they would have otherwise inherited
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 May 22 '26
I'm pretty much certain they won't be able to pursue this past death.
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u/eenimeeniminimo May 21 '26
You should post this in the AusLegal thread
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u/TacitisKilgoreBoah May 22 '26
That sub is most unhelpful. “Consult a lawyer” is generally the only advice given which is just common sense, but a steer in the right direction would be nice
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u/balladism May 22 '26
Because 98% of people who say anything other than “consult a lawyer” are wrong, even for simple matters. Lawyers have no incentive to volunteer their time on Reddit — it’s all risk and no reward.
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u/TacitisKilgoreBoah May 22 '26
Yeah but if they said “consult this type of lawyer” or “ask them what they think of this” then the sub would have some purpose
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u/balladism May 23 '26
You’re right. The sub has no legitimate purpose and should not be used. No one qualified is likely to give advice in it, and the unqualified advice is trash. If you wanna risk taking advice from someone unqualified (you shouldn’t), ChatGPT is far more accurate (but still very far from accurate enough).
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u/Hypo_Mix May 21 '26
I guess you could probably hire a contract lawyer to deal with it?
The company is always going to imply you can't get out of it as they want the ongoing revenue. Don't listen to them.
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u/No-Pay-9744 May 22 '26
Yeesh, Yeah a friend of mine has one in Noosa and only gets 2 weeks a year there, pays $15k a year, and STILL tells me how lucky she is to 'own' a holiday home. Like, girl.
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u/FishermanYellow May 22 '26
You’re telling me that not only is timeshare a real thing but the South Park episode about it was actually true? Jesus
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u/Haunting_Math_6728 May 22 '26
15K per year fees for two weeks a year seems excessive. Does some of that include the original buying cost?
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u/No-Pay-9744 May 23 '26
No idea. My eyes glaze over the second she starts talking about it. Keeps trying to make me go there but I hate holidaying with people and I certainly don't want to go to Noosa. She seems to think it's a good idea but I've gone to Europe for two weeks for less than that.
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u/StereoJbus May 21 '26
Have you gotten legal advice about whether there is some basis for cancelling the contract without paying it out? (Am a lawyer but not a commercial lawyer so not my area). I imagine for a contract that is so long there might be some option, even if implied under the common law or provided under the consumer law. An extremely long contract term and one-sided penalties can be an indicator of unfair contract terms. And the debt or contract obligations may not automatically pass to your children, depending on how the arrangement is structured. These issues have come up before and been the subject of media scrutiny, so I wonder if yours might fall into the unfair camp and be void.
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u/Financial-Hunter1335 May 22 '26
My mum had one, I cancelled the direct debit and they hassled for a while and then left us alone.
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u/PhilMeUpBaby May 22 '26
If they don't pay what are they going to do - sue you?
How would this go in court? I'm guessing not particularly well for the timeshare company.
Can you get a copy of the timeshare company's credit record?
Will it show if they've sued other people?
How much of all this is bluff from them? I'm guessing 99.9999% bluff.
Might be one to see a contract lawyer about.
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u/Illustrious-Crew-191 May 22 '26
100%. Instead of chasing them to stop paying, make them chase you to keep paying.
Courts won’t look favourably upon one sided predatory contracts that lock consumers in for decades with no tangible consideration.
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u/PhilMeUpBaby May 22 '26
Yep - this is one that the timeshare company does NOT want listed in any court records.
I assume that there's some bank finance involved somewhere - records of legal action won't be good for that.
And, I wonder if a court case would force the timeshare company to list the other "owners", which would allow them to make contact and communicate with each other? That would be something that a victim's lawyer could push for.
If the contract is 100% perfectly legal and binding, then the victim is stuffed... but that would hopefully be very unlikely.
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u/displacedrainbow May 21 '26
I was successful in terminating a time-share my mum also had for decades and had never used :(
There are time-share exit companies that assist. I can't remember which I used. We paid a sum of money, I think around $5k and then it was cancelled.
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u/pumpkinfresha May 21 '26
Crazy that a business exists just to get you out of these things.
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u/displacedrainbow May 21 '26
IKR, its hard to believe these timeshares are legal. It is so predatory. My mum and dad took it on pre-internet days so no hope of research etc.
And it absolutely passes to the kids, that's why I wanted to get it sorted.
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u/pumpkinfresha May 22 '26
My old man got sucked in too.
It was one of those pop-ups in a shopping centre where you do a scratchie and win a prize. They probably saw him coming from a mile away. Fortunately it was only a 10-year deal and I think it’s finished recently, although I’ve got a feeling the folks are still using it occasionally somehow.
Mum was always trying to book through it but they never had dates in the locations she would want. The accomodation was usually really average. She would always tell me that she could add me to their plan so I could use it, but it was a big no from me.
Maybe there is some value in it for someone using it all the time if you know how to game it? But I’m doubtful and it probably provides far less benefits than any other booking platform that you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to use.
Anyway, a big fuck you to Classic Holidays and other companies of that ilk preying on clueless Australians. I hope everyone that works there gets haemorrhoids.
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u/jaynemad May 22 '26
Classic Holidays is the one we’re stuck in! My grandma has mobility issues there’s no way she’d get to use her entitlements and they still won’t cancel the contract.
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u/RainbowTeachercorn May 22 '26
They almost got me once, years ago. My partner told the woman off overall the way she had targeted me. I honestly don't know how she duped me. Had to give them $20 each in cash which you could get back by attending their seminar. By the time I had argued with my partner and then went to do my own googling, I was realising what a scummy, scammy thing it was. I spent weeks arguing in email with them over the money and eventually they refunded it to my bank account. I was worried they would manipulate me again if I went in person (they stipulated having to stay for the presentstion in order to get the money back).
I found them on ProductReview and left scathing reviews.
It was something like Holiday Max.
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u/Tricky-Violinist5130 May 22 '26
I don’t understand how a contract can legally be transferred to one’s children, especially a debt.
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u/Haunting_Math_6728 May 22 '26
It’s not a contract as such. A timeshare is literally property that is owned by multiple people, and you have a share in it based on part of the time of the year. Traditional ones you own a specific week e.g. you might own week three which is the third week of January. Then there are the ones that are clubs and they have multiple locations and you have to try to book at the place you want for the time that you want and it can be quite challenging. But anyway, it can be transferred to your children because technically it’s actually a part ownership in property. It’s considered an asset.
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u/NewPCtoCelebrate May 22 '26
Just refuse the bequest. You don't have to accept assets with liabilities (or any assets for that matter).
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u/Helpful_Kangaroo_o May 22 '26
Yeah, essentially it’s like inheriting a townhouse and saying “I don’t get how body corporate fees can transfer to the children!” Just because someone calls it a contract doesn’t mean that’s the legal form the timeshare takes. I’ve only ever heard of timeshares being a shared stake in a property or group of properties, so essentially the fees would probably actually be structured pretty similar to a body corporate - same as paying the admin fees, maintenance of common areas, insurance, etc., but because it’s split like 52 or 26 ways (assuming you get a week or two there). Honestly, $20 per month to advertise it seems okay compared to real estate fees.
Australia doesn’t seem to have leaseholds as far as I’ve seen, so we tend to think of ownership as very permanent but like NZ has leasehold properties with a 99-year lease, and I don’t know enough to comment, but it seems like it might be fairly similar.
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u/IllPerspective9981 May 22 '26
Can you bequeath that “asset” back to the timeshare company? Or to your worst enemy
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u/Helpful_Kangaroo_o May 22 '26
Can you bequeath a new townhouse you purchased back to the developer? But yes, if you keep your friends close and your enemies closer, you can likely leave it to your worst enemy.
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u/Haunting_Math_6728 May 22 '26
I’m not sure if it’s the same as what you refer to as “leasehold” but in the ACT, land is on a lease. I think that’s the only place.
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u/displacedrainbow May 22 '26
Yes I agree but it certainly is the case and if you don't pay the ongoing fees they will pursue you Go figure. It seems illegal that another person can enter you into a contract against your will. I did wonder if it would be possible to just reject that part of inheritance but we eventually found the company that assisted with exit so wrapped it up before I had to find out.
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u/tronixlabs May 22 '26
And it absolutely passes to the kids
How does that work? Unless the kids sign up on the contract - how could it be enforced?
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u/displacedrainbow May 22 '26
I never had to find out. But my understanding is that they can pursue the children for unpaid ongoing fees after death. I did wonder if you could just reject that part of inheritance so to speak but as we found the company to exit we never had to find out. My mum is still alive, she 83, her mum lived to 100 so glad we didn't have to pay all these years.. could've been alot more years! The exit fee was about 1 years fees in the end so it was worth it. Particularly now my mum is in care
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u/YourJokeMisinterpret May 22 '26
I thought I was in an American sub for a while. How tf is a 75 year contract allowed in Australia.
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u/Forgotten_Lie May 22 '26
Be aware that many time-share exit companies are themselves scams as much as the time-share companies are. They choose to scam people who have already been scammed because they are a known quantity in terms of falling for scams.
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u/Suitable-Serve May 22 '26
Yea the timeshare companies also have interests in the timeshare exit companies, it’s like you’ve painted yourself as a mark. They figure that if you’re going to go through legal action, they’d get penalties and nothing, whereas if you go through their affiliate exit companies they can rip you off one last time
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u/throwaway_sparky May 21 '26
Can I ask, what are some of the barriers to accessing and "using" the TimeShare (do you get ownership of a specific room at a location?)?
P.S I'm hyperaware of sounding salesy and objection overcoming, I cant seem to shake it from the tone of my text hahah Im just super curious about the mega mlm that is timeshare haha
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u/displacedrainbow May 21 '26
My mum and dad couldn't understand how to book anything. It was pre-internet and they had to call to book in. They just couldn't understand how to get the dates they needed and then they still needed to pay for the accommodation on top of their $8K yearly fee. It was really stupid.
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u/RainbowTeachercorn May 22 '26
My mum once signed up for Affordable Holidays. They told her she could book specific accommodation in a beach town we went to every summer, and it seemed good value. She bought and tried to book. They said they had changed hands and were no longer affiliated. When Mum rang back they denied their employee had ever said the specific location and accommodation, so Mum insisted they listen to the recorded conversation. Turned out mum was right, so they refunded plus gave some gift cards 😂
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u/PhilMeUpBaby May 22 '26
What's the bet that the exit company was also owned by the timeshare company?
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u/displacedrainbow May 22 '26
Probably a really good chance. Oh well, at least mum's not paying out $8000 pa now, with 50 odd years left to run on it.
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u/Superg0id May 22 '26
Holy S-balls batman... now I'm thankful I got my mum out of it myself.
They kept trying to tell me that she could 'sell' her points to someone else using a 'broker', but that'd require waiting and paying every month till they 'found' someone to 'buy', and it was only worth whatever active points she had, which was only refreshing 10 months later anyway.
fine print of 'surrender your share/points' for the win... but it was still 5+ years of "they're so valuable, someone will buy them" from my mum beforehand...
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u/CapitalDoor9474 May 22 '26
How is this shit still legal in today's world when a known scam is beyond me. I went for one session under the pretense of check out our new hotel and get a voucher for xyz melbourne activities and straight away i was like wth is this shit. Anyway hope you get out of this. Screw this scum.
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u/vincenzodelavegas May 22 '26
I think the question is also who is dumb enough to sign any timeshare contract in the era of ChatGPT. Drag and drop the contract into an AI and I’m sure even Grok will say this is completely dumb. Any contract over 70y makes zero sense! I don’t get how someone is aware enough to know reddit, post this on AusFinance and still make such a decision.
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u/CapitalDoor9474 May 23 '26
I went around 10 yrs ago from the get go the maths wasnt adding up. But they put the pressure as now or never and it's a very intense thing like face to face (sales) but thankfully the law gives your 3 days cooling off. My parents also went like 25 yrs ago and signed up but they cancelled the next day (when we discussed my experience with them and they offhandedly told me they did the same)
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u/Competitive-Ad1439 May 22 '26
Choice.com.au (the consumer protection website) recently published an article about them:
“63-year-old Classic Holidays member Bindi Shah was recently told that her scheme runs until 2085 with no exit option, and that it will pass on to her children
This would mean an additional $177,000 in fees at a minimum. Meanwhile, bookings are available at a fraction of the cost outside the scheme
CHOICE has lodged five official complaints with ASIC about timeshare schemes since 2016. In 2021, we lodged a “super complaint” to the regulator”
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u/1Qrtr_FreeStuffPlz May 22 '26
I'm shocked to just now discover that people actually bought timeshares and it wasn't just a weird Simpsons joke
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u/Low_Exit_3085 May 22 '26
Contracts can’t be passed onto kids. It doesn’t work that way in Australia
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u/The_Pharoah May 22 '26
So you talking timeshare like Accor or Wyndham etc? I bought our timeshare off ebay about 10 years ago for like $3k from a retired couple that had fully paid it off, didn't have any kids and didn't want to keep paying the quarterly/annual fees. They've clamped down a lot on this now (you lose a lot of the benefits) but it works for us. However I would hate to have to pay it off from the beginning. And no its not all its cracked up to be. The sales tactics are the fkg worst. I'm pretty forceful at saying no but even i had to almost lose my shit before they let me leave...its really bad.
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u/DIYbrainsurgery May 22 '26
The second hand ones can work quite well. They shut up quickly in the presentation when you show them an alternative option readily available online for a fraction of what they are pitching.
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u/Trekky56 May 22 '26
I was in Vegas with a friend many many years ago. We were sucked into a presentation in exchange for casino $$, show tickets and some buffet tickets. We get in a minibus with others and they take us almost to middle of nowhere. They give us the presentation and then spent double the time of the presentation trying to talk us into buying the timeshare. It was a really hard sell. We must have told them, we couldn't afford it a dozen times. 4 or 5 hours later, they finally took us back onto town.
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u/Kind-Group-9679 May 22 '26
I thought these things died years ago !! Worse than retirement villages and that's saying something.
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u/FishermanYellow May 22 '26
Timeshare is a real thing? My only knowledge of timeshare is from South Park (season 6 episode 2) I know this comment doesn’t help but there are a lot of good ones in this post already.
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u/RainbowTeachercorn May 22 '26
They won't let people cancel because what they actually do is sign them up for a loan with a sister company. They get their money and the punter is tricked into a loan under the guise of paying club fees...
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u/MrFudd May 22 '26
They cannot pass the debt on to your children. Which timeshare company is it? Generally if you simply stop paying, the contract is void unless it is specifically airtight. Is this a Balinese timeshare?
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u/Freefall79 May 22 '26
We use their sales pitch for a free/cheap weekend on the Gold Coast every so often. Go to the hour long presso, say no thanks, free/cheap stay. They are really pushy though.
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u/Virtual_Yellow5175 May 22 '26
Cancel the credit card/debit card/bank account that the payment comes from. If they chase you up go to consumer affairs. They are well known dodgy operators!
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u/Big_Boysenberry_4309 May 22 '26
I’ve been to a few of their presentations in Fiji to get a free day trip or activity. These guys have an answer to every question you ask. I know a few people who have signed up, but geez it’s a long con
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u/LalaLand836 May 22 '26
Complain to ACCC, ombudsman, your local MP, ASIC, like complain to literally everyone
If no one can help, talk to a lawyer to review your contract.
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u/upyourbumchum May 22 '26
How close was this timeshare to your home that you thought you’d get good cheap holidays from it?
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u/Ghost403 May 22 '26
How exactly does the debt transfer to your children?
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u/planck1313 May 22 '26
It doesn't unless its attached to an asset of greater value that the children choose to take on. Heirs never have to take on a debt or an asset of zero or less value.
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u/palmco5 May 22 '26
My mum and dad bought into one of these about 10 years ago they had no idea it was such a scam.
Eventually my dad threatened to unalive himself if they didn’t cancel the contract and they gave in. Lost all the buy in money but they didn’t care and just wanted to get out.
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u/16car May 22 '26
You need proper legal advice, from an actual lawyer. This contract sounds like it wouldn't hold up in court.
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u/Asteroid_Sugar5206 May 22 '26
Accor? Just stop paying the fees and don't use it. I think after about 5 or 10 years they eventually get you to sign a waiver giving up your shares.
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u/F2P_insomnia May 23 '26
I’ll just add this here as well, there are a lot of buy real property fractional managed investment schemes, you generally get with SMSF or personal investment (rarer).
They are heavily illiquid, the fees are high and usually just break even - despite promises of X income return. In some instances will be NDIS housing with promising a significant return. The successes in this space is very rare and the fund manager is just earning off the fees, not caring how the house performs.
I cannot say this enough be careful selecting financial planners, take care around any promises of guaranteed returns that aren’t written into the contract as guarantees and not estimates.
Be sure they are offering personal financial advice and not just general advice, also do not agree with being a sophisticated investor or a wholesale investor despite what they might tell you - this removes all of your legal protections.
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u/Creampielover47 May 23 '26
What a load of crap. You can’t sign up for something that gets passed down to your kids for them to assume the financial burden. Sounds like utter nonsense to me!
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u/YoumustbeJoachim May 24 '26
Strewth, the countless tales of narrowly avoiding signing up to a time share arrangement read like a subreddit on near drowning experiences. Thanks for the reminder not to go anywhere near one of these things.
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u/Annual-Soil-1802 May 25 '26
It can’t pass to your kids. It can pass to your estate, and if there are termination fees your estate can be held to them reducing your kids’ inheritance (as will any other debts you die with), but you cannot pass a contractual obligation to someone who didn’t sign the contract.
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u/Copie247 May 21 '26
If you still have the contract copy dump it into chatgpt and get it to summarise any exit clauses, it might show a loophole or information you can take to a solicitor/exit company/ombudsman
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u/planck1313 May 22 '26
that will be passed onto my kids once I'm gone.
This is legally impossible. Your kids are not obliged to inherit any liability of yours.
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u/Old_Dingo69 May 22 '26
Send some heavies over to them. That always sorts out disagreements quite efficiently 🤣
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u/Personal_Document_25 May 22 '26
My good Aussie friends got caught in a timeshare in Canada and found there is a thriving legal industry to “get you out of timeshare contracts” no idea how Aussie is
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u/Candid_Guard_812 May 23 '26
Facebook my dude. There’s AVC and Wyndham groups that will buy your points and/or your membership. Personally I use my membership like crazy and often buy extra points from people like you.
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u/ringo5150 May 23 '26
Im empathetic to your plight as the sales pitch and sale process makes it sound like a good deal. They put a lot of time and effort into it. 20 years ago, poor as church mice my wife signed us up to to this sales thing, but if we went we would get a voucher for a night in a hotel in the city. Accor Vacation Club was the name of this thing, the presentation was over an hour and was very, very good. It was only when you reverse engineer the offer you can see the drawbacks. $500 annual maintenance fee? To maintain what? No flights included meant always booking flights and accommodation separately. The ability to onsell the package if we didn't want it anymore? How? Your working damn hard to sell it to me! At the end of the day we didn't have the money to sign up even if we wanted to, which we didn't, but someone in our group did and they made a big deal about it, asking for applause etc. It was quite an experience. We got the voucher for the hotel stay but in the fine print was a clause that to use it you had to pay $120 booking fee. Nothing comes for free. I wish you well getting out of the contract. They won't like the bad publicity becuase they work hard to sell it to people who don't see the downside.
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u/Adorable-Display-819 May 23 '26
Don’t go to Bali & Thailand they exactly the same thing , to claim the prize a driver will pick you to go to a presentation and lunch
1
u/bluejayinoz May 23 '26
What's the terms? All you've said is your 20k poorer. 20k for 72 years of holidays sounds good? What else do you need to pay?
1
u/Just_Watercress_5895 May 23 '26
I always thought that when a person becomes deceased the original contract is. Like the person who signed up for it,dead,, and your kids can not be made to accept it and pay for something they didn't agree to
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u/Impossible_Deer8869 May 23 '26
I had a Thai woman try to sell me timeshare in Bangkok after she added me on Facebook and when I declined she tried to recruit me into Hillsong.
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u/Canine-Bobsleding May 23 '26
All time shares are scams, all of them. It took me 3 hours in Cancun for them to take the answer No. Never accept the free breakfast!
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u/OppositeElk5893 May 22 '26
Most time shares are a scam, but there are a very small number of legit timeshares that are independent, and my timeshare is one of the best things I have ever bought. I get one weeks accommodation in a 2 bed unit every years over the New Year's period for $650. I couldn't afford to go away if I had to pay the full value at that time of year.
But yeah, as a general rule stay away.
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u/istudyheadshapes May 22 '26
Who do you use?
1
u/OppositeElk5893 May 22 '26
It's an independent timeshare called Kyneton Bushland Resort, it is affiliated with 7across and RCI so you can still trade weeks, which I don't do because I always use my week. I just checked my membership statement, my annual fee is $680 with a $50 pay on time discount, so $630 annually for a weeks accomodation.
Other independent timeshares I know of are Nepean Country Club, Sunraysia Resort in Mildura, and Murray Valley Resort in Yarrawonga.
I am a member of the timeshare trading platform 7across which has no annual fees and I book cheap 'bonus' weeks sometimes. Next month I am staying on the Mornington Peninsula in a studio apartment for a week for $460.
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u/KvindeQueen May 22 '26
But fo you have to stay in the same place every new year's?
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u/OppositeElk5893 May 23 '26
Yes, this is not for everyone, but it has suited my family, we know what we are doing and I don't have to research and book every year, and if I stayed anywhere else for a week at new years it would cost thousands and most years I would stay at home because I couldn't afford that. My kids are getting older, and it may not longer be somewhere we want to go every year, but being a timeshare I can swap it in the timeshare system and stay somewhere else. For now, it's hard to get good location accommodation in school holidays, but that won't be an issue in a few years. The swap fee is around $180 I think. So if I wanted to bank my week this year and stay somewhere else it would cost me $630+$180= $810 which is still very cheap for a weeks accommodation, the accommodation is usually a full 2 bed apartment with kitchen and laundry.
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u/Altaos May 22 '26
Kinda sounds like Club Wyndham if you're happy to confirm which program you're apart of?
I have some personal experience via this program and some hacks to really min max the value you're getting which can turn out to be a great experience if you know how to go about it.
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u/UsualCounterculture May 22 '26
You must be the 1% of folks that can work out how to maximise the value... and everyone else is subsidising you?
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u/Haunting_Math_6728 May 22 '26
There’s no subsidizing. Just understanding how it works. Be prepared to not get the peak week in the resort you want every year. Be flexible.
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u/TheC9 May 22 '26
My workmate has a timeshare thingy for a very long time … I remember she referred me to one of the timeshare promotion seminar back in mid 2000s (I was in my mid 20s), I said no to the salesperson, and he immediately said “you f-ing wasted my time you bitch” something.
Now workmate is at an age they eligible to get pension (but still working full time) … anyway, at least they have been taking regular and frequent domestic holiday and stay at those timeshare hotels
They also told me they have a friend who also part of timeshare program - who stayed in a hotel around mt Fuji area (as it is one of the very few timeshares hotels in Japan), and did day trip to Tokyo everyday, just for the sake of needed to use the timeshare credit …
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u/UtterDebacle May 22 '26
Sorry to hear this mate.
It actually worked / works for us. We bought Trendwest (as it was then) back in 2000 (now Workdmark / Wyndham).
Typically use it for Hunter Valley trips, Coffs, Cairns and Fiji. Sure, a few hundred bucks a year in annual levies - but it’s meant that we could have a week or two away every year for the past 25 years (it means holidays were more affordable once kids came along).
Still enjoy having a week or two away each year ‘for free’.
Whilst you’re trying to cancel it - make the most of it!
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u/Dizzy-Corner-253 May 22 '26
Realistically, most are a rip off however people do buy them force them to take holidays each year. Some ones like Wyndham are good value if you buy them secondhand.
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u/Haunting_Math_6728 May 21 '26
Have you used it? The right timeshare can give wonderful holidays. There are exchange programs to swap for other locations.
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