Advice on buying for bank and borrow purposes

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Hello everyone

First time picking DVC purchaser here looking for some good advice from you experienced owners.

I was originally going to buy resale, 150 points. That way I could go every year realistically if we wanted to. Studio is fine for us and looking at maybe a 8 night trip

However I keep reading about the bank and borrow situations.

It had me wondering if I can instead buy a 100 point contract and make it work. I’m just looking for some more information on exactly how it works.

I would probably save around 4-5 grand by only getting 100 points.

I assume getting only 100 points locks me out of the yearly trip.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

 

[Add-On-Itis]

I started with the same thought. Go every other year, so we bought 160 points.

add-on-itis hits and now we have 520 points and go twice a year.

The point is, DVC will make you want to go more often. What you plan now might not be what you originally planned. Just buy the first contract and get started, at whatever budget you're comfortable with.

 

[gvel]

I agre with @Add-on-nitis. You will want to go more once you get DVC.

If possible go ahead and get the 150. You won't regret it. After all the number one regret DVC owners have is not getting more points. You already know you need 150 for your ideal yearly trip. Banking and borrowing works, but you need to be very disciplined with banking and many here will tell you that they have never banked a single point.

 

[DianaMB333]

Also consider that borrow/bank points is a non-reversible transaction, then flexibility for change of plans is affected

If you can get the 150pts now would be better; then if you want a larger party and/or longer trip could do one year the bank/borrow but not being constrained by it every year

 

[airjay75]

If you plan to go once per year, I'd buy enough points to go once a year. I think banking and/or borrowing makes more sense if you plan to go once every 2 or 3 years.

Also, spend some time with the points charts and the availability tables at dvcfieldguide.com. Studios may cost the least amount of points, but they also are generally the most difficult to book. Makes it more important to follow the principle of "buy where you want to stay." It doesn't mean there won't ever be options at the 7-month mark, especially if you're willing to play the waitlist/stalking game, but you will want to make sure you're happy with staying at your home resort too.

 

[bakerworld]

So I would guess that 90% of DVC members started out trying to minimize member cost ....

With our 3rd contract, we purchased 55 BC points to use every other year and then a few years ago DVC reduced the borrowing to half the contract points (which they later reversed) but for that year we had to use the points elsewhere to acquire our preferred vacation LOS. Keep in mind some resale Home's are restricting point use - like Rivera can only be used at Rivera. Another factor to Home selection would be preferred Park.

 

[Chili327]

If you plan to go once per year, I'd buy enough points to go once a year. I think banking and/or borrowing makes more sense if you plan to go once every 2 or 3 years.

Also, spend some time with the points charts and the availability tables at dvcfieldguide.com. Studios may cost the least amount of points, but they also are generally the most difficult to book.

Agree 100%

Makes it more important to follow the principle of "buy where you want to stay." It doesn't mean there won't ever be options at the 7-month mark, especially if you're willing to play the waitlist/stalking game, but you will want to make sure you're happy with staying at your home resort too.

The foundation of SAP+

 

[Add-On-Itis]

Another factor to Home selection would be preferred Park.

Preferred Park change so quickly, so don't based on that. Our preferred park was magic kingdom before we bought. Now it's Epcot. You can only go to MK so many times. But you can go to Epcot everyday for food and drinks.

 

[bakerworld]

Preferred Park change so quickly, so don't based on that. Our preferred park was magic kingdom before we bought. Now it's Epcot. You can only go to MK so many times. But you can go to Epcot everyday for food and drinks.

This is SO true but kids can skewer the preference. We started out loving MK - it was our 'go to' park for like 12 years. Then we morphed into Epcot, then - with the addition of Pandora - we started preferring AK and now we actually prefer Disney Springs. LOL

 

[Sandisw]

To add, DVC can amend the % of points that can be banked and borrowed.

That happened during the pandemic when borrowing was reduced to 50%.

So, it’s important to know that so you have thought about how to adjust if it did happen.

But, if with hoping to go yearly, I would buy what you need and not rely on that as my main strategy!

 

[Steelers0854]

We did something similar to you. We rented DVC points for a couple years. Bought 100 resale at CCV (our favorite resort) anticipating doing banking and borrowing to go every couple of years. We lasted 1 year before buying 150 direct at the Poly. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with your plan. If 100 points isn’t cutting it in a year or 2 buy a smaller additional contract. If you’re like us then you’ll be glad you did the smaller initial contract because the direct purchase wasn’t as painful and we kept both.

 

[Stargazer65]

Hello everyone

First time picking DVC purchaser here looking for some good advice from you experienced owners.

I was originally going to buy resale, 150 points. That way I could go every year realistically if we wanted to. Studio is fine for us and looking at maybe a 8 night trip

However I keep reading about the bank and borrow situations.

It had me wondering if I can instead buy a 100 point contract and make it work. I’m just looking for some more information on exactly how it works.

I would probably save around 4-5 grand by only getting 100 points.

I assume getting only 100 points locks me out of the yearly trip.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

I started with only 100 points, and that's all I had for ten years. We went about every three years as a family, with an occasional short visit thrown in.

You could go every year with 100 points if you used studios. You would be more limited though. Pick times of year that are cheap, stay in resorts that have low point cost, avoid weekends, etc..

For example, you could go every year in September for two weeks if you did this: Book a studio at SSR for 5 nights (Sunday to Friday), book an inexpensive hotel nearby for Friday and Saturday night, and then book another studio at SSR for 5 more nights (Sunday to Friday) - Total stay is 12 nights but only 90 points! The inconvenience is having to move twice during the trip, but we did this a number of times to save money and points. One time we even booked a hotel on both ends of the trip and in the middle and stayed 3 weeks. That was a lot of moves though, we'll probably never do that again. That's why we bought more points, so we wouldn't have to move in and out.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Hello everyone

First time picking DVC purchaser here looking for some good advice from you experienced owners.

I was originally going to buy resale, 150 points. That way I could go every year realistically if we wanted to. Studio is fine for us and looking at maybe a 8 night trip

However I keep reading about the bank and borrow situations.

It had me wondering if I can instead buy a 100 point contract and make it work. I’m just looking for some more information on exactly how it works.

I would probably save around 4-5 grand by only getting 100 points.

I assume getting only 100 points locks me out of the yearly trip.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

Standard advice is to buy 110% of the annual points you think you will use and do not assume the lowest cost room category will be available.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Also consider that borrow/bank points is a non-reversible transaction, then flexibility for change of plans is affected

If you can get the 150pts now would be better; then if you want a larger party and/or longer trip could do one year the bank/borrow but not being constrained by it every year

This is the biggest downside of a bank/borrow membership. I would advise getting the amount of points needed to book what you want every year.

 

[RMDVC24]

Your Disney travel habits will change almost immediately when you become DVC members. We started with 100 points. Within 2 years we jumped to 365 points and I still don’t think it’s enough

Also, once you try a 1 bedroom, studios are no longer a consideration

 

[Chili327]

Your Disney travel habits will change almost immediately when you become DVC members. We started with 100 points. Within 2 years we jumped to 365 points and I still don’t think it’s enough

Also, once you try a 1 bedroom, studios are no longer a consideration

Indeed, I started with 50 and had it sold before my first trip ended, then bought a couple others that seem to be a better fit and now I have 375 (4 resorts), BUT…. I am about to go for 9 days in 2-bdrm villas for just me and my girlfriend, so there is the option of buying too many points too fast. lol

Or maybe it was just overplaning.

 

[intamin]

Hello everyone

First time picking DVC purchaser here looking for some good advice from you experienced owners.

I was originally going to buy resale, 150 points. That way I could go every year realistically if we wanted to. Studio is fine for us and looking at maybe a 8 night trip

However I keep reading about the bank and borrow situations.

It had me wondering if I can instead buy a 100 point contract and make it work. I’m just looking for some more information on exactly how it works.

I would probably save around 4-5 grand by only getting 100 points.

I assume getting only 100 points locks me out of the yearly trip.

Thanks and have a wonderful day.

It goes like this.. you get 100-150 points for that "annual" trip.. one maybe two trips go by and you say I like this a lot I want to do this more often.. then you add on a direct contract and then say now we can get sorcerer passes! The annual trip turns to 8 trips in a single year and then you say screw it I'm moving to Florida 860 points later. I may or may not know this from personal experience.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Your Disney travel habits will change almost immediately when you become DVC members. We started with 100 points. Within 2 years we jumped to 365 points and I still don’t think it’s enough

Also, once you try a 1 bedroom, studios are no longer a consideration

I can afford annual fees of 150 points no problem. Start getting around 400, I don’t think I’d handle it lol

 

[ShaneDJ]

I am about to go for 9 days in 2-bdrm villas for just me and my girlfriend

Curiosity: Why a 2-bedroom villa for only two people?

 

[intamin]

Curiosity: Why a 2-bedroom villa for only two people?