Are Timeshares Worth It? Benefits and Risks Explained

Have you ever thought about buying a timeshare?

Maybe the sales presentation convinced you that owning one is an investment. Maybe you’d love to have your own holiday home that you can visit for two weeks in the year. It sounds like a good idea, right?

Wrong. Let me tell you why.

Is a Timeshares an Investment?

Contrary to popular belief, a timeshare is not a financial investment. Buying a timeshare is much like buying a brand-new car – the second it’s signed, sealed, and delivered it loses 50 to 90 percent of its value.

What makes things even worse? Timeshares are almost impossible to get rid of because they have no market value.

In fact, many people who have bought them have found that it’s much cheaper to book a room in a hotel if and when they want to go on vacation than it is to pay a timeshare’s annual maintenance fees. 

Buying a timeshare is actually a giant waste of money. That’s why timeshare exit companies exist.

What Does a Timeshare Cost?

It may surprise you, but you can snap up a timeshare on e-Bay for $1. The people selling them have cottoned on to the fact that the yearly fees never end and they finally want out.

The average upfront cost of a timeshare is around $23,000. But that doesn’t include the other fees.

The average amount a timeshare owner pays in maintenance fees is around $1,000 per year – some are paying much, much more. And these maintenance fees go up every year, and there are other hidden fees too.

You don’t have to be a genius to do the math – the cost of a timeshare (that you may not even use) is probably more than if you booked a weeklong vacation at the same resort.

After reading this, you are probably having second thoughts about buying a timeshare. But what if you already own one? Can you get rid of it?

Can You Get Out of a Timeshare?

In a recent development, some timeshare resorts will take the timeshare back after you’ve wasted thousands of dollars on it. Others will not.

As mentioned earlier, you probably won’t be able to sell your timeshare to someone else either. You could give it away for free, but again, you’ll never get the money you spent on it back. You could stop paying the fees, but defaulting on payments can end very badly for you.

If the resort refuses to take your timeshare back or you can’t sell it, you might want to contact a timeshare exit company.

Timeshare exit companies work with lawyers who know the business inside and out. They will help you cancel your timeshare contract, but you’ll have to pay a fee.

Beware of scams, though – only work with a timeshare exit company that offers an escrow payment option so that they are not paid in full until the timeshare is canceled.

The Bottom Line

People fall into the trap of purchasing a timeshare because the salesperson either made it seem like an investment or they thought that they would save money on their holiday every year.

The only time a timeshare is actually worth it is when you purchase one as a resale (although you’ll be on the hook for the yearly maintenance fees) and you actually use it every single year.

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