Is it worth it????

[frayedend]

Okay,

My wife has just become interested in DVC. I have been doing some math to see if it is worth it and I am not sure. I got my numbers from these boards, so I am not sure how accurate. I am basing it on 300points, but we would probably purchase less. But this is what I have...

300 points financed for 10 years at 9.75% (this is what I found on the boards) is $288/month. Total for 10 years...$34,560.

Add $98/month maintenance for the full length. Now I read that you get more than 45 years of vacations, so I am basing this on 45 years. 45 years X $98 = 52,920 total maintenance fees.

$34,560 + $52,920 = $87,480 total for 45 years. Divide that by 45 and the result is $1944/year.

Okay so theoretically 300 points is a lot and easily gives you a week/year in the best category. But this assumes you use all your points, and you would have to go every single year. If you go every other year and don't sell your points then it is almost 4 grand for a vacation. My thought is that since I can go to a Deluxe resort for ~2500/week then it is better to stay away from DVC since in the short term it is cheaper and I can't say I will want to go to Disney every year 20 years from now when I am 56 years old and my kids are gone.

Opinions??? Thanks!!

 

[browniemtb]

You math is correct except the maint fees would be $92.25 per month at SSR. Being said most on this forum feels its a great deal for prepaying for vacations in great accomodations. If you do not plan on going to WDW at least every other year, look no farther it won't work. If you go every other year then it can work. On your off year you could bank those points and have a few vacations the following year or just rent/transfer the points and turn them into cash to cover payments and dues. Also most will say do not plan on financing for the full 10 years. Try to prepay before that. Even with your math at $1900 a week that would still be a savings considering that 300 points can get you a 2 bedroom villa most of the year. Thats a $4000 to $6000 a week room at rack rates. Again if you don't plan on going at least every other year......DVC won't work.......Good Luck
Brownie

 

[kcdisneymom]

Don't forget, its not just disney. It could be a romantic valentines weekend at Big Cedar Lodge. A beach hopping trip to South Carolina. A ski weekend in Vermont. Free room on your trip to Legoland in CA.

 

[fishermouse]

Is it worth it????

Just read the "I feel so blessed" post. Short and sweet YES it's worth every penny

 

[byoung]

I got 19 nights this year in a studio, with points left. I have 200points at BWV. To me that's not a bad timeshare etc.

 

[Judique]

Okay,

My wife has just become interested in DVC. I have been doing some math to see if it is worth it and I am not sure. I got my numbers from these boards, so I am not sure how accurate. I am basing it on 300points, but we would probably purchase less. But this is what I have...

300 points financed for 10 years at 9.75% (this is what I found on the boards) is $288/month. Total for 10 years...$34,560.

Add $98/month maintenance for the full length. Now I read that you get more than 45 years of vacations, so I am basing this on 45 years. 45 years X $98 = 52,920 total maintenance fees.

$34,560 + $52,920 = $87,480 total for 45 years. Divide that by 45 and the result is $1944/year.

Okay so theoretically 300 points is a lot and easily gives you a week/year in the best category. But this assumes you use all your points, and you would have to go every single year. If you go every other year and don't sell your points then it is almost 4 grand for a vacation. My thought is that since I can go to a Deluxe resort for ~2500/week then it is better to stay away from DVC since in the short term it is cheaper and I can't say I will want to go to Disney every year 20 years from now when I am 56 years old and my kids are gone.

Opinions??? Thanks!!

A studio for a week will cost a minimum of 80 points to a maximum of 181 points, depending on season. If you are going to compare a deluxe resort room, which is most comparable to a studio, at $2500 a week, that brings your DVC cost down considerably, to somewhere between 26 ($505) and 60 ($1166) per cent of your $1944 per year. If you are going to use the 300 points for a 2 bedroom, you need to compare to a room at a deluxe that is more comparable, such as a suite, and last time I looked, you couldn't get a two bedroom suite at any deluxe for $1944 or $2500 a week.

DVC may not be for you, but it may be exactly what will make your wife happy <g>. Seriously, it is not for everyone. If you can't see yourself going every other year at least, it's probably not for you. By every other year, I am suggesting buying half as many points and banking to go every two years. It took me three years to buy, from the first time I checked it out. I was very wary about timeshares and locking myself into the 'same' vacation every year. As it turned out, I haven't had any regrets, and the last time I stayed in a deluxe room, I missed the amenities of my DVC.

As many will suggest, you can always give it a 'test drive' by renting points first.

 

[jade1]

Not sure of your situation/habits but 300 is a handsome amount of points. We have 250 and have a 3 trips planned this year and have not even borrowed.

 

[Olaf]

I don't think it's such a great deal if you do the Disney financing and take the full 10 years to pay it off. Most of the people who post here have said they paid in full or paid off the financing ASAP.

 

[eliza61]

When I look at whether my DVC purchase is "worth" it or not, I also think about alot of perks that are not "monetary".
1. I can travel alot of different places, almost at ease. I live in NYC and I can tell you, there is no way you can stay in midtown manhattan at a decent hotel for $300 a night. The Regancy hotel (which is where you can use your points) is $590/night rack rate. while you can get a deluxe room at WDW now for ~1900 bucks in 5 years it will most definitely be alot more.

2. I find I take "better" vacations now than I did before when maybe when I was paying cash, I gravitated to moderate accommodations to stay on budget.

So while I may not return to Disney every year (our pattern is every 2 years for longer vacations) as I and my kids get older, with my love of traveling I will definitely go some where. It took me 2 years from the presentation to join, I did finance but paid it off in 5 years as opposed to 10 but I took in account the overall value not just whether I could get a cheaper deal.

PS. Just think how happy your wife will be, that's got to win you some brownie points.
LOL

 

[DisFamily2006]

I've heard that many people will do a second mortgage or home equity loan. The interest is usally at least 3% lower than Disney financing and you can write off the interest payed. It may also facilitate a little debt consolidation making it easier for you to make your dues...

 

[dianeschlicht]

Okay,

My wife has just become interested in DVC. I have been doing some math to see if it is worth it and I am not sure. I got my numbers from these boards, so I am not sure how accurate. I am basing it on 300points, but we would probably purchase less. But this is what I have...

300 points financed for 10 years at 9.75% (this is what I found on the boards) is $288/month. Total for 10 years...$34,560.

Add $98/month maintenance for the full length. Now I read that you get more than 45 years of vacations, so I am basing this on 45 years. 45 years X $98 = 52,920 total maintenance fees.

$34,560 + $52,920 = $87,480 total for 45 years. Divide that by 45 and the result is $1944/year.

Okay so theoretically 300 points is a lot and easily gives you a week/year in the best category. But this assumes you use all your points, and you would have to go every single year. If you go every other year and don't sell your points then it is almost 4 grand for a vacation. My thought is that since I can go to a Deluxe resort for ~2500/week then it is better to stay away from DVC since in the short term it is cheaper and I can't say I will want to go to Disney every year 20 years from now when I am 56 years old and my kids are gone.

Opinions??? Thanks!!

It looks to me like you don't really need 300 points. I think 150 might be more to your liking, since you could then have 300 every other year. You don't honestly sound like enough of a Disney fanatic to own DVC! You worry about not wanting to go when you are 56, but we didn't purchase until we were 50, and our kids were grown! LOL, you are the age of our "kids", and we love taking them and hopefully someday, their kids. We have also used DVC to exchange to Hawaii, and that was certainly worth it to us.

I agree with an earlier poster who pointed out that you are not comparing apples to apples when you look at a deluxe room versus a 1 or 2 bedroom villa. If you compare a studio to a deluxe room, you will be much closer to an apples to apples comparison, and that is FAR fewer points than you are talking about.

 

[frayedend]

A studio for a week will cost a minimum of 80 points to a maximum of 181 points, depending on season. If you are going to compare a deluxe resort room, which is most comparable to a studio, at $2500 a week, that brings your DVC cost down considerably, to somewhere between 26 ($505) and 60 ($1166) per cent of your $1944 per year. If you are going to use the 300 points for a 2 bedroom, you need to compare to a room at a deluxe that is more comparable, such as a suite, and last time I looked, you couldn't get a two bedroom suite at any deluxe for $1944 or $2500 a week.

DVC may not be for you, but it may be exactly what will make your wife happy <g>. Seriously, it is not for everyone. If you can't see yourself going every other year at least, it's probably not for you. By every other year, I am suggesting buying half as many points and banking to go every two years. It took me three years to buy, from the first time I checked it out. I was very wary about timeshares and locking myself into the 'same' vacation every year. As it turned out, I haven't had any regrets, and the last time I stayed in a deluxe room, I missed the amenities of my DVC.

As many will suggest, you can always give it a 'test drive' by renting points first.

Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought about buying half as many points and using them every 2 years. That makes a lot of sense for saving money. We have a lot to think about and I am usually skeptical of any "timeshare" type of plan but everyone here has had some good insight.

A couple more questions...

I know the maintenance fees go up every year, how about the points required? Do they go up also?

I have gotten a PM from someone that "re-sells" these. Does that mean that in the future if I have say 20 years left I can sell it and get out of it all together if it isn't for us anymore.

Hey, I keep trying to make the wife happy. We'll see what happens.

 

[browniemtb]

A couple more questions...
I know the maintenance fees go up every year, how about the points required? Do they go up also?
I have gotten a PM from someone that "re-sells" these. Does that mean that in the future if I have say 20 years left I can sell it and get out of it all together if it isn't for us anymore.

Maintenance fees can go up every year but they also can go down. Some one in the forum actually posted a history of dues. There actually was a couple of years that they went down, but I never plan on that.
Points required for your stay will never change. The seasons may change due to demand but weekly point values will remain. So basically what we all did here is paid for 40 some odd years of vacations at todays prices. Just think, 10 years from now room rates will be huge and all you would have to worry about is the small dues payment.
As far as resale.....I thought this out as well. I own 2 155 point contracts just in case I need to sell one or both. It seems that the smaller contracts sell faster and by the looks of its some people are actually making money doing it. But do not look at this as an investment..its not. Look at it in the way of your future....kids...its an investment in them and your sanity. I enjoy being able to break away from reality once a year...WDW does the trick.
Brownie

 

[dianeschlicht]

I know the maintenance fees go up every year, how about the points required? Do they go up also?

The points required for stays will not change at each resort. They CAN rearrange them a bit, but the total required for a week in any given size unit for a week, will remain the same. The seasons can be arranged a bit too, but still the total points must remain static. FYI, this has only been done once. At OKW they changed the point structure a bit about 10 years ago to make weekend nights more points than weekday points. This was to equal out locals from only using weekends. Just be assured that if a week in a 2 bedroom costs 218 points now, it will still cost that, but the time of year could change or the per day allotment could change.

Does that mean that in the future if I have say 20 years left I can sell it and get out of it all together if it isn't for us anymore.

Absolutely, and the resale value of DVC has continued to be very high compared to other timeshares. The obvious reason is WDW! Now, there is assumed that a time will come when the value will drop because of the shorter time remaining on the lease, but I suspect that wont happen until you are about 20 years from contract end. We will be in our late 90's when our OWK contract ends, and hopefully, if we are not around, our kids will still be using. You can leave your DVC ownership to your heirs in case of your death.

Oh, and our next trip next month is the 60th birthday celebration for my husband. Don't assume you wont go as you get older! This will be our second trip this year, and we have another planned for December.

 

[bcvillastwo]

It took us several yeas to make the decision to buy into DVC. But unlike many people I don't have any regrets about taking my time to make sure. With that said, I agree there is a great deal to think about and right at the top of the list is, "can I afford it?".

So, after reading these boards, crunching the numbers, making sure you compare apples to apples, etc I think it comes down to three very important questions. First, do see yourself going to WDW at least once every two years for the next 10 years of so? Second, do you prefer to stay on property? Third, when you stay on property do you tend to stay in moderate or better resorts? If you can answer yes to each of these questions then you probably are a candidate for DVC.

But, I would never do it unless I was pretty sure I would be paying out that much for a stay at WDW anyway. If that's the case then I see DVC as icing on the cake.

 

[shellbelle1971]

We bought our points with the idea of going every other year. Honestly, though, you'll find once you spend time in a 1- or 2-bedroom your DW wil probably be completely unwilling to ever go back to an ordinary hotel room. Then you'll decide that you *need* more points to feed your ever-expanding DVC habit...

Seriously, as far as the economics go, do consider that a 1- or 2-bedroom is far more comfortable than a hotel room, even at one of the deluxes. It's hard for me to put a $ value on that.

You might also consider whether you will plan to cook/eat in your unit. We do, mostly for convenience sake, (again, hard to value) but it has the added side benefit of costing far less than meals at the restaurants. It's great when something saves us time, headache, AND money!

We made up a spreadsheet and figured our "break even" point considering a lot of weird factors that most people don't think about a lot (initial cost per point, ongoing dues, opportunity cost, time value of money, increased transportation costs, best-guess at inflation...etc...) and in the end came to the conclusion that DVC would save us some money but increase our comfort level on our vacations substantially. So that was the magic for us.

It might or might not be the same for you. Good luck in your decision!

Michelle

 

[MagikMom]

First, to even think about buying in, you have to be a Disney Lover. If you are and you plan to visit WDW every year or every other year then you should consider it. You have to think of it as investing in future vacations at todays prices. 10 years from now, the cost of deluxe accomodations at WDW will be much more expensive than they are now. Your points on the other hand, are not going to change.