DVC UY question - making sure I understand

[DeCostaClan]

Hi all, I have researched a lot and I just want clarification if I am understanding this right.

We are finishing our purchase based on incentives from our recent cruise. They are giving us points backdated to Oct 2011 and our next set Oct 2012. So I am assuming that mean our UY is ends in Oct. As I look into it looks like the "bonus" points they are giving are useless for us unless we use them by October 2012 (this fall) as by the time everything closes it will be too late to bank them. Am I right in my thinking? I calculate we would have to bank them by end of May?

Just wanting to know if this is a date I should ask to be changed before all is final. Second question, is it really better to just go resale?

 

[Missyrose]

Hi all, I have researched a lot and I just want clarification if I am understanding this right.

We are finishing our purchase based on incentives from our recent cruise. They are giving us points backdated to Oct 2011 and our next set Oct 2012. So I am assuming that mean our UY is ends in Oct. As I look into it looks like the "bonus" points they are giving are useless for us unless we use them by October 2012 (this fall) as by the time everything closes it will be too late to bank them. Am I right in my thinking? I calculate we would have to bank them by end of May?

Just wanting to know if this is a date I should ask to be changed before all is final. Second question, is it really better to just go resale?

If you're buying direct, you should be closed in very little time. Should have plenty of time to bank the 2011 points.

By the way, the 2011 points aren't a "bonus" they are the current points for your use year. If you were buying a February UY, you'd get the 2012 points because that's the UY you're currently in.

Edited to add: You'd save thousands of dollars by buying resale, but there restrictions on how you can use your points (though what they've restricted aren't very good point values anyway). If you haven't really researched resale, I would do so before going through with your direct purchase.

 

[DeCostaClan]

By the way, the 2011 points aren't a "bonus" they are the current points for your use year. If you were buying a February UY, you'd get the 2012 points because that's the UY you're currently in.

They called it a bonus as our contract is starting Oct 2011 because of being on the cruise. Otherwise would it have started Oct 2012. That is what we were told and we do not pay any maint. fees until Oct 2012. If I were to buy direct from DVC without the cruise incentives I was wondering, I would not get 2011 points right? Just trying to see if we really do benefit anything by buying direct. We are looking to Aulani if we buy direct (as we live on the west coast)

We are definate with our plans to buy just wondering resale/direct and want to make the decision in the next few days if we are keeping the current offer buying direct (not sure if any of that made sense)

 

[bookwormde]

You always get current UY points which in your case would be oct 2011, so calling them "bonus points" is more than a little missleading. You might have to pay maintinance fees prorated form settlement to Oct so that small amount might be an extra.

As others have said if you are not past you 10 day mark from signing, you should look at resale since you can save 25-60% depending on the resort you are purchasing, which is how much it devalues as soon as you purchase it direct.

 

[Sammie]

2011 points expire on Sept 30 for October use year.

And yes to bank you have to complete that by the end of May.

I have an October use year and honestly do not like it. If you take vacations in June, July, August or Sept it is a major hassle if you have to cancel.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Agree with all the previous posters. You are set to receive current UY points for an Oct UY and it is not a "bonus" for purchasing on the cruise. It would happen no matter where you purchased direct and should be given right up until Sept 30th 2012.

As far as banking, you probably have the points in your account or will have them within a few days if you just got off the ship. At that time you could bank if you were not planning to use the current 2011 points until after Oct 1, 2012. The closing date when buying direct is meaningless to when you get your points, however they also do allow people to bank after the deadline when they have just purchased direct.

If you are open to resale I'd cancel this purchase and do some more investigating. You may have gotten a couple of extra dollars off although I haven't heard about any extraordinary cruise deals lately. DVCNews keeps a current list of direct prices. But you CAN save thousands by buying resale. If you don't need current points you might even save more as that would be called a "stripped contract" and you should be able to negotiate an even lower price. But if you do want current points there are lots out there - and many with banked points which means you could get even more points resale than you could direct. It all depends on what's listed and what you negotiate.

Unlike Sammie - our Oct UY works very well for us but it's going to take wild horses dragging me to FL before I'll go in the heat of the summer.

 

[LisaS]

They called it a bonus as our contract is starting Oct 2011 because of being on the cruise. Otherwise would it have started Oct 2012.

This is Disney's normal offer to those buying direct, cruise or no cruise. They start you off with points from your current UY which, for an October UY, is Oct 2011. If you purchased a March UY, then your first set of points would be March 2012 points since those with a Feb or Mar (and as of tomorrow an Apr) UY are in their 2012 UY, those with Jun or later UYs are currently in their 2011 UY. This is subject to availability. If you wait until very late in the UY to purchase they do sometimes run out of current UY points.

That is what we were told and we do not pay any maint. fees until Oct 2012.

That is not how they normally do things. You usually pay pro-rated maintenance fees beginning on the purchase date or the date you get your first set of points, whichever is later. You are not billed for those pro-rated fees until you close. This is the first I've ever heard of someone being offered their first set of points totally free. Usually if you did not have to pay fees until October 2012 it would be because your first set of points would be your Oct 2012 points. Maybe it's a new offer but I would double check your paperwork because it's not the way it's usually done.

Also, maintenance fees are paid on a calendar year basis, so whatever you end up paying this year (whether from purchase date or Oct 1, 2012), you will be paying only for the remaining months of 2012. You will then be billed for a full year of fees in Jan 2013.

Also, regarding banking of those Oct 2011 points, you can do that immediately. When purchasing directly from Disney, you can bank points, book a stay, even take a vacation on points before you close. Note that if you take a vacation on points and then back out of the deal, they keep enough of your deposit to cover the cost of the points you used.

Note also that the comments above refer to purchasing a resort that is already open. If you purchase new construction, things are a bit different regarding when you get points and the amount you pay in maintenance fees the first year and when you can take your first vacation on points.

 

[disneynutz]

What you do is of course up to you. You have a tool here called the DIS that will allow you to level the playing field but you need to take the time to read and use it.

Disney is in business to sell you a contract, it doesn't matter to them if you are a good fit for the program or if the UY will work for you. Their policy is if you don't ask the question, they won't give you any answers that may cause you to second guess the purchase.

Once you buy, you are pretty much on your own, they are no longer your friend, they never were, you were made to think that they are.

DVC can save you some money on your room if and only if you really plan or already vacation at WDW every year or two and you like to stay in deluxe resorts. Your cost for a yearly vacation, dues, food, transportation, admission tickets, Disney stuff can cost you over $100,000 over the term of your contract.

There are a lot of rules, policies, and information that you should learn before you buy and you need to stay at your favorite resort to make sure that you want to call it home. Yes you can stay at other DVC resorts but you might find the choices limited depending on the resort, time of year, events that are scheduled, and time that you make your reservation.

Bill

 

[smudge68]

You always get current UY points which in your case would be oct 2011, so calling them "bonus points" is more than a little missleading. You might have to pay maintinance fees prorated form settlement to Oct so that small amount might be an extra.

As others have said if you are not past you 10 day mark from signing, you should look at resale since you can save 25-60% depending on the resort you are purchasing, which is how much it devalues as soon as you purchase it direct.

I think the OP has stated that Aulani is his resort of choice, and that the resale market for this resort is low. It is fairly new and the resale contracts that are out there are going for close to the original purchase prices.

 

[DeCostaClan]

Thanks for the great information. So, it looks like in reality the only perk that was a "real" one was the $500 disney card (or onboard credit....we chose the card, just in case we backed out after making sure)

The only reason we would buy direct is to get Aulani (we are big fans of hawaii and fly there at great rates or non-rev) With the current promotion you get 20 points free for each 100 purchased so we would be getting 240 for the price of 200 (going price is $125/point) It does show our maint fee does not start until 10/12 and then is prorate to the end of the year and we start annually after that (looking at our notes)

if we bought resale there are more options. we are not in a huge hurry for a trip since we just came back from our 2 weeks "Dream WDW/Cruise Trip" but a 2013 trip or another cruise is in our plan.

We are planning on a nice vacation on a yearly basis and after reading the responses and lots of other DIS info (I love DIS!) we have decided to back out and look for a resale. We are looking at one for Grand Californian but doubt it will go through...if not we will look into other resorts that will fit our family of 5's personality. When I researched resale in the past, it seemed very hard to get it approved and better to just get direct. economy and supply sure have changed things.

 

[disneynutz]

Thanks for the great information. So, it looks like in reality the only perk that was a "real" one was the $500 disney card (or onboard credit....we chose the card, just in case we backed out after making sure)

The only reason we would buy direct is to get Aulani (we are big fans of hawaii and fly there at great rates or non-rev) With the current promotion you get 20 points free for each 100 purchased so we would be getting 240 for the price of 200 (going price is $125/point) It does show our maint fee does not start until 10/12 and then is prorate to the end of the year and we start annually after that (looking at our notes)

if we bought resale there are more options. we are not in a huge hurry for a trip since we just came back from our 2 weeks "Dream WDW/Cruise Trip" but a 2013 trip or another cruise is in our plan.

We are planning on a nice vacation on a yearly basis and after reading the responses and lots of other DIS info (I love DIS!) we have decided to back out and look for a resale. We are looking at one for Grand Californian but doubt it will go through...if not we will look into other resorts that will fit our family of 5's personality. When I researched resale in the past, it seemed very hard to get it approved and better to just get direct. economy and supply sure have changed things.

The DVC deals are smoke and mirrors. Disney raises the contract prices then offers you a $500 gift card that can only be used at Disney. The true cost to Disney is probably $100 and they cover that by the price increase.

The "free points" are also paid for by you, nothing is free.

If they really wanted to do a fare deal, they would just lower the prices by $500 and by the cost of the free points but Disney knows that people love deals and "free" things.

Their pattern is always the same, increase the prices, then a month or two later, offer a deal.

Resales at Aulani will increase as sales increase, they got off to a slow start. Many bought without thinking about the total cost involved. Stand alone resorts are nice but you can't beat WDW and all that it has to offer, 4 parks, DTD, DME, hundreds of places to eat, and 9 DVC resorts.

Bill

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks for the great information. So, it looks like in reality the only perk that was a "real" one was the $500 disney card (or onboard credit....we chose the card, just in case we backed out after making sure)

The only reason we would buy direct is to get Aulani (we are big fans of hawaii and fly there at great rates or non-rev) With the current promotion you get 20 points free for each 100 purchased so we would be getting 240 for the price of 200 (going price is $125/point) It does show our maint fee does not start until 10/12 and then is prorate to the end of the year and we start annually after that (looking at our notes)

if we bought resale there are more options. we are not in a huge hurry for a trip since we just came back from our 2 weeks "Dream WDW/Cruise Trip" but a 2013 trip or another cruise is in our plan.

We are planning on a nice vacation on a yearly basis and after reading the responses and lots of other DIS info (I love DIS!) we have decided to back out and look for a resale. We are looking at one for Grand Californian but doubt it will go through...if not we will look into other resorts that will fit our family of 5's personality. When I researched resale in the past, it seemed very hard to get it approved and better to just get direct. economy and supply sure have changed things.

If you have it in your notes about the MF's, but not in the official paperwork, I would double check that to be sure you are not getting more than you are expecting.

MF's are based on calendar year and not UY, so Disney usually charges a prorated basis for the year based on when you purchase. The only time it is delayed is when you are purchasing a property that is not yet open and then they began at that point. In your case, you would still be paying a prorated fee for 2012, but unless things were done differently, it would be from March to the end of the year and not October.

And, in terms of resale, it most certainly is cheaper to go that route with most of the resorts. I bought BWV last June on the resale market for $55/pt when it would have been $115 from Disney. However, if Aulani is where you want to own and its not really available resale, IMO, then spend more to buy direct so you have the home resort you want. We did this when buying BLT in 2009. It was what we wanted and decided to pay more to get through Disney even though we could have bought SSR resale and saved about $4000. DVC is a lot of money and I decided I'd rather pay more from something I would love than save on something I wasn't sure I would even like.

Good luck!