Same questions, different confused person.....

[blujaymama]

ok, i know all of you kind DISers have been asked this before but here it goes... my hubby and i want to purchase (160 pts or so). we like to go for 2 weeks a year. we normally do value resorts and know that the VC is not for saving $ so much as it is getting more (a deluxe) for your money. a few odd ?s for you all....... how long is the financing for (can you do 5,10 yrs?), how long is the ownership for? I have read some say certain resorts are "up" in 2042. what happens then? you have nothing? is it willable (not that i'm planning on going anywhere!) and how do you pay the annual fees (is it due in a lump or in parts)? sorry for the redundant questions but my hubby finally said he wants to do it and we need to figure some logistics out! Thank you thank you to all who reply.....

 

[brandip22]

I will help where I can. Financing is available for up to 10 years. You will have to do a down payment, though. I think it's 10%, but we put down 30%, so I may be off on the minimum. Anuual dues can be paid monthly by bank draft or yearly. I think either way you can do bank draft, credit card or they send a bill. We do monthly bank draft. Depending on your home resort (which one you own points at), your ownership is either through 2042 or 2054. AK and SSR are through 2054. However, they've just started offering the other DVC owners to upgrade to have their points through 2054 too, for a fee of course. And I do believe it is willable. Hope this helps some.

 

[blujaymama]

thanks brandip22, i really appreciate the help. i wonder how bad the fee is for the 2054 upgrade..... oh well, thanks again!

 

[LisaS]

thanks brandip22, i really appreciate the help. i wonder how bad the fee is for the 2054 upgrade..... oh well, thanks again!

The contract extension is being offered only to OKW owners. It will extend their contract end date from Jan 31, 2042 to Jan 31, 2057 (15 additional years). The initial info stated that the cost to extend will be $25/pt but rumor has it that for a short period there will be a $10/pt discount, bringing the price down to $15/pt.

There is no guarantee that any other of the "2042" resorts will be offered the chance to extend. So as it stands now, yes on Feb 1, 2042, those of us who own contracts at those resorts (and those who choose not to extend their OKW contract) will own nothing. The same holds for contracts at SSR which expire on Jan 31, 2054 and AKV (Jan 31, 2057).

 

[blujaymama]

what are anyone's feeling on the fact that it expires on you after you pay all that ?? i am just wondering.....

 

[LisaS]

what are anyone's feeling on the fact that it expires on you after you pay all that ?? i am just wondering.....

I suppose it depends on your situation. By the time our 2042 contracts expire, DH and I will be very senior citizens. Given that dues increase about 4% a year, I'll be very happy to stop handing over my social security check every month to pay what I expect will be very high dues.

 

[mikesmom]

what are anyone's feeling on the fact that it expires on you after you pay all that ?? i am just wondering.....

I look at the flip side. Why would I want to own it? When the term expires I can just give it back (somewhat like a leased car). If I own it I have to worry about maintenance on a 50 year old property, whether the kids want it or not, how to sell it if the kids don't want it and we're not using it, taxes, etc.

Nope. I'd rather give it back. I'll certainly have had my money's worth out of it by then. Actually I've had my money's worth already if truth be told. The rest is gravy.

 

[chalee94]

Anuual dues can be paid monthly by bank draft or yearly. I think either way you can do bank draft, credit card or they send a bill.

i'm pretty sure they won't let you use a credit card if you're paying monthly. otherwise, this part is accurate.

 

[Merilyn]

We did all the math before we bought. It will more than pay for itself in just a few years. I would imagine that even staying in a vr will cost more than your DVC cost after several years. The dues can be high but even if they add more each year to dues (and they do) so does Disney add to the cost of all its resorts. I would think about the same % amount. You will find that a vr doesn't compare to anything DVC offers. You won't ever want to stay there again. You can figure out the money and will find that it is well worth the cost to own DVC. We have already more than gotten our moneys worth out of the initial cost. Now, the dues I pay a year gives us about 2 1/2 days in a GV at cash cost. We stay about 10 days and at about 1000 a day, you can see how much that cost. We get 7 1/2 days for free now. We love it and made a great decision to join in 1994. We have traded to several locations and love that option also. I hope this works for you and we can one day say
"Welcome Home" to you.

 

[robinb]

I know this isn't part of your question, but I don't see how you can squeeze in two weeks out of only 160 points. Check out the DIS's very own Caskbill's DVC Vacation Planner to see how many points you would need for your previous hotel stays: http://web.nalu.net/~wneth/dvcplanner.htm .

I see that your next trip is in two weeks which is in "Choice" season, the second lowest season for point use. A week in a studio at SSR would be 97 points and a week in a VALUE studio at AKV would be 75 points (a STANDARD is 90). However ... the value villas will be one of the first ones to be snapped up because of the point savings. If you buy at AKV and plan your vacations 11 months in advance and only book in Adventure or Choice season then you will be able to swing things. You can also shave off one of two expensive weekend nights be arriving on Sunday and/or leaving on Friday to save some points. Otherwise, I think you will need more than 160 points .

 

[Amy5000]

what are anyone's feeling on the fact that it expires on you after you pay all that ?? i am just wondering.....

Basically, everyone who purchased knew this was the case. There are many other timeshares in the Orlando area that are lovely, have perpetual deeds, and can be purchased resale for much less than DVC. It's Disney, it's clearly something the market will bear, so my thought is: "It is what it is." (Deep, don't you think).

Amy

 

[blujaymama]

Thanks so much to all who replied to help us out! Robinb- I see what you are talking about. We haven't put too much thought into exact points yet. I have heard the minimum is 160 and we tend to go in value or regular season times. 160 is just a guestimate. You can buy more points too right? at any time?
Mikesmom and Merilyn- great points, we already are sold we want to buy, just trying to figure out some logistics. I guess we will have to wait two weeks and see what resort and how many point we go for!

 

[dizplanner]

Yes you can add on at any time - minimum of 25 points if you pay cash or 50 points if you need to finance. Do look at the point charts - DVC seasons are different from the resort seasons.

However, I actually agree with buying the minimum and seeing how you will actually use it, particularly if you don't already go twice and year and know it will continue. Depending on when you buy relative to your use year, you may have points that you will need to bank. If you buy from Disney, you get the full current year points (2007 points for most) - say if you get a March use year, you will have 160 2007 points to bank and will get 160 2008 points on March 1 2008 - this gives you 320 points to spend between March 1 2008 and March 1 2009. If you get a studio during Adventure season (the lowest) for a week it will cost between 72 and 104 points. If you go in Magic season (the highest except for Premier which is Christmas/Easter - but this is the season for most of spring and summer) it will cost between 97 and 134 points. Let's assume you manage to go for an average of 100 points/trip. So you use 200 of the 320 points and bank 120 so the next year you have 280 to use. Again you use 200 and bank 80 which gives you 240. Again you use 200 and bank 40. This gives you 200. So if you can start with a year's banked points and can average 200 points per year, it will be four years before you have to borrow or purchase more points. If you wanted to then start borrowing, it would be another 4 years before you don't have enough points to make your trips. Of course what will blow this out of the water is if you discover you only want to stay at the higher point resorts at higher point times or if you want something other than a studio. Or if all you could get would be an October use year - all you get is the current 2007 year points and are starting the year so won't have the bonus of banking an extra year.

Caskbill's planner is really good for playing what if's with - I recommend you download it and put in a number of vacation scenarios and see how many points it takes.

 

[blujaymama]

whoa karen, all of those point senarios and bankings blew my mind after a long day of work! I get what you are talking about though. The past few years we have done anything from 1-3 weeks. So we figured going with the minimum would be best to start. Like you said, on the light years we can just bank and that gives us more for the next year. Good tip the use year date too, we'll see what we can get. Thanks for the help