How's that 25pt. only purchase working out for you?

[tvwalsh]

I have a friend who has rented a few points from me for a studio at WLV. He asked me whether I thought he should buy a twenty-five point WLV contract when it becomes available on the resale market. He is not currently a DVC member. He is only an occasional WDW visitor.

I was just wondering if there were any 25 point only members who could share some advice or experiences.

Thanks.

 

[chalee94]

he is only an occasional WDW visitor? i would think DVC would be more of a hassle if you only have enough pts to visit every 3 years. (and with the one transfer a year limit, i would not like to have to rely on finding a DVCer willing to use theirs.)

sounds like he'd be unlikely to visit enough to use the AP discount and the other perks are fairly small.

i have a tiny contract but at least i can stay 5 weeknights a year with it, and i have family in the area i can visit on the weekends, so having a small contract is not a big limitation for what i want to do.

i wouldn't recommend bothering with just a 25 pt contract in that situation...JMO

 

[CarolMN]

The trouble with one 25 point contract is that you need to use exactly 50 points every other year or 75 every third year. If you don't, then chances are very good that you will end up with points that expire because there are few vacations that use exactly 50 or 75 points.

Another alternative would be to seek a point transfer to fill in any additional need. However, it might be difficult to find a VWL owner willing to transfer a small number of points to another member. Remember, we are allowed only one transfer per use year.

Your friend is probably better off to rent points when he wants to go. (That will probably cost nearly the same as renting a reservation, though). It may cost a bit more to rent than to own a small contract, but he will still get DVC accomodations for a good price and will not have a long term commitment. If he won't go every year, the annual pass perk is of no value (one reason a person may want to own only a small contract. The other perks are not worth the ownership costs, IMHO).

 

[tvwalsh]

He rented 70 points from me to stay five nights in June (14ptsx5) in a studio at VWL. He would do this, (25x3) every three years and lose the other five points.

 

[bmoncher]

We started with a loaded 25 point contract... and ended up adding points...

We have got 75 points now... and it is ok.... for yearly visits for us
beth

 

[nunzia]

I have 25 at OKW and intend to add on at GCV..so every three years at WDW is fine by me for right now. We're going in 2010. Then after I add at GCV we'll see if we still need any OKW or use extra GCV points for there or what. I think it's a fine way to get your feet wet.

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

I see people talking about going every 3 years. I thought you could only bank 1 year of points to the following year. How can you use 3 years of points at once. TIA

 

[ldo]

just let him know that it will be very hard to get transferred points with such a small contract b/c there is a rule that you can only have 300% of points in any given UY--so, if you bank and borrow and use the current UY, you have 300% or 3X the points you own--BUT, then you can't get any points transferred into your account that make you go over the 300%, or if you get transferred points, you can't bank/borrow to go over 300%. I did not know this when I bought my contract of 50 points.
A small contract might seem like a pain to some, but I would rather have a small contract and control my destiny than rent. I can then talk to MS, get on WL, change my mind, etc. and not have to worry about getting scammed renting (it does happen). Plus, he can alway add-on and if he is comfortable with 25, then great. Elaine

 

[JaxFLBear]

I see people talking about going every 3 years. I thought you could only bank 1 year of points to the following year. How can you use 3 years of points at once. TIA

If you were going to stay in 2009, you would bank 2008 points to 2009 and borrow 2010 points.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

We have 100 points and have run into a few minor issues.

1) You can't un-bank or un-borrow.
2) You can't reserve 2 different types of reservations in case those flaky relatives back out. [Some use a strategy to book both a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom and cancel what they don't need.]
3) Making a week long II trade is out of the question, or just impractical in our case.

I would suggest that your friend start with 50 points instead of 25, and to purchase at a resort with low point charts. With 50 points, your friend could go every year if they wanted, or could have the flexibility to bank/borrow to stay on weekends, stay in a 1 bedroom, etc. if they wished.

The biggest thing that I have learned is GO EARLY IN YOUR USE YEAR!!!

If you have to cancel, even within the 60 day mark, you have most of the year to re-group and try again. If you only have a set vacation week per year, then I wouldn't consider purchasing anything that would require banking/borrowing at all.

The OP should also be concerned about cancelling at the last minute because of family emergencies. With 100 points, I'm concerned that we may ever have to forfeit points. I would not be happy at all if I lost 3 years worth of points because of it!!

My last concern for the OP is whether or not they can afford everything else that goes with DVC. If you are frugal, and are wanting to pay cash that is o.k.; if you can only get financing for 25 points but want your family of 4 to fly from Timbuktu every 3 years, you may be setting yourself up for failure as park tickets, transportation, food, and souvenirs cost a pretty penny.

 

[johde]

I also wonder how well 25pts would work. I purchased 60pt at OKW. That's enough to stay for 5 to 7 weekdays during adventure season. If you bumped it up to 35pts, you could stay 5 days at VWL every other year in June. Also, if he really wants VWL, you could possibly buy the points then sell them to him. It might be a little bit more expensive then resale but they could by exactly the number of points they needed.

 

[spiceycat]

would suggest a 60 point VWL contract so he can go every year if he wishes.

this studio is in offseason - when does your friend travel.

downsizing - yea that hurts

will end up with
60 vwl
50 bwv
50 okw
maybe
60 blt - this is still up in the air - undecided.

So I do studio alot.

 

[5forDiz]

just let him know that it will be very hard to get transferred points with such a small contract b/c there is a rule that you can only have 300% of points in any given UY--so, if you bank and borrow and use the current UY, you have 300% or 3X the points you own--BUT, then you can't get any points transferred into your account that make you go over the 300%, or if you get transferred points, you can't bank/borrow to go over 300%. I did not know this when I bought my contract of 50 points.
A small contract might seem like a pain to some, but I would rather have a small contract and control my destiny than rent. I can then talk to MS, get on WL, change my mind, etc. and not have to worry about getting scammed renting (it does happen). Plus, he can alway add-on and if he is comfortable with 25, then great. Elaine

300% meaning YOUR OWN points in any given Use Year. This does not impact a transfer in from another member - Unless something has recently changed (?) - we've had a transfer in of points when our previous, current & upcoming Use Year points were in one use year... did we just get lucky with MS CM who handled the transaction ?

Can someone here confirm this ?

 

[crisi]

We have a bigger contract, but do the bank and borrow thing to go every other year.

It does take planning and committment to make the best use of your points and not screw up. You need to be aware of banking deadlines and keep trips straight. All DVC members need to do this, but for those of us not going every year, we aren't in our accounts that often - its easy to forget "I need to bank those points!" One screw up on banking and he could functionally wipe out any savings he'd get on CRO reservations. Its hard every other year and I think it would be twice as hard every third year.

If he is an organized person, and a planner, I think it can work. Particularly if he is talking about the same trip every three years (say the second week in November or something EVERY third year - that is much easier to plan around than "maybe August next time.") If he is more of a seat of the pants sort of guy, I think he'll find it unnecessarily complex.

(Agree as well with the 'go early in the use year.')

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

If you were going to stay in 2009, you would bank 2008 points to 2009 and borrow 2010 points.

Thank-you. It makes sense now.

 

[permavac]

300% meaning YOUR OWN points in any given Use Year. This does not impact a transfer in from another member - Unless something has recently changed (?) - we've had a transfer in of points when our previous, current & upcoming Use Year points were in one use year... did we just get lucky with MS CM who handled the transaction ?

Can someone here confirm this ?

Would love to have this clarified too! We have rented for 2 trips and decided to buy a small contract to start out (still waiting to close on 25 pts) because of the trepidation over renting and not having control of the reservation. We do plan to get up to around 150 points someday but since we want to pay cash every time we add on it won't be any time soon. In the meantime, we wanted to get 125 points transferred for our next vacation, but if this information is correct then we'll just have to settle for only a week at DVC until we get our next contract - ??? Bummer

 

[5forDiz]

Would love to have this clarified too! We have rented for 2 trips and decided to buy a small contract to start out (still waiting to close on 25 pts) because of the trepidation over renting and not having control of the reservation. We do plan to get up to around 150 points someday but since we want to pay cash every time we add on it won't be any time soon. In the meantime, we wanted to get 125 points transferred for our next vacation, but if this information is correct then we'll just have to settle for only a week at DVC until we get our next contract - ??? Bummer

Hopefully someone here can clarify.

Maybe I did get really lucky on my transaction !!

Well too late to call MS today, if nobody else posts on this

I will give MS a call tomorrow.

Like I said I think the 300% is referring to how much of

your OWN points allotment you can have in Use Year.

 

[permavac]

Hopefully someone here can clarify.

Maybe I did get really lucky on my transaction !!

Well too late to call MS today, if nobody else posts on this

I will give MS a call tomorrow.

Like I said I think the 300% is referring to how much of

your OWN points allotment you can have in Use Year.

HOPE, Hope, Hope so! And that would make sense since, chances are, the points I get transferred in will be for a different resort and different use year so how can they apply that to my own personal allotment? Thanks for checking!

 

[VTNuke]

We got a 125 point resale, and have been very happy with it, but I doubt we'll stay in a studio again between now and when our 2 kids are in college.

We also like to travel with friends, so this many points lets us reserve a two bedroom for 5 nights with the friends paying us for 1/2 the stay. As our kids are 1 1/2 and 3, I can't see us not going with friends or family over the next few visits. Just a lot easier with 4 adults.

My advice is to get the number of points you'd use, even if it is for a trip every other year instead of every 3 years. That gives you a lot more options. As soon as you have "exactly the right number of points" you'll need more. I'd also get the points at whichever resort you want to stay at. There will be a lot of people in DVC over the next 20 years and it's going to get harder and harder to get those 7 month reservations.

 

[dismedvc]

CarolMN: It does not seem you would have to have to use exactly 50 every two years, as long as the every two year vacation involved a small borrowing. see below:
Year
1 bank 25
2 use 54 (borrow 4 from year 3)
3 bank 21 remaining
4 use 48 (borrow 2 from year 5)
5 bank 23
6 use 58 (borrow 10 from year 7)
7 bank 15
8 use 42 (borrow 2 from year 9)
9 bank 23
10 use 48 or more (borrow difference)
11 bank remaining points
12 etc.