Is £99 holiday offer too good to be true?

Q I RECEIVED an email out of the blue which offered a five-day holiday in Malta for my partner and myself with all expenses paid including return air fares, hotel accommodation and meals for just £99.

It seems like a great bargain and much cheaper than anything we could buy from a package tour company. We are tempted. I know if anything sounds too good to be true then it probably is. But I can’t see what the catch is. Gordon P

A YOU’VE received an invitation to buy a timeshare. This sounds a good idea – instead of buying a holiday home, you just buy the time you want. It’s often yours forever – you can share weeks with family or friends. And, according to many sales presentations, you’ll be able to sell it on profitably.

But the reality is often different. Many buyers are now saddled with decaying properties in areas they no longer wish to visit while facing annual charges including maintenance and insurance which have escalated greatly, sometimes exceeding renting a similar property.

Internet sites feature many unhappy owners – some even willing to give their timeshares away to escape yearly fees. There are dodgy organisations which promise to sell timeshares at huge profits – providing you pay an upfront “legal arrangement fee” – often around £1,500 to £2,000.

The timeshare is never sold – victims never see their cash again.

Your email does not mention “timeshare”. Instead, it’s called a holiday club. To get the terms and conditions for this super-cheap holiday – other similar emails feature the Canaries, Portugal, Bulgaria and Cyprus – you might have to pretend to sign up.

Somewhere in the small print may be a “resort tour”, a heavy duty sales presentation. If you don’t do it, you’ll be billed for your holiday at far more than the package tour price. If you go (and it’s difficult to avoid) you’ll be hit by high-pressure selling. If you feel you can withstand this, it’s a very cheap holiday. But ensure you lock up your credit and debit cards first.

Some are even worse. The small print states that if you do not buy a holiday home, you’ll have to pay the holiday cost – again, a lot more than package tour deals.