How do you decide if using points is worth it?

minnieandmickey

Queen of the run on sentence!
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I am new to DVC (just mailed my contract and put my deposit down this week :banana: ), I have been reading alot of "not worth using points". How do you determine the value of a point?
 
Some people think of it in terms of the average rate of renting out points (currently about $10 per point).

Some people think of it in terms of what they paid for their points. Divide the cost per point by however many years are in your contract (depending on whether you have SSR or one of the older resorts). Then add the per point cost of dues. Mine comes out to just under $6.

The truth is probably somewhere in between the two. I don't like going by just the rental rate because renting out points takes a bit of time and effort. If you rent a reservation to someone instead of transferring points to a DVCer, there is a bit of risk involved too.
 
I am new to DVC (just mailed my contract and put my deposit down this week ), I have been reading alot of "not worth using points". How do you determine the value of a point?

:cheer2: Congratulations and Welcome Home! :cheer2:

This has been a personal preference issue for us all and you will get many opinions on this topic.
My take is mixed on when I think its prudent.

Such as..I bought enough points and wouldn't think of moving to a less expensive resort for the "high pt" weekend stays. That's why I have DVC...right. :teeth:

Disney Cruise? Well..Im not really interested in that. I cruise a lot and probably would pay cash for that..only to save my pts. for my Disney fix.

So... everyone does thier own thing..and so should you!!

Enjoy "All Things Disney" in whatever way you like!! :grouphug:
 
Congratulations and Welcome Home! You have to decide for yourself on how you use your points. Some feel use them on weekends and some of feel it's costly to use points on weekends. Some will use AP Discounts on weekends. Good luck.
 

When I'm calculating the "value" of my points, I just use $10 (for ease of doing the math in my head, though I would probably rent a little higher than that). :teacher: So, if I'm looking at and OKW studio that's 8 points per night, I'm thinking.... hrmm... $80 per night (not bad). When I look at the weekends and see 20 points per night... I see $200 per night.

I could stay at POR on the AP rate for around $123 (including tax), so I could rent the points and stay there and actually make around $77 for the weekend nights.

If you use the $6 figure (your point cost plus the MN fees per point), then you can really see the benefit of just using your own points. Then it would be aroun $48 per night, and $120 for weekend nights... (or average it out for the week and it's about $70 per night).

I'll likely change in the future when we want to stay on the weekend for 1 or 2 nights... but right now... the budgeting side of me wants to maximize the use of my points. So we go Sun-Thurs, which lets us go more times each year. We won't stay on the weekends, use that time to recover when we get home.
 
I take the easy way - i don't think about the lump sum, as that was a one off payment. When calculating any stay - i work out how many points it would cost - i work out what the stay will cost me in dues - eg 200 points and say $4 maintenance per point - so the stay would cost me $800. If the stay is for an exchange - i find out what it would cost me to stay there in cash to see if i am saving.

All of the exchanges i have done bar one have been financially worth it that way. Sure i would be better off renting out those 200 points for $2000, and paying cash on some of the trades - but it wouldn't be worth it for the amount of hassle to me in renting out - except for the cruise of course, which does take a lot of points.

I did a trade once that would have cost me $3000 in cash for 200 points - so it wouldn't have been worth me renting out and getting $2000, as i would have been $1000 dollars down.

I think you have to work out if the trade you want to do is worth it - but only compare it with renting out at $10 per point if you would be making a saving and would feel comfortable doing so.
 
I'm with Cinderella. I am new to DVC too but for me, I enjoy some of the resorts too much to never stay in them again. The points may be high but it is still much more reasonable to stay on points than it would have been for me to pay cash nightly. The money left over that I would have payed for my stay at the resort will go to help pay off my DVC loan that much quicker.
It is great to have so many options! :)
 
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I never use my points on weekends. However, my 23 yo DD asked me to take her to F&W this year and I will gladly be using my points for an extended weekend with her! To me, that is definitely worth it.
 
For me, the 'value' in my points is the enjoyment I get from the trip, so while I will sometimes economize on points (by staying in a studio instead of a 1BR, or a standard view instead of preferred), as long as I have enough to go when I want and stay where I want, I'm happy! party:
 
I will have to use weekend points for F & W I don't want to stay off sight or pay cash, that is why I bought the DVC. :wizard:
 
AS others have said it is truly a personal decision- I am planning a trip that will take 284 points and am not that happy about using the ones for the weekend but after really looking at it - the 2 bedroom is 28.4 points a night if you look at the total and that comes to either $170 a night if I figure my actual cost at $6 a point or $284 if I use what I could have rented them for. Either way well worth it since DH says if we have to change rooms he will just go home when he checks out of the first one. I try to save those weekend points to use for another trip and don't mind changing rooms so do it when he elects not to travel with the rest of us. Used points to stay at DL for the 50th anniversary party and again well worth it. Will I use them to stay at the AKL, Poly or GF - sincerely doubt it. The value is what you place it at. Once you stay in the DVC villas it is really hard to go back to the regular hotel rooms even in the deluxe category in my opinion. And that is just what it is my opinion and it may be 180 degrees different from yours or anyone elses - only you can decide. Have fun making your decisions. You will never regret the decision to join the DVC family.
 
I also use the $10 per pt rule of thumb to figure out "if it's worth the points." If I want to stay at Poly, and they are charging me 65 pts per night, no, it's not worth the points. I will either rent the points out, and pay in cash, or I won't stay there at all. At a DVC resort, it's not as clear-cut, and is a personal decision. I usually pay cash using the AP rates on the weekend, especially in a one or two bedroom. I gain free cleaning of my villa, and I save some of my points for a future visit. It all depends upon your personal preference. For some people, it's just not worth worrying about. ;)
 
Personally I don't mind the weekend points as long as it was one weekend. I bought so I wouldn't have to change and room hop before or after my trip. We did a resort switch in 04 and while it wasn't horrible I felt it kind of took up too much time to pack, unpack and check in again. So to me the extra points is "worth" the convienence of not having to do all that :)
 
years and years and years ago when I was in college and a keg of beer cost $25, there was a guy in my fraternity who complained about every expenditure. If we proposed spending $200 on a new piece of furniture, he would shout out "that's eight kegs of beer." That was the ruler he used to measure costs. And, by golly, it worked! My point is that everyone has their own ruler and you'll have to find yours. I always think of points per weekday night in a moderate season. So every use of points that costs more per night is "pricey" to me. The more you use DVC, the more you'll develop your own feel for what's right for you
 
We use as many points as possile without borrowing. We can make it down 2 times a yr but usually only go 1 time.

We usually check out on a Sat.

If we decide we want to go down 2 times we will probably check out on Fri
 
I think in terms of opportunity cost - what else could I do with those points and is it a better value? We have a small number of points and we want to use them (currently) to go to WDW. If I use them to cruise, or go to NYC, they won't be available for Disney and we'd have to pay cash for that vacation. If I didn't have a Disney trip planned for those points, than using them for another purpose would be a good value - the best value may be renting them or giving them to friends or family and not using them outside DVC, though.

We currently have a family reunion trip planned which will use three years of points. Because the family trip is important to me, we paid cash for a weekend last year so we didn't have to dip into this years points.

So sometimes you have too few points and look to stretch them with cash reservations, and sometimes you have too many points for your Disney plans and want to spend them - and if you want to spend them on options where you might get a better deal renting them and paying cash - they are still your points, you get to decide.
 



















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