Multiple users on one account

[Brevard Ken]

Hi guys,

I have a pretty big family and now that my generation are settling down and having kids we all take a yearly vacation at WDW (we live about an hour away).

I've started to look at the DVC just to see what was available and liked what I saw for my small family with a 50 point account. After talking to my brother, he seemed pretty interested as well and talked about having one big account where each of us would pay a percentage of the costs involved.

Have any of you had a joint account with one or more of your siblings? Is it even possible to do so and if not can you combine more than one account's points on a combined vacation?

Thanks for the info in advance

 

[gripp35]

Hi,

There are others with much more knowledge/experience who I am sure will reply, but here is my take. You basically have 3 options to do what you're thinking of.

1. Buy one huge contract with everyone's name on the title.
Advantages: don't have to worry about transferring points or linking reservations, it's all one contract and one membership. You can maximize the use of points and minimize the chances of wasting points. Also, large contracts will usually have a cheaper $/point cost if you're buying resale.
Disadvantages: You all have ownership of the same thing. A contract can NOT be split (i.e. a 200 point contract can not become 2 100 point contracts).

2. Buy the same contract (same # of points, same Home Resort, same Use Year) for each person and title them all the same (so everyone still owns each contract). So if there are 3 of you, you may buy 3 50-point contracts at Animal Kingdom Villas with a February Use-Year. To be sure, they do not all have to have the same number of points.
Advantages: If they are the same HR, UY and same people on the title, they can be combined into a single member number (but still distinct contracts), so they act like one big pot for booking rooms. This also allows one person to get a larger contract if they also want to use it for other vacations (have 2 50-point and 1 100-point contract), but they MUST be the same UY, HR and titled the same (everyone's name on every contract!!). Another advantage is that if you decide later that the "together" thing doesn't work, you can re-title the individual contracts and you will each own your own part.
Disadvantages: You are paying to close/title multiple contracts. This is also more difficult to do if you choose resale because you might not find all of the right contracts at the same time, so it might take a little more work/time. Also, the smaller contracts will have a higher $/point if you're buying resale.

3. Have each person buy their own contract (whatever they want and title it however they want). Then each person can make reservations for a part of the vacation (so maybe have a Mon-THursday reservation and then a Thursday-Sunday reservation) and then link these reservations (if it's for the same rooms at the same resort) so then it's one continuous vacation but you each "purchased" a different part of it.
You could also transfer points into a single contract in this case, there are problems though. You man only transfer in/out of a membership ONCE per UY. So you could do this with 2 contracts, but not more, because once you transfer from membership B to membership A, you can't transfer from membership C because membership A has already used up their transfer! Also, if there are different home resorts or use years, these are retained when you transfer the points so you may find booking what you want difficult.
Advantages: Each person owns their own contract.
Disadvantages: Logistically a nightmare. ("what? I thought YOU were supposed to book Thursday!") ("Yeah! I got the reservation!", "Oh, I forgot to look at 8:00 and the Standard view wasn't available for the other dates. sorry...") ("Why do _I_ have to buy the weekend, it is more points!!!").

Just my $0.02

 

[CarolMN]

)IMO, one contract owned by more than one family is a recipe for future *******. What if one family uses more points than another? Has financial problems? Can't pay annual dues? Who will bank? Will it be OK to borrow? Etc. ? What is one family wants to cruise or utilize another non-DVC option? What if one family wants to sell and the other doesn't? It could take a lengthy contract between families to figure out all of the possibilities.

I think it is better for each family to have their own contract. You can still vacation together in the same DVC villa if you wish to do so. Each family can reserve part of the stay and then have MS link the two reservations. Or one family can transfer points to the other. FWIW, I don't see how each family paying a portion of the costs for a big contract would be less than each having their own contract (other than maybe closing costs will be slightly lower. But IMO, not enough to warrant the risk of hard feelings between family members).

Much easier to figure out the finances one trip at a time than to commit for the life of the contracts.

Also, there have been numerous threads here about family bailing out on the member at the last minute, leaving the member stuck with restricted points or a larger than needed villa. Family seems to be more likely to do this than friends, LOL.

My advice: Don't do it. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[JimMIA]

Our timeshare holdings are held in a family trust, so we've had some experience with this kind of ownership.

In general, I would not do a joint account like you're considering unless there was some compelling reason to do so. I don't see any advantage to joint ownership among family members unless the family (in our case, the trust) is paying for it, or if there is some significant advantage to owning a larger contract.

There is some administrative upkeep of an account -- somebody has to keep track of the points, bank, etc, and also obviously pay the dues. I do it for our trust and someone will have to do it for your account.

The question of one family member using more than their share of points does come up, because not everyone does the same vacationing every year. We've done that a good bit and it has never caused us a problem, but it does mean somebody's got to do the point accounting to keep track of who has how many points. And you might have to rein someone in if they get too point-happy.

With DVC there would probably be a minor plus to a large ownership because of the lower acquisition costs (cost of points + closing), but I certainly would not even consider that in determining how to title contracts. To me, those are trivial savings that would be outweighed by the administrative overhead.

With some other systems there are significant benefits to large contracts (lower MF's, "VIP" perks, etc.). Our Wyndham account, for example, is like that. But not with DVC...so far.

 

[Brevard Ken]

)IMO, one contract owned by more than one family is a recipe for future *******. What if one family uses more points than another? Has financial problems? Can't pay annual dues? Who will bank? Will it be OK to borrow? Etc. ? What is one family wants to cruise or utilize another non-DVC option? What if one family wants to sell and the other doesn't? It could take a lengthy contract between families to figure out all of the possibilities.

I think it is better for each family to have their own contract. You can still vacation together in the same DVC villa if you wish to do so. Each family can reserve part of the stay and then have MS link the two reservations. Or one family can transfer points to the other. FWIW, I don't see how each family paying a portion of the costs for a big contract would be less than each having their own contract (other than maybe closing costs will be slightly lower. But IMO, not enough to warrant the risk of hard feelings between family members).

Much easier to figure out the finances one trip at a time than to commit for the life of the contracts.

Also, there have been numerous threads here about family bailing out on the member at the last minute, leaving the member stuck with restricted points or a larger than needed villa. Family seems to be more likely to do this than friends, LOL.

My advice: Don't do it. Good luck whatever you decide.

Having someone back out has been in the back of my mind and has been the big red flag.

Thanks for telling me about multiple accounts being able to be used for the same vacation. Having our own points and then merging them for the reservation will most likely be the way to go for us. And plus we still have our own points left over if we want to spend weekend over there or at VB.

Thanks for helping

 

[michelleiada]

)IMO, one contract owned by more than one family is a recipe for future *******. What if one family uses more points than another? Has financial problems? Can't pay annual dues? Who will bank? Will it be OK to borrow? Etc. ? What is one family wants to cruise or utilize another non-DVC option? What if one family wants to sell and the other doesn't? It could take a lengthy contract between families to figure out all of the possibilities.

I think it is better for each family to have their own contract. You can still vacation together in the same DVC villa if you wish to do so. Each family can reserve part of the stay and then have MS link the two reservations. Or one family can transfer points to the other. FWIW, I don't see how each family paying a portion of the costs for a big contract would be less than each having their own contract (other than maybe closing costs will be slightly lower. But IMO, not enough to warrant the risk of hard feelings between family members).

Much easier to figure out the finances one trip at a time than to commit for the life of the contracts.

Also, there have been numerous threads here about family bailing out on the member at the last minute, leaving the member stuck with restricted points or a larger than needed villa. Family seems to be more likely to do this than friends, LOL.

My advice: Don't do it. Good luck whatever you decide.

Whew...AGREE 100%...this is exactly what I was going to say!

 

[Dean]

Hi guys,

I have a pretty big family and now that my generation are settling down and having kids we all take a yearly vacation at WDW (we live about an hour away).

I've started to look at the DVC just to see what was available and liked what I saw for my small family with a 50 point account. After talking to my brother, he seemed pretty interested as well and talked about having one big account where each of us would pay a percentage of the costs involved.

Have any of you had a joint account with one or more of your siblings? Is it even possible to do so and if not can you combine more than one account's points on a combined vacation?

Thanks for the info in advance

In general I think such family partnerships are a bad idea. The group is subject to the whims and financial issues of the rest of the group and it can often lead to a change in family dynamics that alters the family forever. However, for smaller contracts with families that generally don't have drama, there might be situations where the risk is worth it. We added our adult daughter to our smaller so she and hers would have benefits but realistically we are still the owners (though technically she would own half). If benefits are the reason, I'd go very small even if I had another separate contract. I know it's tempting but just realize there are major risks. Good luck.