What are RCI Points?
Points are a flexible alternative to the traditional 'week' exchange system, where the 'trading power' of your week(s) determines exchange possibilities.
Points take the place of currency, and are used to 'buy' timeshare exchanges.
Resorts are graded by Key ratings which roughly equate to the original RCI classification as shown below:
Points take the place of currency, and are used to 'buy' timeshare exchanges.
Resorts are graded by Key ratings which roughly equate to the original RCI classification as shown below:
Key | Traditional RCI classification of resorts |
1/2 | Standard Resort |
3 | Silver Crown |
4/5 | Gold Crown |
The points value changes for different sized apartments at different times of the year. The values are set out in individual resort points tables.
The Basic Rules
There are a few simple - but KEY - rules involved:
You may then choose to 'spend' those points on four weeks (perhaps off- peak) worth 25,000 points each, or two weeks (in peak time or at a higher standard resort) worth 50,000 points each depending always, of course, on availability.
- Apartments in peak holiday periods 'cost' more than the same unit for off-season holidays.
- A one-bedroomed apartment has a lower points value than a two-bedroomed one in the same time period.
You may then choose to 'spend' those points on four weeks (perhaps off- peak) worth 25,000 points each, or two weeks (in peak time or at a higher standard resort) worth 50,000 points each depending always, of course, on availability.
"CEDING" v BANKING
In "traditional" timeshare (now known as the "Weeks" system) any week that you owned was only available for exchange if you, the owner, actively banked that week. This meant that it was unavailable for exchange if you forgot to deposit it. Many resorts found that owners did not / do not arrive for their owned week of holiday, and the week was not exchanged. So everyone lost out - the owner had no holiday despite paying for it, the exchanging community lost an opportunity to use the week, and the resort lost income from bars etc.
In the Points system, when you join, you transfer the exchange rights to your week(s) to the system (called "ceding" the week). The week is then available to all exchangers unless YOU, the owner, request that you get the use of your week ("home week") during a special window of time reserved for you to do this. After this window has passed, the week will be open for the whole community to exchange into. So everyone wins - owners have points to use anywhere, the community has more resort weeks available to use, and the resorts get the essential bar and restaurant revenues. (Owners can, of course, request their week and then release it back again if they change their mind, subject to potentially losing points value if they leave this too late).
In summary - in the Weeks system the assumption was the owner was using the week(s) unles they advised otherwise, in the Points system the assumption is that the owner is exchanging the week(s) unless they request use of it.
The downsides? The only negative to "ceding" and requesting use is having to remember to do it, but the window has been set at 1 year so as long as you remember THIS July to request NEXT July's weeks, you will have no problems - if, of course, you can plan your vacations that far in advance.
THE ANDERSONS
Chapter One - A New Beginning!
Donald and Alison Anderson have two children of 7 and 3. This summer they were given use of a friend's timeshare in Tenerife. They had been on the island a couple of times in the past, staying in apartments or small hotels of varying quality. While totally opposed to timeshare, they were happy enough to take a "free fortnight" at Donald's friends expense.
Over the days following their arrival they chatted to various people at the pool, in the bar and restaurants (kids are great for helping people to get to know each other) and found out that these nice and apparently reasonable people (some in seriously senior jobs) had also invested in this timeshare thing (which Donald had previously thought of in the same manner as Arthur Daley car sales rooms). So when they got a call to see if they would come to chat about the resort, they agreed to go, NOT to buy but to understand how it all worked.
The sales "spiel" was much as they had expected. They did, though remember the tales of the people they had been chatting to who had exchanged all over the world. It did seem to work for some people certainly. THEN the salesman explained the RCI Points system - and how it tried to be fairer than the previous system.
The unit they were using for their fortnight, he explained, was obviously popular - a 2 bed unit that COULD sleep 6 was worth 63,000 points per week at this season - obviously a family-sized unit was in prime demand during school holidays.
However, if they decided to use the same unit between January and April it would only cost between 38,000 and 44,000 points.
Donald immediately saw the flaw in this, and knew he had caught the salesman out!
"You mean if we buy TWO weeks here at this time of year we will get 126,000 points - and can then get THREE weeks in March?" He knew he had seriously caught the salesman out, and waited to see how he would get out of this trap!
"Exactly - yes Donald, you have worked that out, that usually takes me a few minutes to get to" he said. "But not only that" he went on before Donald could draw breath to recover the lost initiative, "the one bedroomed units have pulldown beds too, and in January to April cost only 33,000 to 38,500 points so you could be here for three weeks and still have up to 27,000 Points left.
The salesman went on "But remember we are a highly rated resort. If you chose to go to a standard resort (which would be 3star in normal standards) a week may cost you " he flipped his book open in front of Donald and Alison to make his point "28,000 points for a one bed unit - or less than half of the points value of a larger unit at peak time - or you could stay four weeks THEN in a smaller unit for the cost of two weeks here now!"
Donald and Alison's world was about to change.
Over the days following their arrival they chatted to various people at the pool, in the bar and restaurants (kids are great for helping people to get to know each other) and found out that these nice and apparently reasonable people (some in seriously senior jobs) had also invested in this timeshare thing (which Donald had previously thought of in the same manner as Arthur Daley car sales rooms). So when they got a call to see if they would come to chat about the resort, they agreed to go, NOT to buy but to understand how it all worked.
The sales "spiel" was much as they had expected. They did, though remember the tales of the people they had been chatting to who had exchanged all over the world. It did seem to work for some people certainly. THEN the salesman explained the RCI Points system - and how it tried to be fairer than the previous system.
The unit they were using for their fortnight, he explained, was obviously popular - a 2 bed unit that COULD sleep 6 was worth 63,000 points per week at this season - obviously a family-sized unit was in prime demand during school holidays.
However, if they decided to use the same unit between January and April it would only cost between 38,000 and 44,000 points.
Donald immediately saw the flaw in this, and knew he had caught the salesman out!
"You mean if we buy TWO weeks here at this time of year we will get 126,000 points - and can then get THREE weeks in March?" He knew he had seriously caught the salesman out, and waited to see how he would get out of this trap!
"Exactly - yes Donald, you have worked that out, that usually takes me a few minutes to get to" he said. "But not only that" he went on before Donald could draw breath to recover the lost initiative, "the one bedroomed units have pulldown beds too, and in January to April cost only 33,000 to 38,500 points so you could be here for three weeks and still have up to 27,000 Points left.
The salesman went on "But remember we are a highly rated resort. If you chose to go to a standard resort (which would be 3star in normal standards) a week may cost you " he flipped his book open in front of Donald and Alison to make his point "28,000 points for a one bed unit - or less than half of the points value of a larger unit at peak time - or you could stay four weeks THEN in a smaller unit for the cost of two weeks here now!"
Donald and Alison's world was about to change.
Chapter Two - Honey - I've shrunk the cost of our holidays!!!
Two years had passed. Euan was now 9 and Bev was 5. Donald and Alison had enjoyed two great years of holidays with their RCI Points, with a fortnight in Orlando being a real highlight. Oddly, that had gone from being "the holiday of a lifetime" to "when are we going back Daddy?".
The only problem that the Andersons had with timeshare now was that they somehow always ended up borrowing points from NEXT year for THIS year's holiday. And now they did not have enough points available for the trip that they wanted to make next year.
From "Timeshare Sceptic" that he had been, Donald had become quite adept at getting holidays booked in the resorts they wanted. He had worked out exactly when to call RCI to get the weeks they wanted (the booking windows were so simple once you read the books).
So a decision had been made to buy more weeks of timeshare and cede these into the system. Donald had called their resort and been quoted the price of an extra week. The price was in line with what he had originally paid, but he had heard people talking about the prices they had paid for resale weeks, and was not willing to pay over the odds for the extra week.
So he went online. He searched on "timeshare resales" and "cheap timeshare" for days. He found a few new resale companies but he realised that he was safer sticking with those that advertised in the RCI magazine - just in case.
Then he found a website for RCI Points Users - MORPS. "Daft name" he said, but he went to it anyway. And there, in a few short pages, was all of the knowledge that he had painfully gathered over two years of reading, chatting to other owners and browsing websites. "WHY didn't the resort TELL me about this site?" he asked.
As he read through the pages, however, he found a link to yet another site, the Timeshare Users Group website. There he found the Classified Adverts listing. Prices of weeks varied from the very high to the stunningly low, with resorts worldwide being listed by sellers.
With the knowledge he had gained from the MORPS website, Donald knew that a price exceeding 8p per point was nonsensical, but that also it had proved possible for some owners to acquire extra time at prices as low as 2p per point. He emailed a small selection of people advertising what he regarded as sensibly priced weeks, and started negotiations. He also knew which vendors to talk to about arranging to cede any new week(s) he bought. And after a couple of weeks, he had secured a deal on two weeks at a nice resort, and agreed the price of the "cede-only" deal required.
And there they were. Suddenly Donald and Alison had about 200,000 points "in the bank", had enough points to book next year's holiday, and STILL had a decent number of points left.
"Good grief" Donald said at the end of it all, as he sat sipping his favourite 'Special Occasions Only' malt whisky, "we will actually take points INTO next year now rather than robbing it to give us this year's holidays".
"Fancy a couple of these RCI Weekend Exchanges somewhere nice?"
The only problem that the Andersons had with timeshare now was that they somehow always ended up borrowing points from NEXT year for THIS year's holiday. And now they did not have enough points available for the trip that they wanted to make next year.
From "Timeshare Sceptic" that he had been, Donald had become quite adept at getting holidays booked in the resorts they wanted. He had worked out exactly when to call RCI to get the weeks they wanted (the booking windows were so simple once you read the books).
So a decision had been made to buy more weeks of timeshare and cede these into the system. Donald had called their resort and been quoted the price of an extra week. The price was in line with what he had originally paid, but he had heard people talking about the prices they had paid for resale weeks, and was not willing to pay over the odds for the extra week.
So he went online. He searched on "timeshare resales" and "cheap timeshare" for days. He found a few new resale companies but he realised that he was safer sticking with those that advertised in the RCI magazine - just in case.
Then he found a website for RCI Points Users - MORPS. "Daft name" he said, but he went to it anyway. And there, in a few short pages, was all of the knowledge that he had painfully gathered over two years of reading, chatting to other owners and browsing websites. "WHY didn't the resort TELL me about this site?" he asked.
As he read through the pages, however, he found a link to yet another site, the Timeshare Users Group website. There he found the Classified Adverts listing. Prices of weeks varied from the very high to the stunningly low, with resorts worldwide being listed by sellers.
With the knowledge he had gained from the MORPS website, Donald knew that a price exceeding 8p per point was nonsensical, but that also it had proved possible for some owners to acquire extra time at prices as low as 2p per point. He emailed a small selection of people advertising what he regarded as sensibly priced weeks, and started negotiations. He also knew which vendors to talk to about arranging to cede any new week(s) he bought. And after a couple of weeks, he had secured a deal on two weeks at a nice resort, and agreed the price of the "cede-only" deal required.
And there they were. Suddenly Donald and Alison had about 200,000 points "in the bank", had enough points to book next year's holiday, and STILL had a decent number of points left.
"Good grief" Donald said at the end of it all, as he sat sipping his favourite 'Special Occasions Only' malt whisky, "we will actually take points INTO next year now rather than robbing it to give us this year's holidays".
"Fancy a couple of these RCI Weekend Exchanges somewhere nice?"
