Advice from any aussie DVC members

[Tashinwdw]

Are there any DVC aussie owners out there, I want to know what you guys do with any points you cant use. This will be the first year I have not been able to use post of our points,

We are tossing up banking them and using them and spending longer in Hawaii next year but thats more just for the sake of using the points up. Which will cost us more due to food and shopping etc, which I want to put that money towards our 2019 dw holiday. We are basically just going to hawaii to get on a cruise, oh and see the volcano but cant use our points there.

I looked into the company that rents out points but due to the tax law in the US it means we have to get a tax file no or whatever they call it over there. it seems very complicated. The one time we did have about 30 points left I tried to rent on the board but I dont post enough to be able to do it. So any other recommendations would be great.

 

[ColinA]

How many points do you have to rent out?

I rent out points 3-4 times each year and have regular renters mostly from the US. Payment by paypal in US dollars. There are aussies on here who have rented from me.

Pm me if you want more info. I can email the contract sample I use.

I used to list on the rent/trade section and no problems to rent them out. If you are not up to the minimum posts they used to charge you for the listing unless that has changed.

 

[Twilight Terror]

Hello! I was in the middle of replying the other night when the boards went down for maintenance and did not realise my post did not go through, so hear is what I had to say about it:

When we lived in the UK, we would visit once or twice a year, and stay for shorter periods. From Australia, time, distance and cost makes that impossible, so we now change our timings. We tend to go every 12-18months now, which means me more frequently have to either bank because we are not going to use, or borrow because we have an extended stay. Either way, I am always calculating and recalculating our points. In our 9yrs of membership, we have never had to rent our points out. We have lent points to a family friend in America so she can join us on vacation, but that is all.

For us, I am always calculating and recalculating what is happening with our points. Any extra points we cannot use, we always bank them. Then, when we make the next holiday booking, we always ensure the banked points are used first before any current use year points are taken. That way, if we still don't use all our points, the current use year ones are available to bank and do not go to waste.

Remember, you can always bank your points, but if don't bank and can't use them, you lose them! For example, you have Jan Use Year of 200 points. You are not going to use them in 2017, so you bank them. In 2018, you will have 400 (200 banked, 200 current). You go in 2018, so use your 200 banked and say 10 current. You still have 190 points, but again, they can be banked until the next year, when you then use them first again. It's always good to be in credit!

I am forever costing forward and backwards with next trip and future trips. Our upcoming trip is a full monty, because of the time of year and our use year period, we are using banked, current and borrowed points! We will be slumming it next year in a studio the whole time however! But I can't really complain, as we will be having our first actual over Christmas/New Year holiday together since 1999!

 

[Tashinwdw]

Hi Colin,

Thanks, I will PM you for the contract I can use. I had to pay to be able to advertise.

 

[Tashinwdw]

we had decided to use them and not rent out but I just went in to bank but have missed the window I am starting to think our holiday next year is jinxed. Hopefully I will be able to rent them out otherwise I will loose 130 points. I am always confused with the banking and booking window. I should really write it down so I remember all the rules. I thought they would email me regarding window for banking etc but no. oh well. lesson learnt.

 

[Twilight Terror]

Maybe you could try calling MS and see if they can work a bit of pixie dust magic? End of the day, the worst they can say is no and you haven't lost anything.

 

[ColinA]

we had decided to use them and not rent out but I just went in to bank but have missed the window I am starting to think our holiday next year is jinxed. Hopefully I will be able to rent them out otherwise I will loose 130 points. I am always confused with the banking and booking window. I should really write it down so I remember all the rules. I thought they would email me regarding window for banking etc but no. oh well. lesson learnt.

Do you have a login to the MS site. That should tell you the points situation and banking windows.

I have an easy fix for the problem. Rent out excess points and try to stay borrowed a small amount of points. Saves having to bank them.

Do you only have 130 point or can you borrow to allow more for a rental. You will probably find the 130 can be broken into small lots for multiple rents. At the worst you might lose a few points. Be patient if you have time to find the right rentals.

What is the date the 130 points need to be used by?

 

[orion2185]

sorry to hijack this thread...but this is something I have been wanting to post for sometime now.

would like to hear from any Aussie DVC owners about their thoughts on being a DVC member whilst living in Australia.

I'm an American who moved to Australia about 5 years ago. Prior to moving to Australia I was pretty close to becoming a DVC member. However, once I knew that I was permanently moving to Australia, I thought there was no point or could not see the value.
Since DVC is US Dollars due to exchange rates it means it cost us significant more upfront. Then what I sort of struggle with now is your yearly dues. Again due to the ever change exchange rate it simple means being an Aussie DVC owner just costs more.

What do the current Aussie DVC owners have to say about this?
Or, is it really not that big of an issue?

We have rented points every trip we go to Disney and love the rental experience.
Any Aussie DVC owners that rent points here? Certainly PM us as we would like to deal with a Aussie owner.

We have used a couple of different US DVC owners for points rental. But always go back to the same family we have rented countless times before.

I'm sort of at that point where I think renting points is the best kept secret for a Disney holiday.

I have no large upfront purchase cost and I don't have to pay yearly dues. Don't have to worry about point use years or banking used points etc.
However, I do see value in being a DVC Owner and being able to rent out your own points. As I think if we were DVC members, we would not worry about banking/borrowing points etc...we would just rent them out. Use our rental money to pay for DCL cruise or pay yearly due fees etc.

I know DVC is not for everyone. But we do go once a year or every other to Disney (mostly to do DCL cruise and add on days at the parks).
Had a family member in the USA that was a DVC owner and they sold as they just did not found value. Great when they originally bought and for a few years...but found after that it was just too much of a commitment.
It's so tricky as it's really a personal choice.

Just thought if any Aussie DVC owners would share their thoughts and experience on being an overseas member...might help us make that final decision.
As I can't tell you how many times we have sat thorough the DVC presentations and thought we should bite the bullet. But it's very difficult to know what the future holds and being locked into possible a large commitment..might out weight the pros?

We can certainly set aside the upfront cost and invest that money and use the interest to pay for future vacations. Though prices do increase yearly and it would be a challenge to keep your original upfront investment to keep up with inflation.

We are 2 adults no children
the only other issue is we own our own business.
Which means you never know what's around the corner.
Even though we always have school holidays off (business closed) you still might have other elements to deal with...and can't necessarily take a holiday then.
Not to mention no predictable income. Money comes it goes. You might pay more one year in taxes etc


too bad the airlines don't sell those lifetime golden tickets anymore.
Now that would be the better deal.

hope to hear from any Aussie DVC owners. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post here.

Thanks

 

[ColinA]

Just thought if any Aussie DVC owners would share their thoughts and experience on being an overseas member...might help us make that final decision.
As I can't tell you how many times we have sat thorough the DVC presentations and thought we should bite the bullet. But it's very difficult to know what the future holds and being locked into possible a large commitment..might out weight the pros?

We can certainly set aside the upfront cost and invest that money and use the interest to pay for future vacations. Though prices do increase yearly and it would be a challenge to keep your original upfront investment to keep up with inflation.

We are 2 adults no children
the only other issue is we own our own business.
Which means you never know what's around the corner.
Even though we always have school holidays off (business closed) you still might have other elements to deal with...and can't necessarily take a holiday then.
Not to mention no predictable income. Money comes it goes. You might pay more one year in taxes etc


too bad the airlines don't sell those lifetime golden tickets anymore.
Now that would be the better deal.

hope to hear from any Aussie DVC owners. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post here.

Thanks

We are 2 adults and self employed as well. We go to WDW every year for Christmas and Aulani on the way home. We also do Aulani for other trips during the year. Paying by DVC points at Aulani is maybe 1/3 compared to hotel cost.

DVC not for everyone unless you want to stay deluxe resorts and prepared to spend the initial cost and then maintenance fees each year.

We initially bought from Disney in 1999, then added on many times over the years. Initial points were bought when our dollar was 0.49 and the purchase cost was US$65.00 per point and the math still worked out. Later on we bought resale when the aus dollar was 0.65 and then more from Disney but the rest through resale. The later resales were when the Aus dollar was 1.05 and the US economy was down. Now it has turned the other way and Disney new and resale have gone mad with the prices so for an Aussie not a good time to buy DVC from any source.

DVC has definitely worked for us and we could not be happier!

 

[shushh]

We first bought in 2015 and have been renting for some time before that. We are a family of 5 with kids under 15.

I think you really have to do your maths carefully. Taking into account purchase price, use years left, cost of dues etc, you can work out a rough value of how much each of your points are worth so you know how much you need to rent your points at to cover your costs. There are some fancy compound interest calculators out there if you're a math geek and need to work out whether the money is better going towards your mortgage etc...

You also need to have a certain holiday style to make use of DVC. We always do a Disney holiday of some sort pretty regularly so we already have flights budgeted in our yearly expenses. We always travel in school hols and so have taken the increased airfares into account. We do like to stay at mod to luxury resorts so DVC works out well for us. Our points usage has been worked out to as far as 2021...Surprisingly, we're always short of points and always have to rent more!

We wished we bought into DVC sooner. As ColinA has already pointed out the prices now seem crazy.

 

[Tashinwdw]

We are a family of six and so we could have children and adults in same room we did a 2 bedroom villa the cost of that for 8 nights was nearly the same as buying dvc points second hand. when we returned from that first holiday we knew we wanted to go back again. So we looked into the price difference. It was cheaper for us to buy the points including our annual fees each year than to rent out the room for the time we wanted. We also go the perks of discounts as dvc members. The only thing we did miss was the free dinning which we got the first time, that made it so convenient. We have had a 3 week stay at WDW, a week in aulani x 2 and planning another big holiday in 2019. After that it we will sell our points as it will only be the two of us and think it will be cheaper to rent points. You need to work out the costs and see what is more cost effective. we also always go in off peak times to get the most out of our points.

 

[Kerry Middleton]

sorry to hijack this thread...but this is something I have been wanting to post for sometime now.

would like to hear from any Aussie DVC owners about their thoughts on being a DVC member whilst living in Australia.

I'm an American who moved to Australia about 5 years ago. Prior to moving to Australia I was pretty close to becoming a DVC member. However, once I knew that I was permanently moving to Australia, I thought there was no point or could not see the value.
Since DVC is US Dollars due to exchange rates it means it cost us significant more upfront. Then what I sort of struggle with now is your yearly dues. Again due to the ever change exchange rate it simple means being an Aussie DVC owner just costs more.

What do the current Aussie DVC owners have to say about this?
Or, is it really not that big of an issue?

We have rented points every trip we go to Disney and love the rental experience.
Any Aussie DVC owners that rent points here? Certainly PM us as we would like to deal with a Aussie owner.

We have used a couple of different US DVC owners for points rental. But always go back to the same family we have rented countless times before.

I'm sort of at that point where I think renting points is the best kept secret for a Disney holiday.

I have no large upfront purchase cost and I don't have to pay yearly dues. Don't have to worry about point use years or banking used points etc.
However, I do see value in being a DVC Owner and being able to rent out your own points. As I think if we were DVC members, we would not worry about banking/borrowing points etc...we would just rent them out. Use our rental money to pay for DCL cruise or pay yearly due fees etc.

I know DVC is not for everyone. But we do go once a year or every other to Disney (mostly to do DCL cruise and add on days at the parks).
Had a family member in the USA that was a DVC owner and they sold as they just did not found value. Great when they originally bought and for a few years...but found after that it was just too much of a commitment.
It's so tricky as it's really a personal choice.

Just thought if any Aussie DVC owners would share their thoughts and experience on being an overseas member...might help us make that final decision.
As I can't tell you how many times we have sat thorough the DVC presentations and thought we should bite the bullet. But it's very difficult to know what the future holds and being locked into possible a large commitment..might out weight the pros?

We can certainly set aside the upfront cost and invest that money and use the interest to pay for future vacations. Though prices do increase yearly and it would be a challenge to keep your original upfront investment to keep up with inflation.

We are 2 adults no children
the only other issue is we own our own business.
Which means you never know what's around the corner.
Even though we always have school holidays off (business closed) you still might have other elements to deal with...and can't necessarily take a holiday then.
Not to mention no predictable income. Money comes it goes. You might pay more one year in taxes etc


too bad the airlines don't sell those lifetime golden tickets anymore.
Now that would be the better deal.

hope to hear from any Aussie DVC owners. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post here.

Thanks

A little off subject but we (family of 6 - 2adults and 4children under 8) were planning our first DW holiday for the end of the year, when I stumble across the DCV. I would love to know who you deal with when renting points and how you work it all. I've been a little overwhelmed with all the information I have been receiving but as you started renting points seems to be the best secret for a great holiday. As we are a bigger party (they count us as 5 as my youngest is only 2) we want to find a decent sized room to fit us without having to pay an arm and a leg for it.

 

[Kerry Middleton]

We are Australian's looking to do our first DW trip at the end of the year. I don't know much about renting points for DVC members but it would be great to deal with another Australian, as the exchange rates and such are so confusing. I have been told though on another forum that the dates we are looking at (6th-13th October) are a holiday in the US so a lot of the DVC are already booked out. I would love to know how you find out what the availability is for a DVC room, how much a certain amount of points gets you in terms of Studios, 1 Bedrooms ect and how much people rent there point for?

 

[ColinA]

We are Australian's looking to do our first DW trip at the end of the year. I don't know much about renting points for DVC members but it would be great to deal with another Australian, as the exchange rates and such are so confusing. I have been told though on another forum that the dates we are looking at (6th-13th October) are a holiday in the US so a lot of the DVC are already booked out. I would love to know how you find out what the availability is for a DVC room, how much a certain amount of points gets you in terms of Studios, 1 Bedrooms ect and how much people rent there point for?

The DVC member is the only one who can check availabilty.

I sent you a message after I saw your other post in the resorts thread.

 

[Sharkmeister]

One day, when I win lotto, purchasing DVC will be an option.

I agree with what others have said and felt, parts sound confusing. I sat in on a DVC presentation when we were on a Disney Cruise a few years back and had it not have been for being a single parent and lack of funds, I probably should have made the purchase then. I like the idea of banking and using current/borrowed points to extend vacation time.

We are heading over in April and would consider renting DVC points. I'm sure the DVC board has lots (and lots) of helpful information.

 

[Kerry Middleton]

S

The DVC member is the only one who can check availabilty.

I sent you a message after I saw your other post in the resorts thread.

Sorry Colin I didn't get your message. I read on another thread that you need to have posted 10 times before you can get messages and I haven't yet

 

[ColinA]

S


Sorry Colin I didn't get your message. I read on another thread that you need to have posted 10 times before you can get messages and I haven't yet

I posted on your profile and sent you my email address. Contact me and I might be able to help with DVC points

 

[Kerry Middleton]

I posted on your profile and sent you my email address. Contact me and I might be able to help with DVC points

Colin I have no idea why I can't see your post on my profile but it says "There are no messages" on my profile

 

[ColinA]

i sent another PM