DVC - How Did You Do It?

[SeptemberGirl]

I'm loving your responses, and I can't thank you enough for replying to this thread.

It's really nice that you are willing to share your experiences with us!

 

[alldiz]

Lets see......

I really wanted DVC.....DH...wanted me to save 1st

I told him...no way could I give up my Disney vaca to save for
DVC....I'll find a betta way...

So I called Timeshare store....by the end of that day I wanted
150 WLV points....for 13,200...

I figured with 10% interest through them I could pay it off
in 5 yrs.....for about 250 a month....

Told DH about it......BTW he was sick in bed with pneumonia....
Gotta get em while their down

DH said.....no way....I don't want to take on any additional debt....

Within 10 minutes....he says....FORGET IT I'LL JUST WRITE YOU
THE CHECK AND YOU CAN PAY ME BACK

I knew I loved him
So now I give him 240 a month....and it will be paid in 5yrs
I took on an extra day at work to pay for it
Kerri

 

[justjudy]

We bought both our VWL and OKW points resale, paying cash from an inheritance. When AKV was announced, we sold our VWL points and used some of the money to purchase AKV.

 

[mom2rb]

We paid off both cars early. Our DVC payment is about the same as two car notes. We have five year loans though Disney. All of the interest is written off our taxes. We will pay the loans off early. The rule is no new cars until DVC is paid off. That didn't seem to bad until AKV. If the do have Contemporary DVC, DH and I will be driving the same cars for 20 years.

 

[crisi]

Did you finance? Take a home eq? Use an inheritance or super big bonus? Save up? Buy small and add on? SAHM got a part time job? How did you make the money work?

Bonus. What to us is a ordinary bonus. We did have a home equity loan in place for a few days between closing and the bonus hitting the account. We could have also sold stock or stock options. And we bought a small contract (150 points) resale that was a pretty good deal several years ago when points were much cheaper. I can't say I'd buy at today's prices, even though we could pay for a contract out of savings.

 

[KyleRayner]

I financed my initial purchase. I was young and single at the time and had no other debt.

Same here!!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

We financed it through DVC. We took out the 10 year loan because it had the lowest monthly payment. Our theory was that we could allways pay more and pay it off faster, but if we had a month where money was a little "tight" (like around Christmas) all we had to pay was the low monthly payment. We did, in fact, have it paid off in about 3.5-4 years.

I have known people who have paid cash.

I have known people who have charged it to their Disney VISA to get the Rewards, then paid it off the next month with cash.

I have known people who have charged it to their Disney VISA to get the Rewards and then paid it off the next month using home equity loan or line of credit. Then they get the Rewards plus the tax benefit of the home equity thing.

I have known people who have just paid it with a home equity loan or line of credit.

I have known people who have refinanced their home and added enough into the refinance amount to afford DVC, although I wouldn't recommend this option.

You will always have people that will tell you that until you can pay cash for it, you shouldn't do it. I don't necessarily agree with that. What I will advise is that if it is going to create a financial hardship then you shouldn't do it. For DH & I, the monthly payments worked pretty easily into our budget, so it wasn't a big issue, nor was it a hardship.

 

[squirrlygirl]

We paid 1/3 in cash(okay, charged it to Disney VISA and then paid it off) and financed the rest through DVC. We'll pay 1/2 the financed amount in February with tax return money and what's left the following year with our tax return. We have 4 kids, a home mortgage, and high taxes so no matter what we do we get alot back every year

We almost didn't do it now but the "force us to spend money on downtime" thing was important. We never would've set aside the money from the tax returns for DVC, but now that it's debt, we'll have to!

DH is currently working lots of OT so we're thinking of using that extra $$ to pay cash for an add-on in the next few months.

Dues are insignificant in the scheme of things <for us>- we already pay dues for our homeowner's association, so I'll just set aside enough extra every year to pay them at once.

 

[SEC]

We financed our WLV purchase over 3 years with Disney. It was much more important for me to able to take a Disney vacation every year then have a newer car, so I just kept driving my 9 year old Nissan until the DVC loan was paid off. Buying DVC was a no-brainer for us, because we go for 2 weeks evey year during F & W. We bought DVC through the mail and when we pulled out our last 6 years of hotel bills, it was pretty obvious we would be better off buying DVC. It is such a nice feeling to know that we can go every year (sometimes two or three times), especially in January when it is cold and dreary it always helps to pull out the DVC book and dream about exchanging to other places. I used to wait for AP rates to come and spend lots of time trying to find a good deal to see if we could afford it. It really has saved me time! My husband loves F & W, but the deal was we had to go somewhere else every year too.

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

We just purchased a small (50pts) resale contract at VWL with cash and plan to add on as we have the money - we are not financing our DVC. It's a great feeling to have it without payments but then again we are waiting longer to get our ideal number of points. I would be comfortable with financing a purchase but DH is totally against it so this worked for us.

I paid cash for our DVC by selling some stock I own. DH gave me some stock for my first Mother's Day and DS is turning 11 in a few weeks. I held it all that time until there was something I really wanted - DVC!

We will probably pay for future purchases the same way, with some investments we are ready to cash in, when the time is right. We are fortunate that Dh gets bonuses and stock options from his company so I'm sure some of those will turn into DVC in the future!

Good luck!

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

We took $8500 from our emergency fund to buy 100 points at VWL. Not quite an emergency, I realize .

Four weeks later, we sold our house and replaced the $8500 with money from the sale. So, I guess we bought DVC with home equity in a round about way.

 

[vwlvette]

We paid for our 300 VWL points from our good furtunes. DW (36) has been very sucessful in the Health Care Industry for years. I (46) am currently in my 3rd Career, First two were extremely sucessful, Athlete, then Owned & Sold my business for a great profit. Now work in the public secture, lots of time off, great benefits. Money is not an issue, career's 1 & 2 took care of that. With that being said we purchased our points w/cash. Going to add on with Tax return, unlike careers 1 & 2, now I love tax time!! lol.

For those who finance, As long as you are comfortable with the payments, and the end buy in price, Then just enjoy your DVC Vacations!!!

 

[eliza61]

We did a combo. We used part of our savings and then financed the rest.

 

[SeptemberGirl]

Again, thank you, all of you, for replying to this post with candor! I really appreciate being able to hear how other people did DVC.

 

[beccasmom]

We financed it for the first 6 months or so. Then we decided to use DH's bonus and some savings to pay it off. We have 230 points at OKW and joined DVC early on. We have not purchased additional points because we really don't need them. We do visit every year at least once, sometimes twice, but almost always during slower times and we try to use our points judiciously. So far - for 15 years! - this has worked well for us. We pay our maintenance fees on a monthly basis - it is taken directly out of our checking account.

 

[Sully]

We waited until our son was out of college. Financed our first contract thru Disney. Paid it off quickly. Have done several add-ons that we could afford.

 

[henri + katie's mum]

I bought a small re-sale of 70 points. With closing fees and all, it was just about $6,000. I will add on in the coming years when I have money to purchase in cash. (Probably after I'm doing paying daycare for my kids! )

My father passed away of 8 years ago and the rest of his estate will be settled this year, so I took money out of my savings and I will pay myself back with final estate pay out.

(I was very lucky to have a dad who saved money for his children and very lucky that it did not get wasted in a nursing home. Thank you Dad! Before my mom died, the three of us went on a Disney vacation and they loved it. My dad wouldn't have made an investment in DVC, but my mom would have. Sorry, that's TMI, but I had to share.)

 

[robinb]

We paid cash for our OKW resale, borrowed on the HEC and paid off quickly for our BWV resale, borrowed on the HEC (should have taken Disney's financing in retrospect) for AKV and will pay off when the sale of OKW closes.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We paid in full for 1 contract and used Home Equity for the second one. The third one was small enough to not worry about.

 

[RLRDA]

Our original contract (SSR) & add-on (AKV) were both paid for using bonus $ from DH's job....want to add on a few more points and are going to use some of my (DW) st.options. Thankfully we didn't need to finance....we "paid" with credit cards to take advantage of cash back & Disney Visa points.