Couple of Questions

[cdnSpinalTap]

Hello,

We have been going to Disney every January for the last 7 years and are now at the point where we think we are going to buy into a resale DVC. We figure we will need about 350 points to pay for a 9 day vacation in a 2 bedroom villa at the BWV. I had a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer:

1. I understand what the "year use" means, but if we normally go in January, what is the best year use to try to get? Is it best to get close to your normal travel time? Just before? Just after?

2. How hard is it really to book RCI vacations? All of the reading I did led me to believe that it is better to rent your points and then pay cash for your vacation if you want to go somewhere other than a DVC location.

3. If we need 350 points is it best to buy these in lots as small as we can possibly get? For example, 3 at 100 and 1 at 50 (if we are so lucky as to find that).

I am sure I will have more questions - but thanks in advance!

-Dean

 

[vicki_c]

It's use year (not year use). It's best to have a use year that start close to when you think you will most often travel. Or stated differently, a use year right after any period when you think you will be least likely to travel.

We never go in the summer, so a September use year would probably have been best for us. We have August, and that works well for us as well.

Use year becomes important if you need to cancel any trip. You can only bank your points into the next year 4 months or longer before the end of the your use year.

An example might help:
With our August use year, we have to bank our points by March 31 if we are not going to use them by July 31.

So if we scheduled a trip for June, for example, and then decide to cancel in May - we can no longer bank those points - they are "stuck" in that use year. We would have to use them by July 31 or lose them.

Hope that helps a little on that part.

I believe there is a sticky somewhere on Understanding Use Year, but I don't have it bookmarked.

 

[melodyka]

Isn't January a great time to go?

I am far from an expert here, but according to my understanding:
1. I think if you always go in January, December would be the best use year for you. This is because if you ever have to cancel your trip, you would have a whole year to reuse those points before they expire. If your use year is February, you might only have a few weeks.

2. I don't think it is necessarily difficult to book RCI trips, I just don't think it turns out to be the best value for your points. Your points might be worth more money in the rental market than the RCI resort would cost.

3. I don't think it would be best to buy in such a small amounts. Smaller packages usually are more popular, and have a higher price per point. Also, you would have to pay closing on each package. However, some people do find that they prefer to split their points over 2 top choice resorts, so that you can borrow and bank each year, to always guarantee 11 month booking priority in the resort of your choice. So, you would get 175 points at BWV, and 175 at let's say AKV. 2012 you bank your AKV points and borrow 2013 BWV points to book your 2012 trip at BWV. 2013 you use the current years points plus the banked points and go to AKV and so on...

good luck

 

[zavandor]

3. If we need 350 points is it best to buy these in lots as small as we can possibly get? For example, 3 at 100 and 1 at 50 (if we are so lucky as to find that).

Smaller contracts usually sell for slightly more than bigger ones. And you will have to pay closing costs for each contract. So having more contracts will cost you more.
Moreover, it's way better to have all contracts in the same UY, because in this case you will have only one membership number and you will be able to mix the point easily to make reservations. If you have different UY, you will have to transfer points between the contracts and this adds complexity and reduce flexibility. Finding many small contracts with the same UY can be hard.

I'm not an expert member, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt. But I would:
1) Buy now one single contract of about 175 points loaded with points.
2) Start using the points, at your home resorts and maybe doing split stays. Banking and borrowing, you could use your loaded contract for two years using 350 points each year.
3) After you got this experience you may understand if you want all your points at BWV or you want point at a different resort, to continue to easily book split stays at different resorts. Some think that 10 days in the same resort is too long, some think that switching is too much of an hassle. You'll never know what you prefere until you try
4) buy a new loaded contract of other 175 points with the same UY of the previous one. With this loaded contract you may book two other years of stay, while your first contract "recharges".

This way you will lower the risks to buy too many points and may ever save some money, because you'll buy your second contract after two years and prices *should* go down a little.
This is what I'm doing. I was initially looking for 100 - 120 points. I ended buying 65 points (I found a good deal for a small contract), then I'll see.

 

[disneynutz]

Hello,

We have been going to Disney every January for the last 7 years and are now at the point where we think we are going to buy into a resale DVC. We figure we will need about 350 points to pay for a 9 day vacation in a 2 bedroom villa at the BWV. I had a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer:

1. I understand what the "year use" means, but if we normally go in January, what is the best year use to try to get? Is it best to get close to your normal travel time? Just before? Just after?

2. How hard is it really to book RCI vacations? All of the reading I did led me to believe that it is better to rent your points and then pay cash for your vacation if you want to go somewhere other than a DVC location.

3. If we need 350 points is it best to buy these in lots as small as we can possibly get? For example, 3 at 100 and 1 at 50 (if we are so lucky as to find that).

I am sure I will have more questions - but thanks in advance!

-Dean

It's best to get a UY just prior to your favorite vacation time.

Booking anywhere other than a DVC Resort vacation is IMO a marketing tool. Disney advertises all of these possibilities but most have restrictions. If they really wanted you to book outside of the DVC resorts, they wouldn't have the restrictions or the $95 fee. RCI has about 4000 places to book but only 500 or so are available to DVC owners. Also they can change the offerings at any time.

Buying smaller contracts makes more sense when you think about it. If your needs change you can sell off a smaller contract verses having to pay dues on a 350 point contract when you are only using 250 points per year.

Bill

 

[drusba]

As others have mentioned it is better to have your use year start shortly before you usually go (for you the better months would be Dec, Oct, or Sep). On the opposite end be aware that the worst use year you could have is one that starts right after the time you usually go (e.g., Feb or March if you usually go in Jan). That has to do with being able to bank points if you have to cancel a trip and has nothing to do with when you can go (anytime of year) and when you can call to reserve (always 11 months out for home resort and 7 at others).

From reports I have seen there are a lot of places you can get easily through RCI but then there are many high demand places where it is not so easy. So you have the Nanny McPhee phenomenon, all the the ones you don't want will be easy to get and the ones you want will be difficult.

The size of contracts you buy has a few issues. First, it is more desirable to have the same use year no matter how many you buy when you are doing this initial purchase and that should be a preferred goal. Second, larger contracts are harder to sell than smaller ones so you have the issue of what should I buy if I might sell the conctract a number of years down the road and that weighs to the smaller the better. Third, and presenting the opposite concern of the second is that lower point resale contracts tend to cost more per point than larger point contracts and if you buy multiple contracts you will have multiple closing costs and you can face about $400 for a single closing (although who pays that is also subject to negotiation in a resale) and closing costs are mostly fixed costs and thus you don't get some big discount off the closing costs when buying a small number of points.

Thus, I would view it as how important is the second concern in relation to the third and probably come out if I were buying 350 points that I would try to find maybe two contracts in the same use year that add up to that total.

 

[JimMIA]

On the RCI question, the responses you've received so far sound accurate. I think it is possible to get worthwhile RCI trades, but you have to be flexible and realistic.

With DVC, you currently have fewer than 600 resorts available out of RCI's 4,000+ total resorts. That's not a deal-breaker, because you might be able to find some decent exchanges in that group of 600 or so possibilities.

The bigger problem with RCI is that it is nothing like DVC and you have to learn another system and do much more planning. The chances of you just calling DVC MS and getting an attractive RCI exchange are remote. You'll have much more luck if you plan more than a year ahead and use an "ongoing search." To do that, you have to deposit your points and you also have to pay the $95 fee -- whether or not you get an exchange. And obviously, you'll have to research any resorts you might want to exchange into, because many of the RCI choices you will have are a step down from DVC.

The other issue with DVC/RCI is that you don't have an individual RCI account and therefore aren't eligible for some pretty nice perks from RCI. Two of those are deeply discounted cash reservations through RCI's Extra Vacations and Last Calls options. You don't get those with DVC.

Frankly, if someone were interested in RCI exchanges, they'd be better off picking up another timeshare for $1 on eBay and getting full RCI membership included with their annual MFs from that timeshare.

All that said, however, I've seen numerous posts here where DVC owners received RCI exhanges they were perfectly happy with. So it IS possible.

 

[hbg4]

Hello,

We figure we will need about 350 points to pay for a 9 day vacation in a 2 bedroom villa at the BWV.
If we need 350 points is it best to buy these in lots as small as we can possibly get? For example, 3 at 100 and 1 at 50 (if we are so lucky as to find that).


-Dean

My opinion is that if you intend to use all your points once per year, you're better off getting the all 350 for BWV, so that you can ensure of your accommodation request being available.
The advantage of smaller point lots, is good for your Will if you intend to divide the DVC amongst different people or family members, otherwise it will cost more to buy than a larger lot of points.