Buying small amount of points then renting the rest?

[::danielle::]

Although I've been reading the DVC board for a while, there are still so many intricacies to DVC purchasing that elude me.

I am toying with the idea of purchasing a very small DVC contract in the 50-75 range (location TBD). Obviously you can't do very much with so few points. However, for vacations I would rent the remaining points.

Here is some background to explain my reasoning. We are a family with two young kids (7 and 4). I grew up in Orlando and Disney is my happy place. I want it to be the happy place for my kids too. As a family, we have travelled to DLR once and WDW once. After our trip in March, I told my husband that I want to return every 18-24 months. On our last trip, we split stayed on and off site. We stayed in a value and moderate onsite. Offsite we stayed in a 2-bedroom condo. We learned 2 important lessons - we need space (moderate was too cramped for us) and we don't like to wait for busses at our favorite parks (EP and MK). For our next trip I am planning to rent points to get a 1 bedroom at BLT. However, it makes me crazy that I cannot control my reservation. I'm thinking that if I owned a small number of points, I could rent the remaining DVC points and still control the reservation.

I have not done the math but obviously there are financial issues to consider. However, there may be more things to consider that I am not even aware of. That is where I am hoping the experts on this board could help me!

 

[delmar411]

well one thing that stands out to me is that you think you cannot control a rental because you aren't a member. You cannot control the rental because it's not your points. That won't change if you buy in. A renter has no control over their reservation ever.

You could however arrange for a transfer of points into your acct. That would give you use of someone else's point for just that UY. The transferred points retain their home resort and UY.

So I'd just buy enough points to vacation every 2yrs (half the amount needed) and then bank one years and use 2years worth at the same time. It would save you money over renting long term.

 

[::danielle::]

You could however arrange for a transfer of points into your acct. That would give you use of someone else's point for just that UY. The transferred points retain their home resort and UY.

Sorry, I didn't clarify. My intention would be to pay someone to transfer their points to me. However, I didn't realize that there woulld be the added complication on coordinating UY and resorts. Would I be able to combine the transferred points and my points to rent at the 7 month window?

 

[delmar411]

Sorry, I didn't clarify. My intention would be to pay someone to transfer their points to me. However, I didn't realize that there woulld be the added complication on coordinating UY and resorts. Would I be able to combine the transferred points and my points to rent at the 7 month window?

if by rent you mean book, then yes. You don't rent DVC reservations, you book them.

 

[moobar25]

I agree with Delmar, don't bother with renting points. You plan on vacationing every 2 years anyways - then banking one UY points and using it the next will work perfectly. So if you buy 75pts you'd get 150 for use every other year. Plus you can borrow some or all from the following year. This way you are not relying on others and not spending the extra money for renting. Also depending where you stay you can really stretch your points. Like BWV instead of BCV or BLT, and still be walking distance to Epcot and monorail ride away from MK (assuming you have PH or AP, and you walk through Epcot).

 

[::danielle::]

I'm not being very clear, am I?! Lol. Yes, I mean book, not rent. Thanks for letting me know that I can book at the 7 month window with transferred points during the same UY. I think I got it right this time

 

[DougEMG]

Owing a small number of points and then having another member transfer points to you when you need them can certainly work. From what I've seen there are less owners doing transfers than doing rentals. I've never done a transfer myself, but I have heard that they sometimes don't show up properly in your account when you are online, so you might have to do a littLe extra work to manage your account.

 

[greengeen]

Renting points is more expensive than buying them, so why would you want to ultimately pay MORE instead of less? If you're not willing to actually commit to DVC, maybe it's just not the right thing for you?

 

[ToddyLu]

Buying Resale would save you a bundle too--especially if you are purchasing to only stay in a DVC resort.

 

[gripp35]

The other thing to keep in mind (which I have recently just learned), is that transferring points into your account is not trivial. The initial thought of "I'll just buy 50 points and then find other people to transfer the other XXX points into my account" is great, but each member number (different from "a member") is allowed only ONE transfer in OR out per use-year. This means that if you need 100 extra points for your reservation, you can not get 50 points from person A and then 50 points from person B. Likewise, if person A has 300 points to "rent", they will likely only make a reservation for you unless you want all 300 points, because once they transfer some points to you, they can not move any more points in or out of that account for the remainder of their UY.

With this in mind, the suggestions to buy enough for a trip every 2 years sounds like a really good suggestion for your situation.

 

[magicaldisney]

Have you taken the time to get a rough idea of how many points you would be short for each trip?

 

[::danielle::]

The other thing to keep in mind (which I have recently just learned), is that transferring points into your account is not trivial. The initial thought of "I'll just buy 50 points and then find other people to transfer the other XXX points into my account" is great, but each member number (different from "a member") is allowed only ONE transfer in OR out per use-year. This means that if you need 100 extra points for your reservation, you can not get 50 points from person A and then 50 points from person B. Likewise, if person A has 300 points to "rent", they will likely only make a reservation for you unless you want all 300 points, because once they transfer some points to you, they can not move any more points in or out of that account for the remainder of their UY.

With this in mind, the suggestions to buy enough for a trip every 2 years sounds like a really good suggestion for your situation.

This is a really good point! I did not know that you could only do 1 transfer per UY. Given that information I would have to agree that I should purchase enough points to go every 2 years. For me that would be in the 125 point range. A 1-bedroom at BLT is 210 points/week. I think a few extra points will be helpful to account for future point requirement increases.

 

[cmcr1957]

I would rent my points needed from these boards. If I had known this existed i never would have invested in DVC. The honest folks on the Boards have good prices and if you contact them with dates and are ready to rent, you cannot beat the good time or price.

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

We bought a small DVC contract that will allow us to vacation every other year or even every year for shorter vacations. This year (our first stay as DVC owners) we opted to stay in a 1 bedroom thus needing a few more points. We were able to get 17 points directly from Disney for a one time per year use, with no problem.

 

[sweetdana]

I have done this since 2008. It allows yrs I use more points to transfer in more points. and yrs I use less.. to transfer in less. done from 65-200.

It also allows for different resorts. I have bought BC 3 times I think, SSR twice and BLT once. Giving me the 11 month window at the resort I want. depending if we are going for F & W, or a Christmas trip.

It is a little premium. I usually pay 8-9$ for SSR and 10-11 for the other resorts, but IMO the option to buy them annually for how many you want, and not have to go because you have more points to use, is wellll worth the 1-4$ price. Never needing to rent them out to go on a cruise, or be forced to use RCI for a trade cause we want to go somewhere else. Using the future time value of $, that timeshares have it is prolly not much of a premium.

I bought 160 and thought it would be enough, so I didn't plan this, it just worked out.

 

[::danielle::]

We bought a small DVC contract that will allow us to vacation every other year or even every year for shorter vacations. This year (our first stay as DVC owners) we opted to stay in a 1 bedroom thus needing a few more points. We were able to get 17 points directly from Disney for a one time per year use, with no problem.

So, it's an option for DVC owners to rent points direct from Disney? How exactly does that work? Is there a limit to how many you can rent?

 

[delmar411]

So, it's an option for DVC owners to rent points direct from Disney? How exactly does that work? Is there a limit to how many you can rent?

You can only do it 1x per year for $15 per point at the 7mth window. They are non-refundable points and I want to say it's a limit of 25pts but that might be wrong.