A source close to a committee member at Forest Hills has let us in on the secret that MacDonald’s have been trying to keep under wraps… that they already have plans to break another promise to owners. The model for their points club has been nicked and adapted from another company doing the same to their members and this is how it will work – once Macdonald’s have got all the clubs on-board, they will start telling owners the actual details. We can share it with you NOW!
Members would pay an annual membership fee – and they are talking about £150 a year! Each member would then pay a fee for each point that they own, initially that fee would be £0.08 (eight pence) per point, but Macdonald’s are already planning on increasing that to 9p per point after two-years. They will call this the ‘Points Charge’.
If a member wants to book at another Macdonald resort during their Points Year, they would pay £75 as an inter-resort exchange fee. If the member wants to book at his old resort, there will be no charge… for two years only! After that, the member would pay £50 to book at their ‘home’ resort as a “Booking Fee” – even for their old ‘fixed week’!
The value of points are being set at £1.00 to buy, but because owners are upset at not having a market to sell their points, MacDonald’s are considering buying them back for resale at £0.25 per point – that gives them a 300% mark-up on recycled points! This means that the timeshare that our source bought for over £7,000 is now worth in ‘points’ £5,000 to buy sufficient points to occupy at the same time, but only £1,250 to flog back to Macdonald’s – so that they can add 300% before reselling the points – it’s another timeshare scam!
Our source shows how this would work for his 2-bed Forest Hills timeshare for which he has been allocated 5,000 Macdonald Resort Points.
Membership fee (per annum): £150.00
Points Charge: £400.00
Total payable for first two years £550.00
He currently pays £572.14 for his week at Forest Hills – he will get a reduction of £22.14 a year (less than 5%).
But look what happens after two years:
Membership Charge (per annum): £150.00
Points Charge: £450.00
Booking Fee: £50.00
Total payable after second year £650.00
Now he will be paying £77.86 a year more for his week at Forest Hills – an increase of TWELVE percent.
(These are the figures that the committees are being asked to consider at the moment, the ultimate figures have not been finalised, yet.)
Macdonald’s promised to reduce maintenance fees by moving to a points system, when all the time they have plans to break that promise within two years.
Under Forest Hill’s new Constitution, the Club Committee does not set any charges – they will be set by MacDonald’s who will even decide on how many points are needed to use your former holiday apartment. So if Macdonald’s mess up their finances in the future, they will just need to turn up the heat under the owners for more money.
Can the committee stop the escalating fees?-Absolutely not!
The new constitutions give MRL the power to veto any committee amendments.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk