June 14, 2016

Bill is an Aimfair member who is grateful for the contract he owns. Why? Because he saw an article on komonews.com that described how easily owners of timeshare contracts are scammed by promises to relieve them of their timeshare contracts.

The concept of buying rights to use spaces in beautiful properties with families and friends draws us in. The prepayment is a fixed amount when we buy the contract, and the maintenance fee or usage fee is relatively easy to pay during the early stages of a contract's life. Typically, none of us think we will find ourselves with an obligation we cannot use to its fullest. Furthermore, we all have the feeling that our use of the weeks we purchased will continue indefinitely.

Then comes reality. A family member becomes ill, family members age and become less interested in what was once a wonderful place to spend a vacation, interests change and financial capabilities change. These are just a few influences we have noticed over the last 16 years since we first visited Mexico and purchased our first timeshare interest.

What is remarkable is how easily we can all enter into contracts that may last a life time and not consider how we might be able to exit the obligations if the need arises. Our friend Bill said in so many words, I am so glad I have the contract I have because I can walk away from it if I can't use it. Its true! That is one of the main reasons why we purchased our Grand Luxxe Villa contract.

Scams are everywhere! Scammers promise the payment of a reasonable to very tidy sum of money in exchange for payments in advance. These advance payments are reasonable to honest people. But, when money is taken without promises being met, we feel silly for believing something that is too good to be true will actually take place.

This is where the company that is discussed in the kononews.com article comes into play. Contracts that require payments every year regardless of whether you use the facilities or contracts that allow you to delay payments until you want to use the facilities become burdens that we don't anticipate when we signed the agreement long ago.

The value of timeshare contracts is in their use. As we get older, it becomes harder and harder to use our prepaid vacations as much as we want or expected. Regardless, the obligations to pay remain the same.

Many contracts written by Grupo Vidanta have eased this burden. There are good reasons for this, not the least of which the company wanted to build out luxurious facilities and it needed to compete. Many of us are the beneficiaries of these competitively written contracts.

However, time does not stand still, and it is very likely changes will take place.

Regardless, we are happy to see a service that helps timeshare owners exit their contracts at a time when they cannot use them for any number of reasons. Also, it is comforting to know there are Aimfair members and other owners of timeshare contracts issued by Grupo Vidanta who will not have to worry about making payments for something they do not want or cannot use.