Couple DVC Questions???

[Koontzy]

My wife and I have been looking into going on family vacations once or twice a year. So we have been looking at Timeshares, especially the reseale market. It is great to be able to buy TS for $1 (plus M/F of course),,,

However I have 3 kids (6,5 and 4) and we have been planning on taking a trip to WDW this year and my wife asked about possible getting a Timeshare so we can do to Disney every year... Not to mention she has never been and wants to go, and I have personally went once, and always wanted to go back.

So I looked at options, Looked like either Bonnet Creek (or another WYnhamd Home Resort and trade into Bonnet Creek), or of course DVC..

After reading around, My wife likes the DVC option, but here come my questions.

1. DVC- IS it only for Disney resorts or can it be traded into something like RCI or other resorts?

2. How do you pay the upfront costs: For instance DVC (their site) says 160 point costs (AKV) is upfront of $21,000! Ounch, How is the world do they do it? Any chance of a Payment Plan?

3. I know there are DVC reslaers, but I have heard some things about this where the points may not be guaranteed? Or something with Disney blocking them? What exactly is this?

4. My biggest question is how to pay for the points? DO they need all that money up front? can you buy points each month? Payment plans? etc..?

Thanks

 

[zavandor]

1. DVC- IS it only for Disney resorts or can it be traded into something like RCI or other resorts?

DVC offers other options outside Disney resorts, but they are not a good value.
You can trade in RCI, but there are a lot of limitations: you don't have a full RCI membership, so every operation must be done though Member Services (depositing a week, looking for weeks to trade etc etc). Moreover it's not possible to trade into all RCI resorts, only a subset of all RCI resorts are available to DVC members.
Other options require really a lot of points to get a trade. It's better to rent out points and pay cash than use points directly.
The general rule is: DVC is a good value to use it for DVC resorts. Any other option is good only is you have points you would have wasted otherwise. Other timeshares trade into RCI with a better value.

2. How do you pay the upfront costs: For instance DVC (their site) says 160 point costs (AKV) is upfront of $21,000! Ounch, How is the world do they do it? Any chance of a Payment Plan?

With resale you would pay half that price.
You can finance though Disney, but the interests would eat away any gain you would get from buying DVC.

3. I know there are DVC reslaers, but I have heard some things about this where the points may not be guaranteed? Or something with Disney blocking them? What exactly is this?

At the moment resale limitations are that you cannot use you points for some trade outside the DVC resorts, like the DCL cruises, booking regular Disney hotels or ABD. However, as written above, all those options are a poor value for points anyway.
You still can use the points to trade into RCI (not a good use anyway).
And you don't have any limitation in the usage of points for the DVC resorts. Resale and direct points are exactly the same when booking DVC resorts.

What will happen in the future? Will they add more limitations to resale contracts? None knows.
Buying resales you'll always be granted to be able to book your home resort before any other member not owning there. This is really the only thing guaranteed to DVC members. Any other perk can be taken away (both resale and direct).

 

[gripp35]

1. DVC- IS it only for Disney resorts or can it be traded into something like RCI or other resorts?

As PP said, yes there are other options (RCI and others) but generally only a value if you do it infrequently or when you will otherwise have wasted the points. This is currently a perk allowed by Disney whether the contract is purchased direct through Disney or via resale. This can be taken away at any time.

2. How do you pay the upfront costs: For instance DVC (their site) says 160 point costs (AKV) is upfront of $21,000! Ounch, How is the world do they do it? Any chance of a Payment Plan?

As PP said, yes through Disney, you could also look at other loan options through your bank. And currently, AKV contracts are going for something closer to $60-$70 per point, which would make a 160-point contract closer to $10,000.

3. I know there are DVC reslaers, but I have heard some things about this where the points may not be guaranteed? Or something with Disney blocking them? What exactly is this?

The PP mentioned restrictions on points purchased through resale. One perk of purchasing directly through Disney is that you can also exchange your points for other Disney-owned vacations (DCL, AbD...). This is also a perk that can be taken away at any time.

What you may, instead, be referring to is ROFR (right of first refusal). When you try to purchase a resale contract, Disney (Disney Vacation Development) gets to look at the agreement you and the seller have arranged and decide if they (DVD) would prefer to purchase that contract for the same conditions instead of you. This means there is a chance that you will go through all the work of getting a really great deal on a contract and Disney says "Yes, that IS a great deal, I think I'll take that!", and you're left looking for another contract. If you look at the ROFR data (on this and a couple of other sites), you can quickly find out what types of contracts Disney will typically take and which ones they will typically let pass through, for you to buy.

4. My biggest question is how to pay for the points? DO they need all that money up front? can you buy points each month? Payment plans? etc..?

This depends on if you buy direct or resale. If you buy direct, you can finance (you get all points upfront, you can't buy a few points at a time). If you buy resale, I think you will need the money upfront (from what I've seen).

Also, if you buy directly from Disney you can choose your Use Year and how many points you want. If you buy resale, you have to wait and find a contract that fits your needs (since you can't split a contract, nor can you change the Use Year of a contract, only DVD can do that).

Good luck!!!

 

[crisi]

Consider buying DVC points for every other year. Then another timeshare for the alternate years.

Or rent for a year or two.

At this point, you aren't a Disney family. You may turn out to be. You may also discover on trip number two that you'd like to take the family skiing or to the beach instead. Since DVC isn't great for options outside of DVC, you'll have points that might be difficult or a bad value to use.

 

[Dean]

My wife and I have been looking into going on family vacations once or twice a year. So we have been looking at Timeshares, especially the reseale market. It is great to be able to buy TS for $1 (plus M/F of course),,,

However I have 3 kids (6,5 and 4) and we have been planning on taking a trip to WDW this year and my wife asked about possible getting a Timeshare so we can do to Disney every year... Not to mention she has never been and wants to go, and I have personally went once, and always wanted to go back.

So I looked at options, Looked like either Bonnet Creek (or another WYnhamd Home Resort and trade into Bonnet Creek), or of course DVC..

After reading around, My wife likes the DVC option, but here come my questions.

1. DVC- IS it only for Disney resorts or can it be traded into something like RCI or other resorts?

2. How do you pay the upfront costs: For instance DVC (their site) says 160 point costs (AKV) is upfront of $21,000! Ounch, How is the world do they do it? Any chance of a Payment Plan?

3. I know there are DVC reslaers, but I have heard some things about this where the points may not be guaranteed? Or something with Disney blocking them? What exactly is this?

4. My biggest question is how to pay for the points? DO they need all that money up front? can you buy points each month? Payment plans? etc..?

Thanks

IMO, one should only buy a timeshare or any other luxury purchase if they can pay cash for it. Question number 1 is whether a timeshare makes sense for you, then whether DVC is a good choice for that timeshare. Reading the tone of your post it seems that you are not tied to DVC or on property and that price is important. I also get the sense that you want to use the timeshare for non Orlando options. DVC ONLY makes sense for those that value staying on property, can afford it and only want to use the points at DVC resorts. To me, those are absolutes from a buying decision standpoint. Wyndham is a great option as is Bluegreen for your purposes as stated and very inexpensive. One should be able to buy Wyndham points for at Bonnet Creek for $1-1.5K including closing and less for some other options. Bluegreen can be bought for $250-500. Wyndham as more resorts but BG is nicely positioned as well. Dues are higher for BG for smaller contracts and less for larger ones compared to Wyndham. For DVC in your situation, I'd go resale and get the cheapest points I could for an on property option if you decide that's the route you want to go.