Low Point Contract - Pros/Cons

[MontanaMouse]

This is my first post. I've been reading for almost a year and finally broke down and joined so I can post. It takes me awhile sometimes! My husband and I have been considering a DVC purchase. We feel we would be good candidates from reading other threads posted on this subject. However, we think we would like to buy a small contract through resale and then transfer the other necessary points as needed until we get a feel for how DVC works. As you can already tell, we are a little cautious (a year of lurking!). So, we are very curious to know what the pros and cons would be on having a single small contract and transfering points as needed. Thanks in advance!

 

[vascubaguy]

Edit: Forgot to say Welcome to the DIS... glad you finally joined us!

The pros of only owning a small contract is that you still have all the full benefits of being a DVC member. The smallest contract you can get is 25 points, but if that's all you've got, you can still take advantage of the perks, discounts, etc.

Some of the cons are that you are somewhat limited in how often you could go and use points. However, let's assume you were able to get a 25 point contract. If you went every 3 years, you could bank and borrow and have 75 points to use. If that is all you travel, it could work well. Of course you could always take advantage of renting points to be transferred into your account if you needed more for a trip.

Our initial purchase was for 40 points, and we figured we would most likely be traveling in the lowest point seasons, so 40 pts would get us a studio for 5 nights at OKW. However, then I started examining the facts that we tend to go to Disney at least twice a year.... so it was only a few hours after we closed on that 40 pt contract that we had another 110 pts....

Ok, one last thing about smaller contracts. One con that I just happened to think of is that you might have a hard time getting one. DVC has been exercising their ROFR and raking in all of those smaller contracts that are out there. Even those that are going at a premium. So, you might be able to get one, but you'll likely have to pay a little more of a premium just to get past ROFR.

Good luck!
Chris

 

[PinkTink63]

This is my first post. I've been reading for almost a year and finally broke down and joined so I can post. It takes me awhile sometimes! My husband and I have been considering a DVC purchase. We feel we would be good candidates from reading other threads posted on this subject. However, we think we would like to buy a small contract through resale and then transfer the other necessary points as needed until we get a feel for how DVC works. As you can already tell, we are a little cautious (a year of lurking!). So, we are very curious to know what the pros and cons would be on having a single small contract and transfering points as needed. Thanks in advance!

NOW YOU'VE DONE IT!!!!! I did the same thing! Lurked on here for about a year and then I did it! Now look at me! I'm hooked!
I just have to ask you, have you stayed at DVC before? We stayed for the first time this past summer and fell in love instantly! We have always loved Disney, but didn't really know much about DVC. It only took once for us! We thought about buying a little resale to start and were actually waiting for one to come up, when this "Friends & Family" discount came about. So we just decided to go through Disney. No closing costs, extra 12 years ownership, and an extra year of points! It made more sense for us!

 

[ccw]

DVC is wonderful!!! I own an 80 point OKW contract purchased thru resale in 1999. Works out great for me because I am a little flexible with travel dates, don't mind studios (but have also stayed in 2 bedroom and even a Grand Villa in November), love OKW where point reqquirements are usually the lowest, and travel other places so a Disney trip every year is not essential for me. Using banking and borrowing privileges helps me stretch my points, too. I do have to add that my brother and I bought together and he has LOTS of Boardwalk points so sometimes I do use a few of his points when needed (i basically reimburse him at the $10 a point level) Both of our names are on both contracts so it makes it easy to move points around. Even if all I had access to was my own tiny 80 point contract, though, I could get by just fine. And I like the fact that when it comes time to pay the annual dues (that would be NOW), I don't have to fork over tons of money! Keep us posted and good luck to you. In my opinion, a small DVC contract is better than no DVC contract!

 

[Plutofan]

Smaller contracts may end up costing you a lot more per point when you factor in closing costs. Also you may want to try renting points to see if you like staying in a DVC resort. Also I would look at how you vaction and figure out from the point charts how many points you will need. If you do not plan more than 7 months out then I would consider looking at SSR. The 15% discount goes through the end of the month. This has been the best deal in a long time. I believe that you would need to buy 150 points at $83.30. There are plenty of people on this board that you could use as a referal. Once you own points it is usually not long until you want to buy more. By the time you decide to buy the price usually goes up.