10-15 year DVC Financing - "Its a trap!" - Admiral Ackbar

[sethschroeder]

Upfront anyone can do whatever they want with whatever money they have.

With that being said I just want to call out that if you are actively looking at direct points and you need a 10-15 year repayment you need to take a step back and think it through.

1) It doesn't mean you can't own DVC as you can either look at some of the very competitive resale prices (SSR can be used to stay most places - its also where many of us started owning DVC) or you could save up for a few years (put the money aside you would have paid monthly as well as take 1-2 cheap trips putting away the money Disney would have gotten on those trips)
2) Prices at Disney are only going to go up. Yes there might be short term downturns like we might see in the next 12-24 months with Epic launching and the economy but overall Disney ticket, food, merch prices are all going to march to a higher increase rate than inflation and normal increase elsewhere.
3) DVC is a luxury purchase that isn't needed and is not a requirement to enjoy WDW. You can easily stay at places like Swan/Dolphin, other cash resorts on promos (free dining anyone?) or elsewhere for fairly good prices.
4) Rental is always an option as well. You dont have full control over your reservation but you can still get a really good price and not have to pay the large sum up front.

If you take nothing away from this at least do the math on:
1) Buying DVC with your 10-15 year repayment at 9.99% interest
2) Renting DVC starting at roughly $17-$20/point

We took the route of walking away from Disney for a few years then coming back when the time was right financially in our life to be prepared to purchase and afford an annual (or semi-annual) Disney vacation.

 

[Chuck96]

Renting points is an incredibly viable option. You can take advantage of multiple 11 month windows if you plan ahead a bit. I rented multiple times before my ultimate DVC purchase, and it is a cost effective option with tremendous flexibility. It gave me the confidence to determine if DVC would be right for my family.

 

[Brian Noble]

DVC is a luxury purchase that isn't needed and is not a requirement to enjoy WDW. You can easily stay at places like Swan/Dolphin, other cash resorts on promos (free dining anyone?) or elsewhere for fairly good prices.

This, times 1,000.

Our earliest visits to WDW were via renting condos or townhomes at Windsor Hills. This is a private vacation/snowbird community that is zoned for short-term rental. It is located off of Old Lake Wilson, just south of US-192; it is 15 minutes to the MK toll plaza, less to anything else. Right now, I can get a 3BR/2BA condo there for the first week of March for less than $1,400, all-in, or $200/night.

For comparison, the rack rate for the cheapest WDW resort that week (AS Sports) is $1,650. You can probably get a discount to get it down to $1,400 (especially this year), so you can choose between a single hotel room with transportation/parking included, or a condo where you would need a rental car and pay for theme park parking, with a total cost still less than a single Moderate room for that same week.

I don't know about you, but for our family this was an easy call.

After several years, I started looking at DVC. To meet our expectations, we would have needed about 300 points, which would get us a 2BR at OKW for a week during what was then called Magic Season, currently Season 6. That was doable via resale, but it would have been a stretch, and it would have committed all of our vacation discretionary budget to Disney for the foreseeable future. We weren't ready to go all-in on Disney, so we ended up passing on that.

Instead, we bought Wyndham (resale, and much less expensively!) so that we could stay at Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek, and also at any of their other 60-some resorts. This is an even better location than Windsor Hills; the Bonnet Creek "sub-division" is off Buena Vista drive, between CBR and Epcot Center Drive. It's closer to many Disney destinations than OKW or SSR. Several of the towers offer a panoramic view of Epcot, including what was then Illuminations and, in the distance, the Magic Kingdom and Wishes. They even had an in-house channel running Stacy's Must-Dos, much to the chagrin of my spouse. ("Are you dizzy yet?") It's a little more expensive---my current all-in cost for a 2BR condo there is about $1,550 for the week. Still less than the cheapest rack rate value room.

I quickly built up a (resale!) timeshare portfolio that included those Wyndham points plus a couple of fixed-week traders, and it turns out that portfolio was reasonably efficient at making exchanges into DVC---so far, my inbound exchnages have been to OKW, SSR, BCV, BWV, BRV, BLT, and AKV-K. Most of those were into SSR or OKW 2BRs. There were some things we liked more about SSR/OKW. And there were some things we liked more about Bonnet Creek.

But, the vacations were much more alike than they are different.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

The “saving up until you can afford it” can be a losing game as Disney continues to jack the price of DVC and for all those years you won’t be enjoying being a member. If people can do a sizable downpayment and 5 years, financing isn’t too bad. 15 seems like insanity.

 

[davidhr]

I learned a while ago that unless someone is very close to me (and they might still not listen to me), it’s a waste of my time to try to tell people things like this. When someone wants something and have made their mind about it, an internet stranger has a low chance of changing their mind.

I do agree, but the people who really need the advice are not going to care.

 

[bakerworld]

I'm not really 'getting' this thread. I hope this isn't another way of finance shaming.

 

[Brian Noble]

That's not my summary. My summary is:

Disney is very very good at convincing people that their Vacation Is Ruined unless they Buy All The Things. And this corner of DISboards is all too happy to reinforce that when it comes to DVC. This thread is a small voice in the wilderness that says: "This whole DVC thing costs a lot of money, and the extended financing window is a trick that Disney is playing to reduce the emotional impact of that number with all the zeros; it also happens to pad Disney's coffers. Go in with your eyes wide open, and know that there are lots of other logding options that are also great."

 

[sethschroeder]

The “saving up until you can afford it” can be a losing game as Disney continues to jack the price of DVC and for all those years you won’t be enjoying being a member. If people can do a sizable downpayment and 5 years, financing isn’t too bad. 15 seems like insanity.

Could be slightly off on the pricing but this would be 150 points direct:
2013 - VGF - $145
2015 - POLY - $160
2017 - CCV - $170
2019 - RIV - $180 (bought in 2020 for $155 personally for 300 points)
2022 - VGF - $198
2024 - POLY - $215
2024 - FW - $191

If someone has different prices they can comment this is what I could really find with normal incentives and the direct price taken in to account. I believe POLY had extra discounting people go do with welcome home points and such to further lower the cost.

The upfront cost of DVC is a portion of the total costs you are going to incur over the following decades regarding MFs, Tickets, Food.

As you said though it can make sense to finance though in certain circumstances to lock in pricing now especially if its the specific resort you want and a price that is going to be dwarfed in the future.

 

[Orbiter_Fan]

That's not my summary. My summary is:

Disney is very very good at convincing people that their Vacation Is Ruined unless they Buy All The Things. And this corner of DISboards is all too happy to reinforce that when it comes to DVC. This thread is a small voice in the wilderness that says: "This whole DVC thing costs a lot of money, and the extended financing window is a trick that Disney is playing to reduce the emotional impact of that number with all the zeros; it also happens to pad Disney's coffers. Go in with your eyes wide open, and know that there are lots of other logding options that are also great."

This is my take too. There are a lot of lurkers on these boards seeking info about DVC - I was one of them for 9 months before making my 1st post. This is a good perspective for those considering a purchase.

 

[sethschroeder]

I'm not really 'getting' this thread. I hope this isn't another way of finance shaming.

The point of the thread is simply to say there are lots of paths to get to the final landing spot of owning DVC and many other places where people would get information will likely be very biased towards (never buy a timeshare OR Disney is calling sign on the dotted line). Additionally to call out there are other costs than just the seemingly big upfront payment that will continue to increase.

Life experience has made me not a big fan of financing non-necessities (I wouldn't shame someone because they want/need to finance something). I would simply say if someone wants to finance and they need 10-15 years it likely makes sense to check resale instead.

Sounds like there is no prepayment penalty for this finance though and I could see many people taking the 15 year option to lower monthly but they instead do larger payments with bonuses or something to pay it off much quicker still.

 

[davidhr]

Sounds like there is no prepayment penalty for this finance though and I could see many people taking the 15 year option to lower monthly but they instead do larger payments with bonuses or something to pay it off much quicker still.

I usually take the longer terms with lower monthly payments when I’m taking a relatively large loan (unless the conditions are really bad). But I do that because I know I’m capable of paying more consistently and pay it off quickly. I like having lower monthly payments in case “life” happens.

But I never advise others to do it because most people are just going to make the minimum payment, and that’s going to be horrible for them.

 

[Chuck96]

I bought VGF in 2022 as a new member and it was $207/pp for direct. I first considered buying in 2018, and went through many options and considerations and potential courses of action. Once it became known that BPK at VGF was shifting to DVC and would be sold in 2022 - that crystallized my decision. I had been saving for the last two years of that; for our annual trips between 2020, we rented points or stayed at Coronado, so it wasn't too painful a financial hit. It was a LOT of money, but because I examined the decision from every angle (multiple times), and got the resort I wanted with the flexbility we wanted (I spent several $K more going direct, so that was a trade), I haven't had a moment of buyers remorse. If I had jumped in right away (it would have been less points, but more financed) or done it a different way, I think I'd feel differently.

Anyways, I expect DVC will be a buyer's market for the first year or two of Epic Universe, so there is no rush. Do the math, rent to test, find the deal you want at the location you want. Don't settle. And be certain you love Disney enough to commit that much money.

 

[DonkeyHoTay]

I'm not really 'getting' this thread. I hope this isn't another way of finance shaming.

edit - bowing out of this thread.

 

[Sandisw]

I think people need to know all the options and pitfalls that comes with financing anything, including DVC

Things like job stability situation, emergency funds, health insurance cost and deductibles comes to mind.

Then analyze the what ifs if job loss occurs. Also important is where some disposable income currently goes, like eating out, movies, etc.

If someone has done all of that and can handle a payment of DVC and they choose that financing is the way to go, then I don’t think it matters.

We were willing to finance…we didn’t have to as things happened that allowed us to figure it out.

But, I was very comfortable with it. I had no desire to rent and only looked at cash rates, and what we were paying yearly for cash stays could cover the financing.

Sure, we lost interest taking money out, etc but that wasn’t the priority. We decided we’d make some adjustments with other fun stuff..,instead of weekly dinners out, we move to dinners ever other week.

In the end, we worked hard for our money and decided that finance charges to own DVC were something we were comfortable spending our money on.

Personally, I don’t think cash is the only way to do it because everyone gets to decide!

 

[Chili327]

1) It doesn't mean you can't own DVC as you can either look at some of the very competitive resale prices (SSR can be used to stay most places - its also where many of us started owning DVC) or you could save up for a few years (put the money aside you would have paid monthly as well as take 1-2 cheap trips putting away the money Disney would have gotten on those trips)

Renting points is an incredibly viable option. You can take advantage of multiple 11 month windows if you plan ahead a bit. I rented multiple times before my ultimate DVC purchase, and it is a cost effective option with tremendous flexibility. It gave me the confidence to determine if DVC would be right for my family.

I just wanted to add another option. Buy small resale and use it, then decide to keep or sell.
I bought a 50pt contract, used 3 years of points in one trip (150+6otup total), determined I wanted to be a member, & sold it before I even flew home.

The “saving up until you can afford it” can be a losing game as Disney continues to jack the price of DVC and for all those years you won’t be enjoying being a member. If people can do a sizable downpayment and 5 years, financing isn’t too bad. 15 seems like insanity.

Agree 15 is insane, I usually set it up for 4-8 years based on the interest rate, then usually have them paid off within a year or less (i have gone over a year once), but get the best rate, & it can gives me plenty of time to pay it if more time is needed.

I'm not really 'getting' this thread. I hope this isn't another way of finance shaming.

Nah, I think they're just trying to get people to recognize how much they'll actually be spending if they did direct for 15 years... its insanity, and personally I appreciate that kind of warning.

 

[BeachClub2014]

The challenge with these threads is that they often come across as condescending and "preachy" with the generalized assumption that other adults considering financing for a DVC purchase either don't understand how credit works or that there are cheaper alternatives to vacationing at WDW.

I am willing to bet that a significant percentage of DVC buyers finance in some way, shape, or form.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

The challenge with these threads is that they often come across as condescending and "preachy" with the generalized assumption that other adults considering financing for a DVC purchase either don't understand how credit works or that there are cheaper alternatives to vacationing at WDW.

I am willing to bet that a significant percentage of DVC buyers finance in some way, shape, or form.

Haha. My brain read "some way, shame, or form". . I don't love that we finance, but it works for us.
Glad everyone on the boards can join us in our DVC fandom as owners no matter what that looks like for you or how you got there.
Oo - speaking of which our first loan will be paid off in 3 months! We may... have others. haha. Addonitis is real .

 

[sethschroeder]

condescending and "preachy"

If someone views it that way nothing I can really do as my view for the goal of this sub is to proactively put out information people can choose to take or leave when deciding their DVC path.

that other adults considering financing for a DVC purchase either don't understand how credit works

Honestly many adults actually don't know how financing works and others know how it works but still get caught in the marketing trap. Look at 7 year car loans as an example where marketing leans heavily in to that low low monthly payment so you move from that 2021 Car/Truck to a 2025 Car/Truck.

If someone knows what they are doing then I would hope this topic doesn't bother them as its not directed at them.

that there are cheaper alternatives to vacationing at WDW

Honestly I think a number of people that find this site are brand new to Disney and possibly are not aware of this. Their first trip to Disney they booked with a TA and then see the DVC salesperson in the parks/resort. At which point they do a web search and find this website. I have actually seen over the years posts of this of both people who are still at Disney and those who already have signed a DVC contract and just got home (still in the contract cancellation period) and if they are posting you know more are lurking.

None of this is meant to go after you as a heads up I just had a second to explain myself as it looked like a few people had the same thoughts as you did.

 

[BeachClub2014]

Honestly many adults actually don't know how financing works and others know how it works but still get caught in the marketing trap. Look at 7 year car loans as an example where marketing leans heavily in to that low low monthly payment so you move from that 2021 Car/Truck to a 2025 Car/Truck.

If someone knows what they are doing then I would hope this topic doesn't bother them as its not directed at them.

See, this is where we may disagree. I'm not sure how we would quantify the financial literacy of adults. I tend to believe that people are often attracted to "low" monthly payments, which always tend to be the focus of sales advertising. Keeping payments affordable means extending the repayment schedule and increasing the overall cost due to higher interest payments. I think people get that, and it's clearly stated on any loan disclosure form.

People can know what they are doing, make different financial decisions than you or I would, and finance a seven-year car or a DVC loan for 10. That may not be a decision we agree with, but it doesn't mean they are unknowing rubes.

Honestly I think a number of people that find this site are brand new to Disney and possibly are not aware of this. Their first trip to Disney they booked with a TA and then see the DVC salesperson in the parks/resort. At which point they do a web search and find this website. I have actually seen over the years posts of this of both people who are still at Disney and those who already have signed a DVC contract and just got home (still in the contract cancellation period) and if they are posting you know more are lurking.

Maybe. I don't think people are as uneducated about Disney options as many here may believe. With the explosion of Disney sites on social media, there is far more information floating in the ether than in 2000, when we first bought DVC. Back then, you had to use a TA or deal with Disney directly, after doing your research by buying a 12-pound Birmbaum's Guide to WDW to help with planning.

None of this is meant to go after you as a heads up I just had a second to explain myself as it looked like a few people had the same thoughts as you did.

I didn't think you were, and I appreciate you saying so. I enjoy these boards (usually) for the free flow of thoughts, ideas, and opinions.

I will add one additional crazy thought on the whole financing thing. We should be ecstatic that DVC (and other lenders) offer this opportunity to buyers. Absent robust finance opportunities, DVC would sell a s**t ton fewer points as they would dramatically shrink the pool of buyers. Fewer points sold equate to less revenue, less construction, and fewer fancy new resorts.

Thank goodness for financing and people buying a luxury they probably couldn't buy any other way!

 

[Cfabar1]

I think there are many ways to do DVC...

One thing we always talk about in our family is we never want anything we purchase to become a burden. Whether that is a house, a car, a DVC purchase, etc. we don't want it to be burdensome or limiting to own it. We want it to be something we truly enjoy.

That attitude has kept our addonitis at bay. DVC is extraordinarily expensive, by the time you factor in all the costs that go into it. And, even resale, it costs way more than most other timeshare procedures. And that doesn't include having to pay Disney prices. It also limits that portion not only of your vacation budget but your vacation TIME (which is far more valuable) to Disney...

We love our DVC stays, and our kids are at an age we plan to keep going and being FL based, DVC gives us lots of flexibility.

All that said, it IS a lot of money.... Dues costs thousands every year, the initial cost is staggering (can buy a car for that amount of money), and the tickets, meals, and everything keep going up. I could imagine us deciding to sell at any point when it becomes more stressful than fun... Personally that's why we didn't want to consider financing, we wanted the flexibility to get out easily without too much of a haircut at any time. It is the same reason why I won't buy RIV or a restricted resort direct.

A lot of this is probably controversial to many on this board, but it is how we made our decisions.