posted 04-05-2005 10:19               

I thought I had understood that I could pay off my loan using my Marriott Rewards visa credit card. I thought that I had 30 days to pay this note off with no interest. Obviously I was wrong.

According to Marriott, I had until the loan closed, which could be as little as 10 days. After that I would have to pay the loan off by check as Marriott will not accept credit card payments to pay off the loan. I called today to pay the note off, the loan closed yesterday.

At this point I've made 5 phone calls, left three messages and been told sorry, but we can't do anything about it twice.

I own six weeks of timeshare. To date I have NEVER had a problem paying the notes off with a credit card and then paying the credit card off online.

Basically, IMO, this sucks!

So, if you're planning on taking the initial 30 days to pay the note off before incuring interest, then placing the note on the credit card and floating it for another 30 days at no interset, you might want to rethink that idea as A. Marriott won't do it and B. you'll lose your rewards points for using the card.

posted 04-05-2005 10:42               

Our son has a Marriott loan. He asked specifically about this and/or making the payments with the VISA. The answer was no.

posted 04-05-2005 11:05               

Like ZCar, when I made my latest Marriott purchase last summer (telesales), the paperwork clearly stated that my deposit and the balance due at closing would both be charged directly to my Marriott Visa. There was no loan. If there had been such a loan, it would have been my responsibility to see something in writing allowing me to transfer the loan balance to my Visa and disclosing the terms for such transfer.

It sounds to me that you got stuck because you made an assumption based on something you may have heard or thought you heard but wasn't in your legal documents. That's dangerous.

posted 04-05-2005 15:37               

The problem seems to be it was taking 45 days to close and the salesman assumed I would have at least 30 days to pay the note off using the Visa card because of that. Unfortunately, it was not made clear to either me or my wife that the note needed to be paid off prior to the loan closing or they would Marriott would NOT accept the credit card as payment.

Well, the loan closed yesterday. That was something like 20 days after signing the contract. The salesman was pretty surprised it closed this fast as well.

On the plus side, the gentleman I talked to at the Marriott number for paying off a loan that hadn't closed said that, genreally speaking, when a customer complained enough or to the right person, they'd generally make it right. In my case, that's either coughing up a little over 53,000 MR points and letting me pay by check or taking the MR Visa as payment. Either way I don't care.

What ticks me off is this will be the 7th time I've purchased a timeshare (we upgraded our Hilton unit from EOY to EY) and we've ALWAYS paid the note off using a credit card as payment and then paid off the credit card. This only makes sense when you have a card that provides rewards of some sort plus taking advantage of any grace period before interest starts to accumulate. As soon as the loan could be paid off, we paid it off.

Why did I take out a loan in the first place? At that particular moment, I didn't have enough room on the credit card to complete the transaction. Plus, I prefer to leave money at interest rather than pay off a loan that isn't accumulating interest. This seemed like the easiest way to do it.

Next time, I'll just pay the largest balance of the note I can at the time I sign the contract using the credit card.

posted 04-05-2005 16:34               

Marriott Visa is not available to Canadians so I don't know what I'm missing, I guess.

Brian

posted 04-05-2005 19:25               

Sorry to hear about all the trouble with this. I do recall being told when I purchased the Aruba resort that I had to decide right away whether I was going to finance through Marriott or pay the balance on closing. I would not be able to change my mind if I later wanted not to finance through M. I took the financing because I wasn't 100 % sure on what funds I would be drawing on at the time of closing.

When we made our first purchase (Barong 2 weeks) we were told we could reserve the financing and change our minds anytime up to closing.... meaning we could use the credit card. That was in 1999, perhaps they have changed their practices. Perhaps they have gotten to like the 14% financing in times when 5% is more common place.

Beverley

posted 04-05-2005 20:06               

Sorry to hear about your problem, it must be a dissapointment to potentially lose the points. We've bought several Marriott TS, and we've had three choices each time.

• To pay cash ( possible if money grew on trees, but not an option for us )
  
• To charge it to the VISA ( best option for a MR points junkie )
  
• To obtain financing, either via Marriott or another source.
  

We've never been offered the option to take a note and pay the note via the VISA card. It sounds to me as if the sales manager fails to clearly spell out the mechanics of each option.

With our most recent purchase at Playa Andaluza, we eschew financing and opt to put the entire amount on the VISA card with the idea of turning to the equity line when the VISA comes due. The sales agreement spells out the initial deposit and the final payment due along with the dates on which the VISA will be charged.

Had we gone the financing route, we would have taken a note and payments would be cash. In any case, the sales manager lays out the options availible to us.

I can't speak to whether the individual MVCI resorts offer additional options or not. I do know that one can sometimes request a larger credit line with VISA for these sorts of unusual payments. Don't know if that might have been an option for you or not.

Hopefully you can work out a happy resolution to the situation.

posted 04-05-2005 20:42               

quote:

---

Originally posted by pwrshift:
Amex accepts all charges - no limit as long as you paid your last month's bill. Only 1 point per dollar (in Canada) but you can trade each one for 1 FF mile with Air Canada.

Marriott Visa is not available to Canadians so I don't know what I'm missing, I guess.

Brian

---

The Marriott Rewards Visa is through Chase Bank. They have no problem accepting the charge. It's Marriott who is refusing to allow me to use this, or any credit card, to pay off the balance.

If I had read through the contract before signing it, I would have seen a bold typed sentance that said any changes would have to be made before 5 days. Even so, I had incorrectly assumed that since every other TS I've had has accepted credit card payment to pay off the note, that I wouldn't have a problem this time.

I looking over my finances for the last several years I noted that when I paid off my Ocean Pointe unit, I sent in a check. I don't recall ever asking to use a credit card on that particular payoff. The first Polo Towers unit had unique financing which was 50% down, the balance due in balloon payment in 12 months.

Hilton accepted one of my rewards cards to pay off the balance and the Villa's at Polo Towers accepted credit card payment to pay off the balance as well. The resale unit I purchased was strictly on one of my credit cards. So, this was somewhat of a surprise.

I talked with our salesman tonight. He is supposed to get back with me tomorrow evening before I go to work.

posted 04-08-2005 00:03               

If you want to use you Rewards visa, the contract must be set up on a cash basis and not a financed basis. If you set it up under a financed basis, you must contact them within FIVE business days to let them know you want to change it to a cash basis and pay it off using your CC. Otherwise, you stuck with a 14.99 to 18% note that must be paid off by cash or check, no CC payments.

Once the loan closes, there are NO changes that can be made. So at this point I'll just call for a payoff and pay the note. It is in the contract, underlined and in bold print. So for me it's a live and learn situation. For the salesman, it was also a live and learn situation.

There was some degree of miscommunication on both our parts. The contract was signed on our first day of a 7 night vacation. I needed enough time to get home and move money from savings to checking and pay off the small amount already on the MR CC. I thought I'd just sign the note, go home, get things ready and make the call.

When the salesman said I had 30 days, I thought that was with a financed not. It was not. 30 days is with a CASH deal and they will allow you to use your MR CC for cash deals (go figure). I misunderstood what he was telling me and he misunderstood my intentions.

posted 04-08-2005 16:25               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jaybee:
I don't know if you assumed too much, didn't read the contract closely enough, or if you weren't properly informed, but I'm sorry it happened to you.

---

I'd say all three.

I assumed they knoew what they were doing and that I had every intention of paying it off using my Marriott Visa, especially since I was adding up exactly how many MR points we would end up with. I didn't read the contract closely enough but of course, we were on vacation and the portion that was underlined and in bold would have been the 6th day of a timeshare vacation. I typically don't read a legal contract while on vacation. Finally, I'd say I wasn't properly informed that I HAD to call within FIVE days to make changes that would allow me to pay this contract off using my MR visa card. If I'd have known that, I'd have told them we either needed to do it differently or I'd have to purchase later in the week to give me enough time to get home, notify Chase that I needed an incease on our credit limit and move money from one account to the other to pay off the CC balance. I also needed time to pay off the existing balance on the MR CC since we had been using it to rent the car and secure the incidentals at the resort. The hold from the rental car company wouldn't hit the card as a charge that could be paid until 2 cays after we got home.

The odd thing is, when it was looked into further, the contract actually closed the day we got home. That's seven days after signing and not 4/4/05 as I was told by one person at Marriott on the phone. They closed that puppy faster than any other TS I've ever purchased and we've purchased 5 from the developers.

posted 04-09-2005 17:15               

Yipes! No room for error there.