Can I purchase points this way

[cassie714]

We want are very interested in becoming members but do not want to finance. Coming up with a huge lump sum is not feasible. I was thinking of buying several very small resales over the next few years. Can we do this? What would the drawbacks be to doing it this way. I would imagine you have to buy all the contracts at the same resort. Has anyone done this? Or are the small contracts just for adding for owners that already have the minium.

 

[DVC Mike]

You can buy a contract on the resale market as small as 25 points and become a DVC member. Now those small contracts demand a higher per-point prices than the larger contracts.

You can then add-on directly from DVC or via the resale market -- at the same resort or at different resorts.

I know many people who have done just that.

 

[Dean]

You can do it but for resale it adds multiple closing costs and for retail, a higher cost per point. Likely better is to save now, squeeze the costs on rented or similar trips in favor of the future benefit. Then when you get enough to buy what you want/need now, do so. Then IF you need more in the future you could look to buy additional points. If cost is a major issue, SSR is your best value for WDW right now.

 

[Sandisw]

I decided to become a member with a small resale contract--50 points. My goal was to have points at BLT but I was not sure whether I wanted to buy in with the 160 minimum it would cost me to buy through Disney as a new member.

Once I was a member, I was able to add on points at BLT with a lower minimum level--only 25. As it turned out, I ended up so excited to be a member that I added on 130 points. However, I only had to pay $96.00 per point. New members must buy 200 points at BLT to get them for $96.00 per point.

So, buy starting small, and then adding on at Disney directly for the resort I really wanted, I saved closing costs for my add on and paid less per point than I would have as a new member.

The only drawback to buying several small contracts, especially through resale is that you will have closing costs. These can always be negotiated with the seller but need to be figured into the price you pay. For example, if you buy a 50 point contract at $70.00 per point, but then pay $350 in closing costs, your price per point is really $77.00.

Good luck!!!

 

[cassie714]

If you have points at several different resorts how does that work for reservations. Suppose i had 40 at beach club and 40 at wilderness lodge. At 11 months out I want to make a reservation at wilderness lodge, would I only be able to reserve for the 40 and then have to wait till 7 months for the other 40. Thanks for all you help.

 

[hellerjw]

If both contracts had different use years it would complicate things further because you would have different banking deadlines and point allocation schedules. It may require a transfer to utilize both sets of points if you had different master contracts and/or UYs, I'm not sure. We have all our points at one place so I have no experience with dealing with multiple master contracts.

Others with multiple home resorts will sometimes bank/borrow in a given year to get 2 or 3 years worth of points for a stay at a particular resort. Using your 40 point example and going to VWL in 2010, you could bank your 40 2009 pts and borrow your 40 2011 points to have a total of 120 pts to use in 2010. The next year you would do the same thing with your BCV points for a 2011 trip. The fewer points you buy the less flexibility you have in these scenarios (because at some point you are out of points from the borrowing), but it is a viable way of going every year or two.

Many people wade into DVC with a small resale purchase and then do add-ons later to get to the level they want to be point-wise. Once you are in the DVC system there is no distinction between those who bought direct and those who bought via resale.

 

[1000th happy haunt]

We want are very interested in becoming members but do not want to finance. Coming up with a huge lump sum is not feasible. I was thinking of buying several very small resales over the next few years. Can we do this? What would the drawbacks be to doing it this way. I would imagine you have to buy all the contracts at the same resort. Has anyone done this? Or are the small contracts just for adding for owners that already have the minium.

We bought our original contract resale, and added on twice direct from Disney. When you add on from Disney, they don't have any closing costs. That made it more economical for us. One advantage to doing this is you have the same Use Year as your original contract. And we added on before our Use Year (it's August) and got the previous year's points to use.

And you can add on from Disney at any resort. We added on twice at VWL.

 

[disneykidatheart]

We want are very interested in becoming members but do not want to finance. Coming up with a huge lump sum is not feasible. I was thinking of buying several very small resales over the next few years. Can we do this? What would the drawbacks be to doing it this way. I would imagine you have to buy all the contracts at the same resort. Has anyone done this? Or are the small contracts just for adding for owners that already have the minium.

We have purchased five small resale contracts over three and a half years, all at the same resort. We did not want to finance and were able to pay off each one as it was purchased. The first contract is one UY. We decided that was not the best UY so waited to find another UY for the other four. Those four are under the same membership number and the points are all treated as a group. We paid closing costs on four of the contracts and the seller paid on the fifth contract.

Our first intention was to buy small by resale and add on through Disney. Even with closing costs we never paid the going rate that Disney was charging at the time. The only drawback to resale is the length of time it takes to complete the sale and that wasn't even a problem for us. One purchase was from the UK and that one took less time than the two that were sold from family trusts as the trustees lived in different states and were not in a particular hurry to get their documents returned.

I would buy resale again.