4. "Banking" points
This brings us to an important point regarding DVC membership. It is different from some timeshares in that there is not a set timeframe for your visit. Instead, you have an entire 12-month period to take one or more trips, depending on your schedule and the number of points owned.
If you cannot visit during that 12-month period, you have the flexibility to “bank” points, moving your vacation to the following year. Alternately, if you want more points than you currently have available, you have the option to “borrow” points from the next year. Banking means that you cede the ability to spend your points during the current year in order to save them for next year. Borrowing means that you cannot wait to go to Disney World next year, so you are going to take next year’s points RIGHT NOW! Through banking and borrowing, DVC owners can plan their vacations not just for this year but also for the following year as well.
5. The money-saving trick
By now, you have probably warmed to the idea of a Disney deluxe resort stay for a set annual fee. The elephant in the living room is the actual cost to join. The sunk cost is a one-time investment whose pricing varies depending on how you choose to purchase. This site lists current cost per point if you choose to buy directly through Disney. In doing so, you also gain access to a few additional benefits, the worth of which I will explore in a future column.
As you can see from the link, $13,000 is about the cheapest you can pay to join directly through Disney. That cost can be financed, and it will gain you 100 points, which you already know is plenty for an annual one week stay at several DVC properties at Walt Disney World. The cheaper option, the one Disney wishes you didn’t know, is purchase via resale.
By choosing resale, you can pay as little as $70 per point (sometimes even lower) or $7,000 for a DVC 100-point membership onsite at Walt Disney World. That is a $6,000 difference in ownership cost, which may be the difference in your considering this a viable option. At a cost of $7,000, you will get your money’s worth out of DVC membership in approximately four trips. Given the decades-long timeframe for owning at DVC, such an investment merits further exploration. The next two columns will address the pros and cons of a DVC purchase.
Comments
Yes in short. The one thing would be the amount of points that will be needed for larger rooms. Saying you buy 150 points and go every other or 3rd your points will work just fine. If you are planning on ever year you may need to get creative and break up into studios or solely in the slowest seasons.
You are basing your cost of staying at OKW as the MF (maintenance fee) times points, and you state that you paid nothing but your MF.
Nope. You MUST also figure in the amortization of your purchase price! Thus, my September stay of 5 nights at OKW cost me 5 X a little under $7, or about $350. I bought resale and saved a bundle.
Your point is well taken, but since this piece is intended to be an introduction to DVC membership, the last thing I wanted to do was introduce difficult economic concepts such as the amortization of intangible assets or depreciation of held assets. That would turn the conversation into the Ben Stein teaching scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.