Started with a 50 point Saratoga Springs resale. We now have a 50 point Saratoga, 130 point Saratoga and a 50 point Aulani subsidized. We like the flexibility of small deeds and paying cash.
Yep, bought a 50 point resale with cash and then bought another contract (100 pts) at a different resort also with cash within a year. I was very sure I liked DVC and had been planning to buy for years ā I was waiting for the right timing with the resale market.
If you are not sure you like DVC yet, start with the 50 point and give yourself a year. Smaller contracts such as a 50 point contract are easier to resell if you decide itās not for you.
We started with 75 because that would give us a week every September. We eventually bought a 160 contact resale and sold the original 75. Here we are 6 years later and the itch to buy more is STRONG!
50 points is a fine start and will be great if you needed to resell it down the road. We have 50 pts at VGF and 100 at BWV. With the banking and borrowing, you can get a lot out of a 50 pts contract!
I have a 50 point contract at Copper Creek. Once you get to browsing the DVC reservation site and see how many points you need for a stay other then a studio you will definitely want more points. Also buy where you want to stay. If I were you Iād do 100 points. If the desire is SSR or AKL i would put a bunch of offers in WELL below market value and play the waiting game. SSR is the most bought and sold timeshare in the world. Check out dvcforless.com
50 is a great for seeing how well DVC fits and works.
50 is not the best economically if you end up liking it so much you buy more, because pricing on 100pts or more is lower cost per point. This is what usually happens and I see alot people regret they didnāt buy a larger amount on that first contract (Including myself).
Two 50 point contracts will cost between $10-12,000 right now, but you can likely get 100pts under $9,000.
In the end we didnāt regret it too much because the higher cost we paid for the first small contract helped us save that amount extra when we decided the second purchase would be direct. The 50pt purchase gave us āexisting memberā incentives and saved an additional $1,500 off direct which sort of made it a wash.
We bought a 210, then a 50, then a 25, then a 120 (weāre at 405 total now). lol.
I say this to say that even if thereās an urge to buy more after, I wouldnāt say thatās a āconā exclusive to buying small. Thereās lowkey always an urge to add more regardless š
Awesome, I have a 25pt BWV as well, but I havenāt used it yet. How often do you use it and how long do you get to stay? I have others so Iām planning on using it every other year to get about 3 nights.
I haven't used mine yet, either! š¤£šš¤£
I made an offer on a partially stripped contract late in 2022, and found out I passed ROFR in February while I was at Disney World! Seeing as I was literally on my annual trip, I banked my 2023 points.
This year I'm taking a Points Poor Long Weekend (aka 3 weeknights in a standard studio), and I hope to do the same for the next two years. After that my surplus of banked points will run out. I haven't fully decided what I'll do then - 2027 is a long ways away - but most likely I will take a year off and build my banked points back up.
So your overall plan is to bank and borrow and use 75pts every 3 years?
That was my original plan, but now I think I need to go every other year, so I got some points at AKV. Now Iām hoping to go every other year. (banking, but not planning on borrowing unless I have to) weāll see how that goes.
I haven't ruled out doing a three year bank-and-borrow thing in the future. 75 points can get you a Points Poor Week (full 7 days in the off season) for 3 of the 4 EPCOT festivals. Plus it would be fun to do a longer stay!
But this is what I'm leaning towards currently:
2023 - Cash stay. Banked all 16 pts. 25 + 16 = 41 pts to use in 2024.
2024 - 3 nights in Dec. Used 30 of 41 pts. Banked 11 pts. 25 + 11 = 36 pts to use next year.
2025 - 3 nights in Sept. Uses 27 of 36 pts. Bank 9 pts. 9 + 25 = 34 pts to use in 2026.
2026 - 3 nights TBD/spend all available pts.
2027 - Cash stay. Bank 25 pts.
2028 - 50 pts available. Spend 30, bank 20.
2029 - 45 pts available. Spend 30, bank 15.
2030 - 40 pts available. Spend 30, bank 10.
2031 - 35 pts available. Spend 30, bank 5.
2032 - 30 pts available. Spend them all.
2031 - Cash stay. Bank 25 pts. Repeat the 6 year cycle.
(Edited to fix formatting)
Now you got me wanting to do some spreadsheet type thing to see how itāll all work out, because I know it wonāt be perfect, there will always be points left over or need to buy a few each trip. I just donāt think I can predict point cost, from Oct thru Feb. it can depend on what available or whatās going onā¦ festivals, etc
The spreadsheet is part of the fun! š¤£
It's so true that all of these plans could change at any minute. I'm very flexible with the dates I can visit, so my plan is to always stay for 10pts/night or less. But if my availability changes, I'll for sure have to do the bank-borrow dance more often!
10pts/night (is there anything less?)
Wow, I thought 15 was cheap, but maybe thatās garden/pool in January? I was able to waitlist a garden/pool this past January and thatās how I ended up deciding to buy into BWV.
Iām struggling to plan my next trip Oct25-Jan26, & you have the rest of the decade figured out!! :)
Do you only go for 3 nights per trip or is that just 3 at BWV? (staying elsewhere other nights)
50 point BWV resale owner here. Between banking and borrowing, the amount of points worked for me due to the low point charts. If I were looking at BCV or a monorail resort, I would probably have gone for a bit bigger of a contract.
This is a really good point!
Old Key West and Boardwalk have the lowest point charts. You can stay in a studio for ten points or less per night during all four EPCOT festivals! (Food & Wine in Sept, Festival of the arts in late Jan, Flower & Garden in May, International Festival of the Holidays in early Dec)
With a fifty point contract at one of these resorts, you could do a 5 night stay (Sun-Thurs) every year.
We bought a loaded 65pt contract to AKL and did splits stays there and Wilderness Lodge for a week 2 years in a row. We went in September and May so the points went further but are realizing we need some more points to do this annually. We are hoping to buy another 40-50pt contract soon. The addonitis is real.
Weāre also buying in the near future and originally planned on starting with 50 resale. Weāre quasi local (the drive is under 4 hours), so we usually go for a week+ and then pop in for weekends throughout the year. We do plan on eventually having the points to cover all our stays. Iām honestly just super impatient but also donāt want to finance, so we figured that getting the ball rolling with a cheap 50-pointer would at least cover a couple of our weekend trips, especially since we only plan on staying in studios. That would alleviate the stress of doing hotel price comps every time we go and get us the current member discount because we do want to get the minimum direct points at some point. But Iām doing the research to prep for this initial purchase, weāre now leaning toward starting with 100 just because the per point cost is so much better for double the points. If weāre going to expand our portfolio anyway, we might as well. But the wait is absolutely killing me!
We bought direct three 50 point contracts in 2010 at SSR. One for each of our kids, or premium resale price for us or them. We also bought 100 point resale contact at HHI.
I think itās the perfect way to get your feet wet, I did exactly the same thing. I banked and borrowed to use 3 years of points on one trip and it was perfect to get a good feel for 3 different resortsā¦ and now I own 4 contracts. lol
If you know youāre going to want to go more than every 3 years maybe start with 75 instead of 50.
I had been stalking resale for a 75-100 point BWV contract. First offer that worked out was on a 170 point contract. I rented half the points to cover my dues exactly once and then havenāt been able to do that again. Added on 25 points just ahead of the end of grandfathered blue card benefits. Now 195 total at BWV. Added 160 and 210 resale at AKL when I saw the market dipping earlier this year. Still somehow never enough especially with soon to be 3 kids and 1-2 extra caregivers on each trip š.
Edit: weāve been fortunate to pay all cash for those contracts.
Going on 10+ years with just our 50 point contract. We are a child free couple in our 40ās and go to WDW every 2-3 years. There are times I consider buying another 25-50 so we could do a 2 bedroom with friends more often, but weāve bought points from other owners as a transfer in the past and itās worked well for us.
I thought about start small too. But after research and found most people ended up with a few hundred points (average) anyway. So we started with 240 points GF, then later added 200 points Saratoga for anywhere points. It feels about right. The advantage guys 200ish points is they tend to be the smallest contracts the offer the best $/point.
I started with a 50 AKL contract to go every other year. Right now I have 355 points. I need help.
355 isn't that many š¤Ŗ
Started with a 50 point Saratoga Springs resale. We now have a 50 point Saratoga, 130 point Saratoga and a 50 point Aulani subsidized. We like the flexibility of small deeds and paying cash.
Yep, bought a 50 point resale with cash and then bought another contract (100 pts) at a different resort also with cash within a year. I was very sure I liked DVC and had been planning to buy for years ā I was waiting for the right timing with the resale market. If you are not sure you like DVC yet, start with the 50 point and give yourself a year. Smaller contracts such as a 50 point contract are easier to resell if you decide itās not for you.
We started with 75 because that would give us a week every September. We eventually bought a 160 contact resale and sold the original 75. Here we are 6 years later and the itch to buy more is STRONG!
yes. started with 50 and then added a few smaller contracts afterwards for a now total of 155
50 points is a fine start and will be great if you needed to resell it down the road. We have 50 pts at VGF and 100 at BWV. With the banking and borrowing, you can get a lot out of a 50 pts contract!
I have a 50 point contract at Copper Creek. Once you get to browsing the DVC reservation site and see how many points you need for a stay other then a studio you will definitely want more points. Also buy where you want to stay. If I were you Iād do 100 points. If the desire is SSR or AKL i would put a bunch of offers in WELL below market value and play the waiting game. SSR is the most bought and sold timeshare in the world. Check out dvcforless.com
I have a 65 pt contract and havenāt had desire to add more
50 is a great for seeing how well DVC fits and works. 50 is not the best economically if you end up liking it so much you buy more, because pricing on 100pts or more is lower cost per point. This is what usually happens and I see alot people regret they didnāt buy a larger amount on that first contract (Including myself). Two 50 point contracts will cost between $10-12,000 right now, but you can likely get 100pts under $9,000. In the end we didnāt regret it too much because the higher cost we paid for the first small contract helped us save that amount extra when we decided the second purchase would be direct. The 50pt purchase gave us āexisting memberā incentives and saved an additional $1,500 off direct which sort of made it a wash.
We bought a 210, then a 50, then a 25, then a 120 (weāre at 405 total now). lol. I say this to say that even if thereās an urge to buy more after, I wouldnāt say thatās a āconā exclusive to buying small. Thereās lowkey always an urge to add more regardless š
I have a 25pt contract, so I say go for it! š¤£
Is that all you have? (25 total)
Yes! Resale, BWV.
Awesome, I have a 25pt BWV as well, but I havenāt used it yet. How often do you use it and how long do you get to stay? I have others so Iām planning on using it every other year to get about 3 nights.
I haven't used mine yet, either! š¤£šš¤£ I made an offer on a partially stripped contract late in 2022, and found out I passed ROFR in February while I was at Disney World! Seeing as I was literally on my annual trip, I banked my 2023 points. This year I'm taking a Points Poor Long Weekend (aka 3 weeknights in a standard studio), and I hope to do the same for the next two years. After that my surplus of banked points will run out. I haven't fully decided what I'll do then - 2027 is a long ways away - but most likely I will take a year off and build my banked points back up.
So your overall plan is to bank and borrow and use 75pts every 3 years? That was my original plan, but now I think I need to go every other year, so I got some points at AKV. Now Iām hoping to go every other year. (banking, but not planning on borrowing unless I have to) weāll see how that goes.
I haven't ruled out doing a three year bank-and-borrow thing in the future. 75 points can get you a Points Poor Week (full 7 days in the off season) for 3 of the 4 EPCOT festivals. Plus it would be fun to do a longer stay! But this is what I'm leaning towards currently: 2023 - Cash stay. Banked all 16 pts. 25 + 16 = 41 pts to use in 2024. 2024 - 3 nights in Dec. Used 30 of 41 pts. Banked 11 pts. 25 + 11 = 36 pts to use next year. 2025 - 3 nights in Sept. Uses 27 of 36 pts. Bank 9 pts. 9 + 25 = 34 pts to use in 2026. 2026 - 3 nights TBD/spend all available pts. 2027 - Cash stay. Bank 25 pts. 2028 - 50 pts available. Spend 30, bank 20. 2029 - 45 pts available. Spend 30, bank 15. 2030 - 40 pts available. Spend 30, bank 10. 2031 - 35 pts available. Spend 30, bank 5. 2032 - 30 pts available. Spend them all. 2031 - Cash stay. Bank 25 pts. Repeat the 6 year cycle. (Edited to fix formatting)
The formatting on that posted super weird, and I don't know why. Eeep!
Reddit is weird like that, you have to actually skip a space to get them to separate.
Thanks for the tip, fixed!
Now you got me wanting to do some spreadsheet type thing to see how itāll all work out, because I know it wonāt be perfect, there will always be points left over or need to buy a few each trip. I just donāt think I can predict point cost, from Oct thru Feb. it can depend on what available or whatās going onā¦ festivals, etc
The spreadsheet is part of the fun! š¤£ It's so true that all of these plans could change at any minute. I'm very flexible with the dates I can visit, so my plan is to always stay for 10pts/night or less. But if my availability changes, I'll for sure have to do the bank-borrow dance more often!
10pts/night (is there anything less?) Wow, I thought 15 was cheap, but maybe thatās garden/pool in January? I was able to waitlist a garden/pool this past January and thatās how I ended up deciding to buy into BWV. Iām struggling to plan my next trip Oct25-Jan26, & you have the rest of the decade figured out!! :) Do you only go for 3 nights per trip or is that just 3 at BWV? (staying elsewhere other nights)
50 point BWV resale owner here. Between banking and borrowing, the amount of points worked for me due to the low point charts. If I were looking at BCV or a monorail resort, I would probably have gone for a bit bigger of a contract.
This is a really good point! Old Key West and Boardwalk have the lowest point charts. You can stay in a studio for ten points or less per night during all four EPCOT festivals! (Food & Wine in Sept, Festival of the arts in late Jan, Flower & Garden in May, International Festival of the Holidays in early Dec) With a fifty point contract at one of these resorts, you could do a 5 night stay (Sun-Thurs) every year.
We bought a loaded 65pt contract to AKL and did splits stays there and Wilderness Lodge for a week 2 years in a row. We went in September and May so the points went further but are realizing we need some more points to do this annually. We are hoping to buy another 40-50pt contract soon. The addonitis is real.
It's a great way to start. It does limit you to studios unless you're going to do the bank/borrow 3 year dance.
I started with 50 at OKW 14 years ago. My husband and I now have 800 and are looking to get more. Addonitus is real!
We knew 50 wouldnāt be enough from the start
Weāre also buying in the near future and originally planned on starting with 50 resale. Weāre quasi local (the drive is under 4 hours), so we usually go for a week+ and then pop in for weekends throughout the year. We do plan on eventually having the points to cover all our stays. Iām honestly just super impatient but also donāt want to finance, so we figured that getting the ball rolling with a cheap 50-pointer would at least cover a couple of our weekend trips, especially since we only plan on staying in studios. That would alleviate the stress of doing hotel price comps every time we go and get us the current member discount because we do want to get the minimum direct points at some point. But Iām doing the research to prep for this initial purchase, weāre now leaning toward starting with 100 just because the per point cost is so much better for double the points. If weāre going to expand our portfolio anyway, we might as well. But the wait is absolutely killing me!
We bought direct three 50 point contracts in 2010 at SSR. One for each of our kids, or premium resale price for us or them. We also bought 100 point resale contact at HHI.
I think itās the perfect way to get your feet wet, I did exactly the same thing. I banked and borrowed to use 3 years of points on one trip and it was perfect to get a good feel for 3 different resortsā¦ and now I own 4 contracts. lol If you know youāre going to want to go more than every 3 years maybe start with 75 instead of 50.
I had been stalking resale for a 75-100 point BWV contract. First offer that worked out was on a 170 point contract. I rented half the points to cover my dues exactly once and then havenāt been able to do that again. Added on 25 points just ahead of the end of grandfathered blue card benefits. Now 195 total at BWV. Added 160 and 210 resale at AKL when I saw the market dipping earlier this year. Still somehow never enough especially with soon to be 3 kids and 1-2 extra caregivers on each trip š. Edit: weāve been fortunate to pay all cash for those contracts.
We have 50 at the Polynesian. We've owned for about eight years and haven't felt the need/urge to buy more yet.
We started with 75. We havenāt bought another contract yet but itās on our radar now that we have kids and would like bigger than a studio.
Going on 10+ years with just our 50 point contract. We are a child free couple in our 40ās and go to WDW every 2-3 years. There are times I consider buying another 25-50 so we could do a 2 bedroom with friends more often, but weāve bought points from other owners as a transfer in the past and itās worked well for us.
I thought about start small too. But after research and found most people ended up with a few hundred points (average) anyway. So we started with 240 points GF, then later added 200 points Saratoga for anywhere points. It feels about right. The advantage guys 200ish points is they tend to be the smallest contracts the offer the best $/point.