Meeting with DVC agent Friday Morning

[CopasFamily]

Hey everyone,
We are new to DVC, but old pros at Disney. My husband and I currently live in Tampa, Florida, so driving to Disney for the day has never been to much of a problem. With longer trips, we do typically get hotel rooms, but as our girls get older, a hotel room is almost essential for even our day trips, so they can come home and get a nap and go back for the evening. (When they were younger, stroller sleeping worked just fine.) Our oldest is six and our youngest is 17 months...
We have talked to the sales booth agents on previous trips, but we somehow were really sweet talked by Stephanie in Tomorrowland WDW this past weekend. We are returning this upcoming weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary and have an early morning appointment with an agent at Saratoga Springs.
In all honesty, after this week of researching, the agent won't have to work very hard to get our John Hancock's on any sale paper.
So what should we ask? We are looking at the AKL to be our "home resort". We'll probably go with the minimum buy in for now, and add on as needed.
As far as financing, we'll need it. Don't know about you, but I don't have 18,000 in the bank for vacation use. Is it difficult to get approved with Disney financing (especially in these economic times)? The only reason I ask is because bot my husband and I are too far removed from nasty splits with our exes that didn't do really any good but destroying our credit.
Sorry it's 2 am, I know I had more cohesive questions and thoughts at the begining of this.

Ash

 

[Malaguti Ball Clan]

Hey everyone,
We are new to DVC, but old pros at Disney. My husband and I currently live in Tampa, Florida, so driving to Disney for the day has never been to much of a problem. With longer trips, we do typically get hotel rooms, but as our girls get older, a hotel room is almost essential for even our day trips, so they can come home and get a nap and go back for the evening. (When they were younger, stroller sleeping worked just fine.) Our oldest is six and our youngest is 17 months...
We have talked to the sales booth agents on previous trips, but we somehow were really sweet talked by Stephanie in Tomorrowland WDW this past weekend. We are returning this upcoming weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary and have an early morning appointment with an agent at Saratoga Springs.
In all honesty, after this week of researching, the agent won't have to work very hard to get our John Hancock's on any sale paper.
So what should we ask? We are looking at the AKL to be our "home resort". We'll probably go with the minimum buy in for now, and add on as needed.
As far as financing, we'll need it. Don't know about you, but I don't have 18,000 in the bank for vacation use. Is it difficult to get approved with Disney financing (especially in these economic times)? The only reason I ask is because bot my husband and I are too far removed from nasty splits with our exes that didn't do really any good but destroying our credit.
Sorry it's 2 am, I know I had more cohesive questions and thoughts at the begining of this.

Ash

Ash- Not to worry, Disney is still financing anyone with a heartbeat It is good that you have done some research, there is alot of paper work to go over, they have all the rules and regulations. Be aware that point charts can, have and will change albeit that the total points cannot change, but they can change certain rooms and seasonal point requirements. I hear they don't do it often, but 2010 point charts differ from the 2009 so you may want to ask about that. do you have a member referral for your incentives? If not, feel free to drop my name to your guide, and I will split the 200 dollar referral bonus we get. also know that the incentive package you will receive for buying through disney is changing, the exact date of the change seems to a matter of speculation, but I hear march 28th is the date the "new" incentives come out and I also heard that they were not as good as the current incentives, so another thing you may want to ask about. Good luck and we are here (just closed at AKV this past week!!!) if you have any other questions. - Alex and Sherrie Malaguti

 

[Sandisw]

Congratulations! Right now, they are allowing new members to buy in at AKL at only 100 points. Of course, depending on your needs, you may not find that enough points to start and will still want to go with the 160.

The other important piece to choosing your contract is your UY. You are allowed to bank points within the first 8 months of your UY. Most people try to get a UY that falls just before they would typically travel so that if a trip got cancelled (more than 31 days out--there are other rules for the points when you cancel with less than 30 days), you can bank the points into the following year.

The fact that you are from Tampa, your travel plans may be a bit more flexible and therefore, UY becomes less important. For me, we almost always travel right now in August (I am a teacher), so getting a June UY really works well.

Disney financing, from what I understand, is easy to get. I believe standard rate is 14.25% (with direct debit from checking/saving) and preferred rate is 10.75%. You can finance for as long as 10 years.

Happy planning!!!

 

[JimMIA]

If you have equity in your home, a home equity line of credit financing would be much less expensive than Disney's 14%.

And if you have that option, then the whole world of resale opens up to you. If you click on the DVC Resale Listings at the top of the page, you'll see that you can save 30-35% by buying resale.

The downside of resale is that it takes time -- usually 6 weeks or so -- from purchase to closed, "in the system" and able to make reservations. But that's a small price to pay for a huge savings, and once you're in there is no difference between your contract and someone who bought directly from Disney.

 

[Crystal_27]

Hey everyone,
We are new to DVC, but old pros at Disney. My husband and I currently live in Tampa, Florida, so driving to Disney for the day has never been to much of a problem. With longer trips, we do typically get hotel rooms, but as our girls get older, a hotel room is almost essential for even our day trips, so they can come home and get a nap and go back for the evening. (When they were younger, stroller sleeping worked just fine.) Our oldest is six and our youngest is 17 months...
We have talked to the sales booth agents on previous trips, but we somehow were really sweet talked by Stephanie in Tomorrowland WDW this past weekend. We are returning this upcoming weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary and have an early morning appointment with an agent at Saratoga Springs.
In all honesty, after this week of researching, the agent won't have to work very hard to get our John Hancock's on any sale paper.
So what should we ask? We are looking at the AKL to be our "home resort". We'll probably go with the minimum buy in for now, and add on as needed.
As far as financing, we'll need it. Don't know about you, but I don't have 18,000 in the bank for vacation use. Is it difficult to get approved with Disney financing (especially in these economic times)? The only reason I ask is because bot my husband and I are too far removed from nasty splits with our exes that didn't do really any good but destroying our credit.
Sorry it's 2 am, I know I had more cohesive questions and thoughts at the begining of this.

Ash

Ash, I agree with JimMIA that you may want to seriously look at resales. If you have budgeted $18,000, and since you already know that you want to buy into AKL, you will likely find much more bang for your buck by going resale (unless the "free" cruise incentive really appeals to you?). Still, even with resale, you could probably buy points and a cruise and still come out ahead.

If you finance with Disney, you'll also have to put at least 10% down ($500 the day you sign and the remainder about a month later). However, you can use the discounted point "incentive" as a portion of your downpayment, but you'll still need another couple hundred to cover the remainder. I think that the ALK incentive is $6.25/point, so if you buy 160 points, that will give you $1,000 as a downpayment from Disney, and you would just need to come up with the remaining $792. (I hope my math is right - it's early).

Congratulations on your anniversary and your potential DVC purchase - we just bought in a few weeks ago and are soooooo excited! We also did our tour early in the morning, and made very nice use of our VIP FastPasses that we received for doing the tour - make sure to ask for those - LOL. (We also were probably the easiest sale our guide ever made - LOL.) Also, since you have younger children, make sure to seriously consider BLT as an alternative if you decide to buy through Disney - - the convenience of the monorail with stroller-bound children is quite fabulous! Good luck with your decision!!

 

[oakmanner]

Good luck with whatever you decide... I have a feeling your going to be eating ice cream very soon!

 

[brandip22]

Good luck! We love having more neighbors
We bought through Disney- about 4 years ago now and financed for 5 years. FWIW, I wouldn't worry about credit too much. You may have to do a larger down payment, though. Oh, and Happy Anniversary!

 

[nurselisa1124]

have a ball looking at the models..I bought in 2000, as a single mom...best decison i ever made ..we've gone all over the world with DVC..and back again to disneyworld...love it!

YOu can use me as a referral if you wish...Lisa Ashton...Chris Monsaur was my dvc quide..he is a senior guide/manager now..but he is awesome...

good luck and welcome home!

Lisa

 

[GirlfromTN]

I was told last week that the minimum is 160 for AKL and NOT 100....can anyone confirm that they have been able to buy 100 points as a minimum first time purchase?

 

[Sandisw]

I was told last week that the minimum is 160 for AKL and NOT 100....can anyone confirm that they have been able to buy 100 points as a minimum first time purchase?

This may have changed since I was told it a few weeks back. I am trying to confirm it with my guide and will post if and when I hear from him.

 

[deva]

Ash, I agree with JimMIA that you may want to seriously look at resales. If you have budgeted $18,000, and since you already know that you want to buy into AKL, you will likely find much more bang for your buck by going resale (unless the "free" cruise incentive really appeals to you?). Still, even with resale, you could probably buy points and a cruise and still come out ahead.

Just had to chime in that I totally agree about going resale - they are priced at $85-$92 per point at The Timeshare Store. We used them last year. Company was great. We asked seller's to pay closing costs and they did. Unless you want BLT, I don't see any reason to buy direct from DVC.

 

[simba20]

As far as financing goes, my husband and I were able to get financed. Depending on who we apply to, from time to time, my husband's credit can look good or bad. Funny we got the DVC, but yet can never get a Kohl's store CC (just to get the discount and pay off immediately).

In my past, I have a judgement on my CR, but recently I pulled all three CRs and it no longer shows. However it apparently was still on there in Sept, when Disney pulle dmy credit. A Disney loan officer called us, and I explained the situation about the judgement, which I had made a settlement offer with the collection agency who had started the judgement. However the CA did not hold to their promise of a settlement and 2 years after the fact, said I still owed. Luckily I still had the letter/agreement I had made with the CA, and just faxed that to the loan officer and we were approved. It took a bit longer than it was supposed to (loan officer handling our financing lost the first fax, then was out sick for some time, then we had to refax......)

 

[Desnik]

The minimum buy in for non DVC members is 160 points. The 100 point minimum is for DVC member add ons at BLT and AKV.

Disney's financing isn't 14%. It is more like 9.5%-11.5% depending on your credit. They do a credit check and if your credit isn't great they will ask for a bigger down payment and your interest rate will be on the higher end of what I posted. I have never heard of anyone not getting approved. The DVC loan does not show up on your credit report, just an FYI. I know this all from experience.

As for questions the day you go, hmmm. You can find most answers here so just go look at all the models and have fun!

 

[GirlfromTN]

I thought you could add-on as little as 25 points to AKV or BLT?
I know at first they required 100 points for add-ons, but I thought they dropped that requirement a while ago. However I am still not convinced that you can buy only 100 points at SSR or AKV as a new DVC member; I have not heard of anyone actually being able to do this, and my guide said 160 points is the minimum for all new members buying through Disney, whether at Sarasota Springs, Animal Kingdom, or Bay Lake.

 

[Sandisw]

I thought you could add-on as little as 25 points to AKV or BLT?
I know at first they required 100 points for add-ons, but I thought they dropped that requirement a while ago. However I am still not convinced that you can buy only 100 points at SSR or AKV as a new DVC member; I have not heard of anyone actually being able to do this, and my guide said 160 points is the minimum for all new members buying through Disney, whether at Sarasota Springs, Animal Kingdom, or Bay Lake.

Members can add on at the 25 point level for any of the DVC resort.

I want to apologize if I have shared wrong information about the 100 point new member contracts.

The reason I thought they were still offering AKL or SSR at 100 points is because a few weeks ago, when I was adding on at BLT (115 points), I wanted to have a different UY than my current contract. I was told that in order do the different UY, I would have to purchase it as a new member (would get a new member # and everything) and buy at least 160 points. I wasn't interested in that.

However, I was also told that I woud have no problem getting a new member contract for 100 points at SSR or AKL if I wanted to get my points there, but that at BLT, it had to be the 160 minimum.

 

[Sandisw]

I thought you could add-on as little as 25 points to AKV or BLT?
I know at first they required 100 points for add-ons, but I thought they dropped that requirement a while ago. However I am still not convinced that you can buy only 100 points at SSR or AKV as a new DVC member; I have not heard of anyone actually being able to do this, and my guide said 160 points is the minimum for all new members buying through Disney, whether at Sarasota Springs, Animal Kingdom, or Bay Lake.

I just got email confirmation from my guide that new members can add on at AKL with only 100 points. The only incentive is $6.25 discount per point. However, this is disappearing on the 28th of the month.

Hope this helps!

 

[CarolMN]

Are you sure DVC is right for your family? These are some other things to think about:

Since you live in Tampa, you qualify for Florida resident discounts and tickets. If you buy DVC, you are committed to pay the annual dues whether you use the points or not. DVC members do not get free dining and cannot take advantage of other package discounts if they pay for their room with points.

Respectfully, financing a timeshare is not a good choice for most people, especially in this economy. This is a prepaid vacation plan and good financial planners will tell you this should come from discretionary income. Financing in this economy is very risky. What would happen if one of you lost a job? You will lose money if you have to sell your membership in the next few years. Renting points you cannot use is more difficult (and less profitable) in this economy - more supply, less demand & you will be competing with Disney's discounting. There are many DVC contracts for sale right now. I suspect most are there because of the economy and impulse buying. Most of them will take a loss.

Will you plan ahead? DVC works best for those who plan ahead - those who book last minute aren't always successful.

When will you travel? Weekend points are higher than weekday points. DVC recently adjusted the points to decrease the differential between weekdays and weekends, but they still cost more points.

I do not mean to be negative, but posters here tend to be very pro DVC. It isn't the best value for everyone. Be sure it's right for your family before you sign! Good luck!