For those of you who bought direct...

[princesslover]

I initially bought resale and then went ahead and added on 2 small contracts direct points to get to 125 blue card. I wanted specific # of points and for my use year too and direct makes it so much easier to do. I know it cost me a pretty penny but checking all the different websites for new contracts daily and then that still doesn’t guarantee I’ll get the contract through ROFR made me feel it’s worth it. I got my points immediately and I was able to use my 11 month advantage to book hard to book rooms at BLT right away for Nov/Dec. I also think long term and so that couple hundred dollar extra I’m paying per year isn’t too bad. I also do want to stay at the Riviera at some point and what if I love it? I would definitely still consider resale at this point but now the urgency is gone I can look at the listings casually and wait for that perfect contract that fits perfectly to come along.

See, in my case, I aready own 150 points direct, so no need to buy direct to get the blue card. So the only reason I'd be purchasing direct would be for future stays at Riviera (that I have no immediate plans to do, but would potentially want to someday). However, I am assuming if it came down to that, I could find a way. I could bank and borrow from the 150 direct (so up to 450 points), rent someone else's points, buy one time use points, etc. I don't think Riviera is shut out to me if I don't buy more than 150 direct points.

The other reason is the ease of getting points, but our next trip isn't planned until 2022, so no rush for that either. I keep flip flopping, but will need to make a decision soon, since the current direct incentives are only until February 1, and then it won't be a decision any longer.

 

[smisale]

I bought my first (small) contract recently, and I, too, was on the fence about going direct vs. resale.

After looking into the process, the direct route was extremely attractive to me due to the speed, the ease, the peace of mind, and the Chase card option/repayment window.

I ultimately went resale because I felt it was the "smart" option, given I'm not planning a trip in the immediate future, I don't desperately want any of the direct benefits (they'd be nice, but I probably wouldn't make use of them), and the savings are, of course, significant. And though Riveria looks beautiful, I strongly prefer the original dvc resorts and don't mind missing out on the new.

All that said, if I were to go back in time (or look ahead to when I inevitably add on), I'm not 100% sure I would go resale again. The process has been totally fine, and the company I'm working with has been very nice and responsive. But I made my offer end of September, and my contract hasn't closed yet. I know this is a normal timetable, and I'm not worried or anything... but it's very hard to wait! Also, even though I know everything is going smoothly, it's still kind of a bummer sending such a large amount of money away without seeing any movement for several weeks.

So... I suppose I'm not really sure if I'm on Team Resale or Team Direct yet. :S

what is large amount of money because with my offer they wanted 1300 down just wondering if the down payment is different for everyone

 

[RoseGold]

We bought 300 points direct(150 at Copper Creek and 150 at Riviera) and regret nothing. We bought last summer when DVC reopened during the pandemic and we saved $12,000 on those 300 points

You "saved" off the rack rate, not the resale rate, which is the market value. Basic math.

 

[ChipNdale8887]

You "saved" off the rack rate, not the resale rate, which is the market value. Basic math.

Correct but its still a $12,000 savings off of Direct. Direct points that can be used at all resorts and any new resorts and we get member benefits and the 300 points are at 2 places we really want to stay. We are very happy with our purchase. Us being only 30 years old we really wanted unrestricted points for the long haul with hopes of also taking advantage of AP discounts.

We ended up paying $155 a point for Riviera ($195 x 150 = 29250 - 6000 = 23250 / 150 = 155)
and $180 a point at Copper Creek ($220 x 150 = 33000 - 6000 = 27000 / 150 = 180)

We only overpaid for CCV by say $30-$35 a point so $4,500-$5,250 more over resale. While that's material now, over 20-50 years it's not to us with the perks and even more valuable if we hand them down to our kids one day.

Not bad for direct points I'll say. Plus we also received 2019 points with this also. I'm extremely happy with this. We could have saved more via resale obviously but it wasn't a large enough savings at home resorts we wanted to not just buy all the points we wanted direct.

So I'm not sure what you don't like about my OP.

 

[RoseGold]

We only overpaid for CCV by say $30-$35 a point so $4,500-$5,250 more over resale.

Right, so even buying at pandemic fire sale prices, you would lose money if you were to sell right now, which was what I said. Add in the closing and commission to sell, and you lost even more. Add in financing, and it's even worse. If financed, it's possible you might even have to bring cash to the table to close the deal, because you don't even have enough equity to cover the shortfall.

The CC listings at any resale broker, and there are MANY, are going to be mostly deals that lost money.

 

[ChipNdale8887]

Right, so even buying at pandemic fire sale prices, you would lose money if you were to sell right now, which was what I said. Add in the closing and commission to sell, and you lost even more. Add in financing, and it's even worse. If financed, it's possible you might even have to bring cash to the table to close the deal, because you don't even have enough equity to cover the shortfall.

The CC listings at any resale broker, and there are MANY, are going to be mostly deals that lost money.

Totally. Anyone that buys direct and sells any of the newer properties are going to lose money. That's a given. We knew that going in but this wasn't a short term investment to us but a long term investment.

Luckily we paid it all in cash so it made buying Direct a no brainer at the price we paid. Financing costs totally kill it and most of the time depending on the Terms can kill DVC as a good decision all together.

We almost bought a few contracts in march last year, could have had Poly 130 points for $130 a point but couldn't pull the trigger. Hard to drop $18,000 when WDW was closing and so much uncertainty.

But all in all it really worked out for us. I believe $12,000 off is the most that's ever been offered off of 300 points Direct in a long time. I never thought getting all the points we desired direct was possible. We were pretty much planning on buying 150 direct to get the benefits and the rest resale. Then that offer came after DVC sales reopened and I had to bite. It fit right in our budget on how much we wanted to spend on DVC for our points resale + direct and that deal was all direct to boot.

 

[smisale]

I bought AK for 95.00 and paid cash and now i can sell 107-- 3 months later but even now that would cover all or most of my money i put out including commission if i would bought direct and something happen that caused my financial situation to change i would be in trouble
Not saying that was right for you just giving a point for the resale side

 

[Sunnyore]

See, in my case, I aready own 150 points direct, so no need to buy direct to get the blue card. So the only reason I'd be purchasing direct would be for future stays at Riviera (that I have no immediate plans to do, but would potentially want to someday). However, I am assuming if it came down to that, I could find a way. I could bank and borrow from the 150 direct (so up to 450 points), rent someone else's points, buy one time use points, etc. I don't think Riviera is shut out to me if I don't buy more than 150 direct points.

The other reason is the ease of getting points, but our next trip isn't planned until 2022, so no rush for that either. I keep flip flopping, but will need to make a decision soon, since the current direct incentives are only until February 1, and then it won't be a decision any longer.

I don't think you'll have any real regrets which ever direction you choose. You are correct you already have the blue card benefits and plenty of non-restricted points to play with if you do choose to stay at the non legacy resorts in the future. You would really just be paying for the convenience and the ease of the sale and not having to worry about restricted points at all in the future. I flipped back and forth too for a while because everyone is telling me the blue card isn't worth it but in the end I chose to buy direct and I feel good about my decision. Partly because I can afford it within my budget. And now having made the decision I can stop flip flopping because it was driving me nuts. My deadline is Jan 13 because I bought BLT but you do have until Feb to decide. Good luck!

 

[princesslover]

I don't think you'll have any real regrets which ever direction you choose. You are correct you already have the blue card benefits and plenty of non-restricted points to play with if you do choose to stay at the non legacy resorts in the future. You would really just be paying for the convenience and the ease of the sale and not having to worry about restricted points at all in the future. I flipped back and forth too for a while because everyone is telling me the blue card isn't worth it but in the end I chose to buy direct and I feel good about my decision. Partly because I can afford it within my budget. And now having made the decision I can stop flip flopping because it was driving me nuts. My deadline is Jan 13 because I bought BLT but you do have until Feb to decide. Good luck!

Thanks for your comment that I won’t regret either way. I’d agree that at this point (in my situation) I am primarily paying for the convenience and expeditious way of getting points into my account.

I was really leaning toward pulling the trigger on direct, but after the events of yesterday am feeling more hesitant about parting with $30,000 to Disney, especially when our next trip isn’t until 2022. It seems to make sense to see where the fallout lands, both in terms of the future at Disney itself as well as what the resale market may do. So I am in a holding pattern for now. This is not necessarily a bad thing. This gives me time to get my finances in better order (we just returned from a trip in December so now was probably not the ideal time financially.)

 

[Carol_]

With the Magical Express getting cut and my having to arrange my own transportation as of 2022, I’m miffed. They’ve already cut so much staff, including the luggage handling system at MCO... Pretty soon they’ll be making us row ourselves across the lakes to get to the parks.

 

[princesslover]

With the Magical Express getting cut and my having to arrange my own transportation as of 2022, I’m miffed. They’ve already cut so much staff, including the luggage handling system at MCO... Pretty soon they’ll be making us row ourselves across the lakes to get to the parks.

I get having to cut costs but at some point, Disney becomes just another amusement park.

I have read that the reason for cutting ME had to do with the fact that the idea originally had been to keep guests in the “Disney Bubble “ (that is the primary reason for Starbucks too) but with the onslaught of ride sharing, people were using ME but still leaving the “bubble” for other things. So Disney was not seeing the same benefits of providing this free service and it cost them a lot of money. It became a cost/benefit decision.

It makes me sad because we have always strictly used Disney transportation and never even thought of taking an Uber to leave property so we were one of the families it worked for.

 

[Lorana]

I get having to cut costs but at some point, Disney becomes just another amusement park.

I have read that the reason for cutting ME had to do with the fact that the idea originally had been to keep guests in the “Disney Bubble “ (that is the primary reason for Starbucks too) but with the onslaught of ride sharing, people were using ME but still leaving the “bubble” for other things. So Disney was not seeing the same benefits of providing this free service and it cost them a lot of money. It became a cost/benefit decision.

It makes me sad because we have always strictly used Disney transportation and never even thought of taking an Uber to leave property so we were one of the families it worked for.

Same here! Back before MDE was offered, we often left Disney to go to other attractions because we had the car rental so why not? Once ME was offered, we almost never left Disney because we no longer needed to spend the money on car rentals, and so stayed within the Bubble, which of course meant Disney got more of our money.

 

[Roxas_XIII]

what is large amount of money because with my offer they wanted 1300 down just wondering if the down payment is different for everyone

The "large amount of money" I was referring to was the whole price of the contract, which at the time of my post I had paid in full. It took several months after submitting my deposit for closing to happen, and then almost an additional 1.5 months after paying in full for my membership account to get activated (just got activated today - yay!) Again, I think this is a pretty normal timeline, but for me it was just a little maddening having to wait about 3.5 months total to "see" the product I purchased, but that's just my impatience speaking. In retrospect, I'm not sure if the savings was worth the torture of waiting (again, for me). This may be less of an issue for people with more patience.

I think the deposit I paid at the onset was only 1k.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

I think it is no longer an apples to apples comparison.

Resale points are no longer the same as direct points. The difference will keep growing as new resorts are added and as Disney ties more perks to points rather than membership status.

The difference is not just blue card vs white card anymore. Obviously, for some people, it will never matter because they are relatively unaffected. For some, the difference will be very significant and not easily translatable to $$$ value.

As to the chatter on "if you need to sell in 3 months".... personally, if that's even only your reality if you were to lose a job or have a major health crisis, buying is probably not a good idea at all right now. DVC purchases should be coming from a place of "it's spent / it's gone / I'm never getting it back". It is pure luxury, not an investment of any kind. If this year has shown us anything, it should be that WDW parks could cease to exist, but we still own our timeshare for the resorts and have our dues responsibility. So, it's better to view DVC as a liability IMO.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Correct but its still a $12,000 savings off of Direct. Direct points that can be used at all resorts and any new resorts and we get member benefits and the 300 points are at 2 places we really want to stay. We are very happy with our purchase. Us being only 30 years old we really wanted unrestricted points for the long haul with hopes of also taking advantage of AP discounts.

We ended up paying $155 a point for Riviera ($195 x 150 = 29250 - 6000 = 23250 / 150 = 155)
and $180 a point at Copper Creek ($220 x 150 = 33000 - 6000 = 27000 / 150 = 180)

We only overpaid for CCV by say $30-$35 a point so $4,500-$5,250 more over resale. While that's material now, over 20-50 years it's not to us with the perks and even more valuable if we hand them down to our kids one day.

Not bad for direct points I'll say. Plus we also received 2019 points with this also. I'm extremely happy with this. We could have saved more via resale obviously but it wasn't a large enough savings at home resorts we wanted to not just buy all the points we wanted direct.

So I'm not sure what you don't like about my OP.

If you used a Disney Visa you would have / could have (maybe you did) earn 2% back in rewards as well as get 6 months free financing (even if you didn't need it, it keeps your $ in the bank for another 6 months). So, the true difference is peanuts in my mind and likely completely worth it.

Congrats! I may be a little jealous!

 

[ChipNdale8887]

If you used a Disney Visa you would have / could have (maybe you did) earn 2% back in rewards as well as get 6 months free financing (even if you didn't need it, it keeps your $ in the bank for another 6 months). So, the true difference is peanuts in my mind and likely completely worth it.

Congrats! I may be a little jealous!

Oh I did. Even better if you take advantage of new credit card offers. Got 2 new cards with a $200 and $150 sign up bonuses. 1.5% back in rewards, plus 16 months 0% financing. Paid it off after 6 months already. The only thing with the Disney Visa is 2% isn't that also on the one with an annual fee too?

Also usually disney will let you pay it off through them over 6 months on planned out credit card charges.

 

[montreid]

Only way to justify non-Rivera direct buys are blue card perks and value of those. -- namely annual passes for entire family. If you do 2+ vacations a year for family 4 over 5+ years -- yeah, the math works. Most folk don't value the other perks substantially enough warrant the differential on the direct vs resale.

ChipNDale - you saved a lot on the direct sale and narrow that gap above; but still a premium on the CC points that add little beyond convenience of the same transaction. Rivera is different story. To say $12000 savings off direct is better than $15000 differential on direct vs resale -- that math doesn't work. $3000 for the justification of the blue card benefits -- that's where your math accounting works.

 

[ChipNdale8887]

Only way to justify non-Rivera direct buys are blue card perks and value of those. -- namely annual passes for entire family. If you do 2+ vacations a year for family 4 over 5+ years -- yeah, the math works. Most folk don't value the other perks substantially enough warrant the differential on the direct vs resale.

ChipNDale - you saved a lot on the direct sale and narrow that gap above; but still a premium on the CC points that add little beyond convenience of the same transaction. Rivera is different story. To say $12000 savings off direct is better than $15000 differential on direct vs resale -- that math doesn't work. $3000 for the justification of the blue card benefits -- that's where your math accounting works.

Its not just the perks. Also being able to stay at all new resorts is an intangible asset to us. We plan on going to Disney for the next 30 years and we've very much like to stay at all new resorts. Plus adding in AP discounts for a family of 4. We get 2 trips at the least out of AP's going in July then June the following year, those trips are 10-15 days each so we get great value out of APs. We feel great with what we paid. I think mentioned above "For Us" paying the premium on CCV was worth it easily.

Resale might be a better value for some but for our deal and how we look at the perks and new resort availability and where we want to stay now in in the future it was a no brainer. The Premium on the CCV points were entirely worth it to us when you look at the big picture. $3,000s more for perks and new resort bookings and AP discounts is miniscule over 30 years.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Oh I did. Even better if you take advantage of new credit card offers. Got 2 new cards with a $200 and $150 sign up bonuses. 1.5% back in rewards, plus 16 months 0% financing. Paid it off after 6 months already. The only thing with the Disney Visa is 2% isn't that also on the one with an annual fee too?

Also usually disney will let you pay it off through them over 6 months on planned out credit card charges.

Good to know.

I see the threads on all the credit card offers, etc. I wish I wasn't so lazy. I don't really want to manage a bunch of CCs and I don't like messing around with opening / closing accounts since I have a lot of crap set up on autopay to our cards. Creature of habit, I guess, but I know I'm missing out!!!

Yes, the 2% card has a $49 annual fee. My DH charges a ton of stuff for work so we usually have enough rewards to pay for our dining or our tix / APs. I'm sure cash back, etc with another no fee card would net the same, but I'm too lazy to make changes and research it all, so this works for me!

Our other primary card is Southwest Visa (also a fee and I'm sure there are better options out there) But we find a huge advantage to booking flights on points with them (virtually risk free and can make a million changes) and with their low cost flights and our spending....well, I can't remember the last time I paid for a flight.

 

[ChipNdale8887]

Good to know.

I see the threads on all the credit card offers, etc. I wish I wasn't so lazy. I don't really want to manage a bunch of CCs and I don't like messing around with opening / closing accounts since I have a lot of crap set up on autopay to our cards. Creature of habit, I guess, but I know I'm missing out!!!

Yes, the 2% card has a $49 annual fee. My DH charges a ton of stuff for work so we usually have enough rewards to pay for our dining or our tix / APs. I'm sure cash back, etc with another no fee card would net the same, but I'm too lazy to make changes and research it all, so this works for me!

Our other primary card is Southwest Visa (also a fee and I'm sure there are better options out there) But we find a huge advantage to booking flights on points with them (virtually risk free and can make a million changes) and with their low cost flights and our spending....well, I can't remember the last time I paid for a flight.

Gotta get your cashback where you can in the best way for you