Ways to maximize savings when purchasing direct DVC contract.. (credit card rewards etc)

[Rupert's Best Friend]

Everyone named on the deed becomes DVC-Y and gets the perks. They also get responsibility for paying dues, and the contract counts as an asset for them when applying for loans, etc. That’s more of an issue with college loans, but something to consider.

And, to be an owner someone must be at least 18 years old.

One final thought to ponder - if sister in law and her husband got a divorce, and both were owners along with you and your wife, things could get very complicated. One party could force a sale of the contract. IOW, I wouldn’t make them co-owners with you. Y’all can let them use the points - could even make them Associate Members so they can book directly, but they would not be DVC-Y in that case.

Thanks for confirming and while I think you're giving good general advice for most people out there, I think we'll be okay. My wife and I have been together since were high school students and I've known my sister-in-law since she was 10. I officiated their wedding and my wife and I have a 75% share in their house, while they have a 25% share. We make all the mortgage payments and property taxes; they take care of my parents-in-law and everyone is happy. So aside from being committed "ride or dies," we're financially intertwined...and prefer it that way.

I'm planning on picking up the cost of this DVC contract and will treat their ownership and usage of it as a gift.

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks for confirming and while I think you're giving good general advice for most people out there, I think we'll be okay. My wife and I have been together since were high school students and I've known my sister-in-law since she was 10. I officiated their wedding and my wife and I have a 75% share in their house, while they have a 25% share. We make all the mortgage payments and property taxes; they take care of my parents-in-law and everyone is happy. So aside from being committed "ride or dies," we're financially intertwined...and prefer it that way.

I'm planning on picking up the cost of this DVC contract and will treat their ownership and usage of it as a gift.

Just to add, once owners, they can use the points anyway they want.

You also won’t be able to sell unless all owners agree.

We did add our adult kids to our contracts but we paid for it all and pay the dues.

Doesn’t seem you are worried about it working but it’s good to know the legal aspects just in case.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks for confirming and while I think you're giving good general advice for most people out there, I think we'll be okay. My wife and I have been together since were high school students and I've known my sister-in-law since she was 10. I officiated their wedding and my wife and I have a 75% share in their house, while they have a 25% share. We make all the mortgage payments and property taxes; they take care of my parents-in-law and everyone is happy. So aside from being committed "ride or dies," we're financially intertwined...and prefer it that way.

I'm planning on picking up the cost of this DVC contract and will treat their ownership and usage of it as a gift.

That’s great to hear, and I’m sincerely happy it will work for y’all. I post cautions like that whenever someone posts about adding their child to a deed, purchasing with someone they’re not married to, etc., just to help them think through all the implications of co-ownership. I’ve read a few sad stories here over the years when things didn’t work out.

 

[Steelers0854]

I'm getting ready to buy a direct 150pt contract for Polynesian and was wondering if Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the best route for me to sign up for to maximize the rewards. As I understand it, there's a $795 annual fee and number of benefits including 125,000pts when spending $6K in the first 3-months, as well as 8X pts booking travel through Chase and 4X when booking travel/lodging direct.

My wife already has the Amex Platinum card so some of the benefits overlap with the CSR. We also have a Fidelity Visa card that gives 2% rewards and a Citi Strata Premier card (not sure if the DVC contract is coded for their 3X pts hotel/travel bonus or not).

Also, my wife and I plan on visiting a DVC resort maybe once every 3 years. We're mostly buying it for my sister-in-law's family (husband, 4 year old, and 1.5yr old really love Disney at this point). If we can have up to 6 owners on the DVC contract...who gets the Blue Card membership?

I would be careful about this. I read 1 person post they paid dues with their CSR and it coded as Hotel, which is 4x with the new model. I would assume that a purchase would code the same? But this is also just 1 data point, and if it doesn’t code as a hotel you get 1 point. Whereas other cards may give a smaller amount but you know what you’re getting. Venture X gives you 2x on everything, I can speak to it since I have it but im sure there are better ones. If it were me I would wait to hear more confirmation that a DVC transaction codes as a Hotel, if it does, 4x is insane, if it doesn’t then I would go with another card.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I would be careful about this. I read 1 person post they paid dues with their CSR and it coded as Hotel, which is 4x with the new model. I would assume that a purchase would code the same? But this is also just 1 data point, and if it doesn’t code as a hotel you get 1 point. Whereas other cards may give a smaller amount but you know what you’re getting. Venture X gives you 2x on everything, I can speak to it since I have it but im sure there are better ones. If it were me I would wait to hear more confirmation that a DVC transaction codes as a Hotel, if it does, 4x is insane, if it doesn’t then I would go with another card.

New CSR will code as travel for a direct purchase. But if you have an existing card it wont code as travel after October.

 

[BLTStitch]

Want to confirm - direct point purchase will not code as hotel for new CSR card? Feel like read somewhere there was a post the direct purchase was coded as travel and earned 4x points on a CSR Biz card, but can’t remember for sure. Thank you!

 

[VGCgroupie]

Want to confirm - direct point purchase will not code as hotel for new CSR card? Feel like read somewhere there was a post the direct purchase was coded as travel and earned 4x points on a CSR Biz card, but can’t remember for sure. Thank you!

I vaguely remember this. Let me see if I can find the post

 

[VGCgroupie]

I vaguely remember this. Let me see if I can find the post

Okay I found it. I will edit my post above to clarify. New CSR will code as travel for a direct purchase. But if you have an existing card it wont code as travel until after October. Thanks for catching my error. https://www.disboards.com/threads/chase-sapphire-preferred-for-direct-purchase.3965347/post-66360772

 

[PolyRob]

Okay I found it. I will edit my post above to clarify. New CSR will code as travel for a direct purchase. But if you have an existing card it wont code as travel until October. Thanks for catching my error. https://www.disboards.com/threads/chase-sapphire-preferred-for-direct-purchase.3965347/post-66360772

I believe it currently codes as travel, but only 3x, not 4x if you held the CSR before the refresh.

My CSR still codes dining as 3x until 10/26. After that it takes on the new earning structure.

 

[BLTStitch]

Thank you for finding it!!

 

[emchen]

This is super useful and bookmarked! Thanks!

Okay I found it. I will edit my post above to clarify. New CSR will code as travel for a direct purchase. But if you have an existing card it wont code as travel until after October. Thanks for catching my error. https://www.disboards.com/threads/chase-sapphire-preferred-for-direct-purchase.3965347/post-66360772

I believe it currently codes as travel, but only 3x, not 4x if you held the CSR before the refresh.

My CSR still codes dining as 3x until 10/26. After that it takes on the new earning structure.

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

Want to confirm - direct point purchase will not code as hotel for new CSR card? Feel like read somewhere there was a post the direct purchase was coded as travel and earned 4x points on a CSR Biz card, but can’t remember for sure. Thank you!

That was me! My direct purchase on a new CSR Biz card coded as "Hotels" and gave me 4x points. This happened for both my initial payment and my final payment.

 

[BLTStitch]

Thanks for confirming. I got into DVC this summer with a BLT resale. Then find out direct is not that much more with MB, incentives and credit card. I already paid poly direct initial payment with my regular BOA card =). It gave a high cash rewards. It coded to travel for BOA and I was able to pick travel for the category for this month for 3%, but the initial payment max the Q4 $2.5K spend already.

Confirming the new CSR can earn 4x for direct purchase is very helpful. In the past I was very against high annual fee credit cards, but reading more in disboards here makes me feel like it’s not that bad. I’m still hesitate to get CSR biz without knowing what I may be able to downgrade the card to after a year. Do you intend to keep CSR biz long term? Thank you!

 

[emchen]

Want to confirm - direct point purchase will not code as hotel for new CSR card? Feel like read somewhere there was a post the direct purchase was coded as travel and earned 4x points on a CSR Biz card, but can’t remember for sure. Thank you!

I believe it currently codes as travel, but only 3x, not 4x if you held the CSR before the refresh.

My CSR still codes dining as 3x until 10/26. After that it takes on the new earning structure.

That was me! My direct purchase on a new CSR Biz card coded as "Hotels" and gave me 4x points. This happened for both my initial payment and my final payment.

Guys would you rate CSR’s 4x points higher than Disney Premier’s 6-mo zero percent + disney dollars?

 

[PolyRob]

Guys would you rate CSR’s 4x points higher than Disney Premier’s 6-mo zero percent + disney dollars?

Not to offend anyone using the Disney Visa, but it's a terrible card besides the exclusive Disney Store code, character meets, room discounts, etc.

You can easily find a card that does more for less money. A new Amex Blue Business Cash and/or Plus will give you 2% back in cash or Member Rewards points with 0% APR for 12 months. No AF. Puts the Disney Visa to shame IMO.

If you have a CSR the 3x is better and you already paid the AF. Plus Chase offers bonuses to card holders for pay over time. If you open a new card and get a large sign up bonus + the higher coding it's an even larger return.

It all depends if you want to open cards to make the return larger. Chase has a Chase Ink Unlimited and Chase Ink Cash with elevated bonuses and 0% APR for 12 months.

 

[airjay75]

On the Chase Disney Visa Premier question, I'll just add that, if you have other Chase cards with a fair amount of credit that you can transfer to the Disney Visa, and you want to take advantage of the 0% financing, I don't think it is terrible - yes, the card as a whole is terrible and not worth it for much beyond that, but, if you're applying for new cards with 0% financing, you may be hard pressed to get a large enough credit line on a new card to cover all of the purchase. I think business cards are more flexible with credit lines, but I have never personally been able to bring myself to apply for a business card because I really have nothing in my life that I can even remotely rationalize into saying it's my business (and I'm not putting DVC points rental as my business ). And I refuse to enter the AmEx MR or Chase UR ecosystems again - I lost interest a long time ago in $1,000 coupon books and figuring out how to redeem their points.

A new Disney Visa Premier has a $400 sign-up bonus, $49 fee, so net $351 there.
Say you're purchasing 150 points for about $30,000 - 2% cash back is $600 (and you can redeem that on your direct purchase so basically a complete .
If you're keeping the $30,000 cash invested in a MMF or HYSA at 4% interest, 6 months will be about $600 savings.
So, total savings of $351+$600+$600 = $1,551.

Personally, I valued the 0% for my direct purchases more than sign-up bonuses just because I wanted some more time to see where I was going to pull my money from to pay the direct purchases. If you can get them, Bank of America and Wells Fargo both have cards with 2-3% cash back and 12-15 months 0% financing. I think they all have a small sign-up bonus.

 

[eticketplease]

On the Chase Disney Visa Premier question, I'll just add that, if you have other Chase cards with a fair amount of credit that you can transfer to the Disney Visa, and you want to take advantage of the 0% financing,

I’ll just add on that if 0% is the goal you can do the same thing with a Chase freedom unlimited card and get 15 months of 0% interest although only earning 1.5% back but also no annual fee if you transfer credit to that card. I think that one is a $200 bonus.

With the Chase freedom unlimited card if you end up, deciding to be in the points in miles game, you can open a sapphire preferred or reserve later down the road and those points are then transferable where is a Disney Visa card are stuck with Disney

 

[emchen]

@Chili327

If you open a new card and get a large sign up bonus +

In my scenario I already have CSR and Disney Premier. AF are sunk cost for both.

if you have other Chase cards with a fair amount of credit that you can transfer to the Disney Visa, and you want to take advantage of the 0% financing, I don't think it is terrible

I do, and that is the crux of the question. 0% financing for 6 months vs 4x UR points (disregard SUBs and AFs)?

What is the optimal use of this combo in a $30k 150 pt DVC purchase scenario (where I CSR is already my daily driver and DP is already my goto for DCL trips)?

TPG might put it in terms of cents per point? Whats the conversion to cents per dollar spent?
How do you factor in the time value of money in this scenario?

I suck at math and statistics so thanks in advance for my poorly worded question.

 

[Brian Noble]

I do, and that is the crux of the question. 0% financing for 6 months vs 4x UR points (disregard SUBs and AFs)?

Given that a money market is running just a smidge above 4% right now*, holding the cash an extra six months gives you roughly a 2% return (this is taxed, so really slightly less, but I'll ignore that). If you hold the Disney Premiere, that's another 2%. So, 4%.

The 4% UR points are going to return at least one cent per point if used on bottom-of-the-range travel bookings. It goes up from there. On paper, the UR points have a better upside.

The cash in the money market might have a little more "actual value" because (a) it is cash, and can be put toward literally anything and (b) I sometimes find myself splurging on things when I use URs because "it's free." For example, I booked a stay at one of their higher-end properties because it included a resort credit, etc. etc. and that was a great deal, but still more than I would have spent if I was spending Dead Presidents.

I've gotten to the point where I'm more or less done chasing rewards points. (See what I did there?) So, that's another reason I might lean slightly in the direction of the six months. My time also has value, and I don't want to spend a chunk of it trying to figure out which new card I should be getting to generate an extra $100 of "value" somewhere.

----
*: I keep my Short Term Fun Fund in Vanguard's VMFXX. It's current annualized yield is listed at 4.05%.

 

[BLTStitch]

I've gotten to the point where I'm more or less done chasing rewards points. (See what I did there?) So, that's another reason I might lean slightly in the direction of the six months. My time also has value, and I don't want to spend a chunk of it trying to figure out which new card I should be getting to generate an extra $100 of "value" somewhere.

----
*: I keep my Short Term Fun Fund in Vanguard's VMFXX. Its current annualized yield is listed at 4.05%.

I’ve been just put some extra money to CD with higher interest rates in the past a few years, with the worry not knowing how to create a brokerage account and need to move money. Is vanguard a good account to have for money market funds - easy to transfer money in and out from regular bank checking account to manage short term extra money? Thank you!