Potential Resale Buyer- What Will I Miss vs Buying Direct? Also, Need Use Year Advice

[Ashlotte]

Hi there,

I think we have decided to buy into DVC after at least a decade of wanting to. It almost seems silly to do it now, with a kid in college and another on her way there soon, and being on the West Coast, but it has been a dream for a long time. I think we are most likely to be buying a resale Aulani account with enough points for us to go every other or every third year (probably 150-200).

I know we will miss out on the Annual Pass discount, being able to book at Riviera and the new Disneyland DVC, as well as the ability to go to a fancy lounge at Epcot. Will we miss anything else that is major? I see a lot of 10% discounts on food, which sounds nice, but I don't think it would be enough of a financial benefit to buy from Disney. Will we feel like second class citizens if we just buy resale?

I'm also confused about Use Year. No matter how many times I try to read about it, it is confusing to me. We would probably be traveling most often during Spring Break week (last week of March) and June- Labor Day. Once the kids are done with school in 7 years or so we may switch to traveling in January-February, but for now these are the most likely travel times for us. What would be the best Use Year for our family? Or should I just look for a resale account with a good price and not worry about?

Thank you!

 

[htguy]

You want your most likely travel time to be in the first 8 months of your Use Year. In months 9 - 12, you can still travel, but you can no longer "bank" your points. They don't offer a January UY, so you are probably best off with a February Use Year. That will cover you through Labor Day in September.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I second a Feb UY. It won’t be great if you plan to travel in Jan but covers you for other months well.
I mainly miss having dignity. Feel like a fourth class citizen. Somewhat kidding but not really.
Biggest downside to being resale for me is not being able to borrow points without calling MS. I have APs (platinum now incredipass) so I don’t miss the dining or merch discounts.

 

[Ashlotte]

You want your most likely travel time to be in the first 8 months of your Use Year. In months 9 - 12, you can still travel, but you can no longer "bank" your points. They don't offer a January UY, so you are probably best off with a February Use Year. That will cover you through Labor Day in September.

Thank you for your reply. So, if I had a February UY, I assume that's when the points are loaded into the account? Wouldn't it be more advantageous to have a use year that was gave me the most points at the 11 month mark to make sure I had enough to book what I needed? So, if I wanted to go in March, would having an April UY make the most sense, so I could book in April 2022 for March 2023?

 

[Ashlotte]

I second a Feb UY. It won’t be great if you plan to travel in Jan but covers you for other months well.
I mainly miss having dignity. Feel like a fourth class citizen. Somewhat kidding but not really.
Biggest downside to being resale for me is not being able to borrow points without calling MS. I have APs (platinum now incredipass) so I don’t miss the dining or merch discounts.

Calling to borrow points does seem a bit inconvenient. Are direct owners able to do it online? Is it a different system? Definitely not something I think is worth many thousand of dollars extra, but I am curious.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thank you for your reply. So, if I had a February UY, I assume that's when the points are loaded into the account? Wouldn't it be more advantageous to have a use year that was gave me the most points at the 11 month mark to make sure I had enough to book what I needed? So, if I wanted to go in March, would having an April UY make the most sense, so I could book in April 2022 for March 2023?

UY doesn't determine when you can book, it only determines which points you can use for that reservation. You can always book your home resort 11 months before checkin and non-home resorts 7 months before checkin, subject to availability, of course. So if you want to go, say, March 7-14, 2023, you could book on March 7, 2022, and if you have a February UY you could use banked 2022 points, 2023 points (considered current UY points for that reservation), and borrowed 2024 points (at this time, limited to 50% of your 2024 points).

Edited to add link to the most important thread: Understanding Use Year.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Agree on February. Resale is just fine! You are part of the DVC family and no one knows the difference but you. We own mostly resale and a direct contract mostly for our son and DIL and we were lucky to get AP's. We do save with discounts for four adults with several trips per year (they are fine diners).

Every three years is difficult with banking and borrowing, so I would suggest buying if you can go every other year. DVC is a commitment to vacations and once you aren't paying rack rate you will go more. Try putting a schedule on a calendar for future years and do the math for points. Do buy a bit extra as the point cost for villas shifts around more than members would like (mostly up, in our case when we travel). It is worse to have less than you need rather than more.

We bought when our son was eight and he turns 34 (at Aulani) in a few weeks. DVC has been part of our lives and now that he is married, we enjoy it even more since our DIL is a true Disney girl. Planning is half the fun. Enjoy!

EDIT: Most of our resales can book online it's DVC IT at its finest.

 

[Marionnette]

Calling to borrow points does seem a bit inconvenient. Are direct owners able to do it online? Is it a different system? Definitely not something I think is worth many thousand of dollars extra, but I am curious.

It's a glitch that occurred when the 50% borrowing rule went into place following the reopening of the resorts. Some resale owners are experiencing the inability to borrow any of their points online and have to call Member Services whenever they want to borrow. This puts them at least an hour behind members who are booking right at 11 months online at 8 AM.

 

[CarolynFH]

Calling to borrow points does seem a bit inconvenient. Are direct owners able to do it online? Is it a different system? Definitely not something I think is worth many thousand of dollars extra, but I am curious.

Direct owners can borrow online, and resale owners should be able to, but due to a glitch in the programming (which Disney has been slow to fix), many resale owners have to call.

ETA - Marionnette explained it better!

 

[Jimmy Geppetto]

Calling to borrow points does seem a bit inconvenient. Are direct owners able to do it online? Is it a different system? Definitely not something I think is worth many thousand of dollars extra, but I am curious.

I’ve never had an issue with borrowing points on a resale contract. So far, it works without a problem.

Two biggest things you will give up by going Resale IMO are 1. No restrictions on your points and 2. The ease of getting points into your account. The rest is pretty insignificant. I’ve heard that many white card holders were still able to buy APs anyways…so not sure APs is really a perk for only blue card holders. However, Disney does seem to be clamping down on this with the move to digital cards.

If the difference in price is minimal compared to direct (ie. BLT, AKV) I’d buy direct. I know today we may feel that the restricted points are “no big deal”, but a DVC purchase is a long term play…and those restricted points will bear some weight down the road.

 

[smmora]

I'm West Coast - I just bought a resale 50pt Aulani, resale 50 pt SSR and am hoping to do direct 100 pts at both VGF and DLT
so i have 200 pts I can use anywhere and still have 100 I can use for bigger stays at the originals
I know for sure I want to stay at Disneyland a lot

 

[htguy]

So, if I had a February UY, I assume that's when the points are loaded into the account?

Yes, Feb 1 of each year.

Wouldn't it be more advantageous to have a use year that was gave me the most points at the 11 month mark to make sure I had enough to book what I needed? So, if I wanted to go in March, would having an April UY make the most sense, so I could book in April 2022 for March 2023?

You book BEFORE the points are loaded. In other words, you can book 11 months ahead of time (and 7 months at your other resorts), as long as the points will be in loaded by the first day of your trip.

Since the points would be loaded in Feb, you can spend them starting Feb 1. In your scenario, going in March, you would have to borrow from your next April UY, since those points wouldn't be available until April 1.

 

[Ashlotte]

Yes, Feb 1 of each year.



You book BEFORE the points are loaded. In other words, you can book 11 months ahead of time (and 7 months at your other resorts), as long as the points will be in loaded by the first day of your trip.

Since the points would be loaded in Feb, you can spend them starting Feb 1. In your scenario, going in March, you would have to borrow from your next April UY, since those points wouldn't be available until April 1.

Ohhh... I think this is where I am getting confused. So, if in January 2022 I had no points in my account, but had an February Use Year, I could still book because the points would be there when the reservation happened? In other words, the points need to be there at the time of the actual resort stay, NOT the time of the booking?

 

[Ashlotte]

I'm West Coast - I just bought a resale 50pt Aulani, resale 50 pt SSR and am hoping to do direct 100 pts at both VGF and DLT
so i have 200 pts I can use anywhere and still have 100 I can use for bigger stays at the originals
I know for sure I want to stay at Disneyland a lot

Interesting strategy. Do you feel like that is a lot to juggle? It didn't occur to me to have multiple, smaller accounts. Will that make it harder to book reservations if you are shuffling points between accounts?

We do go to Disneyland fairly often (or did, pre-Covid and when the kids were younger), but we also have another timeshare (WorldMark) that has two properties in Anaheim with pretty decent availability. I looked at the numbers comparing how much a VGC stay would be (after translating points to maintenance fees) and it would be WAY more than to stay at our cheaper timeshare. Since we spend almost the whole day at the park, it didn't pencil out for us, hence the drive for Aulani.

 

[Ashlotte]

I’ve never had an issue with borrowing points on a resale contract. So far, it works without a problem.

Two biggest things you will give up by going Resale IMO are 1. No restrictions on your points and 2. The ease of getting points into your account. The rest is pretty insignificant. I’ve heard that many white card holders were still able to buy APs anyways…so not sure APs is really a perk for only blue card holders. However, Disney does seem to be clamping down on this with the move to digital cards.

If the difference in price is minimal compared to direct (ie. BLT, AKV) I’d buy direct. I know today we may feel that the restricted points are “no big deal”, but a DVC purchase is a long term play…and those restricted points will bear some weight down the road.

What restrictions would the resale points have? Other than booking cruises and the newer properties?

I think right now resale Aulani could be had for as low as $125 per point, versus direct is (I believe) $201-208... so, at least a $15,000 difference if we buy 200 points. That's a pretty good chunk of change, especially with kids in college.

 

[Ashlotte]

UY doesn't determine when you can book, it only determines which points you can use for that reservation. You can always book your home resort 11 months before checkin and non-home resorts 7 months before checkin, subject to availability, of course. So if you want to go, say, March 7-14, 2023, you could book on March 7, 2022, and if you have a February UY you could use banked 2022 points, 2023 points (considered current UY points for that reservation), and borrowed 2024 points (at this time, limited to 50% of your 2024 points).

Edited to add link to the most important thread: Understanding Use Year.

Thank you for the link!

 

[Marionnette]

Interesting strategy. Do you feel like that is a lot to juggle? It didn't occur to me to have multiple, smaller accounts. Will that make it harder to book reservations if you are shuffling points between accounts?

We do go to Disneyland fairly often (or did, pre-Covid and when the kids were younger), but we also have another timeshare (WorldMark) that has two properties in Anaheim with pretty decent availability. I looked at the numbers comparing how much a VGC stay would be (after translating points to maintenance fees) and it would be WAY more than to stay at our cheaper timeshare. Since we spend almost the whole day at the park, it didn't pencil out for us, hence the drive for Aulani.

If you title all of the contracts the same and they all have the same UY, then you can easily combine the points at 7 months to book at any resort that has availability as long as your resale points qualify. The problem arises when you want to use your points at your home resort and book at 11 months. 50 points doesn't get you too far at most resorts. People who buy smaller contracts at different resorts do so with a banking & borrowing strategy for only going to those resorts every other year; or if the 50% borrowing restriction ever gets lifted then every 3 years could work too.

 

[chalee94]

Ohhh... I think this is where I am getting confused. So, if in January 2022 I had no points in my account, but had an February Use Year, I could still book because the points would be there when the reservation happened? In other words, the points need to be there at the time of the actual resort stay, NOT the time of the booking?

Right.

If you wanted to book a Feb 2022 stay at your home resort and only had pts coming on Feb 1, 2022, you could still book the stay on March 1, 2021.

For that matter, if you wanted to book a Feb 2022 stay at your home resort and only had pts coming on Feb 1, 2023, you could still book the stay on March 1, 2021 assuming that you could borrow enough pts for the stay.

Definitely bookmark the link above related to "Understanding Use Year."

 

[chalee94]

What restrictions would the resale points have? Other than booking cruises and the newer properties?

Annual pass discounts (although they haven't really come back yet and shouldn't matter to you if you aren't coming to FL for multiple weeks.)
You don't get small dining and shopping discounts as a resale owner (although Disney VISA gets some of these discounts if you have that.)
You don't get access to the Epcot lounge (free cokes and maybe a bag of pretzels), Top of the World Lounge at BLT (still closed - maybe forever) or Moonlight Magic (assuming they come back and that they fit your schedule).
Also some behind the scenes tour discounts on occasion.

I think right now resale Aulani could be had for as low as $125 per point, versus direct is (I believe) $201-208... so, at least a $15,000 difference if we buy 200 points. That's a pretty good chunk of change, especially with kids in college.

Takes a lot of free cokes at the Epcot lounge and 10% dining discounts to make up for those savings. Exactly right.

 

[Jimmy Geppetto]

What restrictions would the resale points have? Other than booking cruises and the newer properties?

I think right now resale Aulani could be had for as low as $125 per point, versus direct is (I believe) $201-208... so, at least a $15,000 difference if we buy 200 points. That's a pretty good chunk of change, especially with kids in college.

Disney just ended incentives on Aulani which were as low as $133. And I believe they have an ongoing promotion until March 2nd as well.
Don’t get me wrong… I am all for resale, but some resorts I would buy direct given the small difference in price between resale and direct.

Also don’t underestimate the value of unrestricted points if you are in it for the long haul.