Buying 1 point?

[bartman]

Can someone tell me the benefits of joining the DVC? - besides the obvious, such as having ownership and a place to vacation. Are there any other perks?

This might be totally crazy, but let me tell you where I am going with this. If I was to buy one point off of someone this would allow me to have points transferred from other people. Are there any other benefits, such as reduced park tickets, free parking, etc?

Is this even possible or is it absurd?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Aneille]

Can someone tell me the benefits of joining the DVC? - besides the obvious, such as having ownership and a place to vacation. Are there any other perks?

This might be totally crazy, but let me tell you where I am going with this. If I was to buy one point off of someone this would allow me to have points transferred from other people. Are there any other benefits, such as reduced park tickets, free parking, etc?

Is this even possible or is it absurd?

Thanks,
Dave

There are perks but they aren't guarenteed. Currently there is a discount for AP's that is really good but it is subject to change. Pool hopping, free valet, discounts at restaurants etc but just like the AP discount they can change at any time.

As far as buying 1 pt you can't do that. The smallest contract is 25 pts which you can get through a resale and you will have all the same perks as anyone else.

If you buy direct through Disney you need to make an initial purchase of 150 pt contract. Once a member you can purchase add-ons as small as 25 pts. but that is the smallest.

 

[spiceycat]

to buy from DVC it must be 150 points

to buy from a resaler it must be 25 points.

so far DVC allows it members all the benefits no matter how many points you own. they haven't (as of yet) required you to have their minimum amount of points.

You might try 25 points with a resaler.

Now I would go with 50 points at OKW - that will allow you to stay in a studio for 5 days (sun-thurs). Jan, May, Sept, Oct, - parts of Dec, Nov, Feb, June, Aug

 

[AFMom]

Theoretically, yes - ownership is ownership. However - ony DVC can split up contracts -so they can only be sold by a member the way they were sold to the member by DVC. If I buy a contract from DVC for 300 points - I have to seel it as 300 points, I can't split it up to sell it - see what I'm saying? The smaller contrats on the resale boards are people selling their add-ons that they bought after they were already members of DVC- usually the smalled you'll see ever is 25 points.
Benefits can change from year to year, and the only benefit DVC gaurantees to it's member is the right to use the properties. Currently we have discounts at many restaurants in DTD and at the parks, stores, etc and there is a very significant Annual Pass discount the DVC members recieve. DVC members also have the ability to pool hop to every pool on property except the pool at AKL and Stormalong Bay at BCV when they are staying at at DVC villa on points.
As far as free parking - at the parks - this works the same as any on-site guest - free parking because you're staying at a Disney propety. I believe at some of the DVC properties there is free valet parking at well - although I've never used this and don't know the details.
Basically your minimun buy in would be a 25 point resale, then you could have points transferred by other members, stay on points, and have the benefits of membership.
Hope that helps!

 

[1000th happy haunt]

Besides having your resort paid for, there are many other perks. Discount Annual Passes, dining discounts, merchandise discounts, recreation and tour discounts, etc.

You wouldn't be able to buy (i.e. you would be the owner) one point, however. Minimum add-on purchases are something like 25-30 points, and they must be sold as a block. So even through resale, you'd be owning 25-30 points. And yes you can have points transferred once you own, but the going rate is about $10.00 per point (more or less, depending on the seller's situation), and you'd have to pay this each time you wanted to have points tranferred. Transferred points are not permanent. You would need to use them during that year (again, more or less depending on your situation) or lose them.


*edit* WOW! talk about simulposting!

 

[Dean]

And for the right situation, just owning for the perks can be a very good option. Especially if you plan it that way from the beginning. As noted, they are not guaranteed. Cost to get in minimum around $2500 with yearly costs of around $100. To do that you'd either need to buy 25 pts resale OR from another member. If you have a friend or relative who's a member, they could do an add on for 25 pts then sell it to you.

If you're thinking about it, you should find out what's the right and wrong situation for this option.

 

[lark]

One issue that seems to me worth checking out is whether maintenance fees are expected always be strictly points-based. If they are, buying points from other members turns out to be a pretty good thing -- assuming you can get them for $10, your effective cost is about $6/point. But if disney reserves the right to go to a non-points based MF system, you could end up paying a disproportionate amount of MFs.

The other thing you need to think about is home resort. If you own 25 BWV points and then get transferred in, say, 125 OKW points from another owner, I'm not sure what your rights are with respect to making a reservation during the 11 month window. My assupmtion would be that only the 25 points could be used to make a BWV reservation in the 11-month window. I could be wrong about that -- but I'd be pretty surprised. I'm sure others here would know.

 

[Dean]

One issue that seems to me worth checking out is whether maintenance fees are expected always be strictly points-based. If they are, buying points from other members turns out to be a pretty good thing -- assuming you can get them for $10, your effective cost is about $6/point. But if disney reserves the right to go to a non-points based MF system, you could end up paying a disproportionate amount of MFs.

The other thing you need to think about is home resort. If you own 25 BWV points and then get transferred in, say, 125 OKW points from another owner, I'm not sure what your rights are with respect to making a reservation during the 11 month window. My assupmtion would be that only the 25 points could be used to make a BWV reservation in the 11-month window. I could be wrong about that -- but I'd be pretty surprised. I'm sure others here would know.

I think it's reasonable to assume the fees will always be points based. Some systems have variations but all the points system have a major basis in per point charges. As for your second issue, there are 2 answers. The rules say that transferred points retain their use year and home resort. In reality they assume your home resort and usually your use year. And while they have been "working on" fixing this issue, they have been "working on it" since at least 1999. I doubt they will ever be able to fix it. DVC is the only system I know where you can actually transfer points from one person to another that are different use years. For them to track those actively, they'd have to give you a new account for each transfer in that is a different home resort or use year. In theory, this could give one who actively transferred points into their account, maybe some 40-50 "accounts" and account numbers with one single ownership. The only way DVC could really fix it would be to stop transfer which I don't think they could legally do without an actual 60% vote of the members themselves.

 

[eva]

This may be another issue, aren't members only allowed one transfer per year? If so, then this would be important to know upfront. Better make sure that you find all the points you need for the year from one person.

 

[RobDoc]

One transfer used to be limit, but that was modified several years ago and DVC now allows mulitple transfers per Use Year- as long as they are all in one direction - either into or out of your account.

 

[eva]

Thanks Doc! I stand corrected.

 

[mamatojon]

Is it also true that you can't have more than 3x your contract point balance in your account at any given time? Therefore if you own 25 pts, the max you could have transferred would be 50? Or am I off base on that one. ?

 

[Dean]

Is it also true that you can't have more than 3x your contract point balance in your account at any given time? Therefore if you own 25 pts, the max you could have transferred would be 50? Or am I off base on that one. ?

There is wording that I believe could be interpreted that way and is by a couple of other timeshare points systems. However, I've never heard anything from DVC's direction that would suggest they would do this and I know of others who had have more than 3 years worth of points. I believe the wording in the POS is simply a revelation that you can bank and borrow for one year each and therefore accumulate 3 years worth of points that way. Remember that most timeshare points systems do not even allow transfers.

 

[mamatojon]

There is wording that I believe could be interpreted that way and is by a couple of other timeshare points systems. However, I've never heard anything from DVC's direction that would suggest they would do this and I know of others who had have more than 3 years worth of points. I believe the wording in the POS is simply a revelation that you can bank and borrow for one year each and therefore accumulate 3 years worth of points that way. Remember that most timeshare points systems do not even allow transfers.

Oh, okay, thanks for clearing that up!