Totally inept and need help

[DEff]

Hi y'all. Once again, after a trip to Disney, I am thinking about buying into a Disney resort. But as usual, when I think about $ my head gets confused.

First thing's first. What is the lowest number of points that would make sense to buy, in order to go every other year, or every third year? 75? I'm thinking first year bank, second year go. Third year bank, fourth year go. If I could make it work out at 50 points and do every third year, I'd even consider that.

Second thing. What are the per point maintenance charges?

Third thing, does it make more sense to buy into an II resort (if I've got that right, that is, that II is affiliated with Disney) that is deeded and exchange into Disney?

Thanks in advance.

Donna

 

[DEff]

Another stupid add-on question. What difference really, does the use month make in considering a resale?

Thanks.

Donna

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

What is the lowest number of points that would make sense to buy, in order to go every other year, or every third year? 75? I'm thinking first year bank, second year go. Third year bank, fourth year go. If I could make it work out at 50 points and do every third year, I'd even consider that.

To go every third year, many people bank and borrow. So you should be able to get away with purchasing as few as 50 points on the resale market. Every third year that would give you 150 (which is the minimum first time purchasers must buy from Disney).

Second thing. What are the per point maintenance charges?

Here is a (Link) to that information.

Another stupid add-on question. What difference really, does the use month make in considering a resale?

I didn't know the answer to your original question 3, so I replaced it with your question 4. Use year only makes a difference if you have to cnacel soon before your trip and therefore miss your banking deadlines. If you usually travel in October. You would want a Sepetmber or October use year. That way if you had to cancel your trip, you could still bank the points. If you had a December use year and traveled in October and had to cancel the trip, you may miss your banking deadline. Use year has nothing to do with when you can make a reservation.

HBC

 

[Dean]

Hi y'all. Once again, after a trip to Disney, I am thinking about buying into a Disney resort. But as usual, when I think about $ my head gets confused.

First thing's first. What is the lowest number of points that would make sense to buy, in order to go every other year, or every third year? 75? I'm thinking first year bank, second year go. Third year bank, fourth year go. If I could make it work out at 50 points and do every third year, I'd even consider that.

Second thing. What are the per point maintenance charges?

Third thing, does it make more sense to buy into an II resort (if I've got that right, that is, that II is affiliated with Disney) that is deeded and exchange into Disney?

Thanks in advance.

Donna

It really depends on when you will go, the unit size you need and how long you will stay. Since it's a bad idea to buy for long weekends, I'll assume two scenarios, both for a 2 BR at OKW during the summer. The numbers will vary for other unit sizes, times of the year and other resorts.

To go every other year you will need approximately 150 for 5 days avoiding weekends and essentially double that if you go for 7 days. A 1 BR will be slightly over 2/3 and a studio a little more than 1/3. So that gives you a need of 75-150 points for EOY in a 2 BR. Of course your trip may vary by time of year, length and unit size so you'll have to make any adjustments. If you look at BCV, BWV or VWL, the numbers will be more like 200 and 350 EOY so 100 & 175 total points yearly. Every third year is a problem in that you may get in a situation where you cross over use years and the points won't work for when you want to go. I am uncomfortable with those that might want to buy for every third year unless they know exactly when they will be going and chose their use year carefully.

As for buying an II resort and trading in, that will work if you don't need the summer, Xmas or time around Spring break assuming you buy one with enough quality to get you past II's quality filters. It will work especially well for Sept and Jan at OKW in a 1 BR or smaller; VB for Oct and Nov and HH for Dec to earl March except Xmas.

Another stupid add-on question. What difference really, does the use month make in considering a resale?

Thanks.

Donna

It depends. If you will travel about the same time or times each year, and might have to cancel late, it makes a big difference. For others, not so much. But since you have the opportunity to decide up front, try to get one within a month to 3 months prior to your usual travel if possible.

 

[Disney Doll]

Let me tell you the story of DH and I purchasing, and maybe it will help.

It was 1997, and we decided to purchase. The 2 choices back then were OKW and BWV. OKW was slightly cheaper both in cost-per-point and dues. We toured both, decided that we liked OKW, and so bought 150 points there, directly from Disney. We financed it over 10 years, because that gave us the cheapest per month payment. Our thought process was (and it did work out this way) that all we had to come up with every month was the minimum loan payment, but we could put more toward in those months that we had a little "extra", and thus pay it off faster. That is, in fact, what we ultimately succeeded in doing.

We figured out that 150 points would give us a week at an OKW studio every year, or a bigger unit every other year. We also figured out as time went on that we could maximize our points by not staying in a DVC property over the weekend, when the point values were higher. We never minded this...it actually made it seem like 2 vacations to stay at a moderate or deluxe for a good price for 2 or 3 nights, then move to the DVC property. Disney moves your luggage, so it was actually quite easy.

We began to like the DVC so much that we wanted more points!!!!! We bought a 2nd contract through The Timeshare Store, again at OKW. We were able to use some of the $ we had inherited from DH's parents to pay for this, so we were very fortunate.

Buying from a resale place is fine, but you need to have another way of financing, because you cannot get a loan. I have heard of people using their home equity line of credit to buy, and reaping the tax benefit of writing off the interest. I have heard of people using their Disney VISA to buy, getting the points, then paying it off the next month with their home equity line of credit, again then also getting the tax benefit.

As far as Use Year... I think the general rule of thumb is to get one that's within 2 or 3 months of when you would generally travel to WDW. DH and I go to WDW a lot in January, so we have a September Use Year and an October Use Year on our 2 contracts.

The fee for dues is about $3-$4 per point, depending on which resort is your home resort.

As far as one of the other timeshare companies...Disney does trade with II, but I would be fearful that since WDW is such a popular destination, it might be hard to get a trade into WDW. I am happier to own at the place everyone wants to go.

 

[DEff]

Thanks everyone. I think I have a better handle on it. We're really not a go every year sort of family so a smaller contract seems to make the most sense for us. The maintenance is more in line with what I'd prefer to pay as well.

Can someone tell me, does II have short notice deals on weeks here and there, like RCI does? For instance, we decided on short notice to go to Williamsburg during my daughter's spring break and it will only cost us $200 for a week in a 2 bedroom. What I'm thinking is that maybe we should sell our other T/S and just have one. The benefit of what we have is it is paid for, but the down side is having maintenance. Still, we've gone to Europe twice, and Orlando in most excellent resorts twice (since I got educated about how to do the T/S thing) and it is difficult to give up the swapping option that we get with that "weeks" unit.

Thanks again.

Donna

 

[RobDoc]

Can someone tell me, does II have short notice deals on weeks here and there, like RCI does? For instance, we decided on short notice to go to Williamsburg during my daughter's spring break and it will only cost us $200 for a week in a 2 bedroom.

Unfortunately, no. Since you will not have an individual II membership (DVC is the "member") you will not have access to anything except the resorts offered in the World Passport Collection. All exchanges must be handled directly thru MS. You will not get any mailings from II and will not have an II membership number.

If you already have another timeshare that trades thru II, it might be wise to keep that and use it to trade and for the special offers made by II. That way you can use DVC just for DVC.

Enjoy!

 

[DEff]

We have one that trades through RCI, not II. But your information does help me understand a little better what we'd really be getting with a DVC membership. Interesting, I suppose, but not surprising that Disney holds the properties so close, even to the extent that it controls your trades.

Now that we know how to play the game, RCI is OK with us. We're flexible as well, and so long as we are going where we want to go, and the place is clean and well taken care of, we're happy. Our exchange into the Sheraton Vistana recently was killer nice, and close enough to Disney but... you still don't get the magic of staying on site. I don't think we would have even taken advantage of EMHs on that trip because the 3 YO just wouldn't have been able to handle it. BUT. Mom (that's me) wants to stay on site and my husband concurs that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks (in terms of $$, partially offset by not having a car for instance).

Something I never see taken into account is how buying into Disney also guarantees that you'll be spending $$$ on park tickets for that particular vacation. Shouldn't that almost requirement be factored in versus what you might spend if you went somewhere else? But then again, maybe if we knew we were going regularly, we wouldn't do the park hopper or, we wouldn't do the no expiration option.

Does anyone actually go to the resorts and not go into the parks, I wonder...

Anyway, in summary, I take your advice to heart. If we get a DVC membership, it is for Disney only. Makes sense.

Thanks!

Donna

 

[sjdisneywedding]

I think there alot of people who dont do the parks anywhere near as much as they used to. We discussed this at length before we bought and came to the conclusion that there is so much other stuff to do and the resorts themselves are nice enough that we could see taking a few trips where we might not go to the parks at all. or maybe go one day and do a couple of parks. We havent even come close to that point yet, but theres not that feeling that you need to go all out and spend entire days at each park because you know you'll be back and soon

Also now with the savings involved on the longer MYW tickets you have a few options. We just bought the 10 day w everything in Jan and we are figuring that will probably get us through the next 3 trips.

 

[Dean]

Thanks everyone. I think I have a better handle on it. We're really not a go every year sort of family so a smaller contract seems to make the most sense for us. The maintenance is more in line with what I'd prefer to pay as well.

Can someone tell me, does II have short notice deals on weeks here and there, like RCI does? For instance, we decided on short notice to go to Williamsburg during my daughter's spring break and it will only cost us $200 for a week in a 2 bedroom. What I'm thinking is that maybe we should sell our other T/S and just have one. The benefit of what we have is it is paid for, but the down side is having maintenance. Still, we've gone to Europe twice, and Orlando in most excellent resorts twice (since I got educated about how to do the T/S thing) and it is difficult to give up the swapping option that we get with that "weeks" unit.

Thanks again.

Donna

II does have the deals but DVC members can't access them. As for tickets, any trip to Disney is expensive, even if the lodging were free.