Worth it to buy 25 or 50 pts??

[marsh0013]

Ugh..now I went and complicated it even more....I happen to stop at the DVC Doorway to Dreams store in the mall and got information about purchasing through Disney direct. It's alot more expensive, but has no restrictions

What restrictions did they tell you about? Honestly if you're planning to buy a small amount of points, it would be very difficult to use the points for those non-restricted options anyway. But you would get your points right away. I'd say price it out. Add in the closing cost for resale. We just bought 100 BWV points for $73/pt (higher than the average resale) we paid closing ($425) and current year maintenance fees ($562) and still saved over $30/pt over direct. It isn't as much savings over 50 pts but still worth exploring.

 

[BestDadEver]

What restrictions did they tell you about? Honestly if you're planning to buy a small amount of points, it would be very difficult to use the points for those non-restricted options anyway. But you would get your points right away. I'd say price it out. Add in the closing cost for resale. We just bought 100 BWV points for $73/pt (higher than the average resale) we paid closing ($425) and current year maintenance fees ($562) and still saved over $30/pt over direct. It isn't as much savings over 50 pts but still worth exploring.

I don't usually promote resale . But I agree you not going to use much outside of disney with only 50 points even if banked/borrowed . But again I think you should get 100

 

[princessbride6205]

I'm not sure I would buy just 25 points, but I do recommend 50 if you want to get your feet wet.
We knew we wanted to join DVC, but didn't want to finance and couldn't afford too many points at one time. We started a few years ago with 50 points bought via resale. We found a great contract that had 100 points available (50 banked). With a studio in the cheapest point time, that can get you a full week. So far, we typically vacation during the more value seasons for point usage, and we've put this small contract to good use.
We have since bought another contract of that size, and are now in the market for a third small contract.
I like the flexibility of staying DVC for some trips and in other resorts for others, and not having more points than we can use. (But I will say, if price was no object, we'd own a lot more points!)
The downside is that we sometimes get stuck with not enough points and also don't have as much leeway as I'd like to book something and change it, since we're always borrowing points.

 

[LSchrow]

i agree with pps, resale makes the most sense for you (the main benefit of buying direct is trading out, which you wouldn't have enough points for anyway).

50-100 points would be your best bet, but now you should think about which resort........
each resort has its advantages and disadvantages. you need to look into the expiration dates for each resort, the varying price ranges, the "draws" of each.
do you go during busy times (remember, DVC busy times are nnot always the same as WDW busy times), would you mind staying at any resort if your favorite was unavailable?

btw, count us in as those who would go to WDW less often if the AP discount was not as good. between DVC, APs, and SWA CC free flights, our 2-3x a year of 10+ day vacations cost us very little out-of-(immediate) pocket

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

We purchased 50 points via resale and we are finding that it will work perfect for our current travel needs. We plan to WDW about every other year or can bank/borrow every 3 years for a longer stay. This year, our first trip at DVC members we opted for a 1 bedroom and needed a few more points, but it was very easy for us to purchase one time use points directly from DVC at only $15 per point.

 

[Donald & Daisy Duck]

We finally did wind up buying 50 pts at BWV and couldn't be happier!! We have already booked our first stay in a 1BR Villa for our ds's 19th birthday...he is going to love playing golf in the winter!!!

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and advice!!

 

[DizBub]

Wow!! Congratulations and Welcome Home!!!

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

Looking into this for the first time -- how do you know how many points you "need"? Where can you find the point values of different resorts/rooms/seasons? HELP! (Thanks!)

 

[zavandor]

Looking into this for the first time -- how do you know how many points you "need"? Where can you find the point values of different resorts/rooms/seasons? HELP! (Thanks!)

Here you can find the points charts for DVC resorts:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/DVCpoints.shtml

And here is my favorite points calculator, from David's rental site (a sponsor here on the Disboards):

http://www.dvcrequest.com/PointsCalcNew/PointsCalc.asp

Be aware that while the total points per resort cannot change overall, DVC can (and will) reallocate the points charts.