Transferring points from Marriott Vacation Club to Interval International: Key Differences between "Request First" and "Deposit First"

A reader recently contacted me concerning a transfer of his Marriott Vacation Club points to Interval International.  After the transfer, Interval International did not have the desired week or location and wanted his points transferred back into Marriott Vacation Club points.

Unfortunately for our reader, there are two distinct methods to transfer points into Interval International. 

With "Request First", a Marriott Vacation Club owner will request a week in Interval International.  This can be one or many weeks and one or many resorts.  The Marriott Vacation Club points will be taken out of your account immediately BUT if the request goes unfulfilled or you decide to cancel that request, the Marriott Vacation Club points will transfer back to your Marriott Vacation Club account. 

With "Deposit First", the Marriott Vacation Club owner will immediately transfer points into Interval International and will request the specific week and/or location.  If the request is not immediately filled, the Marriott Vacation Club points now become Interval International points and WILL NOT be transferred back. Deposit First is a one way transfer - you cannot transfer those points back into the Marriott Vacation Club.

It appears that neither the Marriott Vacation Club or Interval International made this policy clear and our reader mistakenly transferred points from his Marriott Vacation Club account to Interval International under the "Deposit First" mechanism.  His attempt to transfer back these points was unsuccessful and was upset that this policy was not made clearer before he made a irrevocable transfer.

While this is unfortunate, Marriott Vacation Club owners who make a "Deposit First" have 3 years to use these points within Internal International.  Three years is a long time so I would anticipate that these points would not go to waste.  The key to getting awesome exchanges is to plan far ahead so I would recommend putting in a request now for various times and resorts as far in advance as possible.   

The various timeshare point systems are very complex and not every agent or customer service representative fully understands the intricacies of various transfers.  Make sure to ask questions up front.  

The big downside to timeshares is that most reservations and transfers, once confirmed, are in stone and cannot be changed or altered.  This is change a bit but is not completely flexible.