Paying for DVC

[Instructorbritt]

Hi All,
I just signed up right now for the DIS discussion threads I always seem to be reading them so I thought I should be a member. Anyway, my husband and I have been trying to figure a way to be able to afford a membership. We've spoken to "cast members" a couple times. It's just not something we can swing at the moment. So I was wondering for those who have one, did you have the same problem at first? Are there some tricks for saving you could suggest? I'd love to hear your input. Thanks in advance!

Brittany

 

[DVCconvert]

First off....welcome to the DIS

Have you thought of payroll deduction into a dedicated savings account?

 

[Instructorbritt]

Thanks! The bankroll deduction's a good idea. I'm going to have to talk to my husband about that

 

[DizBub]

Hello and WELCOME!!! Not sure if this will help you but this is how we decided to do it. We treated DVC like buying a new car. After down payment/ trade in we made monthly payments equal to our car payment. After 4/5 years it's paid for. Drive the car til the wheels fall off. DVC will last 50 years (if you buy direct). Members fees are like tags, insurance, gas, oil changes, general upkeep, etc. This, we could do. Of course, it helps that our car was paid off but we will not be getting a new one until DCV is paid for.
Sorry, savings strategies are NOT my forte. Hope this puts things into perspective cost-wise.

That said, we our DVC.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

All of our expenses can fit in one of our salaries so buying DVC really was a non-event as we had significant cash on hand to offset any drop in income and were just financing to ensure our cash was free and not locked up in a tangible asset.

That said, if you are going to struggle to buy DVC, I'd think twice, not because I don't think you'd enjoy it, but because you might be giving up something else to do so, something more important (ie. retirement savings).

 

[khmiller]

If you own a home and have some equity, obtain a line of credit. We used it for a number of purchases and the interest is deductible (consult your tax advisor).

 

[jlewisinsyr]

If you own a home and have some equity, obtain a line of credit. We used it for a number of purchases and the interest is deductible (consult your tax advisor).

Not sure I agree with this tactic, using home equity (especially if there is an existing primary loan) can be risky. A home is just like any other investment, it's value can increase and decrease and the latter is what put a lot of people into trouble because they only thought the former would occur. If you need to sell you could have negative equity in part to the primary and equit loans.

But then again, many would disagree with financing DVC in general, regardless of cash on hand.

 

[bytheblood]

 

[Hibernians]

we financed our DVC purchase directly through Disney; the monthly payment was very affordable and well within our budget. 5 years later we have no regrets and many happy memories from our DVC WDW vacations

 

[Pakey]

Welcome! We paid cash for all 3 of our contracts. They were purchased in separate years after we had set aside the money specifically for this.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You could always rent a reservation from a member until you have the money to buy in. You would get a taste of how DVC works and maybe decide it really isn't what you want to do.

DVC doesn't save you any money. Uusually you'll wind up spending more money on Disney than you would if you didn't own DVC.

 

[nolanboys]

I would look into buying a small resale contract when you have the cash to buy, and then add on as your finances allow you to. We waited 5 years to buy DVC until we had the cash to buy what we wanted. We still went to wdw and took advantage of the good discounts when they were offered. Love DVC, but for us, we didn't want to have to finance - just a personal preference.

 

[jupers]

Took a loan with payroll deduction, also treated it like a car payment. If I waited till I had the cash on hand I would never be able to buy in.

 

[LaurenT]

Saving is always a good idea...but in order to buy into DVC without regret, or thinking that your saving should be used elsewhere (or actually saved...you know....for things like retirement, college, etc), I recommend finding an additional soure of income.
I started my at home business with PartyLite...I go out about 2 nights a week to do a show and the additional income covers our car payments AND our vacation money!

 

[AnnaS]

Make believe you have a payment now and start saving a few dollars. "I" would then buy a small contract in the resale market and take it from there one step at a time.

Even though we paid cash for all of our contracts, it was not easy parting with our money and still thought it through like everyone else.

Good luck and I hope we get to welcome you soon.

 

[crisi]

No. We didn't have that problem.

Two years ago these boards had several cases of people being forced to sell their points. Many people lost thousands of dollars that they couldn't afford to loose. Those that financed were heaviest hit - they often had to find a few thousand at closing to make good on the loan. It was a very sad thing.

DVC is a luxury item. Wait a few "moments" - if you have any debt (credit cards, car loans) get that paid off - that will free up money. Start saving regularly for emergencies. Eventually, that regular savings - if you have the discipline to not spend it - will become "we can swing DVC - for cash, and still have money for emergencies."

Also - it was said upthread -DVC does not save most people money. Especially if you don't mind staying offsite or staying in values. When money is tight, you have DVC points that are "use or loose" - now you have points, but no park tickets, no transportation, no food - but you still have DVC dues to pay.

 

[Lynne M]

When you're budgeting to save for DVC, be sure to take maintenance fees into account, and the fact that they're virtually guaranteed to go up every year. Over the life of the contract, that will cost you many thousands of dollars more than the original purchase will. Many people focus on the one-time expense of the purchase, and lose sight of the fact that they're now required to pay, at minimum, hundreds of dollars a year in maintenance fees for the next 30-40 years.

And remember, all DVC is, is a different way of paying for your vacations. I know people get caught up in wanting to 'own a piece of the magic' and all, but there's nothing you can get with DVC that you can't get by paying cash. It's just a way of pre-paying for villa accommodations. You can have the exact same vacations that a member has, without having to come up with $15K plus committing to years of maintenance fees.

My personal recommendation is that you rent instead of buying, if the purchase would strain your finances. Owning your own membership definitely gives you more control over your reservations, but you'll need to decide if that's worth any financial hardship you might have as a result.

 

[paeskie]

We used a small inheritance to buy our 150 point contract. I would not have financed.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hi All,
I just signed up right now for the DIS discussion threads I always seem to be reading them so I thought I should be a member. Anyway, my husband and I have been trying to figure a way to be able to afford a membership. We've spoken to "cast members" a couple times. It's just not something we can swing at the moment. So I was wondering for those who have one, did you have the same problem at first? Are there some tricks for saving you could suggest? I'd love to hear your input. Thanks in advance!

Brittany

If you are a patient, mature adult...I would recommend putting the same amount away in savings that you would pay to DVC if you financed (with maybe a separate account to put aside monthly maintenance fees). You'll save up MUCH faster than you would pay off a loan, just with saving the same amount (interest you know).

We rejected that b/c we were already going on Disney vacations, and couldn't figure out how to be patient and mature enough to stop them. Plus, DS is young and we wanted to go now vs later.

We had, and still have, a plan to pay it off very quickly, but now...it's being delayed by some months b/c we decided to go to WDW twice inside of 12 months. Silly of us, really. If we weren't doing that we would be putting all of that money we're budgeting towards paying off DVC. But after this second trip, well, we'll be out of points until 2013 (banked and borrowed for the first trip, and borrowed it ALL for the upcoming trip), so it'll be easy to put on our patient hats LOL.

 

[btwiceborn]

We went on our first DVC vacation about three years ago. My uncle owns at Beach Club, and he reserved the room for us. We absolutely loved it. To us it was so much more enjoyable than the budget/basic accommodations.
So we decided we would figure out a way to pay for it. We put about $100 per week into a money market type savings account. (yes, I know, that isn't the highest return on investment account, but neither is DVC!) After nearly two years, we had enough to purchase with cash.
I even created a little spreadsheet that takes into account the purchase price, the number of points currently owned by the contract, closing costs, and a simplified version of the annual dues to come up with the total costs of ownership of each different contract we were eyeing.
We ended up offering on a "triple point" contract for what we considered a bargain price. We wont be able to use a lot of the points this first year due to the number of points that came with the contract, but we hope to rent out some to pay for next years dues.
The only thing we would do differently, would be to possibly get a different use year. (We got September, but would have preferred December, there were no december contracts available when we were shopping.)