How do owners guarantee they don’t get scammed?

[muppets3d]

Whats a check? I kid ..

Yeah I think most people so rarely write checks these days, I would certainly offer it as a payment option but Venmo or Zelle or something like that should be available as well and will probably end up being the default. Even PayPal isn't as popular as it used to be.

 

[MattB2G]

Whats a check? I kid ..

We still use several checks, especially with school and kids sports.

Even my car payment is by check....... since the car companies payment website charges for credit card payments.

I won't give any credit card company or any payment service direct access to my bank account. We had a huge issue with one company once that over charged us using direct payment and it was a real pain to clear it all up. Also, if any company that has direct access to your bank accounts gets hacked your bank account good get hit as well.

 

[VGCgroupie]

We still use several checks, especially with school and kids sports.

Even my car payment is by check....... since the car companies payment website charges for credit card payments.

I won't give any credit card company or any payment service direct access to my bank account. We had a huge issue with one company once that over charged us using direct payment and it was a real pain to clear it all up. Also, if any company that has direct access to your bank accounts gets hacked your bank account good get hit as well.

If we pay via bank account I have my bank sending payments directly.

 

[J-Dog]

We still use several checks, especially with school and kids sports.

Even my car payment is by check....... since the car companies payment website charges for credit card payments.

I won't give any credit card company or any payment service direct access to my bank account. We had a huge issue with one company once that over charged us using direct payment and it was a real pain to clear it all up. Also, if any company that has direct access to your bank accounts gets hacked your bank account good get hit as well.

This is literally to only time we ever use checks anymore - kid's sports, kid's horseback riding lessons, kid's book fairs, etc. Not sure why the kid stuff doesn't take other payments these days...

 

[BaybeeYoda]

Paypal, Venmo, etc... are preferred by owners. The key is to use a one-way only method. For Paypal, that's designating the money as "Friends and Family".

I've rented 4 or 5 times through the rental board here on DISBoards, with good success. The most expensive rental I did was almost $5k. My first rental was through a broker, also just over $5k.

If you choose to rent yourself, be prepared for hours of wasted time. For example, I had 120 points to rent. I had requests from people who wanted 300+ point rentals, people who wanted one day a month away, people who wanted long vacations in AKV value studios (which is not my home resort), and people who wanted accommodations over a year away. I also had people asking me to look up availability and then never responded, or responded that they asked someone else with cheaper points and booked with them.

You'll want to have a good contract that protects both of you. Some brokers put everything on the owner, while others accept the risk. During the pandemic shut down, some brokers showed less than honorable ethics with the owners.

Can they claim a refund 5 months later if using PayPal???

 

[muppets3d]

Can they claim a refund 5 months later if using PayPal???

I am pretty sure that if they pay for goods and services with PayPal, they can file a claim for up to 90 days. After that the transaction is final. So you could conceivably only accept PayPal goods and services payment for trips at least 121 days out (that way if they file a claim you could cancel the booking and not have a penalty).

If they pay family and friends with PayPal, the transaction is final. That is why most people who sell ad-hoc on the internet request a family and friends payment. With a goods and services payment hey're at the mercy of the PayPal arbitration process, and historically PayPal heavily favors the buyer even when the dispute is completely bogus.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

I am pretty sure that if they pay for goods and services with PayPal, they can file a claim for up to 90 days. After that the transaction is final. So you could conceivably only accept PayPal goods and services payment for trips at least 121 days out (that way if they file a claim you could cancel the booking and not have a penalty).

If they pay family and friends with PayPal, the transaction is final. That is why most people who sell ad-hoc on the internet request a family and friends payment. With a goods and services payment hey're at the mercy of the PayPal arbitration process, and historically PayPal heavily favors the buyer even when the dispute is completely bogus.

Oh wow thanks. I did not know that. I guess Venmo is safer. I just rented out 20 spare points for a 1 day trip in early july, almost exactly 5 months away. That’s more than 121 days away.

Why 121 days?

 

[muppets3d]

Oh wow thanks. I did not know that. I guess Venmo is safer. I just rented out 20 spare points for a 1 day trip in early july, almost exactly 5 months away. That’s more than 121 days away.

Why 121 days?

They could file a PayPal dispute up to 90 days after they pay you. If they do, then you simply cancel the booking. As long as the booking is more than 31 days before check-in, you can cancel without the points going into holding.

 

[CraigInPA]

Can they claim a refund 5 months later if using PayPal???

Not with "friends and family". But, with goods and services, they can side step the 90 day refund policy by issuing a credit card dispute with their credit card issuer (which then hits paypal, who will claw back the money if you've left it in paypal). While the technical limit on a credit card dispute is 60 days, many issuers will allow disputes for up to 120 days.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

Not with "friends and family". But, with goods and services, they can side step the 90 day refund policy by issuing a credit card dispute with their credit card issuer (which then hits paypal, who will claw back the money if you've left it in paypal). While the technical limit on a credit card dispute is 60 days, many issuers will allow disputes for up to 120 days.

oh wow i did not know this. thanks.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We have people pay us via Zelle. There’s no way to dispute payment this way, it’s pretty much transferring money from their account to yours. We also use a contract. We ask for half the money up front (after we make reservation and supply them with confirmation) and then half 90 days before trip, or all the money at once if trips within 90 days. Never had anyone try to scam us. Hope it all works out for you!

 

[Brian Noble]

It is worth remembering that the vast (vast!) majority of these transactions go off without a hitch, because most people are reasonably decent.

 

[Girlstar30]

Use a broker. Time is money and they handle talking to the renter and dealing with them. I wouldn’t rent on my own it’s really just not worth talking to people and then potentially dealing with their sob story why they want their money back.

Lastly PayPal tends heavily favor the payor not the payee so even when paid claims can get filed against you.

Use a broker.

This. DVC points are worth thousands of dollars, I would never risk going about it on my own and worry about nefarious PayPal disputes, flakes with a sob story, or opening up myself to being sued. Some people are comfortable with it, I am not.

I wont even rent my points to friends or family except probably my sister, I just dont like mixing family, friends and money so how am I going to trust a complete stranger.

Ive seen stories on here about people who got scammed and having to go to law enforcement, spend all this time trying to track this person, Disney wont give personal info etc. There's probably two people on these boards that I would trust with a transfer.

I am extremely paranoid due to life experiences and being stolen from is the worst feeling ever.

From my small amount of renting and being an owner less than a year, ive had to change the names on a reservation twice already because the renters changed their minds or had to cancel for whatever reason. Let the middle man deal with that and get paid for the trouble.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

This. DVC points are worth thousands of dollars, I would never risk going about it on my own and worry about nefarious PayPal disputes, flakes with a sob story, or opening up myself to being sued. Some people are comfortable with it, I am not.

I wont even rent my points to friends or family except probably my sister, I just dont like mixing family, friends and money so how am I going to trust a complete stranger.

Ive seen stories on here about people who got scammed and having to go to law enforcement, spend all this time trying to track this person, Disney wont give personal info etc. There's probably two people on these boards that I would trust with a transfer.

I am extremely paranoid due to life experiences and being stolen from is the worst feeling ever.

From my small amount of renting and being an owner less than a year, ive had to change the names on a reservation twice already because the renters changed their minds or had to cancel for whatever reason. Let the middle man deal with that and get paid for the trouble.

Can you point me to these stories?? Owners are getting scammed?

 

[Girlstar30]

Can you point me to these stories?? Owners are getting scammed?

One was on a thread I read a few weeks ago that has since been closed because there hadnt been any posts in a while.

They never posted what the conclusion was, but seems like they were going to the ends of the earth trying to figure out who the scammer was. Probably never did find out.

 

[Sandisw]

One was on a thread I read a few weeks ago that has since been closed because there hadnt been any posts in a while.

They never posted what the conclusion was, but seems like they were going to the ends of the earth trying to figure out who the scammer was. Probably never did find out.

That post was from years ago which is why it was closed.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

I wouldn't use a check for making a reservation that was within 30 days, I would just go with Venmo or Paypal for those. But, most DVC rentals are made months in advance, thus a personal check is almost superior to other forms of payment because they can't be reversed, and provide a hard copy of payment. Using a signed contract and using checks are probably one of the safest ways to do DVC rentals...... for owners.

I’ve rented once or twice every year to every other year. Since the pandemic I’ve had a surplus of points, banking every year. This year I might have to bank all my 2026 UY points, and still have leftover from 2025 UY! Not a terrible problem to have but we only like studios that fit five, we actually don’t enjoy the one bedrooms, nor the two bedrooms.

So here we are just booking standard Boardwalk Studios for 1-2 weeks because we are economical and just cannot help it. Which means we always have a surplus of points now! Sigh.

 

[Genie+]

I'm pretty sure there is alot more flaking out happening than getting scammed.

It’s just not a good scam target when: the owner retains control of the booking, and the scammer would have to put out their own money in hopes of getting it returned. Not saying it hasn’t happened but reports are seriously few and far between, and I think because it doesn’t make a good target to begin with.

Flaking out, probably somwhat common. Person puts 50% down, life happens, they can’t follow through. With a good contract in place and point timing on behalf of the owner, the flaking out can end up more lucrative if the owner can keep the deposit and rent those points full or near full price to someone else. Many of the big point renters have added refund terms post-covid, still leaves them in a comfortable position when the flaking out happens. The closer you get to the trip, the less gets refunded.

Most of the brokers have added this feature too, and I’m sure they wouldn’t offer if it made them lose money. I’d wager it is making them more money, because it attracts more of the iffy people who end up having higher rates of backing out. Can work to their advantage.

 

[Cfabar1]

I'm pretty sure there is alot more flaking out happening than getting scammed.

It’s just not a good scam target when: the owner retains control of the booking, and the scammer would have to put out their own money in hopes of getting it returned. Not saying it hasn’t happened but reports are seriously few and far between, and I think because it doesn’t make a good target to begin with.

Flaking out, probably somwhat common. Person puts 50% down, life happens, they can’t follow through. With a good contract in place and point timing on behalf of the owner, the flaking out can end up more lucrative if the owner can keep the deposit and rent those points full or near full price to someone else. Many of the big point renters have added refund terms post-covid, still leaves them in a comfortable position when the flaking out happens. The closer you get to the trip, the less gets refunded.

Most of the brokers have added this feature too, and I’m sure they wouldn’t offer if it made them lose money. I’d wager it is making them more money, because it attracts more of the iffy people who end up having higher rates of backing out. Can work to their advantage.

This is also why a good broker who is proactive can make all the difference… their job is to make it easy for someone to give you their money…

Admittedly, I have not always found that to be the case… when considering real estate agents and brokers I have dealt with in life in other capacities, but it should be!