Minimum points allowed?

[eeyore_is#1]

Hi all. Have been reading for a while, lots of great info here, but had a couple of questions I haven't seen answered yet. Maybe it's there, but I couldn't find it.

I know that there's an initial minimum buy in amount of points, currently 160 if through Disney. I know that the minimum you can add on is 25. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong anywhere).

My questions, mostly related:

1) Is there a minimum amount of points you must hold? Could a brand new DVC member buy 25 points from a re-sale, and only have that? What about even less, could you start off with 10 if someone was getting rid of that few? 1 point? Yes, it's unusable at that point, just wondering what the limits are.

Similarly, for someone who initially bought 200 points, how much could they sell? If their lifestyle changes, can they sell most of it, but still hold on to 10, 15, 25 or whatever?

2) Can points be broken up at all, or must those points always be kept and sold as a group? If you originally had 150, then bought 50 more, at some point could you sell 100, keep 100? Assuming they're all at the same resort.

3) Is there a minimum number of points that can be sold? IE, say you bought 40 on re-sale as your initial purchase, because the price, location, etc were all right. But you really only wanted 25 or 30. Could you re-sell the 10 or 15 points you never really wanted?

 

[RobDoc]

Members cannot break up a contract into a smaller number of points. If your contract is 160 points it can only be sold as that number in the future.

You are correct that a first purchase could be for as few as 25 points by resale - which with banking and borrowing could get you 75 points every 3 years. 25 points is the smallest number which may be purchased (add-on) and is therefore the smallest contract size possible.

If DVC recovers a contract thru ROFR or repossession they can break up the points into smaller amounts to sell as add-ons or as an initial purchase.

While 25 is the smallest amount - add-ons may be purchased in any larger number - 26, 47, 161, etc.

Enjoy!

 

[eeyore_is#1]

Thanks Doc. I think that gets most of it.

Are an initial purchase and an add on two different contracts? So if you bought 160 then added 47, in the future all you could do is sell the 160, or sell the 47?

 

[eeyore_is#1]

Oops, wife just asked a new question. Is there a minimum you must have in order to later buy and add-on?

IE, if you bought 25 on re-sale to start, would Disney later sell an add-on of 7 to you? Or must you have 160?

 

[LisaS]

Are an initial purchase and an add on two different contracts? So if you bought 160 then added 47, in the future all you could do is sell the 160, or sell the 47?

Yes to both questions.

Is there a minimum you must have in order to later buy an add-on? IE, if you bought 25 on re-sale to start, would Disney later sell an add-on of 7 to you? Or must you have 160?

If you purchase via the resale market, then you could start with as little as a 25-point contract. You would be a full DVC member and entitled to add on more points directly from Disney. You could not add on just 7 points however. The minimum add-on is 25 points if paying cash, and 50 points if you want Disney financing.

 

[eeyore_is#1]

Thanks Lisa.

Big duh to me, I was just told 25 was the minimum addon, then forgot.

 

[Caskbill]

Some more information you may find useful.

If you puchase direct from Disney, your minimum purchase is 160 points.

If you purchase resale, you can only pick and choose from what is offered. If you want only 25 points, you'd have to find that specific size contract being offered. If you want 32 points, you'd have to find that specific size contract being offered (highly unlikely)

Your first contract (whether thru Disney (160 point minimum) or via resale (whatever size is available) becomes your 'master contract' and you get a DVC Membership number. The Contract number and membership number are different.

Your contract will have a use year month, meaning your vacation points are good for vacations during the 12 month period beginning with your use year month. A 2007 June UY, for example, would be for vacation dates June 1, 2007 thru May 31, 2008.

If you purchase an add-on from Disney, it will automatically be the same use year month. If your original contract was #12345.000 for example, then your first add on contract would be #12345.001

They are two separate contracts, but are under the same membership number. You could sell one contract or the other. You cannot sell part of either one.

If you purchase a 2nd contract resale, it's best to get the same Use month and then have it added to your main contract as an add-On. Thus it would be treated the same as if you bought direct from Disney.

If you purchase a 2nd contract resale, and it has a different use year month, then it becomes a totally separate purchase (master contract, not add-on), and gets it's own membership number. You would have to manage both 'membership numbers' individually. They would be as distinct from each other as your contract would be from one of mine.

There are two main differences between having a Master Contract with an Add-on contract, and having two separate master contracts:

1. Contracts under the same membership number may have points combined at 7-months to make reservations at any DVC resort, no matter which home resort the different contracts may have. If you had 160 SSR points and 160 AKV points, you could use them to make a 200 point reservation at BCV for example. The 200 points could be taken from your two 160 points contract using any combination you want. If instead your two contracts are two separate master contracts, the points can not be combined directly to make any type of reservation. Just like you couldn't use 50 of your points and 50 of my points to make a 100 point reservation somewhere.

2. Also, when calculating banking percentages, all the points are combined for the total points. Example: You have 160 AKV points, and 160 SSR points (320 total). You use all the 160 AKV points, and are now at your 50% window. You can bank all 160 SSR points since 160 is only 50% of your 320 point total.

If in the above example the contracts were totally separate, then you could only bank 80 of your SSR points which is 50% of 160.

Hope that makes sense.

It sounds like you're going for an initial smaller purchase and looking at adding on later. Hopefully the above helps you understand some of the basic facts on how contracts work. The key is to get a Use Year that works best for you, and make sure all further purchases have the same use year month and are treated as Add-on contracts.

 

[Dean]

If you purchase via the resale market, then you could start with as little as a 25-point contract. You would be a full DVC member and entitled to add on more points directly from Disney. You could not add on just 7 points however. The minimum add-on is 25 points if paying cash, and 50 points if you want Disney financing.

This has been my information as well. But one person has said that DVC is considering changing this and they certainly could in the future if they wanted, even for those that are already owners. I wouldn't let it change my decision too much but just so you the OP is aware there is no guarantee for add ons in the future.

 

[RobDoc]

This has been my information as well. But one person has said that DVC is considering changing this and they certainly could in the future if they wanted, even for those that are already owners. I wouldn't let it change my decision too much but just so you the OP is aware there is no guarantee for add ons in the future.

Dean is correct about there being no guarantee about what constitutes an add-on. Originally you could add on 25 points only at your home resort (master contract) and a minimum of 50 points at another resort. That changed in the mid-late 90's, but there is nothing in the POS that directs how sales must be conducted and DVD could change this at any time without input from members. Even banking and borrowing are NOT a guarantee and can be modified or eliminated. (I do not expect such a change until possibly in the years prior to any resort expiration.)

 

[eeyore_is#1]

It sounds like you're going for an initial smaller purchase and looking at adding on later. Hopefully the above helps you understand some of the basic facts on how contracts work.

Great post, thanks. A few extra nuggets in there, definitely.

We are definitely looking into going small. That's why the splitting idea came up, we wondered that if we couldn't find a re-sale of the right size, could we buy higher and get rid of the extra.

 

[Anthony1971]

Great post, thanks. A few extra nuggets in there, definitely.

We are definitely looking into going small. That's why the splitting idea came up, we wondered that if we couldn't find a re-sale of the right size, could we buy higher and get rid of the extra.

Although as posted this is not possible. If you did however buy above the min or if you added on 50 points later you can do this via 2 25 point contracts.
Also you can rent your unused points if you bought a larger contrcat or use them for a larger unit which I will warn you will not wnat to stay in a studio after a 1 Br or larger.