Timeshare Donations

The concept of timeshare donations has been a fairly recent development in the timeshare industry and there are some things every timeshare owner must know before deciding to go down that path. Ever since the start of the infamous “Great Recession” back in 2008, many timeshare owners have been struggling to keep afloat with significantly reduced incomes and rising timeshare maintenance fees. Some say the worst is yet to come as concerns continue to rise about the economy slipping into what the media is calling a “double-dip” recession, which refers to a slight period of growth in the economy followed by an even deeper economic decline.

In an attempt to sustain themselves, many timeshare owners have tried to sell timeshares as a means to putting an end to the endless maintenance fees that consume their decreasing budgets. This is especially so for timeshare owners with children entering college for the first time (“Keep our timeshare our send our kid to college?”) and for older timeshare owners who have fallen ill or are experiencing health issues and are unable to travel as much, if at all. These owners simply want a timeshare cancel strategy.

Despite the array of adversities many timeshare owners face as a result of the economy, timeshare resort developers are far from forgiving as they continue to increase maintenance fees and tack on special assessments to make up for the loss of income for those who have defaulted on their payments. Most timeshare owners strapped for cash erroneously believe that selling their timeshare is the end all to their timeshare woes. They figure that not only will they be able to stop paying maintenance fees forever, but they’ll also get a return on their supposed timeshare investments to help them maintain their regular expenses. However, many timeshare owners have discovered that selling timeshares can be just as costly as owning the timeshare itself.

In light of media reports advising timeshare owners to “donate timeshare as a last resort” it has become increasingly apparent that the media is providing timeshare consumers with relatively bad advice unaware of the true nature of each and every option available to timeshare owners when all they want to do is get rid of timeshares. Sick and tired of being taken for fools by timeshare scam companies, timeshare consumers are led to believe that the best option for getting rid of your timeshare without incurring more expenses is to donate a timeshare to charity.

While there are legitimate organizations that do indeed accept timeshares for donations, there are two catches to this method of timeshare disposal that the media does not tell you. The first catch is that these charity organizations do not accept all timeshares. If you browse through the forums of the Timeshare User’s Group, any TUG moderator will tell you that charities will only accept timeshares that they can turn around and sell quickly for a profit. These charities accepting timeshares are not interested in your timeshare as much as they are interested in the money they can get for your timeshare which they most likely use to either fund the operating costs of their organization or invest in their cause such as medical research or what not.

The second catch to donating timeshares is that they charge you a fee to take your timeshare off your hands just like a timeshare resale company will charge you an upfront fee to sell your timeshare. How can a timeshare donation company call themselves as such when you’re not really donating anything to them? According to Mirriam-Webster OnLine, the dictionary definition of donation is “a free contribution”, but in the case of some of these timeshare donation companies (which shan’t be named out of respect for the causes they support) no free contribution is being made when you have to pay these organizations to make that supposedly free contribution.

So if you are still thinking, “I want to donate my timeshare,” and in the rare instance that they will actually take your timeshare, the best solution for to get out of timeshare is to work with Timeshare Relief to transfer your timeshare out of your name thereby relieving you of all future financial responsibility associated with your timeshare. Timeshare Relief offers a Guaranteed Timeshare Exit Solution so you can say, “Getting out of my timeshare was so easy!”

Featured TSR
Consumer Advisor

Linda Wenzel

Linda was drawn to Timeshare Relief by the integrity, energy, and caring nature of the people in the company, and by the opportunity to help families out of the burdensome timeshare trap.

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