Large contract question
 

Looking to buy a min of 360 points. (We always need a 2 bedroom villa and we like BLT). My question is do I buy one large contract or should I buy two smaller ones that have the same use year? Is there any benefit to having the points all together or is it better to split it into two? Thanks

The smaller ones seem to sell quicker in case you get to a point in life where you need a smaller contract.

Thank you.

My other thought is to just buy 180 and bank every other year and go every other year. Has anyone else done this? Maybe the off year we pay cash or go elsewhere, and then every other year stay on points. Does that make sense or no? I am thinking then I would have 360 points that I need for every other stay. Sorry, just still trying to figure this all out!

:) I think 180 is a great start...not as much up front, easy to bank and borrow, and you can always add on if needed. We own 210, I was going for 200 but the extra 10 only cost an extra $5 or so a month since we financed. DVC isn't going anywhere so why do too much at one time...but beware...it will change your trips to WDW and the amenities at the resorts will have you lovin it.

I would ask if I could split the contract in to a 100 point and an 80 point or even 90s. I might would even do 4-50 point contracts and see if the kids want them at some point.

This makes total sense. It's hard to predict what your needs are going to be or how frequently/infrequently you are going to use your DVC until you actually own it. Having too many points can be a burden because you may feel forced to go on vacation or worse yet, let points go to waste. You can always rent out extra points which although I personally think is relatively easy, others have commented that it's a hassle they don't want to deal with. If you have too few points, well then you won't be able to go as often as you might like or stay in the rooms you like.

Back to your original question, larger contracts are better on the buy side because there is not a lot of demand for them and they can often be had at a discount. Smaller contracts are better on the sell side because the higher demand frequently fetches a premium. My opinion is that I would do whatever works for the buy, because that is guaranteed. You can't plan when or if you are ever going to sell your DVC contract, so why pass up a bonus now for the potential of a bonus in the future? To me it doesn't make sense.

Keep one thing in mind, though. Just because you want to stay at BLT does not necessarily mean you have to own at BLT. If you are flexible in your travel dates or the room category (view) you stay in, there is frequently availability at the 7 month mark. That means you can buy a less expensive resort and use those points to stay at BLT. Just know that this comes with the risk of being shut out of the room or dates you want. Personally I own at BLT because I want the guaranteed ability to book there at the 11 month mark.

Finally, I would strongly urge you to consider resale. A 360 point direct purchase at BLT will cost you in the neighborhood of $58,000. A 360 point contract bought on the resale market could be $33,000 or even less. That's a pretty substantial savings. Good luck with your decision. :)

Thank you for your help. This makes a lot of sense. Because of the kids we will probably always be traveling at the peak times so I do like the idea of owning at BLT so we have a better chance of staying where we want...even if it is a little bit more upfront. I am looking into resale options now. Honestly, it makes me a little nervous! I mostly have been looking at Fidelity. I have seen their name on the boards quite a bit, so I am hoping they are reputable. Disney is offering an OK deal, but yes, it is quite a bit more $$ than the resale. Only benefit is the fast closing.

This is a great point that some people don't consider.:thumbsup2 If you are someone who has no chance of planning a vacation at 7+ months out, then buying one of the less expensive resales makes the most sense. SSR still has about 40 years on the contracts and comes at a great price -- particularly the large contracts. Heck, large AKV contracts can be had fairly cheaply, and then you get the 11 month access to value and concierge rooms.

Since you have to travel at peak times, make sure you look closely at the points charts to know that you are getting enough points for the length of stay you desire. For summer, a 2BR BLT-LV for 7 nights is 386 points currently and a standard view is 354. A spring break standard is 474 points for a week! Also remember that DVC could do a point re-allocation and change that. 360 points may end up not even being enough for 7 nights in a standard during Magic Season. It's a good idea to build in a little cushion in the event that there is a re-allocation.

When we first purchase, we bought exactly enough points for a 1BR at magic season for 7 nights. Well . . . the worked for about 1 year until the point charts changed and a 1BR was 4 more points than we purchased. Then we also found out that we liked going for 8-10 nights, since we were already spending a bundle on airfare. So after starting with 268 AKV points, we are now up to 478 after 3 small resale purchases.:scared1: I'm still on a quest for a small BWV or BCV to use every other year for F&W.:cool1: But we definitely don't want to start talking about addonitis at this point.:rotfl2:

If you ever find you do not have enough points can you rent points from Disney to finish your stay? Just curious.

How often do they reallocate points?

Sorry for the long post ... your post reminded me as myself when I first purchased DVC.

I bought my first DVC contract (direct) in 2010 ... 220 points at BLT. We travel as a party of 8, so a 2BR is the minimum. We thought we would just go every other year. Since I bought in, we've travelled to WDW twice on points and paid cash for a DCL cruise ... for the foreseeable future, every other year isn't going to cut it for us.

I just finished signing my add-on paperwork today - 120 BLT points split into 60 point contracts. I added-on direct partly because I wasn't seeing what I wanted through resale and largely because I wasn't totally comfortable going the resale route. (I'm aware that resale costs less and that the "lost perks" regarding DCL bookings etc. are not a good use of points anyway. I guess it's just a personality quirk.)

Based on that, here's my $0.02 - smaller contracts will give you more flexibility down the road (especially if you opt for the 360+ points). If you "outgrow" the points, you can sell off some of them and keep the rest. It also makes it easier to will them to your children or others. (Keep in mind that splitting the contract can only be done if you buy direct. If you buy resale, the points represent one contract and cannot be split. You could buy multiple small contracts at the same resort with the same use year, but that could take time because smaller contracts seem to be hard to come by.)

As far as the resort choice, if you plan on travelling at peak times and want a specific room category at BLT, then buy at BLT. Yes, you can stretch your money further if you buy at a cheaper resort, but you risk not getting what you want if you need to wait until the non-home-resort 7 month booking window opens. (If you own at BLT, it can still be a challenge to get the room type and category you want within the 11 month home-resort booking priority window. (We prefer standard view dedicated 2BRs and those go very quickly. Even Lakeview dedicated 2BRs can go quick. Case in point, last week I tried booking a dedicated 2BR at BLT for 6 nights over Canadian Thanksgiving / US Columbus Day weekend. We're only 9 months out and it couldn't be done - no SV availabilty at all, LV not available the Sunday and TPV not available the Saturday. We ended up having to book a split-stay.)

You can purchase 24 points from DVC for $15/point if you find yourself short on points. Those points cannot be purchased prior to the 7 month mark. Another option for extra points would be to find a DVC member to transfer points into your account. There is a rent/trade board on this site that has information about that. You are only allowed one transfer per year in or out of your account.

Since we joined in 2008, I think there has only been one point re-allocation. I believe that there have been a re-allocation or two before we joined, but I am not sure how many times. It has been infrequent, as I recall.

There is an annual fear on these boards that DVC is going to increase the point value of the first two weeks of Dec, which is currently in the lowest season. It happens to be THE most popular time for DVC members because of the low point values and the Christmas events and decorations.

You can purchase 24 "one time use" points once per use year to complete a reservation. This can only be done within the 7 month window. Currently the cost is $15 per point I think. (We had to do this once already, which was just another nudge in the add-on direction.)

Congratulations on your add-on! Looking back, we didn't completely know what we wanted from our Disney trips, thus the 3 small resale add-ons. And, as you mentioned in the second point above, we can unload those three as we get older, if we find that DVC is not what we want to do 15-20 years from now -- although I doubt it!

Room availability is always an unknown and a risk. Columbus Day weekend is quite a popular weekend for travel in the US, which is probably why you ran into trouble at 9 months. You should definitely WL if you would prefer not to switch. I would not be surprised if there are DVC'ers who book that weekend just in case they want to go, but then end up canceling.

For our upcoming trip this summer, I called at the 7 month mark and there was plenty of availability for a 2BR dedicated LV at BLT. In fact, I could have gotten a TPV, but we simply do not have enough points (don't get me started!:faint:). For people who have the ability to book their vacations 7-11 months in advance, home resort is critical if there are resort room type that you absolutely MUST have access to. We are definitely glad that we have jobs that allow for us to plan that far in advance. But for the DVC member who is in the 4-7 month planning timeframe, home resort is a moot point.

Thanks for the congratulations ... because my add-on includes the 2012 points, I was able to book a LV GV for the last half of our stay - so no need to WL! Those "extra" points were the only way TPV was even a consideration - I'm glad the TPV 2BR wasn't available for all 6 nights since the GV will be an awesome treat! :goodvibes

For the OP, Kidanifan08 made a very good point about home resort being a moot point within the 7 month window . If you will typically be planning trips less than 7 months out, you need to be prepared to take what you can get - you'll usually be able to get something but it may not be the resort or room type you would prefer.

What's best for you and your family depends on variables that none of us will have a feel for. Making the assumptions that you are seasoned in visits to WDW and value staying on site enough to pay extra so that you'll have an idea of what your yearly habits are, here are a few thoughts. I'd recommend resale and use cash for non DVC options like DCL, etc. I'd suggest you buy less than the 360 but more than the 180 though I'd let the best contract you can find be your final determining factor on size. That assumes you can pay cash, if you can't I'd suggest you wait. I would not purposefully pay more to end up with multiple contracts though you may do so by default if you buy less now and add on later. IF you do, I'd suggest you consider 2 home resorts. I'd also suggest you at last consider the option of buying a non DVC timeshare which you can do much cheaper (up front and yearly) than a comparable DVC contract.

Thank you for your help. We will be paying cash. We have been thinking about this for the last three years but just now have enough saved to go through with it. We have been to Disney World (and Land) 4 times in the past 3 years. Our total OOP amount is about $10,000 for each visit. :scared1: Realize that some of that is airfare, tickets, and food but a large amount is hotel room. For example, we are paying over 700 a night at the DLH this August in Disneyland. We just are too large for a standard room and getting two connecting is sometimes more than one suite. This past May we got two connecting rooms at POFQ. It wasn't my favorite visit and it was actually quite expensive. I would have rather used that money to stay in a villa. I think the 2 bedroom villas would be heaven for us. I realize we probably will not be saving money. Lord knows, if I wanted to save money the cash we have saved towards buying DVC would be much better used in our retirement account. However, we are good savers. We don't take on debt. We buy used clothes and we save for our kids college. We also value our time together. And our family loves to go to Disney. Our trips are our one splurge. We don't eat out any other time of year so we can go. We save and save because going makes us happy. I don't think that is going to change. Disneyland and Disney World are our happy place. We love our time there. That is the main reason why we would like to buy a piece of the magic. If I am always going anyway, I might as well have a nice two bedroom with a kitchen! Plus we bought Disney stock so I always joke to hubby that we are supporting ourselves by buying. :lmao: That is why I wouldn't consider buying into a different timeshare. I either buy Disney, or sit on the $$$ we have saved. In my mind those are the only two options. And we are not value folks. Nothing wrong with them, but if I am going on vacation, I want a nice room with all the amenities. It's just the way we are.