Buying a DVC as a Canadian

[jberg]

Me and the wife have thought about buying a DVC membership. Am I wrong in assuming it would be best to buy outright due to the fear of the Canadian dollar taking a nose dive?

We're renting this year to try it out. Any suggestions for Canadians buying into DVC would be greatly appreciated.

 

[disneynutz]

If you are looking to buy direct, DVD is restricted by law to only sell in person in some areas of Canada. Resellers who are not Timeshare Developers, don't have the restrictions.

If you happen to do the DVC sales presentation, hold off buying until you can take the time to fully understand the program, the rules and regulations, benefits, and costs.

I suggest that take some time to tour the different DVC resorts during your next vacation at WDW.

Bill

 

[tjkraz]

If you want to buy direct from DVC, it appears that only residents of Alberta and Ontario can complete the purchase outside of a DVC sales center. (These things are normally driven by local timeshare sales laws.)

If you live outside of those two provinces, you would have to complete the entire purchase while at Walt Disney World. Again, that's only if you want to buy direct.

Resale purchase you could complete from virtually any locale.

 

[Mike2023]

Some great info in the 2 posts above but the main question was left unanswered.

The last few months the CAD as slipped to the USD. Looks like it may continue to slip but I don't think we are going to see it as low as years past anytime soon. Over the next 10 years it anyones guess so it might work out better for you to get a canadian loan or pay it in full.

I will say the dollar is better today then it was 4 years ago when I signed so im in ok shape. lol

 

[jberg]

Some great info in the 2 posts above but the main question was left unanswered.

The last few months the CAD as slipped to the USD. Looks like it may continue to slip but I don't think we are going to see it as low as years past anytime soon. Over the next 10 years it anyones guess so it might work out better for you to get a canadian loan or pay it in full.

I will say the dollar is better today then it was 4 years ago when I signed so im in ok shape. lol

Thanks Mike. For me I'm a little nervous at this point. We had the presentation last year while we were on our 10 yr anniversary without the kids, Disney was still fun without the kids.

My biggest fear is that all of a sudden were sitting at $0.60 on the dollar like back in the late 80's 90's and I'm paying through the nose in maintenance fees.

I guess I'm curious if most Canadians pay their point cost in full and save up before diving in.

 

[Mike2023]

Thanks Mike. For me I'm a little nervous at this point. We had the presentation last year while we were on our 10 yr anniversary without the kids, Disney was still fun without the kids.

My biggest fear is that all of a sudden were sitting at $0.60 on the dollar like back in the late 80's 90's and I'm paying through the nose in maintenance fees.

I guess I'm curious if most Canadians pay their point cost in full and save up before diving in.

Its a legitimate fear, but I highly doubt the CAD will drop that much in the next 10 years.

Here is a question for you. If you did not buy DVC but continued to go to Disney each year, would you stop if the CAD dropped that much?

 

[ABCanada]

There is a DVC sticky thread under that Canadian Trip Planning forum. You may get more responses from Canadians there.

Personally:
We run a US $ bank account and credit card that we use to pay our maintenance fees and travel costs. We transfer money into it periodically when we think the exchange rate is good.

I would not borrow for DVC. I realize many people will disagree but for me economically it does not make as much sense if you are paying interest. This is just my philosophy. I do not borrow for consumables.
One case where it does make sense to finance property in the local currency (US$) would be if you expect the local currency to drop significantly relative to your currency (CDN) and expect to sell the property and convert back to your currency. (Since I view DVC more as a consumable that will likely have little or no value by the time it is sold I do not see this as applicable but there may be cases where it is.) The risk here is that if the US$ strengthens your interest and principal payments will cost you more in CDN $ on the other side if the US$ does drop then you will be paying less.

From a significant increase in the US$ relative to the CDN$ and its impact on your maintenance fees if this does happen I would look on it as saving money on my vacation cost. As long as you are still vacationing in the US, your total vacation cost will be less than if you were paying the full room rate of a comparable room at the then current rate. If you feel the maintenance fees are too expensive in CDN$ you can always sell and the currency change should help to offset any drop in value, commissions, etc.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

Its a legitimate fear, but I highly doubt the CAD will drop that much in the next 10 years.

Here is a question for you. If you did not buy DVC but continued to go to Disney each year, would you stop if the CAD dropped that much?

I think this is the real key question. We went to Disney every year even at those horrible exchange rates. However, we stayed at the All Star Movie Resorts at that point in time. When the exchange rate was more favorable, I lived out my dream and stayed at BLT!! We realized that this was something we wanted to keep doing for the foreseeable future. Once you stay deluxe, it is very hard to go back to value.

We therefore bought BLT resale to "lock in" some of our future costs at par. Even if the CDN dollar drops again, we know our maintenace fees will cost considerably more but it should still be equivalent to staying at the value resorts.

We know we want to keep going to Disney no matter what and our teenage daughters are Disney nuts who hope to one day create wonderful memories with any future children. It just made sense for us.