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If you up your 5 percent rate of return to 7 percent, which is what I use for my clients' financial plans -- or even 10 percent, which is what the S&P 500 averages -- you can increase your $285 to $340 or $425 per night.

Needless to say, I think a timeshare is a bad idea financially, but I also don't like being tied to one location or the hoops you jump through to change.

Timothy T. Murray, Chantilly

YOU COULD have done a great service to the timeshare-buying public if you had focused your article on the resale market. A very small fraction of individuals find any benefit in buying directly from the developer. Buyers can save many thousands of dollars buying in the resale market and understanding how the exchange companies work.

I almost bought a three-bedroom unit from one of the developers you covered in your story. The price was $33,000. I knew enough to understand that there was a window of time to rescind the purchase, and I knew about the timeshare users group, TUG2.net.

After receiving a TUG education, I rescinded the original contract and purchased a comparable unit from the same developer on the resale market for $7,500.

Charles Fernandez, Germantown

YOUR STORY hints at the economic fraud timeshares represent but does not expose it enough. On the resale market, these units sell for a fraction (20 to 40 percent) of their original purchase price. The sellers use deceptive economic calculations and arguments beyond the analytical skills of most of their customers.

Your reporter surveyed a different organization every 90 minutes. If you get the full timeshare presentation, you will be unable to get away in less than two or three hours. If you want to get a better price, show some resistance or begin to walk away. Like car salesmen, your sales rep will go to the manager and come back with a better price. Better yet, go to a resale office first.

It baffles me how this scheme has gone on for so long without the intervention of consumer protection or government agencies. I challenge the timeshare industry to find an economics professor not connected with their industry who will favorably review their presentations.

Jan Polissar, Bethesda

I LOOKED at your first example, at Disney's Saratoga Springs. If I instead take the $24,442 and put it in a Vanguard money market fund at 5.6 percent (current rate), I would have $1,369, plus the $963 maintenance fee (that I would not have spent), for a total of $2,332 available to spend on a vacation each year.