Is it better to take the Incentive Points or Credit?

[MBELSANTI]

ok, so a few weeks ago I put deposit on 35 pt resale. Now I am waiting for ROFR. I went to Doorway to Dreams on Sunday just to "check it out" and I want to add on! I told them that I am waiting on my resale and that it may not close till the end of October. Anyway they offered to hold the offer of 100 developer points or $10 per point credit for the add on of 100 pts. They had me put $500 deposit on my Disney Visa and they are to send me a package. They told me that I am to do nothing with the package. Once I close my resale, I am to call them to start the add on process. Now, I didn't sign anything, however I did give my CC info and my SS#. I am a little worried about this as I didn't receive any sort of receipt from them. They said they needed to do this to lock in the Incentives available.

Anyway, they said I would get 100 2007 points and 100 points for 2008 with April UY ( same as my resale UY). I would also get the 100 developer points. IN other words 300 available points on 04/01/08. He advised to bank the 2007 pts. Is it better to take the 100 developer points, or go with the $10 per point($1000 total) credit off the purchase price? I will be doing the 10 year financing with hopes to pay it off when I receive my bonus at work in April of next year. The total payments plus the dues are workable into my budget.
So which should I take?

 

[CarolAnnC]

I would take the points in a heartbeat...good luck!

 

[AKV707]

f you can use the points, definitely go with them. DW and i took the cash, because the Dev pts were only good for 7 months. We could not use them in that time frame.

Happy deciding!

 

[LIFERBABE]

I think it depends on when you want to use them. Is there availability and as long as you can work around the restrictions of not being able to bank, transfer or waitlist with Developer Points.

I believe they do not have the 11 month booking window, they are 7 month points so again, availability is important.

Also be aware that these points will be placed in a separate account (your sub account will be created) and any reservations or changes will need to be done manually by Member Services.

I would take them if I could use them subject to all of the above.

Im sure they explained all this but just wanted to reiterate

 

[sjdisneywedding]

I will say that it was a pretty fine line for many folks when the offer was double developer points or a $8 discount

So I would imagine many would say $10 is worth much more than an even developer point incentive.

 

[global_mom]

We took the incentive points which were double at the time of our add-on. 12 months to use them but must work with the 7 month booking window. This worked for us b/c we were planning trips in Jan., March and July so we had flexibility with dates.

Good luck!

 

[mikesmom]

Don't worry about the credit card. We did the exact same thing when we bought in several years ago. It gave us some breathing room to come home and let DH (the accountant) crunch the numbers. It worked well for us.

Besides if they screw up and hit the card or you change your mind you can always stop the payment.

 

[MBELSANTI]

Thanks for all of the replies! When will I need to use the developers points by?

 

[KevGuy]

If I were you I would take the discount, especially since your financing and would be paying interest on that add on. A lot of people have problems using the DP within the 7 month time. I also believe they are good for only a year and cannot be banked. Most of the problems I hear about are because they are not in the points system but manually managed or something along those lines, and then when people call back after making their ressie they cannot find the ressie like it wasn't put in. I believe they can make notes etc on your regular account that they should be able to see for tracking that stuff, but it seems problematic. I'd rather save $1000 whenever I can and maybe have that pay for food or flights on my next trip then just use my own points, you get 50 years worth of them you know lol. Good luck regardless and congrats on the add on!

 

[sjdisneywedding]

Thanks for all of the replies! When will I need to use the developers points by?

You will have 12 months to use the points. They do not carry a home resort, so you can only book at the 7 month mark and closer

They can not be banked or transferred.

and many have had problems waitlisting with them

 

[MBELSANTI]

Ok here is what I have planned for 2008

Feb 9-13 4 nights Studio 46-68pts depending on which resort

Aug 17-22 5 nights Studio 45-65 pts depending on which resort

Dec 20-24 Studio 41-59 pts depending on resort


Lets say I get these both closed by October. Are my chances good of getting to use the 100 pts before expiration?

The August trip I am taking for sure as I take vacations every year at that time. The other one that I want to take is before Christmas as I want to celebrate DS b day there. The one in Feb I am planning just because I cannot get enough!

 

[TSMIII]

I guess only you can decide which is more valuable to you - saving cash or getting extra points to use up front.

At the time we toured (late August), we were offered the $8/point discount for AKV or the Dbl. Dev. Pts.

From what I've read over the past month or so on these boards, it seems we approached this question a little differently than most.

While the Dbl Dev Pts were certainly attractive, and would make for one nice stay considering the size/# of nights we could get with those, we were unsure if we'd be able to return within the 12 months to use them. So, we said OK, $8/point discount for AKV is a savings of $1280 off the full price of $16,640 if we weren't getting the extra points.

Then it occurred to us that, "Hey, if we were willing to pay $16,640 for the 160 contract points plus the extra 320 points why wouldn't we still be willing to pay the full price of $16,640 but instead of the Dbl Dev Pts, use the discount proceeds of $1280 to buy up additonal points for the contract, whatever those would amount to!"

So, with an $8/point discount getting us 160, points plus $1280 left over, we simply divided the discounted point price into the savings...$1280 / $96 = 13.3 points. Since we couldn't buy a partial point we rounded lower and bought in with 173 points at $96/point for a total of $16,608. With the closing fees included we were still under $17,000 which we had previously decided we did not want to exceed.

The way it shook out in the end was that had we taken the Dbl. Dev. Pts. we would have gained 320 extra points but they would have to be used within the 1st year. One benefit to that was we could have rolled over the 1st year's allotment of 160 points by banking them and had 320 more the following year. Yet by buying the additional 13 points with the discount, we gained 650 points over the 50 year life of the contract (13 pts. x 50 yrs. = 650) while spending slightly less.

It just made more sense to do it this way for our particular situation. You have to weigh the pros & cons of it to determine what suits you and what you perceive as more valuable.

 

[AKV707]

We did a similar thing. We were going to buy in at 180 AKV points. We took the cash discount and went with 210 instead. It still cost a little more, but the cash helped. We also figured that the 30 extra every year would work better for us than 420 that we had to use in what I belive was 7 months at the time.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Ok here is what I have planned for 2008

Feb 9-13 4 nights Studio 46-68pts depending on which resort

Aug 17-22 5 nights Studio 45-65 pts depending on which resort

Dec 20-24 Studio 41-59 pts depending on resort


Lets say I get these both closed by October. Are my chances good of getting to use the 100 pts before expiration?

The August trip I am taking for sure as I take vacations every year at that time. The other one that I want to take is before Christmas as I want to celebrate DS b day there. The one in Feb I am planning just because I cannot get enough!

I would say your Feb ressie is iffy, especially if you want one of the smaller resorts. I believe that is Presidents Week and leading into Spring Break. I personally, would not wait until Aug to use points that expire in October. That is just too close for comfort and F&W will make a last minute ressie difficult to secure.

Right now, SSR and OKW are booked solid for Oct 11, 2007 just as an example of what to expect next year if your August plans changed.

Your DDP would expire in Oct 2008, so no go on December.

I would check availability for Feb to get a gauge of what's left and then decide.

I also like the idea of forgoing the points and using the discount to purchase more. I've also gone that route, but this year I needed all the points I could get my hands on to book for our Family Reunion so I took the DDP, but they were a pain to use and left me wishing I had just taken the money.

 

[MBELSANTI]

Thank you all for the replies and advice! It has really helped me to make my decision. I am going to take the $ incentive offer over the points because I will be financing and even though I plan on paying off early, the amount off will help lower the monthly payments.

 

[AKV707]

Thank you all for the replies and advice! It has really helped me to make my decision. I am going to take the $ incentive offer over the points because I will be financing and even though I plan on paying off early, the amount off will help lower the monthly payments.

That is exactly how we looked at it. Congrats on making the decision.