Prepaying

I was reading an article about "Prepaying." There are several ways companies make money...one is by getting customers to prepay. Cell phone service is one of the most common. Extended warranties on service contracts is another. The extended warranty service is a huge money make for retailers.

The problem with prepaying is you can get cheated. I remember once repaying a years gym membership because it was cheaper that month to month...only to show up one morning to a gym that had closed down. Guess what...I didn't get a refund of the unused balance. Now if I am going to prepay something I do a little more research, look at what the economy is doing, check out how healthy and the longevity of the business...before I prepay.

We used to get lots of advertisement through the mail to prepay funeral expenses...I did not even go there. Even people in the funeral industry agree that it is not a good idea.

The most prolific prepayment business out there is time share vacation spots. It amazes me that people still fall for that! You prepay for an "interest" in a vacation spot. Which right off the bat means you are going to the same spot every single vacation...sure they tell you that you can trade but having seen friends try to trade is amazing. They show you the beautiful room overlooking the ocean...but hey...when you arrive you get the room overlooking the parking lot. You have to make monthly payments for a vacation you haven't even gone on, plus a yearly fee. A few years ago I was sailing the Hawaiian islands and one of the other sailors and his son visited a former college friend who sold timeshares in Hawaii. He said that by his calculations if you went every year to the time share you bought for 20 years it cost you $300/night!!!!!!!!!! I have never staying in a hotel for $300/night and I do not want to go to the same place all the time. On our employee website there are always ads for "time share weeks" for sale, cause the person is paying the fees but can't afford to go. Either life gets in the way or they can't afford the airfare! Yep...just cause you payed $20,000 for a life time vacation...you still gotta pay airfare, food and entertainment...that time share is just for the bed.

When I was on Maui there were several store fronts called,"Time Share Resale" on the way to the regular timeshare...what about this picture are people not getting? And the hook about coming for a free weeks vacation to just listen to the timeshare presentation ...runnnnnn Forrest runnnnnn.