Do you track your points value?

[Jim Chandler]

We keep track of our points used as well as what they cost with yearly maint. fee and what each stay would have cost us if we paid cash.
Based upon current costs and fees the 49 years of our contract will cost us $82,575 and our stay costs have been $21,780 so we owe $63,795 for the balance of the 40 years left.
Based upon current dollars that we would use per year we will break even at the 30 year mark or the last 19 will be free. As stated if fees are the same.

I also have Diamond International Points and they are a far better value based upon costs only not including how one feels about Disney vs. other spots.

 

[GoofGoof]

I track my points and compare to cash prices I would have had to pay for a comparable room. Since I'm always staying in a 1 or 2BR villa I also compare the cost to what the cash price would have been for a studio hotel room. My break even point vs the cash rate for the villas will be very quick. Compared to a studio room it's a little longer, but I'm getting a much bigger room with a kitchen and multiple bathrooms.

 

[EOD K9]

I track my points based on what cash value is at the time. I have taken my parents and my in-laws as a Christmas gift one year and it would have been over four-thousand for six people at SSR in three studios. I have owned DVC for 8 years and by now I think it has paid for itself. Recently, I have found the joy of Disney Cruise Line. My points would be better served if I rent them out and keep the money for a deposit on my next cruise.

 

[GoofGoof]

I track my points based on what cash value is at the time. I have taken my parents and my in-laws as a Christmas gift one year and it would have been over four-thousand for six people at SSR in three studios. I have owned DVC for 8 years and by now I think it has paid for itself. Recently, I have found the joy of Disney Cruise Line. My points would be better served if I rent them out and keep the money for a deposit on my next cruise.

I was looking at the cost to trade in DVC points for a cruise and I think your plan makes more sense. It would cost me about 500 DVC points to trade in for a 7 night Caribbean cruise for 2 next June on the Fantasy in an ocean view stateroom. I looked the cost up on the DCL sight and it would cost under $4,000 to pay cash for the cruise. If I could rent my points for more than $8 it would be better to rent the points and pay cash for the cruise. I think some of the bigger rental sights pay $10 or $11 for your points with no fees. That's a gain of between $1,000 and $1,500 over trading in for the cruise.

 

[EOD K9]

@GoofGoof I just sold(rented) 30 points to a member of this forum whom I have never met. I only know her from here. She was going to rent from someone she didn't know and it seemed somewhat shady. She was going at $11 dollars a point. I charged her only slightly more, $11.66 a point. What would have cost her one-thousand dollars for two nights in a savannah view at AKL, she paid $350. She got an awesome deal and I have a deposit on my next cruise. Its a win for everyone. In regards to your last sentence.....exactly!

 

[toolsnspools]

Every time I book a room through DVC I get an online quote for the same room. Grant it I would be searching for bargains, etc, if I were paying cash, but I figure with the DVC discounts (food, APs, etc.) the difference is a wash. I'm an owner of 200 BLT points since 2009. My total cost, including a trip I'm about to take in July, are $21,901 and my rack rate room costs would have bee $15,373. I spent a number of points on a cruise, which admittedly is not a great value for the points, so these numbers could be closer. I probably won't use points in 2014, but I should break even by our next DVC trip in 2015.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

I used to keep a very extensive spreadsheet with what my room cost was in points (price of the points throughout the contract plus maintenance fees) vs what it was with the BEST POSSIBLE discount. I figured that if I was going to get a good idea of what I was saving, I should do a fair comparison. I would never pay rack rate for a room, so why compare it to that price. Overall, I was still kicking on the comparable room cost.

 

[Ralphlaw]

Hats off to all of you for keeping such impeccable records. The real unknown in all of this is the maintenance fees. Some stay the same, some go up a bit, and some go up a lot. I recently posted that buying cheap points, even with higher maintenance fees (at a place like Vero Beach), seems to make sense. My wife and I, some day, would like to stay a month or so every year at various Walt Disney World resorts through DVC. Depending on timing and room size, this would require about 700 points. For Vero Beach points, this would cost about $32,000, with yearly maintenance fees of about $5,000 right now.

This would be deluxe accommodations, and I assume we would pay in excess of $7,000 for a month of comparable deluxe accommodations in the hotels.

To take our example further, we like the Beach Club and the Boardwalk. Each of those, on Timeshare Inc., are selling points for about $80 a point, with maintenance fees of about $5.30 a point. 700 points would then cost us about $56,000 up front, with annual maintenance fees of $3,700 per point.

Bottom line: Vero would cost us about $24,000 less up front, but $1,300 per year more in maintenance fees (right now). Assuming maintenance fees remain the same (which is not necessarily a wise assumption), it would take more than 18 years of maintenance fees to equalize the up front price difference.

Now here's the real kicker, I can sell my points. When I'm old and grey, I can sell them off, or give them to my kids, like a real asset. By the way, when do Vero Beach points expire? You also get a few discounts here and there, can do laundry (which means less luggage and lower airline fees), and could share bigger villas with friends or family, for a small price.

By the way, I've had pretty good luck at the 7 month window and wait-listing, booking generally wherever I wanted to stay whenever we were going.

 

[WWWD]

I would still caution you to buy at least some of your points where you want to stay. We bought resale and direct into BCV because of the location and also, thinking of when the kids no longer want to go to WDW, we will do adult trips during Flower and Garden, and Food and Wine at EPCOT. Getting into BWV or BCV during those times are very difficult at the 7 months window.

Also, I believe as DVC grows and membership turns over (parents giving to kids or memberships sold) popular resorts will even become more difficult to get into. BCV and BWV will always have the location factor to make them among the popular resorts. Most of the DVC's are very nice, but some are "one and done" type places, for me at least. Remember, there's a reason re-sale points sell for different values.

 

[Disneykidder]

For my upcoming trip I did calculate how much it would have cost just for the room. 8 nights at an MK view room at BLT and a Savanna view at AKV would have been a lot!!

 

[GoofGoof]

Hats off to all of you for keeping such impeccable records. The real unknown in all of this is the maintenance fees. Some stay the same, some go up a bit, and some go up a lot. I recently posted that buying cheap points, even with higher maintenance fees (at a place like Vero Beach), seems to make sense. My wife and I, some day, would like to stay a month or so every year at various Walt Disney World resorts through DVC. Depending on timing and room size, this would require about 700 points. For Vero Beach points, this would cost about $32,000, with yearly maintenance fees of about $5,000 right now.

This would be deluxe accommodations, and I assume we would pay in excess of $7,000 for a month of comparable deluxe accommodations in the hotels.

To take our example further, we like the Beach Club and the Boardwalk. Each of those, on Timeshare Inc., are selling points for about $80 a point, with maintenance fees of about $5.30 a point. 700 points would then cost us about $56,000 up front, with annual maintenance fees of $3,700 per point.

Bottom line: Vero would cost us about $24,000 less up front, but $1,300 per year more in maintenance fees (right now). Assuming maintenance fees remain the same (which is not necessarily a wise assumption), it would take more than 18 years of maintenance fees to equalize the up front price difference.

Now here's the real kicker, I can sell my points. When I'm old and grey, I can sell them off, or give them to my kids, like a real asset. By the way, when do Vero Beach points expire? You also get a few discounts here and there, can do laundry (which means less luggage and lower airline fees), and could share bigger villas with friends or family, for a small price.

By the way, I've had pretty good luck at the 7 month window and wait-listing, booking generally wherever I wanted to stay whenever we were going.

2042 for VB. some of the newer resorts go almost 20 years longer. But on the flip side that's 20 years of additional fees. I think it's safe to assume that as 2042 approaches the value of the DVCs that expire then will reduce to zero.

 

[Ralphlaw]

Good points made about the probable growing popularity of Beach Club and Boardwalk. I'll have to figure in that these resorts, as population matures, may be more attractive than places like Bay Lake Tower, Wilderness, or Animal Kingdom, which may be a bit more kid popular.

Yeah, as expiration years approach, the resale value will go down to nothing. I imagine right now, the difference between 29 years before expiration and 50 years before expirations is probably not impacting the price very much, if at all. Obviously that will begin to change as 2042 approaches, but I'll bet that new contracts will be available for current owners at some type of discount, somehow, once those years approach. Nevertheless, it'll still mean more money from us, and a pretty worthless ownership interest as the expiration years approach. Oh fiddle dee dee, I'll think about that tomorrow. Gee, I sound like a politician.