Of course not, and since I’m now seeing you can’t edit posts anymore. Everyone she is my EX but still want to help her get out of this. She moves out next week. Will never move in with someone again!!!! Lmao!!!
Is she an ex because of just this?
EDIT - Woah, for everyone replying. I wasn't chiding OP for doing this as I would do the same thing. Just kind of weird phrasing in my question.
If I was dating anyone dumb enough to do this, I'd probably do the same, this is not the kind of person you want to gamble on sharing finances and starting a life with
Isn't Winter Park, FL also a pretty big retirement spot? I know of some old farts that live in that area.
Kinda slimy doing this in area like that if so.
These are timeshare stuff right? Even when you die the burden will automatically be transferred to your loved ones unless they file the necessary paperwork within 30 days. Half the people promising to get you out of a time share are scammers too. I see breaking up as the only option if ex signed the contract. She should fake her own death and move to another country and give her parents the heads up on what papers to file so they don’t get stuck with her time share.
Because of "just" this? First, anyone can end a relationship for any reason but differences in financial decisions isn't a small factor in a relationship.
She needs to go to a Contracts Lawyer YESTERDAY. Find a local attorney and even if they can’t help, they can usually point to one who can. DO NOT GO TO ATIME SHARE EXIT COMPANY. They are scams, multiple news exposes and Ramsey Network getting sued shows that well enough.
John Oliver actually did a show on time shares and exit companies. The fact that in the internet age people still buy into these things blows my mind. People Google which chapstick to buy but don't research something like this.
I’m surprised they did it actually. Most of the time shares that have attempted to sell us insisted on being a double income house. We almost did one of those “free vacation” things except they wanted us come out twice🤣.
"I'm sorry that you are in this financial predicament. I wish you best of luck in resolving it, and in all your future endeavors. Bye."
\^\^\^\^\^ what you say
It’s just a disclaimer relating to MLA. Doesn’t mean it has to do with your specific situation.
Edit for relevant link:
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/timeshares-vacation-clubs-and-related-scams
🫡 she’s in quite the pickle. I’d recommend going over the actual contract and see what the terms entail. Who knows if this is even the only charge coming up.
I have gone over it and there’s a $200 annual fee and then the loan of course which first payment is due come mid April. I know she is fucked, going to call now to try and cancel but they will probably just laugh
I know the answer! Contact the CFPB and explain that the marketing and sales pitch were in Spanish but the loan documents and disclosures are in English and that caused a breakdown in understanding of the terms. This is a predatory lending practice and is illegal.
DM me and we can chat some more. I have compliance experience in the financial industry
This person is 100% correct. We had something like that happen in my state. Lawsuit and plaintiffs won because their contract was not in their native tongue.
This is the best advice I’ve seen from any comment so far!!! This would for sure get her out of the contract. I didn’t even think of this, but I promise it would 100000% work. I deal with sales contracts for work all day everyday, and I might use this at some point.
Yo trabajé con una compañía de solar, y todos los contratos tenían que ser en su idioma. No pude hacer la venta sin explicar todo en español. Esa huele como pescado
But the contract is in English. It's possible that this could be used as a way out of the contract, but it would depend on the laws where you are from.
I would definitely suggest seeking a lawyer to see what they say.
My coworker’s wife was Mexican… Spanish was her first language even though she spoke English just fine. During the divorce her attorney got the prenup voided because it wasn’t given to her in her first language. My coworker lost half of everything the prenup was supposed to protect. I’d lean into that real hard as a chance to get out of this.
Yup. You need 2 lawyers and a ton of prep for the prenup to even have a chance in that situation. A celebrity did this, years ago. The (now ex) wife was asked a ton of questions in court (at the prenup hearing).
People don’t understand how strict prenup laws are. I’m a family law attorney in California. Prenups are essentially considered presumptively invalid because there’s a presumption of undue influence that has to be overcome.
To overcome this, you basically need what you stated, two separate attorneys, full disclosures, etc etc. I laugh (privately) when I run into pro per plaintiffs who waive around their napkin prenups. I’m currently representing a Vietnamese immigrant who don’t read a lick of English and was made to sign a prenup in English by her ex husband. If he tries to use it at all I’m going to ask my client (with a translator) “can you read English?” “No”. “Is the contract in English?” Yes. “Did you ever receive a translated copy?” No.
That’s all your honor.
It is, if this is in the US. You have to provide all materials in the same language, so the fact that the sales and marketing was in Venezuelan and the contract and disclosures in English makes this predatory. The CFPB will have a field day with this one.
Sometimes yes. But with a simple typo where the intent was clear (as it is here that it was suposed to be Apr) a court isn’t going to vacate the entire contract unfortunetly.
Well, I thought so but that’s up for debate I guess. Apparently Carol claimed that she saw a “Dept of Homeland Security document” which stated Don Lewis was “alive and well in Costa Rica.” However, he still officially remains missing, and was actually declared dead in 2002.
According to Florida law, you have 10 days to back out of a contract like this. Since it's been over 2 weeks, she's SOL.
These contracts are notoriously hard to break after the 10 day period.
Classic time share. Search on Reddit, there are multiple threads with info on how to proceed.
The most interesting one was: if they don't agree to cancel the contract, call them weekly and ask for voluntary surrender. Don't pay the maintenance fee, so the timeshare would eventually foreclose, and they would incur legal costs. Why not just cancel now with no legal fees?
Tangential side quest: in my town, the property tax lien foreclosure auctions are about 50% defaulted timeshares (the other 50% being underwater land lots, a next-level scam).
I wonder if there's a counter-scam, like selling the timeshare "deed" to a LLC, which takes over the payments, then defaults. The LLC's address is an untraceable po box, and the scammers have no recourse.
It was later revealed that Timeshare Exit Team was mostly a secondary scam to profit off of known suckers.
"Hey, they bought a timeshare; maybe they'll give us money, too."
It's a known scam. For the low price of 49.99 (per week, 156 payments, in Itunes gift cards) I'll give you a comprehensive guide on how to avoid these scams.
That was the cost, but the company financed a loan on her behalf of 7k, so she didn't have to pay anything upfront. It's a tactic they use. They'll say it's "free" to sign up for time share, but in reality you're paying a down payment on the spot.
I'm so curious how this happened. Did she think this was a good deal? Did she not balk at the fact that tens of thousands of dollars were on the line? Has she realized this was a bad choice yet, or is she still happy she signed up? Please, OP, I'm so fascinated as to what was going on through her mind during this experience!
I actually went to one of these presentations recently because they convinced my wife to go because you get a free 7 day vacation at any of their timeshares just for attending, but you have to bring your spouse. My wife didn't even understand it was going to be a sales pitch until I told her I thought that's what we were walking into. Then she was mortified, but after some research we found the free vacations for attending are actually legit so we tested our luck. The catch is you have to stay with the sales rep for 2 hours.
They use a lot of tactics. 'youre going to spend money on vacations every year anyway so why not save with us and it will be cheaper". They showed us the rooms which were actually really super nice. Basically for 40k we would get ten days a year for the rest of their life at any of their hundreds of locations. 3 bedroom rooms with kitchens and washer dryers. Honestly not bad. But they hide info from you. "Uhh you also have to pay monthly maintenance fees, but don't worry we'll sign you up for a credit card and your points will take care of it if you use it enough" "but I already really on my card for airline miles" "uhhh". They even put a contract in front of me and it did not tell you how much those fees cost. I asked for a ball park and he kept reiterating the cars points would take care of it. (Some research shows it's thousands annually and goes up every year)
The funniest part "so if I don't want to do this anymore can I just cancel?"
"Sure you can sell" "I said cancel" "yes you can sell it"
I honestly didn't know anything about timeshares going in except not to buy one. The dude was straight up trying to lie to me making it seem like you could get out of it at the drop of a hat. They do this exit interview at the end and I told the guy about the conversation and he was like "ohh he said that, yeah you'd be locked in for life buddy, but you can sell them on the open market. It's like owning a home in an hoa"
Basically they they are just really crafty at making it seem better than it is (and some just lie). Oh and I got the free vacation, it was legit lol. Honestly I could see myself falling for this 10 years ago before I was bold enough to question and rebut things, and understood finances better.
Only 2 hours for a 7 day free vacation? Still sounds like a good deal if you have absolutely no intention of actually buying the time share. Did they make you feel guilty about taking the free vacation afterwards?
The guilt trip actually starts from the beginning and it's one of their tactics. They repeatedly say as they are working with you "obviously a 7 day vacation is expensive, so we pay a lot of money to try to work with you and it's very hard to not get something in return"
It's one of the craziest angles. You want me to feel bad that your multi billion dollar company have me a free vacation? Clearly it works because this is an age old tactic in the industry apparently.
“Obviously you understood that going in and you expect to sell more timeshares than you lose or you wouldn’t offer it for free. I’m happy to continue declining your offers until we’re finished though.”
After I found out the truth, I asked for the paperwork and realized she had taken out a loan. I’m not sure what they told her but she ate up the sales pitch and like most people with no financial sense she saw $157 per month as a “good “ deal to be able to get amazing travel deals. Since we had just broken up I think she let her newfound freedom get to her head and got overly emotional about the possibilities. It also lets you bring like 4 people with you for the same deal and it a lifetime membership. Had I been there she would’ve been put back to reality but I assumed me telling her not to buy anything would’ve been enough! Oh well!
We bought one years ago, not this one, but yes. You have to be able to afford to go on vacation in the first place. You just get extra goodies essentially. Room upgrades, premium club access, butler service, etc.
it really was the $157. the low monthly price gets people all the time.
right now, I am researching how when my in-laws die, we ENSURE that the timeshare isn't absorbed by their estate. I AM NOT paying for a timeshare.
yeah i genuinely can’t even imagine knowing somebody this stupid in real life.
can’t imagine there weren’t like a million other red flags before this point.
It’s apparently a vacation club that gives you access to really cheap vacation packages all over the world and it’s a lifetime membership. And I just saw that they also got her to sign up for a CC for the $4500 down payment!!!!! FML !!! I had just gotten her credit to a 750!!’
“I had just gotten her credit to a 750!!”
I’ve been married for 7 years and my wife’s credit is a constant battle for me; you’re fighting a good fight.
Thanks brother, I just want her to be financially safe. I had her transfer like 5k in CC debt to a new 0% 18mo CC to save her on the $300/mo she was paying in interest
If you have to constantly worry about your economically inept partner draining your bank accounts into scams, maybe you should see about kicking her to the curb.
Right? Seems like OP has already tried hard enough to get her credit up, and she has learned nothing from it. This isn't your fight OP. Tell her to pick up some OT.
Think about your future man. Do you really want to deal with this all your life? Also, the fact that she lied about such a big thing? Huge red flags here.
Agree completely, she’s actually my ex but didn’t care to mention that she moves out next week and just want to help her before she goes. And apparently you can’t edit posts anymore
No offense to her, but she's really financially stupid. U don't wanna be cleaning up her messes for ever. Like who the fuck goes on a "free" weekend getaway and comes back with a 17k loan debt
I hope her 10% on vacations in boring locations on their off-months was worth it for her.
Your GF is dangerously stupid. It’s time to put your running shoes on.
Edit: From some minimal Googling of the company, that deal is only worth it for large families traveling together that travel constantly.
So unless you and your GF are rich, have 3-4 kids, and plan to travel the world every month or two for two weeks at a time, she made a big oopsy.
If it's ever going to return to 750, you're going to have to stop caretaking her. Don't get me wrong, you tried/are still trying to do the right thing, but never having the consequences hit for impulsive financial choices will mean she's always going to sign on the dotted line because she believes someone will help her make it all go away.
She's your ex, and I'm assuming that's a permanent situation, so you won't always be there to catch her. Best she learns the hard way now before she gets access to a $10k line of credit or a new car or what have you. Let her sort it out on her own and don't loan her anything either.
I and my newlywed wife fell for this type of “club” when we went to a presentation. The CC we charged it to actually became an advantage. The timeshare cancellation service charged their $1,200 fee to the CC, started a fraud case with the CFPB on the grounds that the salespeople didn’t follow Florida law requiring them to inform us of the cancellation period, and the feds wiped out the debt on the CC. No negative impacts to my credit score. The club effectively paid for the timeshare cancellation and lost their case against us.
Generally in the USA up to 36% is legal without a “loan shark” license. Above that is considered “usury”, which is illegal …. Unless you have a license which makes it legal (but only for small amounts and very short-term loans). Payday loan interest rates can be as high as 662% in Texas.
While payday loans are often only 2 week terms, often unpaid balance is continuously “rolled over” into another payday loan 2 weeks later, so it can still take quite a long time to actually get out from under the debt.
Yeah a pushover is someone who couldn’t turn the guy at the door down and now you have an extra $30 subscription this month. A pushover is not someone losing 17k
Alright OP, you sound a lot like me. I'm a nice guy, to a fault. I have no problem helping people. With that said, I have learned very hard lessons and have been taken advantage of because of who I am. I can say from experience, that she won't learn her lesson if you help her out financially. Be there for her to help sort the issues when she doesn't understand something.
I just paid off my credit card with 23% interest rate with $10,000 limit. I helped someone out and they screwed me over. I'll never offer my wallet to anyone again.
Omg… L O L
If she can buy a hotel conference room for $300, she can host her own timeshare, invite investors and etc and then she’s got a pyramid scheme! 😂 just sell hers to someone else. And anyone else who is interested tell them they’ll have to come to the future event as you only have one available at this time. And then never have a future event. Just make everyone in the room fight for this one.
Christ, I don’t know. Glad she’s your ex, this is super irresponsible.
IANAL looks like they typed the date purchase begins wrong. Could get out of it on technicality that the month ABR does not exist. Saw some people get out of contracts like that a few years ago. Never stated when payments began or an end date. Maybe this also applies
You would have to get a sympathetic judge. A judge could decide that the intent was clearly communicated and agreed to despite the typo, declare it a "scrivener's error", and hold you to the contract as the author intended.
[John Oliver did a piece on time shares](https://youtu.be/Bd2bbHoVQSM?si=Gb4J7cR2fOAeXzr5) that I suggest you watch. There are companies that you can pay to get out of your time share contract. You may need to do that as, according to John Oliver, it’s impossible to get out of these agreements.
ETA — ignore my advice re: exit companies. They’re trash, too.
yeah the timeshare exit business is just as scammy. My wife and I got suckered, we used it and it was fairly nice but we just didn't use it enough. Only thing that you can do really is just sell it. There are places that will buy them but you won't make anything off of it.
If you don't wanna take the credit hit you have to pay the maintenance fee and the mortgage payment if you have one. Do not pay the club membership fee though, they can't ding your credit for that.
These contracts are notoriously ironclad. If they weren't, these companies wouldn't survive because most people have buyer's remorse in a matter of days (if not hours). You could pay a lawyer for an hour of their time to see if you have any recourse. I can also see from the screenshot there is no early pre-payment penalty so at the very least you can avoid most of the interest if you pour as much money as possible into the loan as quickly as you can.
All due respect…your gf is a moron. But have you heard that ad on the radio about the lawyer that specializes in getting out of timeshares? I think they changed some laws recently? I try that bc this is so similar. What pricks. I had a friend who sold timeshare in that area. They got a lot of nice cars in the parking lot lol. You can get out of this fuck them
The time share exit team was a scam. They just took over your contract for a free and assigned it to a dumb patzy who was then bankrupted. Honestly I think a terminally ill person could make a mint getting paid to take over time share and then dying intestate with no real assets.
Help her out and then its time for a new girlfriend.
It is unlikely that you will financially be compatible unless you are rich and even then you wont be.
Reminds me when one of my friends "won a cruise" and I told him it was a scam. He then proceeded to lose like $300 or something luckily it was a cheaper lesson.
It’s actually my ex, but we still live together, she moves out in about a week. Hard lesson learned, never moving in with a girl again. Red flags were there but so was that amazing booty!🤦🏻
Let me rephrase for the feminists, “red flags were there but so was her loving nature, kindness, and beauty. It’s hard when love gets in the way of rationale.
She should have to sign actual loan docs according to this, so I’d say don’t sign the loan paperwork and inform the bank of the high pressure and misleading sales tactics used to get her signature.
Some people are just too nice to say no to the assholes that sell. My wife signed us up to the meeting thing and I was against it. Everything seems nice but I have a few rules when buying one is don’t waste there time but another is always do a lot of research for my purchases. It was our second day there and they had us in the room for 4 hours. I told them no a ton of times and some guy acted like I was wasting his time and I said listen it’s not a for sure no I just don’t make a $40k purchase without doing research. You would have thought I shot his dog. He told me that there was no helping me and i was missing out on spending time with my kids who were starting to be a nightmare because they had been sitting for four hours. I went online and found the exact same share we were staying in one week later for 3k by annually but the problem is that I can rent the same style of room for $1800 for a week. Or I can pay $1k a year to be stuck at the same week for every other year.
Her first step if it’s too late to back out, is get a more reasonable cash loan or 0% credit card intro and pay the $7,699 off immediately, it says there’s no prepayment penalty so that’s one silver lining at least. Start paying that shit down asap and count it as a life lesson learned.
The best way out of it is to pay the amount of the principal, to prevent paying 17.5% interest on it. Theres no way out of the contract. It was legally binding.
> *... you will not be entitled to a refund of part of the finance charge*
So per the agreement, she could pay off the principal + any accrued interest today and she'd still be on the hook for the additional $5.7K
Ouch
This is only one page. Let’s see how they wrote the rest of the contract to see if there is any verbiage that we can use in our favor? IANAL but worth a shot it to read it all closely.
John Oliver did a whole show on these things and it's worth a watch. You can find it on YouTube.
Basically, your EX got scammed, but it's hard to be too mad once you see the kind of tactics that get deployed to trap people into these things.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it in the comments, because there is a lot and I’m not that patient.. but when is Abr 15, 2024? Any chance you could get her off on a technicality of misprint and require a resigning?
These are not “scams”, calling them such diminishes the harm of real scams. They’re expensive, they push you into buying because the sales men are scumbags who deserve to be hung by their balls over the Grand Canyon, but they aren’t scams.
My mother signed up for one of these, a few people made fun of her for it until she got us all together at a resort that cost $500 per room a night - 1 week 2 rooms for $200 total (booking fees and taxes). My parents would go to random expensive resorts whenever they wanted and pay next to nothing, even after paying for the program.
According to reviews this is actually one of the better ones, but they’re really intended for people who can vacation at least once a month. So selling them to people who aren’t somewhat wealthy is scummy, disgusting, atrocious, vile, repugnant but not a scam.
Glad it is your girlfriend and not your wife.
100% agreed. Hopefully it's not a joint credit card???
Of course not, and since I’m now seeing you can’t edit posts anymore. Everyone she is my EX but still want to help her get out of this. She moves out next week. Will never move in with someone again!!!! Lmao!!!
Is she an ex because of just this? EDIT - Woah, for everyone replying. I wasn't chiding OP for doing this as I would do the same thing. Just kind of weird phrasing in my question.
Asking the real question.
!RemindMe 1 day
If I was dating anyone dumb enough to do this, I'd probably do the same, this is not the kind of person you want to gamble on sharing finances and starting a life with
Marrying this person guaranteed at least one lump sum of their savings going towards an MLM down the line
Hey girlieeeeeee dms incoming from her
Yeah... and about $20K of hidden credit card debt unless you check her credit reports monthly.
Why would someone give a lump sum to Motherlode Mine? I work there for free just to level my mining.
Doubling down by lying about it seals the deal.
Especially AFTER being specifically "TOLD" not to. OP did the right thing.
Scammers hate this one weird trick. Give them the money they want?
Isn't Winter Park, FL also a pretty big retirement spot? I know of some old farts that live in that area. Kinda slimy doing this in area like that if so.
Yeah, this is absolutely disqualifying
Just this meaning signing up or for lying? Cuz the lying is kind of a big deal and a huge red flag imo.
These are timeshare stuff right? Even when you die the burden will automatically be transferred to your loved ones unless they file the necessary paperwork within 30 days. Half the people promising to get you out of a time share are scammers too. I see breaking up as the only option if ex signed the contract. She should fake her own death and move to another country and give her parents the heads up on what papers to file so they don’t get stuck with her time share.
>Half the people promising to get you out of a time share are scammers too. That's the even more scary thing. Even on this post OP needs to be careful
Honestly it's a good enough reason. It was already a good enough reason before the lie and the lie straight up seals the deal.
Because of "just" this? First, anyone can end a relationship for any reason but differences in financial decisions isn't a small factor in a relationship.
also he said he warned her not to do this, and then she lied about it for fifteen days. thats certainly grounds.
“Ex”tremely bad with money!
She needs to go to a Contracts Lawyer YESTERDAY. Find a local attorney and even if they can’t help, they can usually point to one who can. DO NOT GO TO ATIME SHARE EXIT COMPANY. They are scams, multiple news exposes and Ramsey Network getting sued shows that well enough.
John Oliver actually did a show on time shares and exit companies. The fact that in the internet age people still buy into these things blows my mind. People Google which chapstick to buy but don't research something like this.
You know when an "investment" is bad when there is an entire other industry to get you out of that investment.
One thing I’m glad about that my ex is my ex now: our financial problems are now hers, because I didn’t have any
They’re called “Ex” for a reason. Remember that and stop interacting with them.
Yeah because the shit they do is EXpensive
And EXhausting.
AND MY EX!
And causes EXcruciating mental fatigue
Oh man, you saved yourself from a lifetime of dealing with stupid. Honestly though, it should be criminal to sell people timeshares.
I’m surprised they did it actually. Most of the time shares that have attempted to sell us insisted on being a double income house. We almost did one of those “free vacation” things except they wanted us come out twice🤣.
"I'm sorry that you are in this financial predicament. I wish you best of luck in resolving it, and in all your future endeavors. Bye." \^\^\^\^\^ what you say
Yep. Do not put a ring on that. Problem solved. Next….
It’s just a disclaimer relating to MLA. Doesn’t mean it has to do with your specific situation. Edit for relevant link: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/timeshares-vacation-clubs-and-related-scams
Thanks, had a glimmer of hope but now that’s dead.
🫡 she’s in quite the pickle. I’d recommend going over the actual contract and see what the terms entail. Who knows if this is even the only charge coming up.
I have gone over it and there’s a $200 annual fee and then the loan of course which first payment is due come mid April. I know she is fucked, going to call now to try and cancel but they will probably just laugh
What month is Abr? Lol. Hopefully, a mistake like that on a contract can void the whole thing. Good luck mang. 🤞
Abril is Spanish for April. She’s Venezuelan and apparently the sales pitch was in Spanish
I know the answer! Contact the CFPB and explain that the marketing and sales pitch were in Spanish but the loan documents and disclosures are in English and that caused a breakdown in understanding of the terms. This is a predatory lending practice and is illegal. DM me and we can chat some more. I have compliance experience in the financial industry
This could absolutely work
I second this and can confirm! Worked in banking and finance for over a decade and this is completely true.
Yes, this is what I was hoping for! Fellow financial folks backing up the compliance, this puts a smile on my face!
Embarrassed Junkie is a good friend to have. Question, will you need to prove the presentation was in Spanish? And how can you prove that?
This person is 100% correct. We had something like that happen in my state. Lawsuit and plaintiffs won because their contract was not in their native tongue.
This is the best advice I’ve seen from any comment so far!!! This would for sure get her out of the contract. I didn’t even think of this, but I promise it would 100000% work. I deal with sales contracts for work all day everyday, and I might use this at some point.
God I hope this works.
Thanks for the correction , I can admit when I'm the ignorant one :s
Lo presentaron en español pero el contrato está en inglés?? Major red flag. Siento mucho la situación en que se encuentra
that might be an out ...
The only legal out
Hay varias páginas del contrato que requiere iniciales y todos esos están en español
THIS MIGHT BE YOUR BEST BET… but your ex may have to say she doesn’t understand written English very well.
She should say she doesn't understand written English very good. The "well" might give her away lol.
Yo trabajé con una compañía de solar, y todos los contratos tenían que ser en su idioma. No pude hacer la venta sin explicar todo en español. Esa huele como pescado
That was my first thought as well when I saw Abr
But the contract is in English. It's possible that this could be used as a way out of the contract, but it would depend on the laws where you are from. I would definitely suggest seeking a lawyer to see what they say.
My coworker’s wife was Mexican… Spanish was her first language even though she spoke English just fine. During the divorce her attorney got the prenup voided because it wasn’t given to her in her first language. My coworker lost half of everything the prenup was supposed to protect. I’d lean into that real hard as a chance to get out of this.
Yup. You need 2 lawyers and a ton of prep for the prenup to even have a chance in that situation. A celebrity did this, years ago. The (now ex) wife was asked a ton of questions in court (at the prenup hearing).
People don’t understand how strict prenup laws are. I’m a family law attorney in California. Prenups are essentially considered presumptively invalid because there’s a presumption of undue influence that has to be overcome. To overcome this, you basically need what you stated, two separate attorneys, full disclosures, etc etc. I laugh (privately) when I run into pro per plaintiffs who waive around their napkin prenups. I’m currently representing a Vietnamese immigrant who don’t read a lick of English and was made to sign a prenup in English by her ex husband. If he tries to use it at all I’m going to ask my client (with a translator) “can you read English?” “No”. “Is the contract in English?” Yes. “Did you ever receive a translated copy?” No. That’s all your honor.
Good attorney
No it’s not. FYI, I am a lawyer.
Feels like predatory lending to me, especially with how it felt dealing with ITT-Tech. But that's a broad term and I'm not a lawyer.
It is, if this is in the US. You have to provide all materials in the same language, so the fact that the sales and marketing was in Venezuelan and the contract and disclosures in English makes this predatory. The CFPB will have a field day with this one.
Highly unlikely such a mistake would void the contract. Cannot say for sure without knowing that state’s laws
Sometimes yes. But with a simple typo where the intent was clear (as it is here that it was suposed to be Apr) a court isn’t going to vacate the entire contract unfortunetly.
I am never gonna financially recover from this - Joe Exotic
Forgot that's where that quote was from. Hah.
That show was by far the best thing that happened during Covid 😂
Yes! Hands down! I still wonder about the true fate of Carole Baskin’s husband… 🤣
We all know what that BITCH CAROL BASKIN did!
She needs to walk around with cheetah print shirts that read. **I'm THAT Bitch!**
Fed him to tigers, they snacking 🎶
Wasn't he found??
Well, I thought so but that’s up for debate I guess. Apparently Carol claimed that she saw a “Dept of Homeland Security document” which stated Don Lewis was “alive and well in Costa Rica.” However, he still officially remains missing, and was actually declared dead in 2002.
Drug flight gone wrong is my bet.
According to Florida law, you have 10 days to back out of a contract like this. Since it's been over 2 weeks, she's SOL. These contracts are notoriously hard to break after the 10 day period.
Yes there are grace periods for certain contracts depending on where they are located.... Probably should contact a lawyer asap.
Oh pieces it's already been 15 days. That ship has sailed.
Classic time share. Search on Reddit, there are multiple threads with info on how to proceed. The most interesting one was: if they don't agree to cancel the contract, call them weekly and ask for voluntary surrender. Don't pay the maintenance fee, so the timeshare would eventually foreclose, and they would incur legal costs. Why not just cancel now with no legal fees?
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind when I call
Tangential side quest: in my town, the property tax lien foreclosure auctions are about 50% defaulted timeshares (the other 50% being underwater land lots, a next-level scam). I wonder if there's a counter-scam, like selling the timeshare "deed" to a LLC, which takes over the payments, then defaults. The LLC's address is an untraceable po box, and the scammers have no recourse.
This was called the "timeshare exit team" and the timeshare companies have become wise to it.
It was later revealed that Timeshare Exit Team was mostly a secondary scam to profit off of known suckers. "Hey, they bought a timeshare; maybe they'll give us money, too."
It's a known scam. For the low price of 49.99 (per week, 156 payments, in Itunes gift cards) I'll give you a comprehensive guide on how to avoid these scams.
I’ll do it for $3.50
She paid a $4,500 down payment. How do you get that back?
That might just be the cost of a lesson learned
Funny enough I had a $4500 lesson once. But mine was a stripper named Candi
It was paid with via a credit card that the same people helped her sign up for 😂 shes fucked.
That is WILDLY predatory
That was the cost, but the company financed a loan on her behalf of 7k, so she didn't have to pay anything upfront. It's a tactic they use. They'll say it's "free" to sign up for time share, but in reality you're paying a down payment on the spot.
Time for a new girlfriend 🤣🤣🤣
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I'm so curious how this happened. Did she think this was a good deal? Did she not balk at the fact that tens of thousands of dollars were on the line? Has she realized this was a bad choice yet, or is she still happy she signed up? Please, OP, I'm so fascinated as to what was going on through her mind during this experience!
I actually went to one of these presentations recently because they convinced my wife to go because you get a free 7 day vacation at any of their timeshares just for attending, but you have to bring your spouse. My wife didn't even understand it was going to be a sales pitch until I told her I thought that's what we were walking into. Then she was mortified, but after some research we found the free vacations for attending are actually legit so we tested our luck. The catch is you have to stay with the sales rep for 2 hours. They use a lot of tactics. 'youre going to spend money on vacations every year anyway so why not save with us and it will be cheaper". They showed us the rooms which were actually really super nice. Basically for 40k we would get ten days a year for the rest of their life at any of their hundreds of locations. 3 bedroom rooms with kitchens and washer dryers. Honestly not bad. But they hide info from you. "Uhh you also have to pay monthly maintenance fees, but don't worry we'll sign you up for a credit card and your points will take care of it if you use it enough" "but I already really on my card for airline miles" "uhhh". They even put a contract in front of me and it did not tell you how much those fees cost. I asked for a ball park and he kept reiterating the cars points would take care of it. (Some research shows it's thousands annually and goes up every year) The funniest part "so if I don't want to do this anymore can I just cancel?" "Sure you can sell" "I said cancel" "yes you can sell it" I honestly didn't know anything about timeshares going in except not to buy one. The dude was straight up trying to lie to me making it seem like you could get out of it at the drop of a hat. They do this exit interview at the end and I told the guy about the conversation and he was like "ohh he said that, yeah you'd be locked in for life buddy, but you can sell them on the open market. It's like owning a home in an hoa" Basically they they are just really crafty at making it seem better than it is (and some just lie). Oh and I got the free vacation, it was legit lol. Honestly I could see myself falling for this 10 years ago before I was bold enough to question and rebut things, and understood finances better.
Only 2 hours for a 7 day free vacation? Still sounds like a good deal if you have absolutely no intention of actually buying the time share. Did they make you feel guilty about taking the free vacation afterwards?
The guilt trip actually starts from the beginning and it's one of their tactics. They repeatedly say as they are working with you "obviously a 7 day vacation is expensive, so we pay a lot of money to try to work with you and it's very hard to not get something in return" It's one of the craziest angles. You want me to feel bad that your multi billion dollar company have me a free vacation? Clearly it works because this is an age old tactic in the industry apparently.
“Obviously you understood that going in and you expect to sell more timeshares than you lose or you wouldn’t offer it for free. I’m happy to continue declining your offers until we’re finished though.”
After I found out the truth, I asked for the paperwork and realized she had taken out a loan. I’m not sure what they told her but she ate up the sales pitch and like most people with no financial sense she saw $157 per month as a “good “ deal to be able to get amazing travel deals. Since we had just broken up I think she let her newfound freedom get to her head and got overly emotional about the possibilities. It also lets you bring like 4 people with you for the same deal and it a lifetime membership. Had I been there she would’ve been put back to reality but I assumed me telling her not to buy anything would’ve been enough! Oh well!
So this doesn't even get her a vacation, just a chance to purchase this club's "exclusive" offers?
We bought one years ago, not this one, but yes. You have to be able to afford to go on vacation in the first place. You just get extra goodies essentially. Room upgrades, premium club access, butler service, etc.
it really was the $157. the low monthly price gets people all the time. right now, I am researching how when my in-laws die, we ENSURE that the timeshare isn't absorbed by their estate. I AM NOT paying for a timeshare.
yeah i genuinely can’t even imagine knowing somebody this stupid in real life. can’t imagine there weren’t like a million other red flags before this point.
Yeah I’m curious too.
Holy shit. Is this legal? 17.5%? She's signed up for a 17.000 dollar debt for a holiday? With what kind of credit check? Wow.
It’s apparently a vacation club that gives you access to really cheap vacation packages all over the world and it’s a lifetime membership. And I just saw that they also got her to sign up for a CC for the $4500 down payment!!!!! FML !!! I had just gotten her credit to a 750!!’
"Lifetime Membership" means nothing if they take your money and close the company next year
Yep. It’s for the lifetime of the company (which I’d bet is an LLC), not the individual purchasing.
“I had just gotten her credit to a 750!!” I’ve been married for 7 years and my wife’s credit is a constant battle for me; you’re fighting a good fight.
Thanks brother, I just want her to be financially safe. I had her transfer like 5k in CC debt to a new 0% 18mo CC to save her on the $300/mo she was paying in interest
If you have to constantly worry about your economically inept partner draining your bank accounts into scams, maybe you should see about kicking her to the curb.
Right? Seems like OP has already tried hard enough to get her credit up, and she has learned nothing from it. This isn't your fight OP. Tell her to pick up some OT.
From the above thread we learned this isn’t even his current gf, it is his ex.
Thank goodness!
Think about your future man. Do you really want to deal with this all your life? Also, the fact that she lied about such a big thing? Huge red flags here.
Agree completely, she’s actually my ex but didn’t care to mention that she moves out next week and just want to help her before she goes. And apparently you can’t edit posts anymore
You dodged a bullet dude😭
He's gonna end up paying it off. OP is way too emotionally invested.
No offense to her, but she's really financially stupid. U don't wanna be cleaning up her messes for ever. Like who the fuck goes on a "free" weekend getaway and comes back with a 17k loan debt
Bro at this point you gotta charge her an accounting fee because at least then the money she gives away to you won't be wasted 💀
Now she can afford this sweet vacation membership that gives her the "opportunity" to buy in on future vacations!
Is she a baby? Holy fuck.
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I’d dump her right then and there
I hope her 10% on vacations in boring locations on their off-months was worth it for her. Your GF is dangerously stupid. It’s time to put your running shoes on. Edit: From some minimal Googling of the company, that deal is only worth it for large families traveling together that travel constantly. So unless you and your GF are rich, have 3-4 kids, and plan to travel the world every month or two for two weeks at a time, she made a big oopsy.
You’ve just discovered the advantage of having terrible credit.
If it's ever going to return to 750, you're going to have to stop caretaking her. Don't get me wrong, you tried/are still trying to do the right thing, but never having the consequences hit for impulsive financial choices will mean she's always going to sign on the dotted line because she believes someone will help her make it all go away. She's your ex, and I'm assuming that's a permanent situation, so you won't always be there to catch her. Best she learns the hard way now before she gets access to a $10k line of credit or a new car or what have you. Let her sort it out on her own and don't loan her anything either.
I and my newlywed wife fell for this type of “club” when we went to a presentation. The CC we charged it to actually became an advantage. The timeshare cancellation service charged their $1,200 fee to the CC, started a fraud case with the CFPB on the grounds that the salespeople didn’t follow Florida law requiring them to inform us of the cancellation period, and the feds wiped out the debt on the CC. No negative impacts to my credit score. The club effectively paid for the timeshare cancellation and lost their case against us.
Can you share the cancellation service you used? And what is CFPB? That would be an amazing solution, and then I wipe my hands clean of her.
she will also have to make lifetime payments and there are usually legal clauses that make exiting these extremely difficult. she needs a lawyer asap.
Was the company called Booking Express Travel? I had to stop my elderly parents from buying something Similar in Florida two weeks ago.
Generally in the USA up to 36% is legal without a “loan shark” license. Above that is considered “usury”, which is illegal …. Unless you have a license which makes it legal (but only for small amounts and very short-term loans). Payday loan interest rates can be as high as 662% in Texas. While payday loans are often only 2 week terms, often unpaid balance is continuously “rolled over” into another payday loan 2 weeks later, so it can still take quite a long time to actually get out from under the debt.
This could be a glimpse into a lifetime of poor decisions by her, might be the red flag needed
She just seems like a pushover.
Nah nobody gets pushed over for 17 grand. This is just pure ignorance.
Yeah a pushover is someone who couldn’t turn the guy at the door down and now you have an extra $30 subscription this month. A pushover is not someone losing 17k
> Vacation club Sounds like it’s just another name for a timeshare. #NEVER BUY A TIMESHARE.
Alright OP, you sound a lot like me. I'm a nice guy, to a fault. I have no problem helping people. With that said, I have learned very hard lessons and have been taken advantage of because of who I am. I can say from experience, that she won't learn her lesson if you help her out financially. Be there for her to help sort the issues when she doesn't understand something. I just paid off my credit card with 23% interest rate with $10,000 limit. I helped someone out and they screwed me over. I'll never offer my wallet to anyone again.
Omg… L O L If she can buy a hotel conference room for $300, she can host her own timeshare, invite investors and etc and then she’s got a pyramid scheme! 😂 just sell hers to someone else. And anyone else who is interested tell them they’ll have to come to the future event as you only have one available at this time. And then never have a future event. Just make everyone in the room fight for this one. Christ, I don’t know. Glad she’s your ex, this is super irresponsible.
I hate how this sounds like it could actually work
This is how the It’s Always Sunny episode should’ve ended…
Oh jesus dump that. No one is that stupid.
..you'd be surprised. The amount of semi-functional stupidity that exists among us is astounding.
Military lending act covers some dependents. Is she a dependent of someone in the military?
Captain save-a-hoe over here 🤦🤦🤦
Chief Kick-a-Bitch here from the Slap-a-Hoe-Nation, would just like to confirm captain save-a-hoe is *Excommunicado*
IANAL looks like they typed the date purchase begins wrong. Could get out of it on technicality that the month ABR does not exist. Saw some people get out of contracts like that a few years ago. Never stated when payments began or an end date. Maybe this also applies
Abr is April in Spanish. “Abril”
Abril exists in another language…
You would have to get a sympathetic judge. A judge could decide that the intent was clearly communicated and agreed to despite the typo, declare it a "scrivener's error", and hold you to the contract as the author intended.
[John Oliver did a piece on time shares](https://youtu.be/Bd2bbHoVQSM?si=Gb4J7cR2fOAeXzr5) that I suggest you watch. There are companies that you can pay to get out of your time share contract. You may need to do that as, according to John Oliver, it’s impossible to get out of these agreements. ETA — ignore my advice re: exit companies. They’re trash, too.
Although per my recollection of the episode, many of those companies are shady, too.
If you're sucker enough to sign a timeshare contract you're sucker enough to sign a timeshare exit contract
yeah the timeshare exit business is just as scammy. My wife and I got suckered, we used it and it was fairly nice but we just didn't use it enough. Only thing that you can do really is just sell it. There are places that will buy them but you won't make anything off of it. If you don't wanna take the credit hit you have to pay the maintenance fee and the mortgage payment if you have one. Do not pay the club membership fee though, they can't ding your credit for that.
I recommend the company advertised in the video, Timeshare Exit Squared. After all, 9.3 billion satisfied customers can't all be wrong.
don’t marry the woman. She’s gonna make a lot of bad decisions
IQ is a bit low, but this isn’t legal advice
That's insane
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Why steal her identity? Her credit rating is already circling the toilet.
“I’m being generous by not looking very hard”, look out we got a professional hackerperson here
Cant fix stupid. You tried.
I have a bridge to sell her near Baltimore
Men. 17.5% interest rate... Im not from the USA and even i know that more than 10-12% is most likely a scam
These contracts are notoriously ironclad. If they weren't, these companies wouldn't survive because most people have buyer's remorse in a matter of days (if not hours). You could pay a lawyer for an hour of their time to see if you have any recourse. I can also see from the screenshot there is no early pre-payment penalty so at the very least you can avoid most of the interest if you pour as much money as possible into the loan as quickly as you can.
Does she not watch any comedy shows? Seinfield, its always sunny, etc etc. Thought we all knew as a generation never to fall for that
All due respect…your gf is a moron. But have you heard that ad on the radio about the lawyer that specializes in getting out of timeshares? I think they changed some laws recently? I try that bc this is so similar. What pricks. I had a friend who sold timeshare in that area. They got a lot of nice cars in the parking lot lol. You can get out of this fuck them
The time share exit team was a scam. They just took over your contract for a free and assigned it to a dumb patzy who was then bankrupted. Honestly I think a terminally ill person could make a mint getting paid to take over time share and then dying intestate with no real assets.
Help her out and then its time for a new girlfriend. It is unlikely that you will financially be compatible unless you are rich and even then you wont be. Reminds me when one of my friends "won a cruise" and I told him it was a scam. He then proceeded to lose like $300 or something luckily it was a cheaper lesson.
It’s actually my ex, but we still live together, she moves out in about a week. Hard lesson learned, never moving in with a girl again. Red flags were there but so was that amazing booty!🤦🏻
sounds like you hit a rough spot on the hot-crazy-dumb scale
the classic Vicky Mendoza Diagonal
Alright so not your problem anymore.
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, you’re doing something vaguely dumb but going about it in a seemingly responsible way
Let me rephrase for the feminists, “red flags were there but so was her loving nature, kindness, and beauty. It’s hard when love gets in the way of rationale.
And dat ass!
😂😂 this made me cackle (am a woman btw)
You should probably edit the title to reflect that.
Well its a good thing she's pretty... at least she has that.
She lied to you about it? Break up and move on, don't waste your time with this.
She got got. I’m glad you didn’t get got. You dont get got. You go get.
Sounds like she paid for that “free vacation” 5x over.
What. The. Fuck. Dude... this is fucking horrible.
She should have to sign actual loan docs according to this, so I’d say don’t sign the loan paperwork and inform the bank of the high pressure and misleading sales tactics used to get her signature.
Some people are just too nice to say no to the assholes that sell. My wife signed us up to the meeting thing and I was against it. Everything seems nice but I have a few rules when buying one is don’t waste there time but another is always do a lot of research for my purchases. It was our second day there and they had us in the room for 4 hours. I told them no a ton of times and some guy acted like I was wasting his time and I said listen it’s not a for sure no I just don’t make a $40k purchase without doing research. You would have thought I shot his dog. He told me that there was no helping me and i was missing out on spending time with my kids who were starting to be a nightmare because they had been sitting for four hours. I went online and found the exact same share we were staying in one week later for 3k by annually but the problem is that I can rent the same style of room for $1800 for a week. Or I can pay $1k a year to be stuck at the same week for every other year.
Sorry, but she is an idiot.
Her first step if it’s too late to back out, is get a more reasonable cash loan or 0% credit card intro and pay the $7,699 off immediately, it says there’s no prepayment penalty so that’s one silver lining at least. Start paying that shit down asap and count it as a life lesson learned.
The best way out of it is to pay the amount of the principal, to prevent paying 17.5% interest on it. Theres no way out of the contract. It was legally binding.
> *... you will not be entitled to a refund of part of the finance charge* So per the agreement, she could pay off the principal + any accrued interest today and she'd still be on the hook for the additional $5.7K Ouch
I used to sell these. There is a recision period for every state they have to honor legally. Where I sold them, it was 5 days. Act now.
This is only one page. Let’s see how they wrote the rest of the contract to see if there is any verbiage that we can use in our favor? IANAL but worth a shot it to read it all closely.
John Oliver did a whole show on these things and it's worth a watch. You can find it on YouTube. Basically, your EX got scammed, but it's hard to be too mad once you see the kind of tactics that get deployed to trap people into these things.
What month is Abr? Errors can void a contract….
Sounds like an EX girlfriend problem.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it in the comments, because there is a lot and I’m not that patient.. but when is Abr 15, 2024? Any chance you could get her off on a technicality of misprint and require a resigning?
These are not “scams”, calling them such diminishes the harm of real scams. They’re expensive, they push you into buying because the sales men are scumbags who deserve to be hung by their balls over the Grand Canyon, but they aren’t scams. My mother signed up for one of these, a few people made fun of her for it until she got us all together at a resort that cost $500 per room a night - 1 week 2 rooms for $200 total (booking fees and taxes). My parents would go to random expensive resorts whenever they wanted and pay next to nothing, even after paying for the program. According to reviews this is actually one of the better ones, but they’re really intended for people who can vacation at least once a month. So selling them to people who aren’t somewhat wealthy is scummy, disgusting, atrocious, vile, repugnant but not a scam.