What Is the Benefit To Buying Direct?

[kanerf]

Don't forget that at times, like right now, there are some decent discounts available when purchasing direct.

 

[Wiltony]

Had a phone call with my DVC rep yesterday. Gave him an earful.

I told him two things:
1) Almost all changes that WDW has made in the last two years have decreased the value of my membership. I had always held the belief that while WDW was expensive, the value of what I received for the price I paid was worth it. That belief has eroded significantly, however. I no longer recommend DVC to people, or I at least tell them to proceed with extreme caution and scrutiny.
2) In the past, when people on message boards would post those "we're considering DVC, how do you like your membership?" messages, they were almost always responded to with multiple messages along the lines of "our only regret is that we wish we had purchased earlier!" That is also no longer the case. Instead, most responses are much more measured, or discouraging altogether.

I don't know how significant the word-of-mouth effect is, but it has absolutely taken a turn for the worse and I hope Disney is watching.

 

[RoseGold]

Almost all changes that WDW has made in the last two years have decreased the value of my membership.

Depends on what you mean by value. The price of points has gone up, the market has spoken. If you bought resale, it's pretty hard for you to have lost money in the last two years, ignoring financing. Heck, if you bought direct CCV, you might still be breaking even.

 

[Wiltony]

Depends on what you mean by value. The price of points has gone up, the market has spoken. If you bought resale, it's pretty hard for you to have lost money in the last two years, ignoring financing. Heck, if you bought direct CCV, you might still be breaking even.

And that value would be higher had those aforementioned changes not occurred, my point stands.

 

[Stargazer65]

Depends on what you mean by value. The price of points has gone up, the market has spoken. If you bought resale, it's pretty hard for you to have lost money in the last two years, ignoring financing. Heck, if you bought direct CCV, you might still be breaking even.

Yes. I'm pretty happy with my double digit pt cost for SSR and BRV from last year right now.

 

[Sandisw]

Another interesting point.
While the official documented DVC wording states only direct buyers get the membership benefit of discounts on merch and food at participating locations.....
Pre Covid - 75% change you would get the discount with no direct membership, just a "white card would work"
The last year.. seems more like 90% chance of getting the discount per posts with a white card.
The future? Who knows. DVC is going to a new virtual membership card in 2022, which some feel may close this loophole

AP discount
Pre-Covid - Most CM's seemed to follow the rules consistently. Very few non direct/grandfathers owners claimed to get the DVC AP (Gold) on the boards.
When they started selling them again 3-4 months ago, non direct owners were getting the Sorcerer AP 100% at guest services, pretty regularly if they called the AP 800 number, and rarely if they called the DVC 800 number.
The future? who knows? I wouldn't bank on it, but also don't be surprised if you fork over the cash for direct to get this benefit and then hear others are getting it without having a "blue card".

Having 150 direct points qualifies an owner for these benefits under the current rules. In recent practice, having any points does. Buying direct "guarantees" these benefits as long as they stay in place (which is not guaranteed contractually). Have resale only, one might get you these benefits, but they should not be expected.

Except the white card worked about 30% of the time for merchandise in October for me and never for meals. I had to show my blue card to get it.

That’s how inconsistent it is

 

[eandt]

It's a serious question. As of today, with the current unavailability of Annual Passes, and the mega increase in the AP price when it's available again, what are the concrete benefits of a direct purchase? I understand that resale purchasers can't book Riviera and any future resorts, but what am I forgetting as a direct purchase benefit?

We are new owners that went the direct route after sticking our toes in the water of resale and having an offer accepted then finding out that the points allegedly included was not accurate. We withdrew our offer and subsequently made a few offers on some other contracts which were not accepted but the previous point issue made us very cautious. Reading the posts here didn't make the resale route any more attactive to us although we do agree it would have saved us money however not quite as much as it might seem. To us there is also a "cost" involved in the stress and time of the resale route. It just wasn't for us, at least on our first contract.

We ended up buying direct and have no regrets. In addition to the the blue card and whatever perks that might carry at a given time the biggest benefit to us was to have this process basically completed in a 30 minute phone call, having our fully loaded points (we got "free" points with our contract) placed in our account in a matter of hours and could have made reservations that day had we chosen. Still was a little stress justifying the purchase to ourselves afterward but the process itself was totally stress free.

 

[Paul Stupin]

I too love the Riviera, and I use my direct CCV / VGF points to book there at 7 months occasionally. For me, it’s worth owning direct just for that. But I also like the peace of mind knowing that I’ll never be shut out of some other beautiful new DVC resort. In the short term, it’ll be DLT, but in the long term, it’ll be something amazing at WDW. Most of my contracts are resale, but I’m glad to have the direct points.

Also, I love having the blue card. I know it’s not good for much these days, but I do look at it as a fun side benefit to the main one of booking beyond the O14. The savings on the sorcerer’s pass works for us, and I know down the line we’ll enjoy the member’s events and privileges. So, though its not completely rational, I just like having it, no matter how much of an easy target some people find it.

 

[Patrick N]

Wow. I got a lot of great answers to my question. And I'm thrilled because I told you it was a serious question. What does that mean? I've been thinking about buying DVC for a while now, so I've been haunting these forums. But at this time of my life, I really wanted to boil down to the exact benefits of a direct purchase, without emotion, and I think we got there.

The reason I wanted to hear everyone's answers is that we all have different life situations and thus different priorities in this field. I learned quite a bit, and that allowed me to refine these answers to my own life status.

The biggest concrete benefit of direct that I read is a discount on an AP purchase. That is valuable, but not to me, since I plan to be a Florida resident starting in January. So it was good to be able to throw that one out.

A number of you talked about protecting yourselves against being excluded from future resorts, and/or future discounts or benefits. That’s a completely valid concern, but much less for me, since I am older, and should be able to get great value from a resale for the rest of my life. My heirs may be annoyed at future restrictions but they didn't pay anything for it anyway!

Another group just talked about being a core part of the Disney ecosystem, and not having to worry about future changes, since as a direct owner you will probably not be subject to future Disney rule changes. This is very valuable. Peace of mind is a huge benefit of a large purchase.

I want you all to know that I didn't start this thread to start an argument or to be a wise guy. I have been seriously considering a purchase of some kind for 2 or 3 years. I'm not in a hurry, so I don't bemoan the fact that I could have bought a lot cheaper 2 or 3 years ago! I live only in the present. And the replies in this thread were spot on. There were also some replies that were very funny, and funny is always appreciated.