One of the things you'll notice when you start looking at Worldmark auctions is that some of them involve assumable loans. What this means is that you, as the winning bidder, take over the current owner’s loan. This is most frequently seen with WorldMark credits (or Worldmark points, if you prefer). There's actually a pretty good market for these and strong demand because a lot of buyers are interested in getting into timesharing, but do not have the cash to buy a timeshare outright, at least not for the prices that Worldmark usually commands.
The tricky issue is that you will be paying the winning bid and loan payments. It pays to be very cautious when considering bid amounts for this type of auction because you could easily wind up paying more for the vacation credits than you would pay by buying directly from the developer and since developer's prices are commonly ridiculous, it would be that much worse to pay even more than what they are asking.
Most of the auctions that you will see for timeshares that include an assumable loan are basically an auction for you to win the right to take over the loan. Your winning bid amount isn't even applied towards the timeshare itself. That money goes straight into the pocket of the original owner or the third party that is selling the timeshare for them. In addition to the winning bid, you will usually also have to pay some kind of transfer or closing costs. If we're talking about Worldmark you should not have to pay extra closing fees. Worldmark's process for transferring timeshare ownership is very simple and only costs $150 dollars. If the Ebay auction indicates that you need to pay a title search or closing fee on top of this amount, don't bid on it. There is no title search for a Worldmark timeshare because there is no title involved. Worldmark owners own credits and do not have an interest in a particular timeshare resort.
So now you are adding up your winning bid amount and the transfer fee as part of your initial payment. Usually then you also need to add the annual maintenance fee for the current year. This is another one to keep an eye on as many Worldmark auctions are sold "stripped". What this means is that there are no available points for that year and some owners have even borrowed points from the following year, which means that it may be as long as two years before you can even use your timeshare. I personally would avoid any "stripped" Worldmark points auctions. You want a Worldmark credits package that is "loaded" – which means that it has available credits for this year and some banked points as well.
And now we have three amounts that need to be added together before you even take over the loan – the winning bid amount, the transfer fee and the maintenance fee. So add up all of those fees and pay that to the seller. Then you take over the loan and you'll pay that monthly until it is paid off.
Want to figure out what a particular auction with an assumable loan is charging per Worldmark credit? Add up the winning bid amount, the transfer fee and the total cost of the loan (multiple the monthly payment by number of months). Divide this entire total by the number of Worldmark credits in the purchase. The final number is your cost per credit.
To compare it to what you would pay if bought the Worldmark membership from the developer, they are currently selling Worldmark credits for approx. $1.98 per credit. So if you're final number is at least 20-25% less than that figure, then I think it is okay to go ahead with an assumable loan purchase if that is the only way you can get into timesharing and you really want to do it now. But if your final number is close to or more than what the developer is charging, then you might as well call up Worldmark on the phone and buy it direct. You will save money in the long run. Ultimately though, I think your best choice is to save your cash until you have a enough money to buy your Worldmark credits without taking on a loan. And if you elect to pay cash, you should have to pay more than $1- 1.25 per credit.