Financing DVC through Disney

It's fantastic that you're enjoying your DVC contract so much. It's also great that the monthly payment and dues aren't an issue for you. But what if you lost your job or there was some kind of prolonged illness and you couldn't pay your dues or your monthly payment? For people with direct contracts who paid cash, they can sell their contract and get about half their money back. But with financed contracts, you'd have to be able to pay off the loan when you sold, which often means bringing money to the table. If you couldn't afford to do that, you'd just have to give your contract back to Disney and never again see a dime of the money you paid.

Just a thought to keep in mind as people make their decisions.

I don't believe I was advocating buying without any consideration for these things. I have life insurance and critical illness insurance and so if the bad stuff happens I'm covered in most circumstances.....in fact if one of us loses our job we are still ok (with some adjustments).

My point remains.....there are some instances where the relative expense of a direct financed purchase is not the end of the decision.

I don't discount the fact that there is an alternate view to Dean's opinion (which I happen to share). But I have a hard time adopting your "live for the moment" philosophy, especially when it involves fiscal irresponsibility in the short term and there are many alternative options that have much less risk. I can see how you would say that it is important to vacation now. Maybe your kids are young and you want to embrace that. Maybe you have a stressful life and a week away will help. So I agree with you to a point, that one could save 10 years for a Disney vacation and by the time they go their kids are too old or maybe they dropped dead or whatever. But I do not believe that theory applies to DVC. We hear this all the time, where people speak of DVC as if they could not visit Disney otherwise. There are hundreds of different ways to visit Disney on the cheap. DTD hotels are less than $100 a night. Values are less than $100 a night. Moderates are not much more. Offsite timeshares can be had on eBay for $1 or you can simply book a week direct at discount prices. All of these solutions are less than the tens of thousands needed to buy in to DVC and they come without the long term commitment and risk associated with a direct financed purchase. So I'm sorry, but I'm not buying the argument that you have to have DVC or else you won't be able to go to Disney. I think it's a justification and a poor one at that.

Buying and financing DVC when you don't have the money is not a "live life now" type of decision. In my opinion it is an extremely risky decision with long term detrimental effects. Now please don't read too much into this...I am talking about the decision and not the people who make it, so I'm not saying anything about people personally. I simply believe it is a bad choice. Everyone has something they want but can't afford. For some it's a nicer car. For some it's a bigger house. I think that accepting that something is out of one's price range is a much more productive strategy than going into incredible and risky debt to obtain what is out of reach. I get that this is an unpopular position, and please feel free to disagree.

We have no children (or plans for them) and we are comfortable with our mortgage. We have good relatively secure jobs and plenty of scope to deal with problems. I could pay the mortgage off early......but why would I ?

You are correct that DVC is not the only way to do Disney but I bought DVC to share the experience with friends and family...this year we are bringing the parents (we are in the UK) and in 4 years we are bringing our godchildren.

We can only bring them whilst they are young while they are actually that age so it will be worth it to me - their parents would not bring them without our help.

As I said earlier.....there are differing viewpoints but I am living now whilst I can. If I can still use DVC when I am old then that will be a bonus :)
 
We went to Disney a few years ago with the family (kids went for the 1st time ) after staying at the BCV after renting points we researched and decided to buy in we are on a wait-list now for BCV.. I have always done what everybody wanted and I feel if you have to finance through Disney then you should try to do it as long as it will not affect the important bills. Yes, taking care of everything around you is very important but I have learned unfortunately the hard way from deaths of friends and family that sometimes you have to, and should live for the moment. Because you never know when you can be taken away from everyone you love. So my DH and I decided to take the plunge .. First and foremost before anyone thinks about taking a big leap into the DVC do your research find out what works best for you and if it's possible to do, try and see. DVC are taking low contracts now before they were only taking over a certain amount but now they have gone far as 50 pt contracts.
 
IMHHO we live on the west coast and bought at Aulani direct. Our primary reason was the fact that living just 4 hours from DLR and knowing that DGC only has limited space we wanted to be able to use our DVC at either DLH or PPH. we will travel, at times, to WDW, but plan on either staying at our home resort, Aulani or in southern CA. We were already planning a trip to Aulani and just used that intended money for the down payment. We will see how this goes?

On another note, if someone has just a few points at a resort, does that let them reserve with the 12 month window with all their points? How does this work?

Thanks for the forums! I am new and like the info already!
 
.....(snip)........On another note, if someone has just a few points at a resort, does that let them reserve with the 12 month window with all their points? How does this work?.......

Only the points purchased for the resort in question can be used before the 7 month window opens. You may use points from any resort once the 7 month window opens.

For example, if you own 25 points at VGC and 150 at Aulani, only the 25 VGC points can be used to book a VGC villa more than 7 months in advance. Some members bank and borrow to get up to 75 points every 3 years to use during the Home Resort Priority Booking period. When the 7 month window opens all 175 points can be used to book a villa at VGC. Of course, booking is always subject to availability.
 


Lizzim said:
My point remains.....there are some instances where the relative expense of a direct financed purchase is not the end of the decision.

If you are at all concerned with value for your money then it should be. I don't know anyone who got (or stayed) rich by throwing money around unnecessarily.

Lizzim said:
We have no children (or plans for them) and we are comfortable with our mortgage. We have good relatively secure jobs and plenty of scope to deal with problems. I could pay the mortgage off early......but why would I ?

Because you're paying 10% interest, that's why. You don't see that as a problem?

Lizzim said:
You are correct that DVC is not the only way to do Disney but I bought DVC to share the experience with friends and family...this year we are bringing the parents (we are in the UK) and in 4 years we are bringing our godchildren.

I'm curious, if you didn't own DVC would you book a hotel and pay for them? I'm always surprised when people will gladly give away DVC stays as if they didn't cost anything. But again, I'll go back to my original point, you don't need DVC to take people on vacation. You can rent points or book a room directly and simply pay for them.


Lizzim said:
We can only bring them whilst they are young while they are actually that age so it will be worth it to me - their parents would not bring them without our help.

So are you saying that you wouldn't help if you didn't own DVC? What is the difference?


Lizzim said:
As I said earlier.....there are differing viewpoints but I am living now whilst I can. If I can still use DVC when I am old then that will be a bonus :)

Agree to disagree I suppose. I like to enjoy the moment as well, but I can't advocate throwing money away when there are less expensive options (resale or renting points) that will give you almost the exact same experience.
 
If it weren't for DVC financing successful buyers for years and years, DVC would have failed LONG ago.
 
If it weren't for DVC financing successful buyers for years and years, DVC would have failed LONG ago.
That's likely true of every timeshare in existence. Likewise, retail sales are the life blood of the system, any timeshare system. However, I don't think an individual should go into such a purchase thinking they're going to overpay in both price and financing for the good of the system. IMO, from a decision standpoint, they are 2 entirely different things. I look at it much as I do the RCI exchanges where the more people who use the option, the better it is for some of us who also (or only) own other timeshares but I have to first and foremost be honest about the reasonableness of the choices to the benefit of the DVC member.
 


im renting this year and i see a huge savings for my stay

im probably going to buy in next year or so and ive gone back in forth about resale or direct. ill probably go resale once i save up.

only question i have is i hear people say their nervous about resale cause disney could change the rules. what does that mean exactly? what are they worried about? would they not accept my points or give us 2nd priority?
just curious
 
I agree, Dean, and I know what you guys are saying, but it's extremely hard for a lot of people to write a check for $60,000.00. Could we? Sure. Should we have? Maybe. For a lot of reasons, we chose not to.

I celebrate all the people that can afford to write a blank check for DVC but it gets old when the old guard on here consistently says, and I paraphrase, "If you can't afford to pay for it in cash, you don't have any business buying it."

Those folks are perfectly entitled to their opinions but to blame the current economic crisis on folks like me that financed is hypocrisy. I paid right through the crisis and continue to do so, as I always have with all my bills. I dare say that's where the vast majority of us are too. I could be wrong, but some of us choose to have the things we want in ways unfathomable to some people here. As long as we do our part, what business is it of anybody's?

I guess it's the "holier than thou" attitude that gripes me, and many here preaching "Pay cash or go home." certainly exude that attitude. That's what gripes me more than everything else put together.
 
im renting this year and i see a huge savings for my stay

im probably going to buy in next year or so and ive gone back in forth about resale or direct. ill probably go resale once i save up.

only question i have is i hear people say their nervous about resale cause disney could change the rules. what does that mean exactly? what are they worried about? would they not accept my points or give us 2nd priority?
just curious
I can't speak for others but here's my take. One should buy to use DVC at DVC resorts. IMO you're legally and contractually protected to have the same option as anyone else for that purpose. Some will say you could be restricted to your home resort but legally I don't think this is possible unless the resort exits the system then all owners at that resort would be affected. RCI (or replacement) exchanges are likely to remain, all else is a crap shoot or likely to be excluded including the BVTC which includes the direct trades to Club Cordial and Club Inrawest. They could stop combining contracts bought resale as well. IMO, if you want to use DVC at DVC resorts you have NO risk for buying a single contract.
 
I agree, Dean, and I know what you guys are saying, but it's extremely hard for a lot of people to write a check for $60,000.00. Could we? Sure. Should we have? Maybe. For a lot of reasons, we chose not to.

I celebrate all the people that can afford to write a blank check for DVC but it gets old when the old guard on here consistently says, and I paraphrase, "If you can't afford to pay for it in cash, you don't have any business buying it."

Those folks are perfectly entitled to their opinions but to blame the current economic crisis on folks like me that financed is hypocrisy. I paid right through the crisis and continue to do so, as I always have with all my bills. I dare say that's where the vast majority of us are too. I could be wrong, but some of us choose to have the things we want in ways unfathomable to some people here. As long as we do our part, what business is it of anybody's?

I guess it's the "holier than thou" attitude that gripes me, and many here preaching "Pay cash or go home." certainly exude that attitude. That's what gripes me more than everything else put together.
Again, I can't speak for others but my goal is to be a cheerleader, not a naysayer and maybe a touch of reality. It's about helping people limit their risk in case life happens to them. $60K could get you 1000 points at WDW. However, I reserve the right to have an opinion of a general choice and principle, if the opinion that it's unreasonable to finance vacations or a luxury purchase (DVC is both) offends you then you'll simply have to be offended.
 
Thanks for response. Yes I would only buy to use in the dvc resorts.
But if I got restricted to one resort I'd be pissed. Cause I want try them all.
And go to Disneyland and Hawaii one day.
Can't see why they would change though. They make a fortune from people coming down and spending money.
 
Thanks for response. Yes I would only buy to use in the dvc resorts.
But if I got restricted to one resort I'd be pissed. Cause I want try them all.
And go to Disneyland and Hawaii one day.
Can't see why they would change though. They make a fortune from people coming down and spending money.
As I said, I do not think they could legally do this but they could potentially come up with a VIP system that gave one group a wait list priority over another but it would potentially affect all owners though it could affect non qualified more than qualified.
 
If you are at all concerned with value for your money then it should be. I don't know anyone who got (or stayed) rich by throwing money around unnecessarily.

Because you're paying 10% interest, that's why. You don't see that as a problem?

I'm curious, if you didn't own DVC would you book a hotel and pay for them? I'm always surprised when people will gladly give away DVC stays as if they didn't cost anything. But again, I'll go back to my original point, you don't need DVC to take people on vacation. You can rent points or book a room directly and simply pay for them.

So are you saying that you wouldn't help if you didn't own DVC? What is the difference?

Agree to disagree I suppose. I like to enjoy the moment as well, but I can't advocate throwing money away when there are less expensive options (resale or renting points) that will give you almost the exact same experience.

And I do think that what it is all about...we all have to make financial decisions that we believe work for us and not everyone has the same financial goals. There are some who would never do what I do in terms of having a new car every 3 to 4 years. I know it means I have a car payment and have decided that this is okay debt for me. Does it mean Ill be less wealthy than I could be if I didn't? Of course!! Same thing with owning DVC. I could certainly visit Disney less expensively, but I don't because the quality of my vacation matters more to me than the financial drawbacks of owning and using DVC.

As long as someone goes in and has done their homework, recognizing what paying direct prices and interest does to the bottom line, and has considered how to handle things if something should happen, then they made a well informed decision for them. I definitely think given today's prices direct, it would be very hard to make numbers work, but as I said when I bought, whether I paid cash prices or interest, didn't matter to me. I had a vacation budget and as long as my expenses stayed within that budget, I was comfortable with my decision.
 
im renting this year and i see a huge savings for my stay

im probably going to buy in next year or so and ive gone back in forth about resale or direct. ill probably go resale once i save up.

only question i have is i hear people say their nervous about resale cause disney could change the rules. what does that mean exactly? what are they worried about? would they not accept my points or give us 2nd priority?
just curious

What you need to consider are the motivations for people saying this. Fear based decision making typically does not yield good decisions. Furthermore, do they truly believe this or is it a self soothing tactic to make themselves feel better about their decision? I suspect that it's a little of both, depending on the person. But like Dean, I agree that if you are buying a DVC resale contract to stay at DVC, you are more than likely safe.



I agree, Dean, and I know what you guys are saying, but it's extremely hard for a lot of people to write a check for $60,000.00. Could we? Sure. Should we have? Maybe. For a lot of reasons, we chose not to.

This is the kind of statement that I have a problem with. It's a gross exaggeration of what your realistic options are. Who is talking about $60,000? I bought 150 points resale at SSR last week for $57 a point plus closing and fees. 150 points is enough for at least a week in a studio each year. Total outlay: $9,917. But it came with three year's points. So renting them out at $11 each would earn me $4,950. So assuming that I had the $9,917 available for a few months, this contract cost me a net of $4,967. Even if I bought three times that many points, we are nowhere near your suggested number of $60,000, so what is the point you're trying to make?



I celebrate all the people that can afford to write a blank check for DVC but it gets old when the old guard on here consistently says, and I paraphrase, "If you can't afford to pay for it in cash, you don't have any business buying it."

I can see how you would be bothered by this. I can only speak for myself, and I personally am not here to judge anyone. The point I'm trying to make is that the ability to write a "blank check" for DVC exists within just about everybody, maybe just not at this very moment. But making long term decisions such as paying double for direct points and then adding 50% of the base cost on top of that in interest significantly erodes one's ability to ever be in that position to write the check. That's not a value judgement, that's simply math. Please don't be offended by math, it's your friend. And this position is a long way away from telling someone that they have "no business" buying DVC. You're paraphrasing, and I get that, but I also think you're misinterpreting.

Those folks are perfectly entitled to their opinions but to blame the current economic crisis on folks like me that financed is hypocrisy. I paid right through the crisis and continue to do so, as I always have with all my bills. I dare say that's where the vast majority of us are too. I could be wrong, but some of us choose to have the things we want in ways unfathomable to some people here. As long as we do our part, what business is it of anybody's?

I think you are taking things a bit too literally to think that I (or anybody else) blamed the current economic crisis on people who financed DVC purchases. The point was a greater one, specifically that patterns of overspending and financing have serious long term detrimental effects on individual consumers. That paradigm is mirrored on a larger scale when talking about municipalities and the federal government. When people (not you) default on their obligations, things go very badly. One only need look at predatory lending practices in the housing market as an illustration of this point. But you do make a good point in that people are free to acquire the things they want in whatever way they want. But when they bring their methodology up for debate here on the boards, it becomes open for debate. They can't bring up the topic and cry foul when people disagree with them. Quite frankly, I'd lay off a lot more if someone publicly acknowledged that they were buying (essentially) the same thing I did, but paying triple the cost because they wanted immediate gratification or because they chose to finance. [Assuming a direct purchase that costs double the price of a resale purchase and financing that adds 50% to the cost, which is typical]. At least they're being honest. I can point out how much extra money they spend when they do this, but it's not for me to tell them that they can't.

I guess it's the "holier than thou" attitude that gripes me, and many here preaching "Pay cash or go home." certainly exude that attitude. That's what gripes me more than everything else put together.

You may very well be referring to me when you say this, and if you think that's where I'm coming from then I apologize. Whether or not someone should buy DVC is a value judgment. Like I said before, I'm not here to judge anybody. Whether or not buying DVC in certain situations is a good idea is a matter of mathematics and philosophy, both of which I think are fair game here on the boards.

But let me ask you something, how would you like me to respond when someone says that they are going to spend $31,248 for (essentially) the same contract that I just paid $9,917 for, just so they can "have it now" or "use their points without limitations"? Should I just pixiedust: and say "congratulations" or point out the fact that they are spending $21,331 in extra costs and interest? What would you suggest I do?
 
And I do think that what it is all about...we all have to make financial decisions that we believe work for us and not everyone has the same financial goals. There are some who would never do what I do in terms of having a new car every 3 to 4 years. I know it means I have a car payment and have decided that this is okay debt for me. Does it mean Ill be less wealthy than I could be if I didn't? Of course!! Same thing with owning DVC. I could certainly visit Disney less expensively, but I don't because the quality of my vacation matters more to me than the financial drawbacks of owning and using DVC.

As long as someone goes in and has done their homework, recognizing what paying direct prices and interest does to the bottom line, and has considered how to handle things if something should happen, then they made a well informed decision for them. I definitely think given today's prices direct, it would be very hard to make numbers work, but as I said when I bought, whether I paid cash prices or interest, didn't matter to me. I had a vacation budget and as long as my expenses stayed within that budget, I was comfortable with my decision.

Thanks for your comments. It's obvious that I am very rigid in my thinking on this and I'm trying to see other perspectives. Your car point is a good one as it illustrates differing priorities, but I don't think that's the issue I'm having. My issue would be if you paid $20,000 for the same car you could get for $10,000 somewhere else. That's where the sticking point is for me. I think it's more of a "direct vs. resale" issue and less of a "DVC or not" issue.

I try to be respectful in my dissent and withhold making value judgments, and I apologize if I'm not always successful. I would hope that people at least isolate my comments to the discussion at hand and not apply them to their personal situations, as every situation is different. I suppose I should be more clear in stating that my position applies to buying direct in today's environment. And obviously each person's situation is different, so my theoretical discussion may not always apply. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to help me see another point of view. :)
 
Frankly I agree with WilsonFlyer - we bought in at 160 pts and were still not comfortable handing them a check for $18K so we financed. We looked at it the same way we would a car payment - the difference being the car we'll replace in 6 years whereas we expect to die still owning our DVC.
 
... My issue would be if you paid $20,000 for the same car you could get for $10,000 somewhere else. That's where the sticking point is for me. I think it's more of a "direct vs. resale" issue and less of a "DVC or not" issue. ...

You'd have to be comfortable with buying used...this is where the car analogy diverges from DVC resale vs direct ;)
 
I wasn't pointing at anybody. Funny thing is, I never even read the thread. I simply reserved my comments until it got to be 4 pages long. I knew by the time it got to 25-30 posts, it would have all come out. It always does.
 
Frankly I agree with WilsonFlyer - we bought in at 160 pts and were still not comfortable handing them a check for $18K so we financed. We looked at it the same way we would a car payment - the difference being the car we'll replace in 6 years whereas we expect to die still owning our DVC.

Thanks for sharing this point of view, it is helpful. I get that you're not comfortable writing a check for $18,000. Are you comfortable writing them a bunch of little checks that add up to three times that amount?

You'd have to be comfortable with buying used...this is where the car analogy diverges from DVC resale vs direct ;)

Yeah, I thought that would be interpreted like this, but it's not really the case. The resale is to direct as new car is to used car analogy is not really appropriate, because a resale contract is not like a used car in so much as it can still be used to book all 11 DVC resorts. I appreciate the joke though. :) My point to Sandi is that I see it as buying the exact same car, same odometer reading and everything, for twice the price. I get that people have a real problem with resale, and if that's the case then you don't see it as the same car. That's an agree to disagree situation.
 

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