Adding on Points - are there minimums?

[BDJazz]

Hello Disers,

Sometime in the distant future we are thinking about adding on points to our AKV contract. I searched the member website for info and can't seem to find anything.

My questions are: How does one begin the process of adding points and are their a minimum number of points you can add on each time? Rather than finance a large chunk we would like to pay cash for our point add ons as we go. Does anyone see any disadvantage to this?

Thank you,

Ryan

 

[drusba]

Minimum 25 if paying cash, 50 if you want to finance; you can buy any amount above minmum, e.g., if you want 29 points you can buy 29 points. If there are price incentives at time such as discounts off of regular price you may have to buy more than 50 and often at least 100 to get the discount

 

[Sandisw]

Through Disney, minimum is 25 points if paying cash, 50 points if you want to finance.

The only drawback, if you want to call it one, is that you will pay full price as there are rarely incentives for small add ons.

They used to start at 50 points but recently, no incentives until you get to 100 points.

We added on 30 BLT points in August. We considered going to 50 because of a small incentive, but in the end, we just didn't want to pay an addtional $2000 for points we really didn't need at this time.

But, we were able to use our Disney Visa and get 6 months, 0% interest so even though we had the cash, I have not had to completely pay for it yet!

 

[BDJazz]

Great idea on the Disney visa. A couple more questions. Are the closing costs fixed at the same price regardless if add on amount or is it a percentage of the add on? Also, will Disney let you choose your use year for the add on?

 

[dbs1228]

When we added on, 60 and 65 point add-ons at BLT there were no closing cost involved since we were already owners, and yes they gave us the same UY as are other contract!

 

[kristenrice]

Great idea on the Disney visa. A couple more questions. Are the closing costs fixed at the same price regardless if add on amount or is it a percentage of the add on? Also, will Disney let you choose your use year for the add on?

There are no closing costs involved when adding on directly through Disney.

As far as UY, you will be given the same UY as your master contract. If you want a different UY for some reason, you will need to buy a new master contract at whatever the current minimum buy-in is set at. It was 160 (and I think that is still the "official" minimum) but I've read numerous reports of new buyers purchasing direct for 100 points and sometimes less. Your experience may vary....

 

[disneyobessed]

If you dont add on directly from Disney but from the resale site..are their closing costs? we would like to add about 40 pts on at AKV..user year is Dec.. so I could do that directly from Disney and not have to pay closing costs? Where can I find out how much additional points from DIsney are?

 

[Sandisw]

If you dont add on directly from Disney but from the resale site..are their closing costs? we would like to add about 40 pts on at AKV..user year is Dec.. so I could do that directly from Disney and not have to pay closing costs? Where can I find out how much additional points from DIsney are?

Through resale, there are closing costs but those are negotiable with the seller, if you choose.

Disney does not charge them for add ons and yes, you could get 40 points from them. If you check dvcnews.com, they usually have up to date prices for contracts.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If you dont add on directly from Disney but from the resale site..are their closing costs? we would like to add about 40 pts on at AKV..user year is Dec.. so I could do that directly from Disney and not have to pay closing costs? Where can I find out how much additional points from DIsney are?

You need to consider the price from disney vs. the price for resale + closing costs. If you can find the contract you want resale it still will usually work out better for you to do that. Right now for 40 pts AKV direct from Disney it's $120/pt. ($4800). If you found a 40 pt resale - say $80/pt plus approx $350 closing it's $3550. That's a $1250 savings in going resale. You need to consider points available in the contract but if you don't need the points right away you still can save going resale on the small point contracts if you can find one in your UY.

 

[disneyobessed]

omg.. WOW 120 is high.. I just looked at the resale prices and they are much cheaper than that! thanks!!

 

[kristenrice]

You need to consider the price from disney vs. the price for resale + closing costs. If you can find the contract you want resale it still will usually work out better for you to do that. Right now for 40 pts AKV direct from Disney it's $120/pt. ($4800). If you found a 40 pt resale - say $80/pt plus approx $350 closing it's $3550. That's a $1250 savings in going resale. You need to consider points available in the contract but if you don't need the points right away you still can save going resale on the small point contracts if you can find one in your UY.

Excellent point! The other thing to consider is convenience. We waited and waited for a HHI resale of 50 points with a FEB UY to come available. After 6 months of nothing, we finally decided to go direct. Of course, THEN the 50-point resale came on the market. But...at $65/point ($3250) and $425 in closing costs, the resale would have cost $3675. There were no points coming until 2012. Direct, the points were $80/point ($4000) so we spent $325 more going direct....BUT...since we bought before Feb 1, 2011, we received the points from 2010 which we were allowed to bank AND we had all of our 2011 points available. For the extra $325, we ended up with another 100 points to use. Even if we would have negotiated that the seller pay the closing costs, we still would have only spent an additional $750 for the extra points.

For larger contracts, resale is definitely the way to go. For smaller contracts and add-ons, the monetary savings is sometimes not worth it for the ease and convenience of going direct.

 

[Ericandjenng]

We just added on 100 points for a different resort and different UY from our original contract. AND had it put into two 50 point contracts. I called on a Monday and they offered to FedEx the paperwork but we were headed to WDW that Saturday.

That's all it took to add-on--1 phone call and a side-trip to the DVC sales office. I banked our 2010 points into 2011 on Tuesday or Wednesday of the same week I called, before we ever made it to WDW and signed the papers.

If you don't have the number for your guide anymore, there is a generic number on DVCmember.com and they can get you to your guide (or someone in their group) and give you that direct number. I think that number is on the card too...sorry I can't remember and my card is....?

 

[Pirate Jack]

There are no closing costs involved when adding on directly through Disney.

As far as UY, you will be given the same UY as your master contract. If you want a different UY for some reason, you will need to buy a new master contract at whatever the current minimum buy-in is set at. It was 160 (and I think that is still the "official" minimum) but I've read numerous reports of new buyers purchasing direct for 100 points and sometimes less. Your experience may vary....

We just added on another Master contract with different names AND a different use year in late November. At that time we were able to purchase a 50 pointer at BLT which I was very happy about! Also with 6 months interst free on the Disney Visa!

 

[letitsnow]

Are you required to pay a down payment? As far as i knew you didn't need to put a down payment and they would not have to run credit again. My guide says that EVERYONE has to pay 10% down and if I buy in at 100 pts and not 160 then I am not eligible for any discounts. We were planning on purchasing direct and resale. Our resale closed and since she is being mean I don't want to purchase direct anymore. She said that I can't add 50 or 100 pts which I could afford now to add on.

 

[kristenrice]

Are you required to pay a down payment? As far as i knew you didn't need to put a down payment and they would not have to run credit again. My guide says that EVERYONE has to pay 10% down and if I buy in at 100 pts and not 160 then I am not eligible for any discounts. We were planning on purchasing direct and resale. Our resale closed and since she is being mean I don't want to purchase direct anymore. She said that I can't add 50 or 100 pts which I could afford now to add on.

For our add on of 50 points, we were required to put 10% down. I can't help with the incentives question since we bought HHI and there aren't any incentives there anyways, other than that it is $80/pt. I also can't help with the credit question because our initial contract was bought resale and paid with cash.

Your guide is wrong in telling you that you cannot add on 50 or 100 points. But, she is probably correct about the 10% down and the ineligibility for incentives for 160 points or less.

 

[Sandisw]

Are you required to pay a down payment? As far as i knew you didn't need to put a down payment and they would not have to run credit again. My guide says that EVERYONE has to pay 10% down and if I buy in at 100 pts and not 160 then I am not eligible for any discounts. We were planning on purchasing direct and resale. Our resale closed and since she is being mean I don't want to purchase direct anymore. She said that I can't add 50 or 100 pts which I could afford now to add on.

I have added on twice through Disney and each time I did have to put the 10% down. That is required for everyone so the guide is correct on this piece.

I don't know what resort, but a while back, they eliminated incentives for any add ons of less than 100 points. So, if you are looking to add on less than that, you are paying for price.

I do think that there is a small incentive between 100 - 160 for members, but again, I think it depends on resort. Check out DVC news.com as they seem to keep up on things for members.

When you talked to the guide, were you officially a member yet? If not, that could be why she said no incentives prior to 160.