Could everyone possibly be paying cash for resales??

[nluvwithdisney]

Meaning you took it out of your savings?

Exactly. I debated if I wanted to just do a loan for a short period of 3 years or less but in the end decided just to pay in full up front. I would never speak on someone else's situation because they only know what they can actually afford whether paying cash or financing.

 

[disneynutz]

Disney is a luxury vacation for most people who may only visit there once in their lifetime. Buying DVC is an additional luxury purchase that locks you into spending thousands of dollars each year.

Only the buyer can decide where they want to spend their money.

Bill

 

[DougEMG]

We paid cash for our purchases. Borrowing money for a vacation doesn't make sense to me.

People buy resale to save money, paying cash saves you more money, so it would not surprise me if the majority of resale purchasers paid cash. Conversely I bet the majority of direct purchasers finance.

 

[DisDadDVC]

We paid cash for our purchases. Borrowing money for a vacation doesn't make sense to me.

People buy resale to save money, paying cash saves you more money, so it would not surprise me if the majority of resale purchasers paid cash. Conversely I bet the majority of direct purchasers finance.

This.

 

[cvjw]

oh hindsight ... But I really wonder if DVC is a savings. I mean, you still have to pay that maintenance fee and your park passes. Mind you, I have only once stayed in a deluxe (AKL) and it was when I got a fantastic discount pin years ago. I don't think DVC would payoff for me when you factor in the maintenance fees. I mean, if you buy DVC, you're not getting X years of free vacations ...

No, you do not get free vacations with DVC. We look at our maintenance fees this way - we could take that $5000 per year and have one nice disney vacation, or we can pay it to DVC and have multiple Disney vacations in 2 bedroom villas.

We paid cash for our resales. We would not have purchased if we had to finance. We would not take equity out of our house to pay for a timeshare.

We have no other debt. We would never pay Disney's direct prices for a DVC contract. Just makes no sense to us - we are too frugal to pay $168 per point for a timeshare.

 

[Madame]

We drew on our HELOC for ours. We have the cash but it's invested at a higher rate than the 4% we're paying on the loan. It's a 5 year term, but we overbudget on every line in our budget, so we can pay down extra chunks at year's end without penalty.

We feel comfortable with this strategy, probably b/c we did the same to install our pool & already pay the max on our mortgage. If disaster struck the HELOC loan can be rolled into the mortgage & our payments reduced quite substantially.

 

[AnnaS]

We paid cash for all our direct purchases.

 

[ColinBlair]

I bet a lot of people paying cash also have other debt. It's a better idea to pay a 1.74% car loan than a 10.99% DVC loan. Generally speaking, financing a DVC purchase negates any savings of actually purchasing. If you have to finance, you're probably better off renting until you can save up the cash.

I agree with that. I paid cash last year for my SSR resale, but I could just as easily have paid off a few years of my mortgage instead.

 

[dsnydaddy]

I am on the verge of buying DVC but need to wait for a few more things in life to happen. But when I do pull the trigger, I will need to finance. I know people on here STRONGLY recommend against financing, but I can't believe that a majority of the people that are buying resales on this forum are all paying cash. Do people really have that type of disposable income at their fingertips to just keep adding on contracts? Maybe they do, but I'd be surprised....

I doubt that the majority are paying cash. Is it the best idea? YES! But, people do finance DVC purchases. I did, but it works out for me so I'm good with it. it's a short term loan with a decent interest rate. And the way I figure it, it means that I simply paid a premium for my points (adding in the finance charges means that I will ultimately pay about $91 pp. which is still much less than a lot of people are paying currently.) Had I waited to buy, I'd be out a higher amount per point plus all the money that I paid for my Disney vacation lodging up to the point that I finally buy.

 

[DVC Mike]

I think a lot of people finance their DVC purchase, but are afraid of saying so on the DIS boards for fear of getting criticized. True, it may not be the best approach, financially, but it's the only way for some people to get into DVC, and there may be other priorities that override the financial considerations.


http://i235.************************************************************* DVC Mike - *******.com

 

[crisi]

I bought a house for cash several years ago. When I sold it again, it was bought by someone who paid cash. I was a little shocked. My realtor said that about 30% of transactions to buy a home are cash (though a proportion of those are institutional buyers). About 15% of new car purchases are cash.

 

[lovin'fl]

We only paid cash. But we bought many smaller contracts over several years so that it's not a huge amount of cash all at once.

 

[NoodlesMom]

I think a lot of people finance their DVC purchase, but are afraid of saying so on the DIS boards for fear of getting criticized. True, it may not be the best approach, financially, but it's the only way for some people to get into DVC, and there may be other priorities that override the financial considerations.

I agree with this. I'm financing and excited about my purchase! It's equivalent to what I would pay for two Disney vacations, so I'll pay for it like that. Hopefully I'll pay it off in 2-3 years. I had a Disney cruise booked that I've been paying on for a while (DCL prices are a little crazy right now). We decided to cancel that reservation, and instead buy DVC.

 

[kamik86]

I financed mine (also bought direct as I was nervous about resales... that was before I was on here) however it partially depends on how fast you can pay it off. We did ours in less then a year so the interest didn't negate nearly as much as it would have making normal payments.

 

[sanibel93]

Bought my first 100 points for cash. Saved until I had enough to pay for it. Did the same thing for each add on that I have done. Stayed at a lot of value resorts when we did go down to save money on rooms. Now enjoying DVC!!! Did not like the interest rates and figured DVC wasn't a good value between that and the maintenance fee's. I do feel it is a good value with only the maintenance fee, especially when we get the 2 bedrooms or grand villa's.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I also think it may depend HOW you can finance it. If you have limited equity in your house and then buy a timeshare with a HELOC, I worry for you. Personal belief, not universally shared, is that you shouldn't borrow against your primary residence for anything that is not a critical need. There is no circumstance in which DVC is a critical need. Food, water, open-heart surgery? Those are needs.

It's hazier, as far as I'm concerned, for people who have a lot more equity in their home. There, it can be more situational.

 

[com_op_2000]

We have paid cash for all of DVC purchases.
The original direct point purchase back in '93.
Add on direct in '98.
Add on resale in '11.

 

[Dean]

I am on the verge of buying DVC but need to wait for a few more things in life to happen. But when I do pull the trigger, I will need to finance. I know people on here STRONGLY recommend against financing, but I can't believe that a majority of the people that are buying resales on this forum are all paying cash. Do people really have that type of disposable income at their fingertips to just keep adding on contracts? Maybe they do, but I'd be surprised....

Most people finance but then most finance cars, etc. IMO one can't afford it or it's not important to them if they can't pay cash.

 

[OutNChiTown]

We financed thru Monera Financial, but paid aggressively to have all 270 points paid off in a little over a year. If you wait to pay it off over 5 years or something like that, you're going to get ripped off. Having $20k sitting around to put in to the DVC is difficult. Just understand that most finance companies will pay off the interest first and then your payments start to go towards the principal purchase. As such, the faster you can pay it off, the better.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have 1400 points some thru Disney and some resale. We have paid cash for all which i know we are very blessed to be able to. But we don't have any debt and paid off our house long ago. While the maintenance fees are high I just feel that we get our money's worth every year. Never stay in less than one bed and often two bedroom villa. Stay at AK club levrl once a year for 4 or 5 days. Go to Vero beach once a year for 4 or 5 days. Have been to Aulani three times and going back in may in a one bedroom ocean view for 10 days. Would we pay retail for these kinds of rooms. Absolutely not. But having points gives us freedom to enjoy the resorts the way we like to. We go to the parks one day whenever we are there and enjoy the resorts the rest of the time. We have had 10 day never expire park hoppers for years and still have 3 or 4 days left. The most money we spend on our trips is for dinners. We also give points to family and friends. So for us it's been great. While we do take other trips as we get older most of our vacation time will be spent at Disney.