London Aire wrote: Why do people even buy memberships? What is the advantage?
Because if you full time you can save several thousand dollars a year in nightly park fees. We stay in membership parks approximately 6 months of the year at between $0 and $10 a night. That's a lot less than the current $25-$30 a night at most private (and a lot of state run) parks. And that is also less than most PPA parks - which we do use when traveling from point A to point B.
Barb
Barb & Dave - full-timing Traveling catpanion Shadow (age 12) Figment II (2002 Alpine 36 MDDS) Mischief (2004 Subaru Forester Toad) FMCA - F337834, SKP #90761 Our Blog
London Aire wrote: Why do people even buy memberships? What is the advantage?
We had a membership years ago and it just did not work out. There seems to be far more controls in place and more options available as in the past. As skeptical as we were, we followed BarbaraOK's comments on the membership issues, did a lot of research and asked lots of questions. She convinced us. I think once we are back on the road in a few months (for good this time), we will be able to save a great deal on rv parking fees.
I think sometimes we forget that the freedoms we have are freedoms not because of celebrities. The freedoms are because of ordinary people who did extraordinary things, who loved this country more than life itself.
We had TT for several years and they were continually changing the rules and if you would just pay some more money, you could have additional privileges. No one stopped to think that when you increased privileges for one group, you had to take something away from the lower group.
Think about how many nights you could stay with that $400+ a year, (and of course the $6,000 you paid for the membership) if you used Passport America or one of the other discount clubs.
We have had Coast to Coast and Thousand Trails and both were wonderful initially, until they began changing the rules and the benefits began to shrink dramatically.
Barb & Neil
2001 Damon Ultrasport 36ft DP
2005 Jeep Liberty Toad
We looked carefully at various membership offerings and we didn't.
Reason; good for short term but contract never ending and exit out was very complex and in some cases costly. We would rather pay now, less then the joining fee, and when we stop camping, nothing to sell or fees that never end. Read the contract but understand, the ones we looked at including Thousand Trails are never ending contracts.
We had TT for several years and they were continually changing the rules and if you would just pay some more money, you could have additional privileges. No one stopped to think that when you increased privileges for one group, you had to take something away from the lower group.
Think about how many nights you could stay with that $400+ a year, (and of course the $6,000 you paid for the membership) if you used Passport America or one of the other discount clubs.
We have had Coast to Coast and Thousand Trails and both were wonderful initially, until they began changing the rules and the benefits began to shrink dramatically.
$6000/$30 (typical nightly cost now) = 200 nights. That's less than one year fulltiming! Assume that you only use it 100 nights a year, then you've paid for it in a little over 2 years. Yearly membership dues of $400/$30 = 14 nights and you have paid for that year's dues and the rest is savings.
Now if you don't use it, then of course it doesn't make sense. But for fulltimers, especially when you are in the west, it can be a significant cost savings.
npenn wrote: We looked carefully at various membership offerings and we didn't.
Reason; good for short term but contract never ending and exit out was very complex and in some cases costly. We would rather pay now, less then the joining fee, and when we stop camping, nothing to sell or fees that never end. Read the contract but understand, the ones we looked at including Thousand Trails are never ending contracts.
Happy Trails
The "never ending contracts" have been thrown out in court cases. If you don't want to resell it, you can just quite paying dues (advise the corporation that you want the membership suspended) and then you can't use the parks. There is a HOWEVER, that is the case where the membership was purchased on a time-contract. Those have to be paid off before one can suspended the dues.
We had TT for several years and they were continually changing the rules and if you would just pay some more money, you could have additional privileges. No one stopped to think that when you increased privileges for one group, you had to take something away from the lower group.
Think about how many nights you could stay with that $400+ a year, (and of course the $6,000 you paid for the membership) if you used Passport America or one of the other discount clubs.
We have had Coast to Coast and Thousand Trails and both were wonderful initially, until they began changing the rules and the benefits began to shrink dramatically.
My experiences exactly!
We bought a resale TT/NACO membership many years ago and made good use of it for the first couple of years. Then they closed some of their parks, including out favorites, the ones most convenient for us, and our home park. They then reduced our access to TT only and made our home park a NACO park, which happened to be a park we didn't particularly like, the only remaining park remotely convenient for weekend use, and not available for us to use because it was in the wrong system.
I terminated my membership and then had to deal with their attempts to continue collecting dues (and deal with their collection agency) for another five years. And this was a cancelable membership!
Tom and Lynne
Tom is an Electronics Engineer, Lynne a retired teacher.
2003 Foretravel 38' U295
Terryallan wrote: Only thing I know, from folks that heave them. Is that once you do. You can't give them away. Even if you try to pay them to take them.
Also know. that when you buy a RV from TJs. You are given for free a TT menbership. You only have to pay the yearly maintance fee. Something like $400.00 per year. I told them NO thanks.
I did get to stay in one of the two Thousand Trails in NC. It was very nice. But not worth the money to get a membership.
With so many being offered, that should tell you something, keep the $$$$$$$$$ in your pocket, and not their Bank, as above mentioned, PS, Buy it and then try an UNLOAD IT, THEN YOU WILL SEE WHY. Good Luck,
David G.
1997 Fleetwood Southwind 37Y/Ford 460/Power Platform/ Tag Axle
Crew:Yorkie,Twin Japanese Chins,Toy Poodle,Chihuahua,and last but not least,MOM, wife & CO-PILOT. Regal,
Taurus
Proudly served,USAF 1959-1963
You want to be extremely careful with some of these. One campground not to far from me which specialized in seasonal long term camping sold out to a new owner. Many of the lots were "leased" lots. The new owner decided to re-do the leases on different terms. Would not let the leaseholders out of the leases. Some tryed to remove their travel trailers, but the campground owner layed claim to them. Many lost their travel trailers because had failed to title or register them when they had purchased them. Ended up being a real legal mess. Moral of the story - do not sign any contract or lease with out your lawyer reviewing and approving it first.
We upgraded with TT to a platnium member where we can stay 21 days then we can go to another and if we want to stay another 21 days. We can do this year round and all over the country. Our dues are frozen where they won't go up and we just love the protection you have in these preserves. We still have a couple of houses so we only use them as we want, but we just love where we can go from one TT to another continuelly. I also forgot to mention that my grown kids can also use the preserves. I only have one girl in the west coast that loves to camp and she already has used it when she went on vacation.
I highly recommend TT, but if you choose something else, that is just fine. Actually too many people are joining and I don't know what the future holds with too many.
They have closed a couple of preserves, but they have added many more then what they have closed.
You got to be careful with some of the old contracts where you are limited to how many days you can stay, also some you were only limited to either the west or the east coast. But the one we have, it is great.
2002 Gulf Stream Scenic Cruiser
330 HP Caterpillar
3000 Allison Transmission
Neway Freightliner chassis
2005 Honda Pilot EXL 4WD
Aventa III
FMCA member
Offline
