Tuesday 10 July 2012

Club La Costa...a shifting Landscape!

Its been some time since we posted on here and its mainly because we've been busy growing our Members Forum at www.clcmembers.co.uk.  We've over 5000 Members there now and we consistently get 70-80 new members each year.

CLC is a constantly moving organisation, and in many ways much better than the fly by night scammers that are rife on the internet and on locations internationally.

We had the release of their new product last year, called the FPOC (Fractional Property Owners Club) which is a Fractional product, meaning that you can own and investment in Bricks and Mortar and stand the chance to get a return of your investment.  However, FNTC,who is the Trustee of FPOC, say that this model should never be one advertised as an investment, which certainly presents a challenge for CLC and perhaps they will comment on this in the future.  I do wonder what FNTC would say, if it heard from prospective or existing members attending presentations, that they were being sold an investment opportunity, albeit, without any guarantees of a return.    We do wonder why many people would take up such an option, but nonetheless, many do so, as we can determine from the experiences shared on our Members Forums at www.clcmembers.co.uk

FPOC, from owners feedback, is apparently not actually Bricks and Mortar but is in fact a Rights Access Product, as denoted on the contract that members have discussed.  Lets hope this isn't a Mis Sell as we all know where that can end up, but if in doubt we would advise you get a good solicitor to look this over, if you have any concerns.

Most people who have been members of former products are being invited to presentations, where you'll be given a discount off the cost of moving over to the FPOC product.  You can have some advantages, the most obvious touted as a "chance" of getting a return on your product after a 16 - 19 year agreement, but they will discount this to the point that you could be paying around £7-£10k for a two, three or four week Rights Access.  Sound familiar....i.e. get about 4- 6 weeks holiday with your Vacation Club Points and if your membership is too low...Bronze, Silver, Gold....etc, then we an upgrade you and sell you a few extra points meanwhile.

It doesn't look like VC has a future in my humble opinion and this I see is the beginning of the end, although that could take about 10 years.  CLC openly admit they don't push Vacation Club Points anymore but if you ask, you can purchase them.   You can also purchase them from Members Selling them at the www.clcmembers.co.uk Forums, where members advertise to each other, but also you can BID for a deal at the www.holidayauctions.org.uk site, where rental and sales are available from CLC owners as well as many other people outside the CLC Portfolio.

However, think on.  CLC have now began to sell direct holidays to the resorts that many owners believed were exclusive to them, but now anyone can have access without the investment of a VC or FPOC Ownership.  How do they do this I hear you say?

Try these for size:



Yes, they are selling weeks, that many members can never get for exchanging their Points.

You do have to ask the question, is it worth buying into their programmes or just booking a week direct from them, which according to many members, is cheaper and more weeks are available.

Food for thought...We'll be back!

17 comments:

  1. Yes, these people try anything to get you to keep paying the piper....someone should tell the financial authorities about this con

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  2. We seem to be doing a "Full Circle" here. If FPOC is not a bricks and mortor ownership and a Rights Access Product then we are back to buying and owning weeks !!!! no different to the Destination week based club.

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  3. I would love to see some calculations on the following....... "CLC have now began to sell direct holidays to the resorts that many owners believed were exclusive to them, but now anyone can have access without the investment of a VC"

    Looking at CLCholidays.com a 3 bed for 2 weeks in the school summer holidays will cost around £1200. To get the same via Vacation Club is around 2600 points. Maintenence cost on these points is around £1500 / year. I think it is cheaper to to just get the holiday from CLCholidays.com.

    This ignores the buy in cost of say £10 / £15 per point of £26K - £39K.

    If these calculations are correct I agree this will be the end of vacation club points.

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  4. The Difference is you sign up to a 19 Year Period and then you can leave. Also, CLC say that you MAY be able to make a financial return, which you don't get offered with Destinations.

    Don't you just love anonymous posters? :)
    Robert

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  5. Hi we are in Spain at the moment and although we did not have the full interview we were told that FPOC is coming to its end as they are selling out and VC will be back on the menu. Does anyone have any experience with Freehold ownership? PS - Not sure which profile to select - that may be why Anonymous gets chosen....

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  6. Hi Kathie. Thanks for the news. That sounds like a Sales Pitch to me. A bit like there's only one left...get it whilst you can, but why would anyone bother if you currently are able to leave VC each year. With no guarantee of any return and a tie up for all those years, I doubt it's the last one. There are already a couple of FPOC Ownerships for sale on the Holiday Auctions site. Here's one. http://www.holidayauctions.org.uk/holiday-sales/for-sale/results/auction-description/511-a-17-year-3-week-fractional-ownership-at-club-la-costas-marina-dorada.html

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  7. Hi. We are still within our 14 day cooling off period after signing into fractional ownership, trading in our vacation points towards the cost. CLC say they will purchase back at any time during the 19 year period. If there are some people already trying to sell privately does this mean that CLC will not take back as promised? I don't know now whether to cancel while I can. Any advice would really be appreciated.

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  8. CLC do not buy it back at any time. They are allowed first refusal at the end of the contract. This is in writing on the www.clcmembers.co.uk members forum. Also, someone is selling theirs for £500 at the www.holidayauctions.org.uk website. The criteria is there, and the requirements of transfer are also there, supplied by the owner who got it from CLC themselves.

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  9. considering moving to fractional from VC points as sounds like there may be a slightly better chance of getting a return at the end of 19 years. Am I being over optimistic

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  10. Hi Liz.
    Where there is no guarantee, you need to assume the worst case scenario. There has already been a revision of the initial FPOC contract, which the second excluded a Booking Fee. Where did that leave those who signed up to first version? It would seem that there is an upgrade process, but looks likely that there is a cost increase implication when you buy into it. If you want to still buy in, then a couple of people are already selling a Transfer of Ownership of FPOC for around a price of £500. A significant saving from what you've likely been offered. You can make an owner an offer at this link. http://www.holidayauctions.org.uk/holiday-sales/for-sale/results/auction-description/511-a-17-year-3-week-fractional-ownership-at-club-la-costas-marina-dorada.html#.UmV_Zyi1zjg

    Please understand that if ever you want out, due to a change in circumstances, it's your responsibility to find a buyer, which has been verified by the person selling their FPOC at the above link.

    THere are many views on owning FPOC both positive and negative at the www.clcmembers.co.uk/forum website. There are almost 6000 people registered there and 30,000+ postings about all Club La Costa's products. It's an excellent resource which is fully available for a £5 donation for a full 12 months. A fraction of what you are about to spend, if you are buying in.

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  11. Thank you so much for the wonderful information .This is really important for me .I am searching this kind of information from a long time and finally got it.

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  12. You should get more up to date with everything at the www.clcmembers.co.uk/forum site. We're on facebook and Twitter as well.

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  13. these people are con artists, pigs in lipsticks and fraudsters who prey on naive unsuspecting people and rip them off for many years to come.
    I hope the governments come up with enforceable regulation to clamp down on these monsters

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  14. Gosh. it's been a long time since someone posted here, but we've since started to help people using our Verified owners list. This ensures we don't have this "annonymous" stuff, as we've found that they are sometimes people, who are working for CLC. Our new Legal service helps to get people their money back, as well as their Finance used to pay for it.

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