When do you borrow vs pay cash?

[dianeschlicht]

Don't forget that the last year of your contract will be a short one, and you wont have access for the entire use year. At that point it will be BEST to have borrowed ahead.

 

[Anal Annie]

OP - first of all - you never know when & what will be available with the DVC member cash discount - you can start calling to check at 11 months. We've used it twice. Once in Jan. at VWL and once in July at AKV. Sometimes it takes more than one call to get it. We got VWL on the first call at 5 months out and then we got AKV at 10 months out on the 3rd call.

I'm a saver not a borrower. We did not get Dev. points when we purchased. So during our first year we did a week in mid-August in a studio at OKW to save points. We banked what was left and booked a 4 n cruise with our next years points. Well, then we were OUT of points but had foolishly purchased AP's and wanted to go again! But I didn't want to start a borrowing cycle that I knew we'd never break. SO, we did a DVC member discount for 4 n at VWL in January and then we decided we couldn't go on our DCL in July w/o one more visit for a few nights at WDW so we booked 3 n on cash again. We were able to get the DVC member discount on both trips which was really helpful - but I've already told DH no more cash trips!! That's why we bought DVC (to avoid paying cash for our stays). We could've practically paid for a small add-on already with what we spent on those 2 trips!!!!

Now that lesson has been learned I am REALLY glad that we saved our points and had them for our trips this year! We have 4 nights coming up at SSR in May and then 7 n at BCV followed by 3 n at VB in August plus we have 25 points left to BANK!!

 

[DMKEDM]

I'm a perpetual borrower...and I usually borrow close to all of my following year points, too...my thinking is if I want to go again in a year when I'm out of points (current or borrowable), I'll pay cash then; too much can happen that could prevent trips planned for the future; better to use my points "now," when I can--especially if I'd have to pay cash rather than borrow; all it does is change the timing of the cash payment!

But I also learned a good lesson: you don't have to be as careful about your point totals when you're in borrowing mode...I don't worry about the points differential at different resorts/times of year/villa sizes because since I borrow I know I won't lose any current year points! (It almost happened in our first DVC year...I had 6 points left; way past my banking deadline--"had to" schedule extra days onto the trip we took in the last month of our use year so as not to lose those points! (That was my first borrowing experience; I've never looked back!)...

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

Also OP,
Last year we were at the POLY during the July 4th week and we were able to secure AP rates. (Never know this year)

 

[Alexander]

We pay cash when we've maxxed out our borrowing!

We brought extended family the first week of Dec. and used point for 3 villas. That and a couple of earlier trips pretty much wiped out our '08 and '09 points. Then.....I decided in Feb. that I couldn't stand the snow any longer and needed WDW. We were out of points, so paid cash with the 7/4 deal.

In April we cruised on cash, but I rented out our points to pay for the reservation, so we didn't use any cash out of pocket for the cruise. Our next vacation is booked for Aug/Sept and since August is our UY, we can use our '10 points--mama's back in business!

 

[LvsTnk]

I actually got the member discount during a trip when I wanted to add 2 nights. Worked out great as I was going to switch to Portofino at Universal for cash anyway.

 

[robinb]

But I also learned a good lesson: you don't have to be as careful about your point totals when you're in borrowing mode...I don't worry about the points differential at different resorts/times of year/villa sizes because since I borrow I know I won't lose any current year points! (It almost happened in our first DVC year...I had 6 points left; way past my banking deadline--"had to" schedule extra days onto the trip we took in the last month of our use year so as not to lose those points! (That was my first borrowing experience; I've never looked back!)...

I hate to be a wet blanket but you will learn another even harder lesson if you ever need to cancel a reservation made with next year's borrowed points. You'll be stuck with borrowed points that can't be banked forward. Can you tell I'm a "banker" ?

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Don't forget that the last year of your contract will be a short one, and you wont have access for the entire use year. At that point it will be BEST to have borrowed ahead.

I love people with foresight...

 

[dvcdisney]

We have been borrowing since we purchased more than 7 years ago. We have had some add ons, but we borrow those too. I have only banked twice since we became members. However, if the room is not available for points and it is for cash discount, we will pay cash. We tend to choose to pay cash discount for weekends (fri or sat night) where the point usage is higher, if it's necessary. Otherwise, we just borrow.

 

[dvcdisney]

Don't forget that the last year of your contract will be a short one, and you wont have access for the entire use year. At that point it will be BEST to have borrowed ahead.

My EXACT way of thinking!