Questions about buying into DVC

[disneyfreak2]

OK, We've talked with a DVC worker who gave me a ton of info and is sending more. We are really wanting to buy into DVC but what all do you have to do. I mean I know we have to have 10% down and then do you finace the jrest?? Is the financing through them or a company? How great of credit do you have to have or do you just have to show you make enough money a year?? I'm sorry for all the questions, we just love Disney and after the few times we've been to Disney and the cruises, we could have already been in.

Any help would be great

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you purchase through Disney, they do have a financing plan available. If you go through a resale company, you will probably have to find your own financing.

 

[marianneb]

Hi,
I sent all my signed paperwork back today. I guess I will have an answer back letting me know if I am approved in about two weeks. I had to put $500.00 down to have the paperwork sent, and had to send them a check today for $2250.00. I want to purchase 250 points and finance for 5 year's. I think I had to put 20% down, not 10%
I do know Disney had a special where they credit you $2000.00 as a down payment for 150 point's. I am not going to worry about it. If they don't finance me I will still book my Vacation and just pay cash as I always do. I feel you dont lose either way. I love Disney and will still go every year no matter what.. Good luck. Just go for it. What do you have to lose?

 

[Cruelladeville]

Disney approves nearly everybody, although they may ask for 20% instead of the usual 10%. If you remain current on your payments they don't report to a credit bureau--they will if you get behind, though. Once you are approved, they have payment plans up to 10 years in length, usually thru automatic withdrawl. The interest is around 11%. I take out all my contracts on the 10 year plan, and then make extra payments so I get it paid off in 3-4 years. This way I will have extra money at Christmas if I need it.

Some people pay for Disney via credit card, which is OK if you are well-disciplined enough to pay it up before the interest rates are tacked on. You can get into serious trouble if you aren't careful--on one of my contracts I did this, and found out the hard way that ONE late payment sent the interest rate from 3.9 to 22.9%! It makes a huge difference in your payments.

You have come to the right place to ask questions--you will always find someone who knows the answer!

 

[marianneb]

Hi,
Sorry I made a mistake. They gave me a $2000.00 credit for 250 points not 150 points. Sorry for this mistake..

 

[sleepydog25]

One thing you didn't mention but that you must keep in mind is that in addition to the monthly payment you will have, there is also a yearly maintenance fee which falls around $4 per point and has historically gone up slightly each year. Thus, if you bought for the minimum 150 pts., you will also have to pay approx. $600 at the first of each year. Disney seems to be fairly lenient toward whom they loan money and if you have a fairly good track record re: credit history, you should be okay. Just keep in mind the cost factor and whether it's something with which you can live for the next 10 years, including the maintenance fees. Good luck.

 

[jade1]

Our credit was good but we put 1/2 down and financed with Disney for 1 year at about 5%. There was no credit ref at all doing it that way.

 

[disneyfreak2]

Thanks to everyone for all the great info. Now I have even more questions. I'm so excited, I can't wait to get my packet I'm wondering if the person I talked to told me the right info. When I talked with her I wrote everything down and repeated it back to me. She told me I only had to put 10% down and I someone just replyed and told me they had to put 20% down. She did tell me that we would have a yearly maintance fee of around $58.00. Is this correct or is it more? I felt it was somewhat low. We are just wanting to buy the 150 points, is this to low or should we go higher. How do you know how many points to buy?? There are four of us in our family but my DD will be graduating in 2 years.

We are going to WDW Oct 22-28 this year, does anyone know how many points we would need? When I asked her about using for our Disney Cruise in July, she said it would be better if we used our points for our WDW trip. Does anyone have any comments on this?? We would need at least a 2 bedroom b/c I'm taking my DM,DF, DS, and DN with us.

Again, thanks so much for everyones help. You have just made me more excited about getting my papers and sending them back. They better come today

Thanks

 

[dianeschlicht]

You got the wrong info about maintenance fees. They are between $3-4 per point, depending on the resort. Go to the point charts at the top of this forum and figure out how many points you are likely to need annually. A 2 bedroom at SSR during October for a week would be 255 points. At OKW, a week in October would be 232 points. A week at all the other on site DVC resorts would be 282points.

I would NOT use points for a cruise. It is not the most cost effective way to do the cruise.

 

[JimMIA]

She did tell me that we would have a yearly maintance fee of around $58.00. Is this correct or is it more?

I'm sure you accidentally dropped a zero there! Maintenance fees range from a low of $3.82 per point per year at Saratoga Springs to $4.87 at Vero Beach. That's per point every year. So, at Saratoga Springs, your annual maintenance would be about $575-580 for 2005.

Fees can, and do rise, so you can anticipate that going up a little each year.

 

[Tramp68]

She did tell me that we would have a yearly maintance fee of around $58.00

Sounds like your MONTHLY maintenance fee. Figure on around $4 per point per year.

Current incentives should be $8 off per point which they apply to your down payment. In order to get 20% down you have to put 11% total down. You should check with your guide about the incentives. I believe you also get 100 bonus points to use between September 05 and Aug 06.

If you take the 10 year financing with the 20% and direct deposit at SSR you should figure on paying $1.33 per month per point which includes your monthly maintenance fee. That is about $1 per point for financing and $.33 per point for dues per month.

 

[disneyfreak2]

Thanks again to everyone! I promise, she did tell me $58.00 per month for the maintance fee, insurance and taxes. I thought that was a little low. I'm glad someone straightened me out on that.

I still feel we would save so much money if we bought b/c we LOVE Disney.

Again, thanks to everyone

 

[CHOPR]

DVC does take $8.00 per pt. off plus pays 2005 dues for SSR,but I believe the extra 100 points is an option to have rather than taking the $8.00 discount. I just signed up and am waiting for my papers and if i'm wrong about this than they owe me 100 pts. also.

 

[lllovell]

$58 a month on 150 points is actually a little bit on the high side. If you are buying SSR (which I assume you are), it will be about $48 a month for the current year.

The percentages off are a bit confusing because Disney is giving "incentives" of so much off each purchase, but they apply this amount to your down payment. I think the current incentive is $8.00 a point, so for 150 points, you will get an additional $1200 towards your purchase price. This isn't quite 10%, so I assume that is where the numbers of 11% and others have come from. We put down 20% total when the incentives were added into our down payment (but the incentives were $10 at that time, so it was actually 10% of our down payment - the other 10% we paid in cash).


I decided to lock in 10 years just in case something came up and I couldn't follow my "pay it off in 2 year" plan. Many people here will tell you NOT to buy DVC if you can't pay cash, but I am not one of those. I think that by the time I saved enough to pay cash, I would have lost 2 years of vacations and its worth a bit of interest to me to get those couple of years with my children at WDW. It might have even turned out to be more years of vacations since something always seems to come up in life. I am not a person that can wait to purchase my next car until I had all cash to purchase it either, but I DO pay things off as quickly as possible or get the lowest possible interest rates when possible.

If we didn't finance, we probably still would be sitting on the fence 10 years from now.