Trying to make sure that I understand how this works..

[dburg30]

And of course, if I've picked the wrong area, someone please move it

First you 'buy' into the DVC by choosing a number of 'points'. Now, I'm going to use resale numbers, just because..

Let's say that I am interested in 175 pts at BCV.. right now there is one that's up on the resales site for 92/pt totally $16100.. Now you 'buy' that, plus closings costs etc etc.. NOW.. Every year, we 'get' 175 more points and pay dues based on those points. Right now for example, it's sited that BC is 4.80/point, which would be $840/year. Am I right so far? Now's where I get confused.. Is that basically the DVC deal? Right now I clicked on BC, and looked at a week rate for a week, in the nov 1-24 area, and it appears to be 106 points for a studio.

I know you have to have transportation, food, tickets etc etc etc , but is this basically how it works?

Thanks for your time..

 

[MAO]

Yep. So, if you bought 175 points you could stay one full week during November and still have 69 points left during the 12 month period known as your "Use Year." For example, my use year starts in June, so my 2008 points are good from June 1 2008 through May 31 2009.

In your example, you would have 69 points left that you could use to a) add more nights to your November stay or b) stay another time during your use year and/or c) 'bank' those points into the next year, giving you 244 points to use in the 12 months of that UY. That would be enough points for a full two weeks, plus 32 points left for another night or to 'bank' into the next year.

 

[dburg30]

And I think I read that you can 'collect' 3 years, by 'banking' this years to next, getting next years, and they 'borrowing' the following years? So you 'could' have 525 points to use for a 'super special vacation'? BUT you wouldnt have points for the next year, unless you 'borrowed' again from the FOLLOWING year?

edit: Oh yea, thank you very much for letting me know I understand the basics

 

[Donald is #1]

And I think I read that you can 'collect' 3 years, by 'banking' this years to next, getting next years, and they 'borrowing' the following years? So you 'could' have 525 points to use for a 'super special vacation'? BUT you wouldnt have points for the next year, unless you 'borrowed' again from the FOLLOWING year?

Yes, you could use 525 points in year #2, but you couldn't use any points in year #1 or year #3. You are also right that if you wanted to take a trip in year #3 after borrowing your points for a big vacation in year #2, then you could borrow from year #4.

Did all this make sense?

 

[dburg30]

Yes, actually it does Thanks again to both of you for the help.

 

[MAO]

I don't particularly want to muddy the issue, but .....

Your points do not have to be used at just the resort you buy into. Generally, you want to buy where you normally want to stay simply because you can make a reservation at that resort (your "home resort") 11 months prior to your stay but you have to wait until 7 months prior to make a reservation at any other DVC property. Also, pretty much any Disney property (with the exception of the Value resorts) throughout the world are available to stay at via DVC points. Plus, there are several hotels/resorts throughout the world that you can stay at using DVC points. And, at this time, DVC has a relationship with Interval International that allows you to *try* to swap a DVC week's worth of points for a week at one of their offerings. Generally speaking, using DVC points for anything but a DVC resort is usually going to cost you more than paying cash would, but it's important to recognize that you have more options than just staying at your home DVC resort.

That last statement usually causes questions -- what I mean is that most people take the total amount they've paid for the DVC purchase, divide that total by the number of years on the contract (if you buy resale, you might have 34 years left on the contract, or 36, or whatever) to get a yearly pro-rated amount, then add in the total of that year's maintenance fees to get an idea of how much that year's DVC points cost them. Assume you buy 175 points on a contract that still has 35 years for a total of $16,100. That's $460 a year, plus $840 for maintenance fees, for a total of $1,300 or $7.43 a point. If it costs you 106 points for a week, you'll effectively be paying $787.58 for that room. The cheapest room at the Contemporary during that time would be 285 points, or $2117.55. Most people feel that they can get discounts allowing them a week at the Contemporary for less than that. Sometimes, though, it's nice to know you *can* go and not have to worry about whether you can meet the requirements of whatever deal you might find.

Furthermore, you can receive as a gift/buy/rent/whatever points from another DVC member once during each Use Year. There's a board here that allows you to offer or request points for money, which would potentially allow you to expand your 175 points in a given year to a much larger number of points if you wished. So if you normally go every year and pretty much use up all of your points every year but suddenly get the urge to throw a big get-together, you could conceivably do so without banking or borrowing from your own points. Of course, it's probably going to cost you more than $7.43 a point but you never know.

I'm not sure how much detail you really wanted on this. Feel free to ignore this last post if it was more than you needed! ;-o

 

[dburg30]

No, actually I was thinking about that. I would love to be able to have a 'large gathering' every few years, and was kind of bummed thinking that I'd have to 'skip' sometimes to build up points again. I had found out on my own what was so important about the 11mo and 7mo thing that I kept seeing everyone talk about

I can see where it's a lot of money, but I also see the value in it IF you are into disney... Now.... let's say that a DVC is opened at disneyland (have read about that), would the points here, count 1 for 1 there, and just be only available 7 months out since it's not my 'home' resort? I understand that points arent 'worth' as much at other properties that arent disney owned, but if it is, then 'points is points'???

 

[javamom]

Now.... let's say that a DVC is opened at disneyland (have read about that), would the points here, count 1 for 1 there, and just be only available 7 months out since it's not my 'home' resort? I understand that points arent 'worth' as much at other properties that arent disney owned, but if it is, then 'points is points'???

A point is a point, all points can be used at all DVC resorts. Disneyland DVC will be no different than the WDW DVC resorts. What differs are the point charts at each resort to stay in various room sizes at the various pricing seasons. Looks like you have already looked at the points charts.

Important thing to remember is that the total number of points within each resort's chart do not change. If they need to raise the number of points for any particular night on the chart, that means that they have to lower it elsewhere on the chart as well.

So while not all like-rooms at all DVC resorts on any given night require the same number of points, the points are interchangeable to be used as you wish.

Any DVC resort stays, outside of your home resort, are subject to the 7-month mark. It doesn't matter where you own at the 7month mark, you may book whatever is available at any DVC resort with your points.


Hope that answered your question.

 

[Moeluv4u7]

Just had to jump in here- great information- Thanks- To piggyback on the questions... So you can only rent/purchase whatever once in a use year for points from someone else? What is one person has 50 pts but you need an additional 70- can you get the other 20 from someone else or do all have to be from one person AND do they have to come from someone w/ same home resort as you or from the resort where you'd like to stay?

 

[javamom]

Just had to jump in here- great information- Thanks- To piggyback on the questions... So you can only rent/purchase whatever once in a use year for points from someone else? What is one person has 50 pts but you need an additional 70- can you get the other 20 from someone else or do all have to be from one person AND do they have to come from someone w/ same home resort as you or from the resort where you'd like to stay?

Well, I am not sure that I understand your question.

Are you a member wanting to get a transfer of points from another member? If so, no you can only do one transfer transaction per year.

If your question is about renting points from a member, please see the Rent/Tade board here at the DIS for rental info.

 

[Moeluv4u7]

Thanks! & No not a member yet... very soon to be and just still researching much needed info- Another great thing to ask my guide about now- Had no idea about transfering- Yes, I thought it was referring to renting, trading-- Thanks though- I am sure I will still learn more

 

[Caskbill]

Thanks! & No not a member yet... very soon to be and just still researching much needed info- Another great thing to ask my guide about now- Had no idea about transfering- Yes, I thought it was referring to renting, trading-- Thanks though- I am sure I will still learn more

Points are of no use to non-members, so they are actually renting a reservation from a member. They are not directly renting points. In this case points is simply the 'currency' used by the member to make the reservation.

Once you are a member, then you can use points directly to make your own reservation. If you are shy one year and need more points, then you can 'rent' them from another member. In this case they are actually selling you some of their points which they transfer directly into your account. You then use them as you see fit, making your own reservations with MS.

Points can only be transferred IN or OUT one time within each use year. So if you needed 70 points you would need to get all of them from a single member. You cannot get 50 from one person, and 20 from another.

Transferred points retain their own use year and home resort. If your home resort is AKV and someone transfers you some of their SSR points, you could only combine them with your points to make a reservation at 7-months. But if someone transferred you AKV points, then you could use the combined points to make a reservation at 11-months.

If the points have different use year months, then it is only important that your vacation be within the respective two use years. Suppose you want to make an 11-month reservation combining rented (purchased) points from another member. Your use year is June. Their use year is November.

For 2008 points, your year is 6/1/2008 thru 5/31/2009
For 2008 points, their year is 11/1/2008 thru 10/31/2009

These points overlap 11/1/2008 thru 5/31/2009 so you could combine those points to make a reservation during this timeframe.

Suppose you wanted the extra points for an October 2008 reservation. In this case, if someone had November points, you could rent their 2007 points (use year 11/1/2007 thru 10/31/2008) and combine them with your 2008 points (6/1/2008 thru 5/31/2009) for an October 2008 reservation since the overlap timeframe is 6/1/2008 thru 10/31/2008)

Of course, if someone had points from a different use year month, simply calculate the overlap dates. The point is (no pun intended) that you can have points transferred to your account, and depending on how you want to use them, they do not have to match your own home resort, or use year month.

This is how it's suppose to work. Note that in the past MS has had problems with transferred points in sometimes they morphed into the new home resort, or morphed into the user's use year month. Supposedly these issues have now been fixed.

Hope this helps.

 

[Moeluv4u7]

Thank-You! I think you are really helping to put this all into perspective for me! I hope I am starting to understand how it works AND what UY we should ask for (hope it will be available) Still not sure should we do AKV, SSR, or another... So confused! We would love to be able to take a few days to go see all and decide that way but really don't want to miss out on the opportunity available right now to take time to "see" what we may like best- I notice quite a few people have more than one home resort- WOW! Can't that get expensive? Just to have HR status at more than one?- I have a new dream now- LOL

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Just to have HR status at more than one?- I have a new dream now- LOL

Be careful -- once you start buying those points it can be quite contagious! Also, after you become a DVC member you can do add-ons for smaller point amounts than an initial contract amount of 160 pts (or 100 pts with the current AKV promo). So many members might add on points at other resorts in increments as small as 25 at a time...makes it a little more reasonable that way.

 

[Caskbill]

Be careful -- once you start buying those points it can be quite contagious! Also, after you become a DVC member you can do add-ons for smaller point amounts than an initial contract amount of 160 pts (or 100 pts with the current AKV promo). So many members might add on points at other resorts in increments as small as 25 at a time...makes it a little more reasonable that way.

Just to add a little to what calypso said, the reason people might do that is that by using banking and borrowing, they can have triple their points every 3rd year. Thus owning 50 points at another resort, can give you 150 points to use every 3rd year. This is helpful if you want to book that resort at the 11-month window.