Should I buy a small contract just to own DVC?

[AlwaysEeyore]

Is it worth it to buy a small resale (100 points or under) at any resort just to have a DVC and then add on in the future?

I have seen reasonable resales but I wonder if it would be a waste. I would love BWV or AKV but they are just so expensive. Doing the math I think I would need to buy 200 points. I worry the longer I wait the more expensive points will get.

If you have 100 at OKW & 100 at SSR can you combine them to stay at AKV?

When do banked points expire? If I bank 2007 points can I use them in 2009?

Sorry for all the questions, as soon as I think I'm ready to buy I think of stuff in my sleep and get all confused again. We have made up our mind to buy we just have to figure out what.

 

[tfc3rid]

To answer your questions...
If you have a number of contracts they can essentially be 'totaled' for a stay at a particular reort. The folks at Member Services will simply take points from each contract allotment to fill a reservation.

If you bank your 2007 points, you must use them in your 2008 use year or they will expire.

My experience has been positive. I first bought in 2000, 250 points at the Boardwalk, followed up in 2002 with 150 points at the each Club and then yesterday aith 150 more points at SSR. It all depends on how, when and where you want to vacation to figure out what is best for you!

Good luck!

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can only use non-home resort points at 7 months out. Until AKV gets built, I doubt if anyone other than AKV owners will get to stay there. You use your home resort points for the 11 month booking advantage.

If you bank points, they are good for the next use year. So depending on when your use year starts and ends, that is when they would be good. You can also borrow the next years points if you need more than banking and using the current year points would give.

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

Thank you! You are very helpful. We like being able to stay somewhere different each time we go to WDW. Is the only point of a "Home Resort" is to have first option of rooms at 11 months?

 

[DVC Grammy]

Thank you! You are very helpful. We like being able to stay somewhere different each time we go to WDW. Is the only point of a "Home Resort" is to have first option of rooms at 11 months?

Not only rooms, but also location of rooms (BW), and specific resorts. If you truly are open to staying at any of the DVC resorts, then choose a "home" purchase which works best for you (points, length of contract, use year, etc.).
Good luck and happy vacations!

 

[tfc3rid]

My original purchases were for the 'big profile' BWV and BCV but in realizing as time goes on that it doesn't really matter where you stay but that you are immersed in the Magic. For me, I haven't stayed at my 'home resorts' in about 4 years, even when there has been availalbility...

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you want to be able to stay in a standard view room at the BWV or a BW view room, you'll need to own at BWV. If you want the dedicated two bedroom with two queen beds at BCV, you'll want to own at BCV. If you want to get a GV, you'll want to purchase at one of the resorts with GV.

 

[dumbo71]

Another consideration but certainly not a reason to purchase is the perks. Annual pass discount DDE discount with the AP, fee parking at parks, free valet parking at BCv & BWV.

 

[utahkennedys]

Yes, a small contract is great! We have loved our small OKW contract, and feel it is very flexible. We don't want to travel to WDW each year from Salt Lake City because a long flight with 2 little kids isn't a fun way to start and end a vacation for us, so being able to bank and borrow points is great! This May we are using our DVC points at Disneyland Hotel for 5 days and are very excited about that. You can always add on points later in increments as small as 25, so we figure as our kids get bigger and we likely go more often, we will add on.

 

[ArnyVee]

We originally bought into DVC with a small OKW contract (75 points) and it worked out great for us. We started out small and now have gone with a larger contract since then. We are now selling off the small contract.

It's a great way to get things going within DVC and not make the bigger committment right away. My DW was not as into DVC at first and it was easier for her to accept the fact of a smaller contract.

Good luck on your decision!

 

[mb168]

I did this originally by starting a contract on 70 OKW points but after reading all of the materials from DVC and this boards, I went ahead and bought 150 BCV before the first 70 actually closed. My thinking was that I'd get a taste of DVC with less $ put out but its very addictive and this board is hard to read without wnating to call up and get an add on to this day! I realized thatthe 70 points wouldn't allow us to do what we wanted so we kept them and banked every other year for a stay at a 1br at OKW for Thanksgiving. It made it easy to use it for just the one trip and use my now 230BCV pts for our other trips.

 

[Dean]

For a subset of people I think it's worth owning say 25 pts just for perk access. But I generally wouldn't buy 25 pts now with the idea of buying more later.

 

[Mom B]

We bought a 100 point contract on resale (Vero Beach, actually) and it's worked out very well for us. Of course we can't resist the attraction of adding on, and it's just a matter of time before we do (next time it will be an "on property" resort, PROBABLY AKV...we love our beach time but gotta do the parks too!) With only 100 points we have still been able to do banking and borrowing to get in some pretty great trips with the extended family (and thanks to my brother in law for letting us rent some of his points to make up the difference if needed!) If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing (unless of course we won the lottery...then we'd buy lots MORE points!)

 

[dunnhorn]

We have made up our mind to buy we just have to figure out what.

Just remember that the difference between OKW and SSR on the secondary market is about $5 or $6 a point ($78 for OKW and $84 for SSR) but 15 years on the length of the contract. We love OKW... but for this reason we bought SSR.... and we have stayed at OKW a ton on my parents points and we have never had a problem getting a reservation even less than 4 months out.

If you get a small contract, you can use it to the max to bank and borrow for future years. For example, buy a 100 point contract and bank it - the next year you would have the 100 banked points, another 100 for that use year, and you could borrow 100 from the future year. Granted, that would be using 3 years worth of points (and maint fees) in that one vacation, but it would be doable... and if you wanted to visit WDW in the interim you could either rent a moderate room or pay cash for a DVC room with the 25% discount.

Also, once you are "in" you can do 25 point add ons. The min buy in through Disney right now is 150 points - around $15K. We just bought a resale through TTS at 125 points and this came out to be roughly $11K, which was an immediate "savings" of 4K.... hopefully we will be able to use that towards an add on contract in the future.