To cancel Worden and Associates, pull your signed contract, read its termination clause, and send a written cancellation notice by USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested so you have proof the firm received it. If you signed the agreement somewhere other than the company’s permanent office within the last three business days, federal law may let you cancel outright with no penalty. Beyond that window, what you owe and what you can recover depend on the wording of your agreement and the payment method you used.
Start With Your Contract
Find the agreement you signed and look for three things: your client or account number, the signing date, and the section labeled “Termination,” “Cancellation,” or “Right to Cancel.” That clause sets the ground rules — how much notice you have to give, whether there’s a cancellation fee, and how much of your retainer is refundable.
Note any required method of cancellation. Some agreements demand written notice and won’t accept a phone call. If you were given an onboarding packet or a client portal login, check whether the firm provides a dedicated cancellation form; using the firm’s own form can speed processing, though a plain written letter has the same legal effect.
Read the fee language carefully. Some timeshare exit firms structure their retainers so a portion is “earned” upon signing and treated as non-refundable from day one. Others hold funds in escrow until specific milestones are reached. That difference decides how much you can realistically recover later.
Check Your Three-Day Cooling-Off Right
The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day after signing to cancel certain contracts for any reason, but only if you signed somewhere other than the seller’s permanent place of business. That covers hotel seminars, convention rooms, and sales made in your home. Saturdays count as business days under this rule; Sundays and federal holidays do not.1Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help The seller was required to give you a cancellation notice form at the sale. If they didn’t, your window to cancel may run longer than three days.2eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations
The rule covers consumer purchases of $25 or more at your home and $130 or more at temporary locations like hotel meeting rooms.2eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations One boundary to know: if you signed at the firm’s permanent office or completed everything online or over the phone, the federal rule likely doesn’t apply. Some states have their own cooling-off laws with broader coverage or longer windows, so check your state attorney general’s website.
Write and Send the Cancellation Notice
Your letter can be short. Include your full legal name, your account or client number, the date you signed the original agreement, and a clear sentence stating you are terminating the contract. If a specific clause permits cancellation, cite the section number. Sign and date the letter, and make sure your signature matches the one on the original contract.
Send it USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested. You get a tracking number and, once delivered, a signed proof of receipt. Electronic Return Receipt does the same thing and delivers the confirmation as a PDF to your email instead of the green postcard.3USPS FAQ. Electronic Return Receipt Keep a photocopy of everything you send.
If the firm publishes a compliance or legal department email, send a copy there with a read receipt requested. Submitting through the client portal is also fine as a backup if it generates a timestamped confirmation. These don’t replace certified mail, but having multiple records helps. The date matters: if your contract requires a specific number of days’ notice, the postmark or portal timestamp is what starts the clock.
What Happens After You Send the Letter
Most firms process a cancellation within one to two weeks of receiving the notice. Expect an acknowledgment of receipt first, then a formal account closure letter that confirms the contract is terminated and lays out the status of any money you paid.
Based on patterns in consumer complaints, Worden has processed cancellations and issued refunds within roughly six to eight days when both sides agreed to end the relationship. Not every cancellation goes that smoothly. Partial refunds are more common than full ones when the firm claims it has already performed some work. If you haven’t heard anything within 10 business days, follow up in writing and keep the copy. Silence past that point is a signal to escalate.
Get Your Money Back Through a Credit Card Dispute
If you paid by credit card and the firm hasn’t delivered what it promised, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you a route to reverse the charge. You must send a written dispute to your card issuer within 60 days of the statement date that first showed the charge.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors
Your letter should include your name, account number, the disputed dollar amount, and why you believe the charge is an error. Under the statute, a charge for goods or services “not delivered to the obligor or his designee in accordance with the agreement” qualifies as a billing error.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors Send it to the billing dispute address on your statement, not general customer service. Most issuers accept online disputes too, but a written submission preserves your statutory rights.
If you paid by check, wire, or ACH, chargeback isn’t on the table. Your leverage then comes from the contract’s own refund terms and the complaint routes below.
If the Firm Won’t Cancel or Refund
When a request gets ignored or a refund gets refused, several agencies and forums accept complaints.
- FTC: File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC collects complaints about deceptive practices by timeshare exit firms. Individual complaints don’t usually trigger immediate action, but they feed the record that supports enforcement lawsuits.5Federal Trade Commission. Want to Get Rid of Your Timeshare? Read This Before You Hire Someone to Help
- State attorney general: Your state consumer protection division handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices, usually through an online form. Have your contract, transaction dates, payment records, and copies of your cancellation attempts ready.
- CFPB: If your dispute involves a credit card, debt collection, or credit reporting tied to the cancellation, file at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. The CFPB forwards the complaint to the company and requires a response.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint
- Small claims court: If the amount is within your state’s limit, generally somewhere between $3,000 and $20,000, you can sue for breach of contract or services not rendered without a lawyer. Filing fees are modest and the process is built for self-represented parties.
One fact worth putting on the record if you file: the FTC has warned that legitimate timeshare exit assistance should not require large upfront payments before any work is done.5Federal Trade Commission. Want to Get Rid of Your Timeshare? Read This Before You Hire Someone to Help If the firm collected its whole fee before doing meaningful work, say so in every complaint you file.
Get a Final Termination Letter
The cancellation isn’t truly done until you have a written termination letter from the firm confirming the contract is dissolved and neither side has remaining obligations. Look for a stated termination date, the final status of any retainer balance, and confirmation of any refund.
Stronger termination letters include mutual release language, meaning both sides agree not to bring future claims against each other over this contract. If the firm sends a settlement agreement to sign, read it before signing. Watch for non-disparagement clauses that would bar you from posting honest reviews or filing regulatory complaints, and check that you aren’t waiving rights you didn’t intend to give up. If the wording is unclear, an hour with an independent attorney is money well spent.
Keep the termination letter, the original contract, every piece of correspondence, and your certified mail receipts in one file. Months later, if anyone questions whether the contract was properly closed, that file is your answer.
Protect Your Credit and Watch for a Tax Bill
Canceling the exit firm’s contract doesn’t itself hit your credit. The risk is what happens to the underlying timeshare debt. If the firm told you to stop paying the resort while it worked on your case, those missed payments can show up as 30-, 60-, or 90-day delinquencies, and payment history is the largest factor in your credit score. A timeshare foreclosure can stay on your report for seven years.
If you find inaccurate information tied to the timeshare or the exit process on your credit report, you can dispute it directly with each bureau. Federal law requires the bureau to investigate and resolve the dispute within 30 days.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy File separately with each bureau that shows the error. You can pull all three reports for free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com, the only federally authorized source.8Federal Trade Commission. Free Credit Reports Check before you cancel and again a few months later to catch new marks early.
One more consequence to plan for. If the firm negotiated a settlement with your resort and part of your debt was forgiven, the IRS generally treats the forgiven amount as taxable income, and you may receive a Form 1099-C for the year the cancellation occurred.9Internal Revenue Service. Canceled Debt – Is It Taxable or Not? There is an insolvency exception: if your total liabilities exceeded the fair market value of your assets when the debt was canceled, you can exclude some or all of the forgiven amount from income by filing Form 982 with your return.10Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 982 If a 1099-C is likely, talk to a tax preparer before you file.