DVC is it worth it for UK citizens

[Kwkiwi]

As soon as you bank or borrow points, it changes their year they can used. Once you bank your points for a given year, you can only use them the following year. If for some reason your plans changed and you wanted to travel this year, you would need to borrow from the points from next year.

The brokers will try to fit a request to a contract as best they can. If there are extra points left over depends on where you own, when they go up for rent, and what exactly the broker needs. They cannot combine points from multiple owners. Using points from multiple owners would result in multiple reservations, possibly having the guest need to change rooms mid trip. You can transfer points to someone else (can only be done once a year) but doing so for any sort of payment is explicitly prohibited.

Thanks Dreamfinder your prompt replies are much appreciated. There is more to it than I realised!

 

[FutureCEO]

Why would you take out a loan or re-finance to buy a DVC? I don't get it. A lot of people do this too. Including the masses who go to the theme parks..

 

[YorkshireT]

A couple of technical question here...

If you banked your points for Sept 2017 use year at the latest date which is April 2018. Does that then freeze those points and they are then not available to use till Sept 2018?

If I had say 100 points to rent are the rental companies able to take the whole block of points or do they come back sometimes and say 'we only need for eg 75 of them' etc? Leaving you with 25 to deal with or write off.

Hi sorry I haven't been on for a week, my experiences may assist as I just completed on my SSR Resale this week and got my points. It took 5 weeks from making the offer to being able to book, which is very quick.
I bought 160 SSR points with a Feb use year, so 2017's points have just come in. 160 2016 points were banked into 2017 meaning I had 320 points to use in 2017 by end Jan 2018. The 160 banked HAVE to be used in this period. The 160 2017 points I can bank into 2018.
So I cannot go 2017 as I already have 4 vacations booked. So I had to rent those 2016 points. Well, what can I say, demand far exceeds supply.
My points were $75 each, so $12000 plus $600 closing. I also paid 2017 dues, seller had paid 2016 banked points dues last year.
I went on David's and filled in a form. They emailed me an agreement and 30 minutes later they asked me to book Animal Kingdom end of August which I did. That evening I had 70% of the cash ($800) in my bank. The rest follows on check in.
I now had 59 points left. The following day Daves asked me to book Poly for September. As long as you are willing to borrow (although in my case I didn't have to borrow from 2018 as I have 160 2017 points left) up to 10 points to add to what you have left for renting, David's say they will get rid of all your points. So if you have say 25 points left, they'll book someone who wants a couple of nights in a studio if you will borrow a few from next year to match the point requirement. Anyway, I have now rented all my banked points and a few of the 2017 points, and pocketed $1800. This really brings the true cost of my SSR contract down to just under $64 a point. My 2017 points I will now bank into 2018 for my vacation next year.
I will go end of August in a 1 bed. I am now only 6 months from end of this August but even a month late in booking I can get that 1 bed for a week anywhere, including BCV, GFV etc. Even Californian had some availability.
So 3 trips and it will have paid for itself. It also seems if I ever cannot use it, I can immediately rent out the points within 24 hours and virtually zero effort for a $1k profit each time. Even my sceptical missus was impressed.
So I am very happy and with decades of holidays or rental profits (2054 expiry) I am really thinking it was a no brainer. Every time I book for the 9- 10 days I can book a 1 bed for every 2 years I'm saving at least $4k.

 

[Kwkiwi]

Hi sorry I haven't been on for a week, my experiences may assist as I just completed on my SSR Resale this week and got my points. It took 5 weeks from making the offer to being able to book, which is very quick.
I bought 160 SSR points with a Feb use year, so 2017's points have just come in. 160 2016 points were banked into 2017 meaning I had 320 points to use in 2017 by end Jan 2018. The 160 banked HAVE to be used in this period. The 160 2017 points I can bank into 2018.
So I cannot go 2017 as I already have 4 vacations booked. So I had to rent those 2016 points. Well, what can I say, demand far exceeds supply.
My points were $75 each, so $12000 plus $600 closing. I also paid 2017 dues, seller had paid 2016 banked points dues last year.
I went on David's and filled in a form. They emailed me an agreement and 30 minutes later they asked me to book Animal Kingdom end of August which I did. That evening I had 70% of the cash ($800) in my bank. The rest follows on check in.
I now had 59 points left. The following day Daves asked me to book Poly for September. As long as you are willing to borrow (although in my case I didn't have to borrow from 2018 as I have 160 2017 points left) up to 10 points to add to what you have left for renting, David's say they will get rid of all your points. So if you have say 25 points left, they'll book someone who wants a couple of nights in a studio if you will borrow a few from next year to match the point requirement. Anyway, I have now rented all my banked points and a few of the 2017 points, and pocketed $1800. This really brings the true cost of my SSR contract down to just under $64 a point. My 2017 points I will now bank into 2018 for my vacation next year.
I will go end of August in a 1 bed. I am now only 6 months from end of this August but even a month late in booking I can get that 1 bed for a week anywhere, including BCV, GFV etc. Even Californian had some availability.
So 3 trips and it will have paid for itself. It also seems if I ever cannot use it, I can immediately rent out the points within 24 hours and virtually zero effort for a $1k profit each time. Even my sceptical missus was impressed.
So I am very happy and with decades of holidays or rental profits (2054 expiry) I am really thinking it was a no brainer. Every time I book for the 9- 10 days I can book a 1 bed for every 2 years I'm saving at least $4k.

Many thanks for sharing that info YorkshireT. Hugely helpful for me to know in that level of detail. Sounds like a better return than a term deposit with the bank! I had already decided to look for some sept use year points with Grand Californian, still considering SSR too but not sure of availability of Californian within the seven month mark which is crucial for me as I can't always organise my airfares 7+ months in advance to Los Angeles. i realise from what you are saying though that a few extra points to play round with is helpful. If you did have a chance. Would you be able to look at what's available for eg at Californian in the first two weeks of sept 2017. Nickys was so kind to do that for me last time. Thanks again. This is a great site.

 

[YorkshireT]

Hi Just looked. For Sept you can get a 1 bed 4, 8,12,26,27,28,40. 2 bed villa 5, 6, 8, 11, 20, 21, 23, 26-30.All October and November available. It goes bang on 7 months in September think you'd possibly get a week as long as you were on at 8am Eastern time in September. This place has the worst availability of the lot due to limited rooms. I hear they are building a new large hotel there which I would have thought is partly DVC.

 

[Kwkiwi]

Hi Just looked. For Sept you can get a 1 bed 4, 8,12,26,27,28,40. 2 bed villa 5, 6, 8, 11, 20, 21, 23, 26-30.All October and November available. It goes bang on 7 months in September think you'd possibly get a week as long as you were on at 8am Eastern time in September. This place has the worst availability of the lot due to limited rooms. I hear they are building a new large hotel there which I would have thought is partly DVC.

Thanks YorkshireT. I thought that was the case. The Californian points are also like hens teeth to buy! Virtually none available and expensive when they do come on. I guess many people out west seek those points. I guess I could give it a go and get points at a cheaper resort and then try going on at the 7 month mark to get a booking. That means I have to have sorted the airfares 7 months out. (That has to be done regardless of which my home resort is if I want to stay at the Californian). If it wasn't working out I could sell the points I had and buy the Californian points to get home resort priority. Not a cheap exercise buying 160 Californian points at $160pp!!

Would be interesting to see how the dynamics change if Disney are adding more dvc rooms in LA.
Anyway thanks once again. I envy you that you are all set to go and even that you already have your 4 holidays sorted for this year!! You are obviously a plannner, like myself...

 

[Jo DeVil]

Sorry Guys I don't get to gloat very often, so even thought I will probably be hated....LOL I am that urban myth, we got 175pts at BWV at $58pp and the exchange rate when we closed was £1.98 to the £ and we got in there on resale just before the first restrictions came in... In hindsight I wish we had got more, but we paid cash and anymore would have been finance. For us it has been the best thing since sliced bread. I do understand if any of you want to block me, but it was fate for us as nothing every works out that way normally.