Original Message:
Buying Points for MVC on resale instead of directly from Mariott (by Charles S.):
prernas3 wrote:What is the difference, apart from the price, in buying points from MVC directly or in the resale as advertised here on redweek. Price difference is big for eg. 1500 annual points directly from MVC are around $27K with an annual maintenance fee of $1K. However, I see listings for 1000-2000 points at $12K and lower ($500) maintenance fee. How does this work?
If you buy them resale from someone on Redweek, they can sell their points for whatever they want. However, there are some things you need to be aware of.
First, Marriott is selling points right now at 11.88/point so 1500 points should only cost $17,820. Maintenance fees are about .43/point so that would be $645/year. These are truer numbers.
If a resale is going too low, Marriott might use its Right of First Refusal (ROFR) option. So if someone is trying to sell their points for $3/point, Marriott may decide to buy those points and you would have to find a new seller to buy from.
Secondly, you will have to check with some of the sellers as they do not always know what they are selling. Some will see they are selling points when in fact they have a weeks unit that can convert to points, so they tell people they are selling points when they actually are not. Those are two totally different things. That week may have a value of a certain amount of points if they joined the Marriott Destination Club with their week. However, if they sell the week to someone, the new owner is not eligible to convert that week to points. It can happen only through Marriott as they have a new program called the Bring Your Own Buyer Program. In this program a seller is finding a buyer and then Marriott does the rest at their prices.
Also, if you pass ROFR, Marriott will charge you $200 for every 250 points you buy. So there is a minimum which I believe is $2000. So if you buy only 1000 points you still have to pay $2000 to Marriott plus whatever the seller is charging you for the points. In addition, if you are not currently a Marriott owner they charge an education fee of $300 to new owners.
The other misconception that some of these seller have is that they can sell banked points. That is not really possible unless they make a reservation for you in your name. Banked points cannot be transferred because they can only move once. Also, they will not be a part of the transferred deed as only the annual amount of points are deeded over to the new owner.
The bottom line is that you can get a better deal buying the points resale as long as Marriott does not exercise its ROFR. Even with the fees that Marriott will charge you, depending on how much the seller is selling them for you can still come out ahead than buying from Marriott.
I hope this helps.