DVC math is making my head spin-- couple of newbie questions

[ironz]

Hi!
DH and I have tossed around the idea of buying into DVC, and the math (mostly) makes sense. I can see how we can save some money over the years if we continue to visit yearly, esp with making some trips with family members and using some of the larger units, as opposed to 2 or 3 hotel rooms. I understand the bank/borrow options. I have a pretty good handle on use year. And I can totally see that buying resale makes much more sense financially.

Questions:
--how does it work if you have points at more than one resort? (although we would start with one contract, if we decide) For example, if we had 100 pts at AKL and 100 pts at OKW... could we book either resort at 11 months out? Can you mix the points to use, say 150 of them at AKL one visit? (I do recall reading that you can't split points for a single night's stay so if a studio was 10 points all 10 have to come from one contract or the other)
--continuing in the same vein, I've seen a post that if you had a main resale contract at one resort (say, 100 pts at OKW) and then did a 25 pt direct addon (Poly points), that your home resort remains OKW? So you couldn't book even one night at Poly 11 months out?
-- How do people keep up with various use years and point usage (I assume this is on the DVC dashboard I have seen reference to)?
--Do you think that Disney will close the loophole of people starting with a resale contract and adding on a small contract to get the extra member benefits? Seems like they would want you to at least have your original contract as a direct sale, then add on later. Although, that costs the buyer more money. (and yes, I know the extra member benefits are not guaranteed and subject to change)

Sigh--so much to learn still. We will most likely meet with a DVC guide next trip to WDW.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You do have a bit of confusion over resort home priority. Whatever home resort a point is at only has the home booking priority at that resort, but at 7 months then all points are the same and can be used at any of the DVC resorts. So using your examples, if you had 100 points at AKV and 100 points at OKW during the home resort priority (11-7 months) you could reserve with 100 at AKV and 100 at OKW. Or use banking and borrowing in either or both contracts if you wanted up to 300 points at each. But once the 7 month window rolls around you could use points from either or both at any resort, and you can mix the points even for a single night if the contracts are both in the same UY. When you can do that is if you had two UYs unless you transferred points from one to the other. So you could then take your 100 OKW points and use them with the 100 AKV and use all 200 to book a stay at AKV or any other DVC.

With your OKW and Poly question you would have 100 points with OKW home priority and 25 points with PVB priority so at 11 months could book say 6 nights at OKW and 1 night at PVB. Points never morph to another home resort. But, again, at 7 months you could use all 125 to book at PVB or OKW or any DVC.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Sigh--so much to learn still. We will most likely meet with a DVC guide next trip to WDW.

Do not say the word "resale" to a guide, and whatever they say about resale take with large, choke-worthy grains of salt. The guides make no $ on resale, and have taken to overstating the horrors of such a path. The guides are most compensated right now to sell Poly, and so that's what they do.

Buying direct right now makes the most sense if you want to stay at the Poly 80% of the time (or more), generally in the fall season through marathon, and see yourself as happy with studios only for a long time. The Poly really is a specialty resort at this point, because you have the option of a studio, or the overly pricey bungalow, and no other options for unit size and configuration.

The one thing I would add to Kat's description of home resort is that to use your points at a different resort at 7 months -- so to use the PVB points at OKW -- the room must be available at 7 months. You can't shift points at 7 months into a booking made at 11 months unless the reservation is wholly available to a new booking. The key to any 7 month booking is availability.

 

[mustinjourney]

My situation is similar to what you're suggesting.

I bought 280 points resale for VGF and then bought 25 points direct for BCV. As such, I have two "home" resorts. However, I can't mix the VGF and BCV points outside of 7 months to make a big reservation at BCV. I can only use my 25 points (or 75 points since I can bank/borrow to get 3 years worth) for a reservation outside of 7 months. In retrospect, I probably should have added on 35 points instead of 25, b/c 75 doesn't go a long way at BCV. So if you do a direct add-on that is for a different resort, make sure you get enough points to make your desired reservation. Otherwise, you'll have to wait till 7 months out so you can combine points from your other contract to make the reservation you want.

 

[ironz]

All very helpful, thank you so much! Appreciate the clarification on the resort/7-11 thing. I knew something wasn't right in my thinking, just couldn't put my finger on it.

And no, I don't think I shall mention resale if we talk to a DVC guide. We did visit the sample DVC villa at the boardwalk a couple of trips ago, and the DVC rep there pulled out a calculator and did all sorts of fuzzy math for us. Which, when we got back to our room, I was able to sort out and figure that buying 100 points (they sure don't want to mention that you could possibly do a direct contract for fewer points) at Poly prices was not for us.

I will keep perusing the resale listings to determine pricing trends, look at various use years, etc. And save up some money. Don't want to buy so many that we'd have to finance.

thanks again!!

 

[Dean]

Hi!
DH and I have tossed around the idea of buying into DVC, and the math (mostly) makes sense. I can see how we can save some money over the years if we continue to visit yearly, esp with making some trips with family members and using some of the larger units, as opposed to 2 or 3 hotel rooms. I understand the bank/borrow options. I have a pretty good handle on use year. And I can totally see that buying resale makes much more sense financially.

Questions:
--how does it work if you have points at more than one resort? (although we would start with one contract, if we decide) For example, if we had 100 pts at AKL and 100 pts at OKW... could we book either resort at 11 months out? Can you mix the points to use, say 150 of them at AKL one visit? (I do recall reading that you can't split points for a single night's stay so if a studio was 10 points all 10 have to come from one contract or the other)
--continuing in the same vein, I've seen a post that if you had a main resale contract at one resort (say, 100 pts at OKW) and then did a 25 pt direct addon (Poly points), that your home resort remains OKW? So you couldn't book even one night at Poly 11 months out?
-- How do people keep up with various use years and point usage (I assume this is on the DVC dashboard I have seen reference to)?
--Do you think that Disney will close the loophole of people starting with a resale contract and adding on a small contract to get the extra member benefits? Seems like they would want you to at least have your original contract as a direct sale, then add on later. Although, that costs the buyer more money. (and yes, I know the extra member benefits are not guaranteed and subject to change)

Sigh--so much to learn still. We will most likely meet with a DVC guide next trip to WDW.

I suspect DVD will change the rules at some point preventing resale plus 25 point add on but I bet the principle will remain. My guess is it goes to 50 min in a few years but we'll see.

 

[squirrel4569]

Do not say the word "resale" to a guide, and whatever they say about resale take with large, choke-worthy grains of salt. The guides make no $ on resale, and have taken to overstating the horrors of such a path. The guides are most compensated right now to sell Poly, and so that's what they do.

After we did the tour we went back to our hotel room and pulled out the laptop and started reading more about DVC and found out about resale. I wandered down to the lobby later on that night to get drinks and saw a DVC rep there (different from the one that I had worked with earlier in the day) and asked him about the restrictions placed on resale, etc (this was a couple of years ago) and he went into great detail showing me what resorts we could and couldn't use, talked about the cruises, etc and said that it really wasn't a great use of points for those perks. He also explained the ROFR process and how we'd still be members and part of the DVC family if we bought resale, just that we couldn't book at the handful of places. After we bought and we went on our first trip we ran into him again at Epcot this time. I thanked him for the information he gave us and how happy we were with buying into it, etc. The other guy that was there kind of got an attitude (like you're describing) about how resale was awful, etc and the guy I talked with was telling him that was a bunch of phooey and that he knew darn well that you were better off renting your points out and paying cash for those other experiences than using DVC points for them. It was quite comical.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

After we did the tour we went back to our hotel room and pulled out the laptop and started reading more about DVC and found out about resale. I wandered down to the lobby later on that night to get drinks and saw a DVC rep there (different from the one that I had worked with earlier in the day) and asked him about the restrictions placed on resale, etc (this was a couple of years ago) and he went into great detail showing me what resorts we could and couldn't use, talked about the cruises, etc and said that it really wasn't a great use of points for those perks. He also explained the ROFR process and how we'd still be members and part of the DVC family if we bought resale, just that we couldn't book at the handful of places. After we bought and we went on our first trip we ran into him again at Epcot this time. I thanked him for the information he gave us and how happy we were with buying into it, etc. The other guy that was there kind of got an attitude (like you're describing) about how resale was awful, etc and the guy I talked with was telling him that was a bunch of phooey and that he knew darn well that you were better off renting your points out and paying cash for those other experiences than using DVC points for them. It was quite comical.

Yeah. Some of the guides are still honest about everything. But it's hard to predict before you talk to them, and then there's the 4/16 restrictions. Several of the guides have been making those sound like basically you will be staying in a dumpster behind Saratoga Springs in 3 years because resale.

 

[squirrel4569]

Yeah. Some of the guides are still honest about everything. But it's hard to predict before you talk to them, and then there's the 4/16 restrictions. Several of the guides have been making those sound like basically you will be staying in a dumpster behind Saratoga Springs in 3 years because resale.

The newer restrictions really do kind of stink, but more on an emotional level than financial. Yes you do lose some savings in regards to APs but it's really more of missing out on member only events and experiences than anything else. The value is still there financially, because even with the AP discount and the 10% discount on merch and such you're still saving thousands vs direct.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The newer restrictions really do kind of stink, but more on an emotional level than financial. Yes you do lose some savings in regards to APs but it's really more of missing out on member only events and experiences than anything else. The value is still there financially, because even with the AP discount and the 10% discount on merch and such you're still saving thousands vs direct.

I just see so many people shopping to go every 2-3 years, and most of the benefits they won't get aren't benefits they will use. The cash in hand and ability to book 1-2BR units at not-Poly is going to be more valuable.

 

[BillPA]

The only real perk is the AP discount, the others you can get with a Disney Visa. If you don't go at least 2 times in one year, or more than 14 night in 1 trip, the AP is no deal anyhow. Not being able to book Adventures by Disney or a Disney cruise is going to save you from wasting those points, cash is a much better option for those.

 

[disneynutz]

After we did the tour we went back to our hotel room and pulled out the laptop and started reading more about DVC and found out about resale. I wandered down to the lobby later on that night to get drinks and saw a DVC rep there (different from the one that I had worked with earlier in the day) and asked him about the restrictions placed on resale, etc (this was a couple of years ago) and he went into great detail showing me what resorts we could and couldn't use, talked about the cruises, etc and said that it really wasn't a great use of points for those perks. He also explained the ROFR process and how we'd still be members and part of the DVC family if we bought resale, just that we couldn't book at the handful of places. After we bought and we went on our first trip we ran into him again at Epcot this time. I thanked him for the information he gave us and how happy we were with buying into it, etc. The other guy that was there kind of got an attitude (like you're describing) about how resale was awful, etc and the guy I talked with was telling him that was a bunch of phooey and that he knew darn well that you were better off renting your points out and paying cash for those other experiences than using DVC points for them. It was quite comical.

The people who man the DVC kiosks are ASA's not guides. There job is to rope you in, determine if you are qualified to buy and sign you up for a purchase meeting. They are not allowed by law to talk purchase specifics since they are not licensed to sell real estate. Based on my experience, your ASA talked too much, resale is a bad word within DVD.

Bill

 

[Dream big]

Hi!
DH and I have tossed around the idea of buying into DVC, and the math (mostly) makes sense. I can see how we can save some money over the years if we continue to visit yearly, esp with making some trips with family members and using some of the larger units, as opposed to 2 or 3 hotel rooms. I understand the bank/borrow options. I have a pretty good handle on use year. And I can totally see that buying resale makes much more sense financially.

Questions:
--how does it work if you have points at more than one resort? (although we would start with one contract, if we decide) For example, if we had 100 pts at AKL and 100 pts at OKW... could we book either resort at 11 months out? Can you mix the points to use, say 150 of them at AKL one visit? (I do recall reading that you can't split points for a single night's stay so if a studio was 10 points all 10 have to come from one contract or the other)
--continuing in the same vein, I've seen a post that if you had a main resale contract at one resort (say, 100 pts at OKW) and then did a 25 pt direct addon (Poly points), that your home resort remains OKW? So you couldn't book even one night at Poly 11 months out?
-- How do people keep up with various use years and point usage (I assume this is on the DVC dashboard I have seen reference to)?
--Do you think that Disney will close the loophole of people starting with a resale contract and adding on a small contract to get the extra member benefits? Seems like they would want you to at least have your original contract as a direct sale, then add on later. Although, that costs the buyer more money. (and yes, I know the extra member benefits are not guaranteed and subject to change)

Sigh--so much to learn still. We will most likely meet with a DVC guide next trip to WDW.

Just another thing to consider...your 25 point add on could be at some of the other resorts. We just bought 220 at OKW resale and did a 25 point add on direct at OKW with the same UY so it's all under one main contract. Makes managing so easy! Plus the direct OKW points were cheaper than Poly!

 

[bumbershoot]

Do not say the word "resale" to a guide, and whatever they say about resale take with large, choke-worthy grains of salt. The guides make no $ on resale, and have taken to overstating the horrors of such a path. The guides are most compensated right now to sell Poly, and so that's what they do.

Also don't expect the "guide" to be able to answer the nuts and bolts sort of questions people here answer so beautifully every day. They either don't know or won't tell or just don't have time.

Yeah. Some of the guides are still honest about everything. But it's hard to predict before you talk to them, and then there's the 4/16 restrictions. Several of the guides have been making those sound like basically you will be staying in a dumpster behind Saratoga Springs in 3 years because resale.

Our guide was great. So honest and cool.

Of course, he's no longer with the company.