While financing DVC - what do you give up?

[imgoingtodisney]

While financing disney vacation club do you give up anything in your lives? We are thinking of financing 170 or 200 pts for the next 5 years. Debating how we can do this. Did you have to give up spontaneous trips while doing this? Forfeit anything else?

 

[TnRobin]

I don't give up my spontaneous trips, I just use my points to pay for them instead of my cash. In other words, I give up paying for lodging.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I think what you give up...if anything...would be personal to your situation. In my case it means orienting more on what is offered through Disney rather than going just anywhere. I still go other places but I look to DVC & Concierge first to see if I can 'pay' for it that way.

And in some ways it adds things. I now know that I plan to go to Epcot this time next year. I know that I'll probably make it to the Spoleto festival for once. I may try to ski Gore whereas it was always out of the question before.

Probably what I'm really thinking twice about now is eating out as a matter of course, or shopping as entertainment. In other words I'm making a small effort to conserve cash that I wasnt making pre-Disney. I also find other ways to get things done at home short of taking time off ...conservation of vacation days.

 

[jel0511]

Well, what we did was wait. We wanted to buy into DVC last summer, but didn't have the money to pay for it, and really didn't want to "tighten our belts" to pay for it or finance it. We waited until we were able to pay for it using our savings. Now for a lot of people that isn't an option, but for us that was our only option. We don't like payments, only have two, one of our cars and our mortgage. Deciding to give up to make payments is your decision alone, can you live with it? Can you truly afford it? Those are the questions you have to ask yourself. We did and choose to wait, and aren't upset that we did wait, because it was the best decision for us.

 

[Granny]

Certainly without the DVC purchase, we would have been able to do other things with the money. Large appliance upgrades may be put on hold for a couple of years (Home entertainment system, new refrigerator, etc). However, we did not borrow to the point that we could not meet normal daily expenses or emergency situations. We did not want to alter our life style to finance a vacation.

Of course, the annual cost of vacation lodgings is being saved, so that helps.

 

[Disnydad]

For us we did it backwards. We sold our boat and suddenly realized how much money we spent on the *&$* boat. All of a sudden we had left over money! We bought 200 points at VWL for 1/3 of what the boat cost us. That was including the dues!

 

[KirstenB]

It reminds me of a mini car payment, being that it's monthly. I never really thought about what we've given up---all I can really come up with is we might have financed a nicer car for one of us. Car payments, DVC (although I think this December is our payoff, yipppeee!!) and mortgage are the only debt we have.

 

[TinkerbellRules]

disneydad: That exactly how we are looking at our camper expense. The monthly payments, cost of gas to tow, as well as a larger tow vehicle would cost the same as DVC for the next 10yrs. After that, it's cheaper with the DVC. Course, we don't have the w/e with the camper, but we haven't had a lot of time to do that anyway. Now if we can only sell the camper

 

[WenNRay]

TinkerbellRules we are in the same boat! We bought a motorhome last year (used, paid cash) and used it *twice* in one year! I was miserable both times, BTW. We have now come to the realization that we are just not a camping family, and now have it up for sale. We're planning on using $10K or so to buy a resale. Talk about bad timing, though, not exactly camping season here in CO. Might have to wait until spring comes I guess. Meanwhile I read the boards and dream of Disney...(I'm so jealous of all you owners!!)
Wendy

 

[ErinC]

We were pretty much taking trips to Disney every year. I would make the reservations, and we would send in a payment to disney every month so that the room would be paid for when we got there. We would usually send a $100 a month. We bought 170 points in July, our payment is a little more than that, but it was kind of like we were spending the money any way. This way we are actually paying for something we can use later on. We took the initial tour in 1998 and really would have liked to have purchased then, but it really would have straped us, Although we took vacations in 99, and 2000 to Disney. We paid off most of our bills recently by selling some real estate we owned. We decided that now was a good time ( or I should say I decided and DH went along). We are really excited about our upcoming vacations, and getting to actually take some family along, that never get the opportunity to go. But you will have to decide if it's worth it to you. DVC is offering a great MB program even though we didn't take advantage of it when we purchased. The offer is better now than it was when purchased 3 months ago. But it could really help with the down payment if you are interested in MB. We wanted to keep our points and bank them so we could do the 4day cruise and 3 nights at VWL next May. Good luck in your decision making.

 

[Halle]

We gave up having to pay for 2 rooms (family of 6). It was a big decision for us but one of the best we ever made. Our kids are all in college now (4 at once, ouch!) but they still want to go to DVC and often say " you won't sell DVC, will you?". That's when you know you made the right decision.

 

[chris1gill]

We didn't really give up anything, we were already spending it at Disney to begin with!!!

Although I should say we eat in more at the Villa's, but that's because it's easier to eat in with two little kids!!! (but it still saves money)

 

[TinkerbellRules]

Wendy: Same thing here about it not be camping season. I figure we'll give it a try. The payments for the camper and DVC would be the same (not counting the dues though). I just don't know if we can sell it right now. We should have in August (our last trip). OH, well. We'll see.

We camped at FW last Oct, but WDW and the camping didn't next well for us. FW is very nice though. We had a much better time this year at POFQ. We loved camping at the beach in Santa Rosa Beach, FL though. We camped there twice in 6 mos! It's really nice and I highly recommend it. JUst as nice at FW (and rated the same).

Anyway, it was 74 today, 46 tomorrow! Can we say "I hate Indiana weather??"

 

[MdmMim]

I financed my initial DVC purchase and made sure the monthly $ and dues were low enough to not really impact my lifestyle. I have since added on three times, but did not finance these additions. (I added up what I had spent on hotels over the years--DVC made sense for me!)