How'd you like to cut the cost of travel? Huge discounts on airfare, cruises and lodging, and special savings not available to the general public?

Travel clubs promise to save you big bucks -- for a price, in some cases as much as $8,000!

Normally, the pitch begins with a telephone call or postcard, promising you a free gift if you attend a presentation at a local hotel.

The trouble is many travel clubs can't deliver the deals. Steve Cox with the Council of Better Business Bureaus said in most cases, consumers will never be able to recoup their investment.

"They would have to take 4, 5, 6, 7 trips a year and do that over the course of 4, 5, 6, 7 years to recoup that investment," he said.

And even then, Cox said, consumers have found that they could make cheaper arrangements on their own.

"Well consumers almost invariably tell us that they could have gone our on the Internet themselves or worked through a travel agent themselves and gotten at least as good of a deal, if not a better deal, than they could have gotten through the travel club," he said.

In the last three years, the BBB has received thousands of travel club complaints. Many of those who complain say they were pressured into joining.

"People really feel like they've been mislead and tricked," said Alison Preszler with the BBB. "Some of the common words in complaints are, 'I've been scammed,' 'these people were misleading,' so people really feel like they're being taken advantage of by these travel clubs."

In fact, the BBB has received so many complaints that it has placed the travel club industry on its "suspect industry" list. That means you need to be very careful before signing a contract or parting with any money.

Despite all this, the BBB says there are some good travel clubs out there. The only way to find them is to do your homework before joining - something you cannot do at a high-pressure sales presentation.

And keep this in mind: in most, cases, once you sign that contract, you cannot get a refund even if the company does not deliver on the travel deals it promised. Once the company has your money, its representatives will simply signore you.

You should know these travel club presentations are taking places in Seattle. They take place everywhere. According to the BBB, Branson, Missouri appears to be the travel club scam capital of the country. There are more than a dozen companies working that area.

The companies promise tourists free show tickets or free meals if they come to the sales presentation. But before they know it, the unsuspecting tourists have dropped a bundle on a company they know next to nothing about.

More Information:

Membership doesn't always have its privileges

BBB Warns Vacationers that Travel Club Membership Doesn't Always Pay