Campground memberships

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Got rid of the credit cards 20 years ago, haven't financed anything since. Also put a freeze on my credit reports a few years ago. Recently took the freeze off just to see what my credit score is......it is a 4.  Yup a 4. probably didn't need to freeze it again but i did.     

[Lin]

Over the years, I have had at least two Coast to Coast memberships.  They can be bought "used" for a couple of hundred dollars.  Some of them, as mentioned, expect you to pay their dues forever unless you transfer it to someone else that will pay the dues, but there are others,(at least there used to be) that have some sort of exit clause that allows you just to quit.  I think that generally those are in far away places that you will probably never visit.  They actually count on never seeing you and just receiving the dues. The benefit of those is that you can use that national system, which is what we had wanted to do, without ever seeing the "home park".  I do not know what is available these days though.

Ed, The alternate strategy is to pay for everything by credit card and pay the balance every month.  Some of the rewards programs will give you back $20 per $1000 spent.  It may not seem like much, but it does add up.

[bobofthenorth]

Being retired, if I haven't learned to live within my means by now I don't think good credit is going to save me. I'd have no issue with telling them to kiss off. I'd also seriously question the legal valididity of any document purporting to establish an open ended debt like that. Could be actionable. Could be a whole class of plaintiffs. Bet they'd like that one.

^^^^^ What he said  ^^^^^

Google it.  There's plenty of lawsuits which suggest those contracts are not enforceable.  In our case I sent them a registered letter when we were done.  They didn't like it and they yelled a lot but they didn't get another 5 cents out of us either.  I have no idea whether they did anything to my credit rating because it simply doesn't matter.

[windtrader]

There is a major difference between the camping related discount/membership programs. Some are basically a month-to-month subscription, cancelled by notifying the service's customer service organization.

The other type behaves like a timeshare. That is, you are legally a partial owner and the recurring payments you make are not considered a service fee but rather a/"your" portion of the total costs required to keep the property maintained and running. Like timeshares, keep your eyes wide open and your hand on your wallet.