50 points or under

[Eric Topp]

It all depends on where you are in your "life/family cycle", size of your family and how often you want to go. I would suggest buying in chunks as an addition so you can easily subtract. We did this with BCV (210 at $88 and 100 at $113 (April UY)). We just purchased 200 at BLT (Sept UY) at $113 fully loaded (400 for next year). If I had owned six years ago, we would have only needed like 200 max since we could go during low periods. Now, all of my kids are in Middle School or High School so we go at Spring Break, Thanksgiving and the Summer. Six more years from now, our points will be reduced. We also have five so we wanted the 1BR and not to be sardines. Our target is to get two full weeks or three four day trips a year.

 

[SuperRob]

Hello
I was thinking of trying to do a buy into DVC with a very small contract maybe 50 (resale) or below.
Is it worth it just for the membership benefits?
Maybe I can fill can borrow and buy extra points if needed.

Thank you
Brian

We only have 60 points. We've stayed at Aulani, the Grand Californian, and the Grand Floridian. We only stay in studios, and only in the off season, but we've gotten a lot of value. We paid cash up front, and we've already broken even. With our upcoming Aulani trip, we'll have saved over $2500. So I'd say small contracts have their advantages, mostly I that you can realize your savings faster.

 

[Littlelulu01]

AKV small contract was what I purchased last year and for very little cash outlay. I paid $92 pp for a 25 point contract. With closing fees it was $2675. The value studios are 9 points per night low season. Since then I've had two five night stays. That alone paid for the contract. We added a couple nights at the pop century on those two trips. The value studio at AKl was a savana view and great location, much better than our previous stays because no long walk to room. In addition I purchased annual passes for our family and saved over $400 for family of four. I wanted to squeeze one more trip in with the passes so I purchased low cost transfer points and booked a standard studio at poly. I had to waitlist but got it for marathon week in Jan. Total cost per night at Poly with my transfer points for Poly is $168/night. I also got TIW for $100 and save 20% on food for these three trips.

In addition I now have the opportunity to purchase direct another small point contract which I'm thinking about doing for Aulani. Disney won't let you purchase direct add ons in small amounts unless you're a current member. I enjoy saving and planning and had great fun doing it. I now will have enough points for AKV value studio stay five nights every other year until contract expires and only have to think about minimal maintenance fees.

It worked in my case but my kids are just finishing college and I doubt we will be taking annual trips to wdw so I had no need for a bigger contract.

I'm now thinking the next best option for my family is 40 point add on at Aulani. We're west coast and 5 night hotel room every other year looks like it will pay off almost as fast. Even with the insane buy in price at $165 direct because closing costs resale are $900 resale so resale doesn't make sense in my case.

A value studio in adventure and choice season is 9 points Sunday thru Thursday. Dream season it's only 10 points per night so by far the best use of points at any resort and you have a good chance at a savana view. On a small contract the higher MF's are neglible compared to low point cost for rooms. You don't see the akv small contracts come up as often but you can contact a broker. Mine said he gets them often but they sell the minute they come in so aren't typically advertised.
I'd like to add that even though I paid $92 per point for this contract I would bet that even if I sold it stripped today I would get every penny back even factoring broker fee.

 

[jmassey1samchi]

I'm seconding jnjhuddle. my family of four lives in florida, and all we want out of our dvc membership it the ability to go for 3-4 days during Christmas or spring, and stay in a studio. We will probably never stay in a 1 or 2 bedroom. DVC made it possible for us to do this and stay at deluxe resorts that we never would have without dvc. If I feel the need to add on later, I have that ability I can also always sell my existing contract and probably get at least what I paid for it. I realize that would mean paying a commission and closing costs again, but overall a small price to pay. And to the original poster, 1 of the benefits for me really is jus being part of this board!

 

[DisneyMom234]

What are the perks to being a member?? How many points is the grand usually? (How much typically would tge geand cost per night in dollars?)

Any insight is appreciated

 

[pangyal]

What are the perks to being a member?? How many points is the grand usually? (How much typically would tge geand cost per night in dollars?)

Any insight is appreciated

Hi!

You should read through all of these threads:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/the-dvc-information-center.3436037/

All of your questions should be answered clearly and in depth there . Good luck!

 

[chalee94]

What are the perks to being a member?? How many points is the grand usually? (How much typically would tge geand cost per night in dollars?)

Any insight is appreciated

perks come and go (the AP discount is nice, though, for as long as it lasts). you should become a member ("owner" is a better word) only if the accommodations are a good value for you.

point charts are here:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/the-dvc-information-center.3436037/#post-54182197

if you are considering buying in, be sure to do several months of homework beforehand to make sure it is a good fit. renting is still a good deal and with less of a commitment than owning.

 

[Littlelulu01]

There have been some changes to DVC perks as of today so I thought I would analyze the approach I used to pay off my DVC small contract purchase last year with what is available as of today. This assumes you can find an AKV loaded 25 point contract. If you contact a few brokers and get on their mailing list you’ll be able to pick up a 25 point contract before it hits the market and that’s how I purchased mine last year. I’m evaluating for a family of four. I love saving money and wanted to get three WDW trips in one year. This analysis assumes you are in the same mind set.

Let’s say you pay $110 per point for this AKV loaded contract. I know $110 seems very high for AKV and it is, but I went high just to show how even one year this contract can pay off. Also assume seller pays 2014 and 2015 maint fees at this per point price. Purchase costs are going to be:

$2750 for the contract

$375 closing fees

= $3125 total buy in cost

So now you own your small contract and you have potentially use years of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 available for you to use within the first year. You’ll also estimate that maintenance fees for 2016 are $162 and 2017 are $166 if they increase 3%/year. So you will have spent $3453 for these 100 points.

The annual pass savings as of today are a little different. A DVC member can purchase an annual pass with a few blackout dates for $549pp plus tax. If your goal is to save money and get those three trips in a year then you’ll want to avoid travel during those very busy blackout dates anyways. A non DVC member has to purchase the AP without blackout dates and the lowest price is $749pp plus tax. That’s an $800 savings for a family of 4 right away, bringing the total cost to $2653.

Booking rooms in advance you will be able to secure value studio stays. They may not be the exact dates you want but if you can be a little flexible with travel dates you should have no trouble. I was able to do so with a little stalking of the availability calendar. Two Sunday -Friday five night stays during adventure or choice season in a value AKV studio will cost you 9 points per night. You’ll have 10 points left over. You could purchase 3 one time use points at $15pp to add an additional night in a standard studio weekend for a total of 11 nights for the total of $2698 ($3453 buy in plus $45 for the three one-time use points minus $800 in Annual pass savings.) This cost is still roughly $600 more vs had you rented the points. The value studios are quite difficult to procure from a renter. They need to be willing to do things like be online at the exact time, perhaps walk a reservation, stalk the availability calendar… and so procuring these value studio reservations are usually done by owners interested in saving points and money. Value studios are great in the sense that you have a high probability of having a savanna or pool view. There is the chance of a parking lot view but part of the gamble is the fun when it pays off. I’m running at 100% savanna view but honestly with how convenient the rooms are to transportation and the pool, I would be happy with a parking lot view at this point.


I easily made up the $600 with the Tables in Wonderland card. I know DVC and AP also offers some dining discounts but my family likes table service and we made up the cost of the TIW card pretty much after the first dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table given it was 20% off that dinner. The cost is now $150 vs $100 for DVC owners so you’ll need to decide if the card is worth it. We easily saved more than $600 over the last three trips.


It all depends on how you want to squeeze that last AP trip in to make those passes pay off. We added two nights to each AKV stay at Pop Century at the beginning of each trip. It was fine for a couple of nights and the TIW card gave the 20% off food there as well. We also got a discount on the Pop century resort stay with DVC/AP.


For our third stay I got some inexpensive transfer points. Just enough for our upcoming Poly stay. Seven nights at a total of $168/night. The week I wanted is a very popular week and the points I had were non poly transfer points so in order to get the week I did need to waitlist at 7months. My waitlist came thru in a few days and I’m pretty sure there would not be many owners at $10 per point willing to do the stalking and wait listing that I did to procure the reservation. The poly villas are completely booked for cash and points for my dates but they do have cash reservations available at 25% off rack rate. 7 nights standard view hotel room would run me $4199. I purchased transfer points for $1180 so one could theoretically say that DVC saved me $3019 in addition to having the initial buy in costs paid for vs renting in one years’ time. You may not want to purchase transfer points and may be satisfied to get that 3rd AP stay in at a value resort, which is actually less cash outlay. Regardless you can see how quickly that DVC small contract can pay off.


The only cost of my future stays are the mf’s so I’m looking at $57/night in today's $ for a five night deluxe hotel stay every other year until 2057. This is an awesome way for someone such as myself to get their feet wet with DVC and have it actually save you $ in the first year ownership. Now the downside is that I won’t have any points again until 2017 and if you purchased this year it would be till 2018 but that’s right about the time Pandora opens so worth another trip after that.


I stuck to my original plan, was patient and willing to spend a little time checking the DVC online availability tool for my trips. It was worth the thousands saved and we had some great trips, still have the last Poly stay coming up. I don’t own a contract with a big monthly maintenance fee and still get to stay on site at a deluxe property for much less than a value resort would cost until 2057. I’d say in today’s market that’s about as good as it gets. A little extra work? Sure but it’s Disney Vacation work so I didn’t mind. Really no different than stalking for BOG reservations or that special fast pass time.

 

[Sharon526]

Never mind

 

[kapicka]

We have 3 contracts. They are at 2 different resorts and all of them are of different point values. One advantage is that as our kids get older if the magic wears off a bit we can sell 1 or 2 of them off.

The only disadvantage is that they have different "use years" (points are allotted during different months) and that we had to pay closing fees 3 times.

 

[Dean]

We have 3 contracts. They are at 2 different resorts and all of them are of different point values. One advantage is that as our kids get older if the magic wears off a bit we can sell 1 or 2 of them off.

The only disadvantage is that they have different "use years" (points are allotted during different months) and that we had to pay closing fees 3 times.

Plus you likely paid more per contract above and beyond the 2 extra closings. One just has to decide if it's worth the cost for the options, often it's not but depends on specifics.

 

[Deb123]

We are waiting to close on our first 50 point contract from VB. We have the flexibility to travel every month out of the yr for a week, plus we are not picky about where we stay. Anywhere inside of Disney will be fine. Our goal is to try and get 5 nights at OKW at the 7 mth mark out of those 50 points every yr during an offpeak season. The start up cost was extremely low at $52/pt. As the above poster mentioned, we will now be able to save on the AP passes for my family as well, which will just about offset my yearly maint fees. For us, this is a good starter package as we are paying cash. We will more than likely buy another 50 point package in the next yr or 2 at OKW or SS. Paying cash again. For some, like myself who do not have the cash to buy outright a bigger contract, and do not want to finance and pay finance charges, buying small contracts makes perfect financial sense.