Think about a small contract -- many questions!

[Mississippian]

As a general rule I think time share is a bad deal, but for several years my wife and I have agreed that there were some advantages to DVC timeshares. I'd like to share a few thoughts and ask a few questions. By the way, I've done some searches, and there ought to be answers to all of these questions, but I can't find them.

My wife and I stayed at the Board Walk Villas in 1999, in a one bedroom for the price of a regular hotel room, due to an unexpected upgrade. It was great, and I think if we had purchased then the price would have been about $65. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm thinking about buying a small resale, for perhaps as little as 50 points, just to buy in the program. If it works for me, I might buy more.

Anyway, here are some of my questions:

1. As I understand it, it is okay to rent out your points to strangers, but you aren't supposed to sell them to members, although you may give or swap them. To me this is kind of dumb, and I notice a lot of people on the trade board transfering points for money. So is there any problem with paying someone to transfer me some points if I want them? This seems easier than the cumbersome process of having someone else make my reservation.

2. The only resorts I consider worthwhile are the Boardwalk and the Beach Club. Outside of these I would prefer a hotel. So how hard is it to get a studio or one-bedroom at the BWV or BCV? Will the seven-month window work for the summer? What about one month during the off-season?

3. Vero Beach seems to be the cheapest buy-in. My wife loves the beach, but I hate it, and I would be buying only to use other resorts (my wife might have other ideas). Any problem buying in using Vero Beach (I've noticed they have higher maintainance.)

4. I doubt I will be an avid pool-hopper, although the privilege is an incentive to buy at the Beach Club versus BWV, since the former can use the pool of the latter, but not vice versa. Suppose I pay cash for a room at a Disney resort. Can I (as a DVC member) use another pool? Just curious.

I may have some more questions, but this will get me started and settle most of my issues.

 

[Caskbill]

1. As I understand it, it is okay to rent out your points to strangers, but you aren't supposed to sell them to members, although you may give or swap them. To me this is kind of dumb, and I notice a lot of people on the trade board transfering points for money. So is there any problem with paying someone to transfer me some points if I want them? This seems easier than the cumbersome process of having someone else make my reservation.

You can rent points to anyone you want whether they're a member or not. Non-members do not have any accounts and so the member must make any reservations for them. Members have accounts so points can be transferred between members as desired, whether rented, or gifted. If you are a member and rent points from another member, you can either have the other member make the reservation in your name, or you can have the points transferred directly to your account and then you can use them as you see fit.

2. The only resorts I consider worthwhile are the Boardwalk and the Beach Club. Outside of these I would prefer a hotel. So how hard is it to get a studio or one-bedroom at the BWV or BCV? Will the seven-month window work for the summer? What about one month during the off-season?

I presume that's because of the location, however you might not want to discard OKW until you've stayed there in a 1-B/R at least once. The differences in room sizes between OKW and the other WDW DVC resorts is considerable. To answer your question, getting ressies at 7-months at non-home resorts is expected to get tougher as SSR continues to sell. The number of members who own at OKW and eventually at SSR will completely dwarf the number of members who own at BCV and BWV. As these members all try to book the BWV or BCV rooms at 7-months, it has the potential to become very competitive. The general advice you'll receive on this board is you should buy where you want to stay the most, and have that 11-month booking priority window. Studios can be tougher to get at 7-months and actually impossible to get for the most busy times.

3. Vero Beach seems to be the cheapest buy-in. My wife loves the beach, but I hate it, and I would be buying only to use other resorts (my wife might have other ideas). Any problem buying in using Vero Beach (I've noticed they have higher maintainance.)

I would not recommend this route. If you want to stay mostly at BWV or BCV then you should buy there.

4. I doubt I will be an avid pool-hopper, although the privilege is an incentive to buy at the Beach Club versus BWV, since the former can use the pool of the latter, but not vice versa. Suppose I pay cash for a room at a Disney resort. Can I (as a DVC member) use another pool? Just curious.

No, pool hopping is a perk for DVC members only while staying at a DVC resort on points. Being a DVC member does not entitle you to pool hop when staying at any non-DVC resort nor technically even if staying at a DVC resort on cash, although if you combined a point/cash vacation at a DVC resort, your keys would say DVC-member which would allow pool hopping. Note however that pool hopping is not guaranteed as part of any membership and can be discontinued at any time. Many on this board have speculated that once the OKW pool slide is completed, DVC will discontinue the pool hopping perk completely. Also remember that currently pool hopping is not allow during the busy times of the year. I would not recommend you base any of your decision on any potential pool hopping perks.

Feel free to post back if you have additional questions.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I can't improve on the advice Caskbill gave except to say that I consider BWV and BCV to BE hotels. They have hallways like hotels and they feel like hotels. They DO have a great location, but OKW feels more like a vacation home. SSR feels like an apartment, but a bit more private than BWV and BCV. That's just my impression from my experiences. I would think 50 points would not get you enough to really do anything with them. This is especially true in summer and holiday periods. You would need three years worth of points to get just a studio at BCV or BWV for a week during the summer months. Now, I suppose if you only care to go every third year, that might work, but it would be a bit of a hassle and would have none of the real benefits of membership, becaue there would be little flexibility.

 

[Mississippian]

You can rent points to anyone you want whether they're a member or not. Non-members do not have any accounts and so the member must make any reservations for them. Members have accounts so points can be transferred between members as desired, whether rented, or gifted. If you are a member and rent points from another member, you can either have the other member make the reservation in your name, or you can have the points transferred directly to your account and then you can use them as you see fit.

Thanks for the info. I was misinformed about this, or perhaps the rules have changed. This is the only way that makes sense.

I presume that's because of the location, however you might not want to discard OKW until you've stayed there in a 1-B/R at least once. The differences in room sizes between OKW and the other WDW DVC resorts is considerable. To answer your question, getting ressies at 7-months at non-home resorts is expected to get tougher as SSR continues to sell. The number of members who own at OKW and eventually at SSR will completely dwarf the number of members who own at BCV and BWV. As these members all try to book the BWV or BCV rooms at 7-months, it has the potential to become very competitive. The general advice you'll receive on this board is you should buy where you want to stay the most, and have that 11-month booking priority window. Studios can be tougher to get at 7-months and actually impossible to get for the most busy times.

I would not recommend this route. If you want to stay mostly at BWV or BCV then you should buy there.

Currently BCV and BWV don't have any small buys available, which is why I was considering Vero Beach. Now for another question: If I have 50 points at Vero Beach and 50 points at BWV, and I want to reserve a 100-point trip, do I use the 7-month or 11-month window?

No, pool hopping is a perk for DVC members only while staying at a DVC resort on points.

Thanks for clarifying this for me.

 

[Mississippian]

I can't improve on the advice Caskbill gave except to say that I consider BWV and BCV to BE hotels. They have hallways like hotels and they feel like hotels. They DO have a great location, but OKW feels more like a vacation home. SSR feels like an apartment, but a bit more private than BWV and BCV. That's just my impression from my experiences. I would think 50 points would not get you enough to really do anything with them. This is especially true in summer and holiday periods. You would need three years worth of points to get just a studio at BCV or BWV for a week during the summer months. Now, I suppose if you only care to go every third year, that might work, but it would be a bit of a hassle and would have none of the real benefits of membership, becaue there would be little flexibility.

I don't want to entirely give up on the resort hotels, because with codes they offer such a good value.

One DVC trip every two years would be okay with me, or if I were a small owner I could easily rent additional points to stay longer or in a better facility.

My thinking is to get my feet wet, and maybe buy more points later.

 

[dianeschlicht]

"Now for another question: If I have 50 points at Vero Beach and 50 points at BWV, and I want to reserve a 100-point trip, do I use the 7-month or 11-month window?"

At the 11 month window, you can use the BWV points you owned, but to use the other 50 (from Vero) you would have to wait until the 7 month window.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Now for another question: If I have 50 points at Vero Beach and 50 points at BWV, and I want to reserve a 100-point trip, do I use the 7-month or 11-month window?

You would have an 11 month window for 50 points at each resort of those resorts. You could combine them at 7 months for a reservation anywhere using all 100 points.

HBC

 

[ErinC]

If you are looking for small resales, call the resale agents and tell them what you want. Most of the small addons, never make the web page, because they get sold before time to post them. I think if you'll call the resale agents, and tell them what you are interested in, they will probably be able to find you something within a reasonable amount of time, especially if you call a couple of them. Best of luck in your decision.

 

[NMW]

I agree with the others who have said not to buy VB if you never want to stay there. Also, if you only EVER want to stay at BCV or BWV I would buy a resale there. You don't want to spend money on DVC and then be dissapointed. I think calling a resale agent is a good idea. We used the TimeShare Store. They were great.
Also, the busy DVC times are not the same as busy times in WDW (like summer). I'm pretty sure that busy DVC times are the beginning of DEC at any of the smaller resorts (BCV,BWV,VWL) also Oct and Nov at the Epcot resorts (BWV, BCV) because of the Food and Wine Festival. Others on this board have said it's very difficult to book these resorts at the 7 month window with out waitlisting. Just something to keep in mind. Good luck!

 

[Meliechick]

In the information that I received from DVC when I recently purchased I read that you could transfer points to DVC members but not for money. I'm glad to see that I miss read that. I too thought that sounded a little silly.

 

[salvatorejrm]

We to bought a 50 point contract at Vero Beach. 50 Points at Vero beach will never hurt you its a great place to vacation. That got us into the system. In regards to the 11 month and 7 month windows if you wanted to use a 100 points at BWV you could use your 50 plus borrow 50 and get the 11 month window. If you own a few small contracts at different resorts you can play with banking and borrowing. We will end up having 5 - 50 point contracts at different resorts and like I said with banking and borrowing I can get the 11 month window at each resort (with up to 150 points). We do visit in the slow season so this works for us.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We to bought a 50 point contract at Vero Beach. 50 Points at Vero beach will never hurt you its a great place to vacation. That got us into the system. In regards to the 11 month and 7 month windows if you wanted to use a 100 points at BWV you could use your 50 plus borrow 50 and get the 11 month window. If you own a few small contracts at different resorts you can play with banking and borrowing. We will end up having 5 - 50 point contracts at different resorts and like I said with banking and borrowing I can get the 11 month window at each resort (with up to 150 points). We do visit in the slow season so this works for us.

Works, but LOTS of bookkeepping with this method. I have two contracts, but both are at the same resort with the same use year, so no hassles.

 

[Doctor P]

Actually, transfers for remuneration are expressly prohibited and MS has been known to prohibit such transfers when they become aware of them. That is not to say that there aren't ways around the issue, but I was warned by my transferee who does this a lot that I should under no circumstances hint that there was remuneration involved as that is grounds to deny the transfer and had been done in the past.

 

[DebbieB]

I think they put the no exchange of money into the contract to avoid getting involved in disputes between members.

 

[jennypenny]

Maybe I'm misinformed, but isn't the minimum number of points 150 for a first-time purchase? I thought you had to buy at least 150, and then could add on in 25 points increments or more.

Jenny

 

[DebbieB]

Maybe I'm misinformed, but isn't the minimum number of points 150 for a first-time purchase? I thought you had to buy at least 150, and then could add on in 25 points increments or more.

Jenny

That is if you buy direct from DVC. On a resale, you could buy less (probably an add-on portion of the sellers contract).

 

[pjshaff]

if you purchase through Disney as a NEW member, then the minimum is 150 pts. we purchased through a resale agent and started out a 50 pt contract to see how we liked it. needless to say, we are looking to add-on


pam

 

[Deep-Thots]

The minimum number of points for a first time purchase through DVC is 150. If you go the resale route, there is no such minimum.

Btw, Mississippian, you do know that buying such a small resale contract dramatically increases the cost per point (due to closing costs), don't you?

 

[salvatorejrm]

No minimum on resales

 

[Deb & Bill]

We bought one resale contract of 50 points. The closing costs were about $400. That will raise the cost of your points, so you need to figure that in.