Magical Beginnings vs. banking surpluses

[intamin]

If you buy a new direct contract and your UY from resale already passed, could you do magical beginnings for this UY and just borrow points from next year to use for a trip this year?

Yes you can.

 

[Girlstar30]

Yes you can.

Thanks

 

[TinkAgainU]

Yes, the time of purchase really factors into the current UY allotment of points. A Dec UY would still let you bank 100% by 7/31, but April would probably be safer for built in insurance if you need to cancel a May/June trip. If you do go with April I would personally be less inclined to sell back with MB because you may want those points as a cushion throughout your membership. I personally like banking forward rather than borrowing.

Although for Banking Direct Points - The banking deadline may be more flexible with the purchase of Direct Points as they will usually allow you to bank any new points you get, even if the deadline is already past. This does NOT apply with resale.

And I agree with the cushion, it is nice to push some points forward each year so if you are a few short you can still book within your 11 month priority period (the One Time Use points you can get if a few short, are only helpful within within the 7 month period). I'm not sure if you can do MB with a portion of your points, but I'd try to leave a few out for some flexibility if you change room types or the point chart goes up a bit the week you want to travel.

 

[intamin]

Thanks

In your case though, I'm assuming you kept the December use year AKV contract despite our efforts to tell you to rescind. You should ask Disney to put the points into your December use year membership so you get the 2024 points.

 

[Girlstar30]

In your case though, I'm assuming you kept the December use year AKV contract despite our efforts to tell you to rescind. You should ask Disney to put the points into your December use year membership so you get the 2024 points.

Yes i was planning to do that add onto the december since ill need more points for the christmas stays than the may stays, it still hasn't passed ROFR yet, if it doesn't I'm just going to buy riv direct and add onto my feb

 

[PolyRob]

Although for Banking Direct Points - The banking deadline may be more flexible with the purchase of Direct Points as they will usually allow you to bank any new points you get, even if the deadline is already past. This does NOT apply with resale.

And I agree with the cushion, it is nice to push some points forward each year so if you are a few short you can still book within your 11 month priority period (the One Time Use points you can get if a few short, are only helpful within within the 7 month period). I'm not sure if you can do MB with a portion of your points, but I'd try to leave a few out for some flexibility if you change room types or the point chart goes up a bit the week you want to travel.

Absolutely! I purchased my first direct contract the month before my UY started and MS courtesy banked those points the same day I agreed to the purchase.

Timing a purchase with a UY can make a huge difference. Magical Beginnings didn't exist back then, but had I waited three weeks and been able to take Magical Beginnings I would have "lost" two UYs of points. Crazy what a few weeks can do.

I like the cushion and banking extra points forward. When I took advantage of Magical Beginnings it was all or none on promotional purchases of 150+ points. I couldn't purchase a 150 point contract and 50 point contract, sell 150 points back with Magical Beginnings, keep the 50 points, and get the developer credit for 200 points. If it's a "sold out" resort with no incentives I don't think it would matter.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I think it depends on how many points you are buying, what UY, how many trips you will take. When I bought it was close to the UY closing out so it made sense for me to take advantage of MB. I was very happy to get $6,000 in the mail, almost felt like free money. Also, I bought a 50 point contract for $4650, the MB covered that purchase and that contract had points too and I will own it for many years so a win/win imo

 

[patm95]

To MB or not to MB, aye, that's my question.

I've been doing lots of research and debating about purchasing my family's first DVC contract and am debating whether I'd want to take advantage of Magical Beginnings to get back a chunk of change right at the start or whether I'd like to use the first year points as "bonus" points over the course of several years since I'd be unlikely to use the first year points during their use year.

I'm wondering if there are people here who've taken advantage of Magical Beginnings and later wished they hadn't, or others who've tried what I'm thinking about and whether they regretted it later.

For a baseline, let's say I bought 300 points this summer...I could get a $6,000 refund on the purchase at current MB rates, or I could bank them all.

If I chose to bank them, when the 2025 usage year starts, let's say I win up booking 330 points worth of stays using my 300 banked plus 30 from the new use year, and then bank 270 for the next year. So essentially, over the course of several years, I'd be able to upgrade my stays, room types, etc.

What I'm trying to debate is the "value" between having the extra points available over several years vs. the up front savings...which I know is a different proposition depending on a lot of factors including individuals' financial situations, but curious to hear some feedback around whether people prefer MB or extra bankable points if you're not planning a trip in your first use year?

If your planning on using 10% more points for10 years then I’d buy 10% more points from the beginning and. Get MB. After 10 years you’ll be more than used to 330 points per year and want it every year.

 

[Patmcpsu]

If you are considering Magical Beginnings, it's because you're buying direct. If you're buying direct, it's probably to take advantage of the annual pass. If you have an annual pass, you'll want to go a lot in a 12 month span.

On a spreadsheet, Magical Beginnings is a good deal. Situationally, the points are more valuable.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

It honestly depends on if you have plans to use the points. If this is your first contact I wouldn’t take magical beginnings because you probably want to go a lot and by getting extra banked points that’s easier.

We took magical beginnings because we already had 200 current points and 100 banked points we had to use. And it is a lot easier to get the rebate than to rent the excess points on your own. So we didn’t mind selling back the first year. We also bought late in the year so we didn’t pay a lot of dues on those either

 

[Disney.dad]

It really depends on your use case whether to take the MB or not. The accounting minor and CFO in me liked to lower the purchase price to capitalize in my head the annual cost of those direct points. Disney loves to get extra points in your hands to either get you to start with taking more frequent trips or staying in more expensive rooms which are both very dangerous financial propositions. When we sold back our 306 direct Disneyland we already had a ton of resale points and even ended up renting some of our points out as well towards swaps to use for Universal

 

[Tatebeck]

With my direct points I bought them just before the end of my use year, which is September. I did MB and got rid of the year's points that were about to end, getting $20 per point back. Then a few days later I got my full use year's points again, and I only had to pay around 1/3 of the dues for that year since they are prorated by calendar year, not use year. Really handy if you have a later use year.

 

[Girlstar30]

With my direct points I bought them just before the end of my use year, which is September. I did MB and got rid of the year's points that were about to end, getting $20 per point back. Then a few days later I got my full use year's points again, and I only had to pay around 1/3 of the dues for that year since they are prorated by calendar year, not use year. Really handy if you have a later use year.

So this is my plan if my AKV resale goes thru for December. When would be the best time for me to buy direct to match up with that December UY and get the most prorated direct annual dues, would it be November? Do i get to pick which uy i can match direct with if I have two of them?

 

[Tatebeck]

So this is my plan if my AKV resale goes thru for December. When would be the best time for me to buy direct to match up with that December UY and get the most prorated direct annual dues, would it be November? Do i get to pick which uy i can match direct with if I have two of them?

Towards the end of November would be the best time for a December use year. I believe it is around 5 days or so before the end of the use year when they stop doing MB, but I would confirm with a guide leading up to the end of November.

So around Nov 25th or so would be the latest you could do it, sell back the previous year's points, then get new points in a few days that you only pay less than 10% of dues for that year on

 

[Girlstar30]

Towards the end of November would be the best time for a December use year. I believe it is around 5 days or so before the end of the use year when they stop doing MB, but I would confirm with a guide leading up to the end of November.

So around Nov 25th or so would be the latest you could do it, sell back the previous year's points, then get new points in a few days that you only pay less than 10% of dues for that year on

Awesome

 

[Brian Noble]

Keep one ear to the ground. A base price increase could wipe out the dues savings of a later purchase. Luckily, DVC tends to announce when base price increases are coming.

 

[Girlstar30]

Keep one ear to the ground. A base price increase could wipe out the dues savings of a later purchase. Luckily, DVC tends to announce when base price increases are coming.

This is true I thought about that too. Since the incentives aren't exciting this time around we will see what end of April brings