Thanks for the hot tips, Sherlock!

Tom - if you're a member of the Hilton Grand Vacation Club, just sign in and pay them online with your credit card.

If you're not a member, go to www.hgvc.com, and click on: Welcome-already a member: Log In, even though you're not a member (more smoke and mirrors). In the new browser window click on: Not an HGVC Club member? Click here to pay maintenance fees and taxes. Then just follow the instructions in the next browser window that opens.

Good luck!

Ron,

Thank you for the info.

Tom

All credit card costs are expenses to the association and must be passed on to the owners, thus the more people who use credit cards, the higher your maintenance fees will be. I'm not sure of the exact amount, but the credit card fees are at least 2%, so your $850.00 maintenace fee will cost $17.00 or more. Checks will save everyone money.

Right on Lynn. that i was trying to get Tom to understand. there is no free lunch. I looked at my budget for CASA, it is costing each owner about $10.00 this year so people don't have to write a check and use a $.42 stamp.

So why don't we just not accept credit card payments alltogether. Why should I have to pay for someone else's convenience? If I'm going to have to pay anyway, I might as well get something back like maybe a 2% kickback from my credit card company.

Let me see. What's my board and/or management company done for me for my $850.00 maintenence fee? Oh yeh, they didn't have enough insurance coverage so when Charlie came through I (like most owners) had to still pay maintenence fees and not get to use my week that year.

After all the bull---- I've seen over the past few years, I'm sorry to say I've become a little bitter. If Casa and Sanibel weren't such a great place to visit, trust me, I would have sold many years ago. And if anyone thinks it's great because of the way it's run, I've got some great ocean property in Iowa for sale!!!!

I have paid by credit card for many years for record keeping and it works out just fine.
I know there is a cost to Hilton for this [and probably hidden somehere in the IJK admin costs] but it just simplifies everything especially if you are a non usa resident with exchange rate considerations

Hugh McGowan

Tom,
I forgot to mention I just call HGVC at the telephone number listed on the fees statement,give them the credit card # on the phone and that is it done

Hugh McGowan

Thanks Hugh, I'll give it a try.

Tom

Good Idea!
Bank of America now pays 1% back on all purchases.
That is wild, we make ourselves be billed for 2% for Hilton to pay, (and charge us back as owners), while we on our own are making 1% on our own account.
$3,200 for 4 units cost Hilton $64, which they charge to owners, and we get paid $32 by Bank of America.
If it is $10 as average to each owner we still make $22 to ourselves.
Is this why Wall Street feel apart, too many schemes?
I think it is unfair for Hilton to make us pay for the charge for their own convenience having Credit Card Company do the accounting for them in the first place, and then charge us afterwards?
Who is paying for the collection by the Atlanta Bank where all payments go?
That bank is charging us owners additionally for doing all the work for Hilton for all 3500 owners.
If Hilton did all the work themselves we would have a better contract.
Why does the board not demand that all finance costs are done by a bank of our choice, we get a better interest rate on the collections and let them handle it on a special contract between the bank and IJK and FGH? We then post a special finance fee on our annual report.

If we had our own manager at Casa Ybel we would be able to drop the maintenance fees considerably.
A small staff on site could do it all!
The cost divided by 3500 owners would be attractive pr owner.

Maybe this is the time to be serious about hiring our own manager and set up office for IJK and FGH?
The $100,000.00 special “name fees” for Hilton in Orlando would be saved all together.

Hey wait a minute !
I think Hilton is also in the Hotel business in fact one of the top chains.
Do they charge every guest an extra 2% on hotel check out/restaurants/bar bills for the privelege of accepting a credit card....no way!!
If it is indeed $10 average to all owners and there are 3500 week 0wners, I beleive they are doing very nicely as that is around $35,000 PER YEAR.
Send the fees to me as a "fee broker" and I will pay Hilton by cheque and scoop the $35000!!!
Easy money!!!

Hugh,
If that's works, I want in on half! $ 17,000.00 each.

Sorry, I forgot about the other $500.00 (bad math). I'll give that to my wife!!!

This is way off track. You do not understand credit cards or fees.

Hilton is not charging you to submit payment via credit card as the payor. That was the point of the one enlightened owner who posted here. When you pay by credit card you are costing Hilton 2% of the fee (they don't get this. It goes to AmEx, MasterCard, or Visa). Hilton passes it on to the HOA as a cost of doing business, just like an insurance policy.

The enlightened poster pointed out that if all owners would stop doing this it would save, on average, $10 per owner. He is right.

By the same token, every person who uses a towel too roughly, puts shoes on a bed, or otherwise causes unncessary wear-and-tear on a unit costs owners.

It isn't Hilton doing anything and if you dump Hilton and you do this yourself, still accept credit cards, then you'll pay 4% to the banks in fees. Hilton has a great rate and they are sharing it with YOU.

Pardon the edge on my answer. As a small business owner I know this issue well. It's about to put us out of business. Idiots walking around without 50 cents for a pack of gum who want to use a credit card ... which costs us over $2 to process.

Thanks!

So the original poster is correct in his statement that they hide it. To your benefit. And the early response was also correct. It costs the HOA collectively 2% (or more). You might get 1% cash back on your credit card but only because the bank charges your friends, neighbors and co-consumers an extra fee by jacking up the rates even further to Hilton. Folks there is no free lunch. Rewards cards are built on nothing more than greed. You screw the merchant and the other consumers where you shop to get that extra 1%. Period. Nobody else is paying it. It has to come from somewhere.

Now, to the original reason I looked here. Anybody have any suggestions on how the rental market is holding up. I'm considering buying a unit this spring and will want to rent it the next five years until retirement. I gather people rent them here rather than onsite to save the rental fee. If anyone is kind enough to let me know how the mathematics works out on that please do so; I'm all ears.

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Replying to:

Hey wait a minute !
I think Hilton is also in the Hotel business in fact one of the top chains.
Do they charge every guest an extra 2% on hotel check out/restaurants/bar bills for the privelege of accepting a credit card....no way!!
If it is indeed $10 average to all owners and there are 3500 week 0wners, I beleive they are doing very nicely as that is around $35,000 PER YEAR.
Send the fees to me as a "fee broker" and I will pay Hilton by cheque and scoop the $35000!!!
Easy money!!!

Thanks for your well informed response about credit card charges. The one bit of information that you don't have is that Hilton manages our resort for an annual fee. Credit card charges are a direct expense to the two condo associations, FGH and IJK. As a part of their management duties, Hilton bills the owners and collects the fees for us.

Casa Ybel is a wonderful place to vacation. Using it as a rental is OK, but don't expect to make a lot of money. Renting through Hilton costs 35%, but their rental rates are great. They will guarantee rentals for some prime weeks, other weeks may be rented for less than the full week. Check with Hilton about the guarantees.

We have owned at Casa Ybel and occupied it every year since 1980, except for the year following Hurricane Charley when it hadn't re-opened yet at the time of our weeks. We now own 3 week there and love the resort.

Lynn - I agree that the rental results are probably better through the resort, rather than just through this website. However, the choice of whether to receive 100% of your requested rental amount or 65% of what the resort receives remains the choice of the individual owner.

Personally, I've never rented my units as we love the resort and can't wait to return each year.

One last thing - if memory serves, the 35% goes to the Thistle Lodge Partnership (aka Hospitality, not to Hilton). Hilton takes their share out of the resales, not the rentals. I'm surprised you didn't know who got the percentage of the rentals as a director of one of the two timeshare associations.

Ted,
You are correct that these fees are costing someone, (us). I doubt, however, that if I choose not to pay by by credit card that I will see a reduction of $10.00 on my next bill. How Hilton is allowed to recover this expense directly from us I don't know. I thought that was illegal. The least they could do is to hide it under some misc. expense.

I also own a small business and my transaction costs run approx. 4.5 %. In my business world this is called "The cost of doing business". It is also called lost profit. Do I like it? No. On the other hand, I get my money within 24 hours instead of 30 (many times more) days.

Using my credit card is an opportunity to get back at least something. The past 14 years I've paid by check and don't begrudge anyone for using a credit card. Plus, this is hardly a 50 cent pack of gum.

By the way Ted, why use the phony last name? If your last name truly is Beachcomber, I apologize.

It matters not to me whether anyone uses their credit card or not. I was simply making a point.

If it costs Hilton $30 to clear the fees for every user then it will, collectively, cost $30 more per user.

The same is true on the towels in the room. If everyone will ruin five towels per visit then it will cost $25 to replace the towels. Everyone's fees will go up by $25 per year.

I'm not saying you shouldn't wash your car with the towels or pay by credit card. Do whatever you want. I was simply clarifying that this is a cost-plus contract and the more the cost of doing business goes up the more owners will pay. Hilton is not going to eat it.

As for your business activities that's all good and fine if you are okay with the 4.5% clearing fee. But you should also acknowledge that many businesses, obviously different from yours, run on a substantially different set of economic numbers and hence margins.

Ever try paying for a car with a credit card? Won't happen. They dont' make enough profit on the car to pay the AmEx fee, so they would prefer you walk away. I have no idea what Hilton's margin is. I'm not smart enough about the industry to know. But I'm not at all convinced I believe they should be 'responsible' for taking this out of their cut. If so, then why not the towels??? Where would it end?

One last word on paying by credit card.
In the past I normally paid by credit card because it was just easier and saved me time and hassle.
This year after all the discussion on costs I decided to try and save the association the money and pay by US Money Order.
I went to my Canadian Bank,purchased U.S. dollars at 27% exchange,mailed it registered mail February 3rd [cost of $15] anticipating arrival at the Atlanta address on the billing info in lots of time to beat the February 14th deadline
I called Hilton to check they had received it on February 15th and they said they had not, so after contacting Astra at HGVC and providing all the info ,money order amount,date, number,etc they were finally able to find it and it was posted to my account February 17th [ 3 days past the deadline]
They are now charging me the late fee $25,and I am really ticked off about the whole thing
Next year it is credit card.
No hassle, no screw ups, no long distance ,no registered mail fee and no penalty of $25

Hugh, I am truly sorry for the difficulties you encountered in payment of your maintenance fees. With the mailing date and money order date to back you up, I certainly favor refunding any late fees.
The board recognizes that for our owners who live outside the United States, credit cards are a much better option for payment due to exchange rates, postage and mail delivery time.

Please don't hesitate to use your credit card in the coming years. Hope you have a great visit to Casa Ybel this year.