should you purchase more points than needed initially or wait to get more?

[dcibrando]

should you purchase more points than needed initially or wait to get more?

does disney offer some discounts for members to purchase additional points sometimes???

 

[tjkraz]

does disney offer some discounts for members to purchase additional points sometimes???

They don't usually offer additional cash discounts, but recently they have offered other promotions. The current offer has members getting a one-time grant of 100 additional points for adding-on 120 or more at Saratoga Springs.

Last fall it was 2 free adult Annual Pass vouchers (about $800 value) for adding on at SSR.

I wouldn't buy more points than you need unless you have a plan for disposing of them. Doesn't do you any good to simply lose points that you cannot use.

 

[spiceycat]

just purchase what you need.

you don't want to get into a finance blind because of DVC.

and yes sometimes DVC will offer current member something else for an add on.

however your purchase price will be the cheapest time to buy DVC.

 

[crisi]

What would you do with those "extra" points? You could rent them - although renting is not a hassle free process. If you have friends or family you can "rent" them for (perhaps for the cost of dues on them) you might be better off buying what you need now (the price has gone up substantially). But if they will go to waste, you will quickly eat through the savings from buying at a lower cost. On the other hand, you'd probably find ways to spend them yourself - so they won't go to waste at all, but you might discover you've spent much more than you intended on Annual Passes, restaurant bills and souvieniers.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I think the thing that makes the most sense is to buy what you feel you need right away. The price will NOT be going down in the future, so why wait and end up paying more for your points. Those temporary incentives aren't guaranteed to continue indefinitely, and will change over time.

 

[xterratri]

I think that it can be very difficult to judge what you are going to "need." We knew upfront that 150 points wouldn't do it so we got 200. Well, we just made our first trip home and did our first add on simultaneously. I have a better idea now about what we are going to "need" and realize that even this is only a temporary fix and figure that we will do another add on around 2007 so aiming a little higher might not be a bad idea.

 

[AnnaS]

I would look to see what I think I would need/use or expect to use/need and then add 25 to that - but only if you are comfortable with those points financial and otherwise.

 

[JimMIA]

You might also keep in mind that the initial cost is only part of the picture. When you buy a contract, you are taking on the obligation of paying annual dues on each point for as long as you own the contract. 50 extra points is a couple hundred extra bucks every year in dues, so I'd be reluctant to buy too many at first.

You also have ways to manage points with banking and borrowing. And if all else fails and you need a few points one year, you can always rent them and have them transferred to your account. There are a lot of other options beside buying too many points.

Besides...what will you do when you get addonitis?

 

[tjkraz]

Another thought to bear in mind is that you cannot separate a contract once it has been created. If your initial contract is for 250 points, it must always remain 250 points. If you later determine that you only needed 200, your only option would be to sell the 250 pt contract and buy another that's only 200.

If you intend on buying 300 or more, you can request that DVC split your initial purchase into multiple contracts. But for purposes of your initial purchase, each contract must be at least 150 points. Later add-on contracts can be any amount of points, 25 or higher.

 

[mydogdrew]

I would buy the minimum to start. DVC is marketing more and more to existing owners and that trend will continue. I believe the deal through last Friday to add-on ($90 plus 2004 and 2005 points plus extra 100 plus waived dues) was far better than the deal just a year ago which was $89 I believe. It was also a better deal then the previous AP incentive. DVC has adopted a GM like pricing model where they introduce complexity and discounts. I think after the $98 price settles in you will see the next round of discounts again geared towards existing owners at roughly the same net cost as last week.

 

[Laurabearz]

First I would download Caskbil's planner and play with it for a while....

Then I would buy as many points as you can confortably afford, and if it is more than 150, I would split them up into multiple contracts.

 

[magicalmcwho]

If you intend on buying 300 or more, you can request that DVC split your initial purchase into multiple contracts. But for purposes of your initial purchase, each contract must be at least 150 points. Later add-on contracts can be any amount of points, 25 or higher.

Hi tjkraz,

Do you have to do this before you purchase or are you able to split contracts afterwards? I did know you could do this, so I was just wondering.

Thanks, Jim.

 

[tjkraz]

Hi tjkraz,

Do you have to do this before you purchase or are you able to split contracts afterwards? I did know you could do this, so I was just wondering.

Thanks, Jim.

It has to be done at the time of purchase. Contracts cannot be sub-divided at any time after the agreements are signed and returned.

 

[Disney Fanatic]

Another thought to bear in mind is that you cannot separate a contract once it has been created. If your initial contract is for 250 points, it must always remain 250 points. If you later determine that you only needed 200, your only option would be to sell the 250 pt contract and buy another that's only 200.

If you intend on buying 300 or more, you can request that DVC split your initial purchase into multiple contracts. But for purposes of your initial purchase, each contract must be at least 150 points. Later add-on contracts can be any amount of points, 25 or higher.

I am just wondering how a 130 pt contract is listed for sale on DVC Resales?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Disney Fanatic, the 130 point contract was an add on for someone, so it can be sold that way. Our 500 point total is broken up 200, 150, 50, 50, 50. DH just asked me about another add on yesterday.

Bobbi

 

[dcibrando]

so 150 is only the minimum if you buy direct from disney? If 130 points if enough for us now, we can purchase one through a resale correct?

 

[SyrCinderella]

I agree that it is really hard to know up front how many points will work for you. Even after playing with the points charts for a while we bought 200, but decided to add on with the current promotion because it looks like 200 isnt quite enough. It seems like a fairly close approximation on the initial contrat and then adding on later is a good idea - that way you can judge better. I'm sure there will be lots of different promotions as the years go by - and who knows? They may build a spiffy new resort somewhere that you want points at for the 11 month window.

 

[tjkraz]

so 150 is only the minimum if you buy direct from disney? If 130 points if enough for us now, we can purchase one through a resale correct?

You CAN buy a resale contract of 130, but first you need to find one at a resort you like. Remember contracts cannot be divided by the owner. So, this isn't a case where someone with a 1000 pt contract could simply sell you 130 of their points.

You could also consider a resale contract smaller than 130, and add-on the remaining direct from DVC. Just bear in mind that add-ons must be at least 25 pts, 50 pts if you wish to finance through DVC and 100+ pts if you want to take advantage of any promotional discounts (which really only applies to SSR points.)

 

[bcvillastwo]

I've thought about the split contract approach from time to time since we purchased 300 BCV points in early 2002. At the time we didn't know anything about DIS Boards so we just have one 300 point contract. I can't say for sure that we would have split the 300 points into two 150 point contracts even if we had know but I'd like to think that is exactly what we had done.

So heed the advice about splitting contracts because you just never know when/if you might need to sell some points (but not all of them).

Another important point is to really think about how many points you will need. Fortunately, we did and so far (fingers crossed) the 300 points has worked exceedingly well for our family.

Good luck