We keep renting points, should we just buy already?

[jlovesee]

I never rented... but I agree if you are spending 3,000 on renting points every year, save the money and buy in. People have mentioned anything from 25-75 pts, and I agree. That's were we started, we started last year with 25, and doubled that this summer to 50. Next summer we plan on adding on more.

I don't see any reason to go into debt to Disney, and it feels good paying cash.

Jennifer

 

[wildernessDad]

Yes.

 

[Cruelladeville]

Well, I have different advise than the others. I say Buy in now, provided you are not compromising your other debts, which I would say you wouldn't be, if you can manage to pay for the rental charges. I would say, buy the amount of points you normally rent, and pay double payments on the loan. I did that, and had the loan paid off in 3 1/2 years. That's the only loan I took out, and I ended up buying 926 points! You cannot recapture the memories you are making now, and your points, once paid for, are like a savings account--the money is tied up in the points, but still there. When you rent, the money is gone. Just be sure that you can pay double payments + dues before you invest that money in payments.

 

[edk35]

I see it like "you are renting an apt when you could be buying a house" LOL

If you see that you can pay it off within a year or two (three max)...I say go for it. We put any extra money towards our contracts and we joined Jan. 31st 07 and bought 300 points divided into 3 contracts. We have paid off 2 and 3/4 of the third one. Now we just added on another 100 at AKV but we are planning on paying that off by year's end, but I have to THANK my dh for this and how hard he works at his job. We have made a lot of sacifices the past 2 years with his work.... in order to pay down that debt. I would ONLY do it if you can financially handle it. It is a scary world out there right now with the current economy.

 

[jkeat]

Based on the 3 vacation dollar amounts you mentioned and assuming you are renting at $10/point, it seems like you would need @ 250 points/yr. Just to put a face on the maintenance fees, that would be over $1000/yr that you are committed to pay until your contract expires or you sell it whether you use the points or not. That's a little scary for me, especially the way the economy and gas prices are going. Maybe it won't be affordable to "get" to Disney a year from now. I agree with some of the other people who suggested buying smaller contracts for now and adding on later. You'll still have to buy/borrow points, but you'll be in control of your own reservation and you'll be an "owner". If you find you can't or don't want to go to Disney as often in the future, you won't be out as much $ and I hear the smaller contracts are easier to sell. In the end, only YOU know what's best for your situation. But I would hate to see anybody go into serious debt at 14.??% interest for a vacation club!

 

[jerseygal]

When we ran our numbers over and over and over again, we considered our annual cost of dues...That can be a "big ticket" expenditure annually! I ran the numbers based upon a certain amount of nights in a certain type of villa...What would we be spending had I booked directly through Disney Vacations less the dues we are outlaying annually..

For us the decision made sense....For our ages of our children, we "outgrew" a typical hotel room, even deluxe resort room...We finally realized we "maxed" out on room'that with 2 older kids, sharing 1 bathroom we were all on top of each other...Comfortable speaking, if we continued to stay at Deluxe Resorts, it would involve 2 rooms; even lucky enough booking with a "code" that could get very expensive.

I would not recommend rushing into this type of decision with the current economic state however...In my opinion, DVC is a "luxury, diiscrecionary" expenditure..This type of expenditure can always be made at a later date if it doesn't seem "right" now...

This was a 25th Anniversary Present to each other; But again, a well thought out well researched financial decision which we hope to enjoy with our future grandchildren one day!

Good luck with your decision!

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Definately! On the phone buying now.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

This post makes me feel a little uneasy. OP can come up with the cost of rental points but would have a problem making a down payment and would then have a 14% interest rate.

These days I think wouldn't buy anything like this if I could fore see how I would go about paying for it and my maintenance fees year over year.

In addition I have to wonder about the average holding time of a DVC contract. If you only own it for 5 or 10 years is it really worth buying? At $10 dollars a point you are only investing an extra $5 or $6 in "opportunity cost" over buying.

 

[joeytdog]

WOW!

Thank you for all the replies and insight. Lots of good information here.

I actually came into an $8k bonus at work unexpectedly and was thinking DVC down payment, but I just cant make the numbers work with the amount of points I need (250) and the 14.25% interest rate.

As many have said, financing a vacation club is just not smart financial sense. Heck, I hate to finance a car!

Going to take half the money and put it away and take the other half and book a Disney cruise as a surprise XMAS present to my family.

Only been on one cruise, didnt like it. Going to spring for a category 3 suite and see how the disney magic changes our mind on cruises.

Thanks again for all the feedback

The bottom line, if I really want it, I can save for it, otherwise just keep renting.

 

[kerrik]

I won't comment on the financial part of it, but I just wanted to say that WDW is NOT your only option for vacations! We have been to Keystone, CO for the past few years for 7 days of skiing with our points (we have 500 and are getting ready to purchase 105 more in BLT), and you can also go many other great places! So when you "outgrow" WDW, you do have other options. We also split our points up into 3 each time we purchase so that we can pass them on to each one of our children!


Just my $.02
Kerri