DVC Dreams on Real World Budgets - How did you get creative to afford DVC and maximize your vacation investment?

Wow, this was very helpful! I would love to read more about this details of strategy.

Really appreciate that, glad it was helpful.

If you’re thinking about going deeper on it, the biggest piece of advice I’d offer is to treat it less like a purchase and more like something you design around your cash flow. That shift made everything click for me.

A couple things that helped beyond what I shared:

Stack your strategy, don’t rely on just one lever. The real impact came from combining smaller advantages. Credit card timing, gift card discounts, and cash flow planning all working together. Individually they don’t move the needle much, but together they materially change the outcome. Think butterfly effect!

Be intentional with timing. When you buy, when dues hit, and when you apply extra payments all matter more than people think. Even small adjustments there can reduce interest or free up flexibility.

And probably the biggest one, protect your monthly baseline. If the core budget feels strained, it stops being enjoyable. The goal is to make this feel sustainable so the “investment” actually delivers on the experience side.

Curious if you’re already in DVC or still in the “trying to make the math work” phase?

Great Post!

Definitely helps me in planning!

If you don’t mind me asking:

1) what’s your home resort?

2) how many points do you have?

3) how often do you travel using your DVC membership (WDW/DL & non park properties)

Appreciate that, glad it helped.

Happy to share a bit more context:

1. Home resort is Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows (AUG use year) , with an resale at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Villas (FEB use year)

2. Currently sitting at 350 points total (toying with the idea of adding onto Poly)

3. We typically aim for 2-3 trips a year. Usually one longer stay where we’ll use a 1BR or nicer room, and then a couple shorter trips mixed in. Mostly Walt Disney World for us, but we like the flexibility to branch out to non-park stays when it makes sense. Looking to do Epic and Universal next year.

It’s been a good balance so far between maximizing the points and still keeping trips manageable with work and school schedules. How about yourself?

Not an owner (yet 😏)

I’m a Florida resident, avid DVC renter, and I usually take a weekend trip or a long weekend trip to WDW once a month.

Looking at the best possible options for me!

I'd say buy resale until Direct offers a deal you can't say no to... they do happen once every few years....

The original resorts are unlikely to be surpassed in value and architectural grandeur/theming by anything Disney puts out for the foreseeable future... So buy resale and stay somewhere amazing... and eventually you'll figure out a way to get that blue card...

That’s honestly one of the strongest setups you can have going into this decision.

If you’re already going monthly for weekend or long weekend trips, you’ve basically validated your usage pattern. At that point it becomes less about “will I use it” and more about optimizing how you pay for it.

A couple thoughts based on how you travel:

• DVC can make a lot of sense if you value consistency and locking in your stays. Even a smaller contract at a strong home resort could cover those quick trips in studios pretty efficiently, especially if you’re flexible on timing.

• Renting works really well for flexibility, but over time you’re paying a premium for that. If you’re going 10–12 times a year, there’s a point where ownership starts to compete, especially if you’re strategic with point usage.

You’re actually in that rare category where a hybrid approach could be ideal too. Own enough points to cover a baseline number of stays, then rent in or out depending on the year.

Curious, when you rent now, are you mostly booking studios for those quick trips? Where do you rent most often?

That’s a solid strategy, especially on entry price and access to the legacy resorts. The tradeoffs on resale are worth calling out so people go in with eyes open and is one of the reasons why we went with a blended approach..

The biggest one is restrictions. Resale points are limited to booking the original DVC resorts and cannot be used at newer properties like Riviera or future resorts (likely Lakeshore) unless you own directly. That reduces long term flexibility as Disney continues to add inventory.

You also give up the Membership Extras tied to the “blue card.” Things like Moonlight Magic, certain discounts, lounges, and occasional perks are not guaranteed anyway, but resale removes access entirely.

Financing and incentives are another gap. Direct sometimes comes with promotional pricing, developer financing, or perks like Magical Beginnings that can shift the math. Resale is more straightforward but you lose those levers.

None of these are deal breakers. For many people, resale still wins on pure economics. It just comes down to whether you value flexibility and perks enough to justify paying a premium later.

I created a spreadsheet to see the value of DVC overtime.
Hopefully this is helpful to anyone who uses it. For me it was super helpful to see these numbers over time.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ddQcQti1eEaBVOIWXybjV36hSWcYnyHQ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112977388873171014824&rtpof=true&sd=true

Feel free to save as a copy and use it to your hearts content.

The biggest thing is knowing how much money you'll be saving in 10 years vs not buying today. Even with annual dues, being able to stay in Deluxe properties for the price of a moderate is a huge plus. I'm also a huge buy direct proponent for at least some or a good chunk of your points. They've already stated that any new resort will have a DVC component which means any resale contract bought today will be missing out.

@DVCPointSorcerer71 's strategy of applying the 'extra' pay checks toward your loan is HUGE. Folks often take a similar strategy with their traditional 30-year mortgage by making bi-weekly payments rather than monthly payments. Depending on your interest rate this can save you anywhere from 15-28% on finance charges and pay off your home in 4-7 years shorter time.

DVC loans are not as long term, but the savings are still worthwhile. Making bi-weekly payments on a 10-year loan with a 10% interest rate saves you 14% of the finance charges. It is unfortunate that DVC doesn't allow us to automate these payments like most traditional mortgage companies, but you can still achieve similar benefits by manually making additional payments.

To add on to @Lotheron 's point. We purchased both of our contracts direct and financed both of them. There is a general sentiment in the community that you should NOT finance your DVC purchase. While it 100% will cost you more in the long run (duh) financing is not the end of the world nor does nullify the $$ savings aspect of DVC. @Cabinet6289's spreadsheet is a great tool to help you decided if the extra cost is worth it to you to buy now and finance or save up and buy later.

You have to make sure DVC fits your budget, but a big thing to remember is that DVC is not just a dollars and cents purchase....it is very emotional. The emotional aspect is what (to us) justified buying direct (no concerns about restrictions), buying the resorts we wanted to stay (not the cheapest price/dues), and financing (being able to use it NOW while our kids are at the prime age to enjoy it).

We've done the zero percent interest on a new credit card for X number of months to help pay for DVC points a couple of times.

Another thing to consider if you are going to take out a loan (I have not done this) - is look at a home equity loan. You are going to get a much better interest rate with one of those than you will get through the various DVC financing outfits.

To be honest, I’ve been an hybrid of being able to book hotels direct through Disney (AP discount- preferably moderate and deluxe), stay off property (not my fave and not ideal- I like to be in the bubble lol), and my max threshold for paying for a room per night is $450 (with taxes & fees budget $1000 max per month on Disney hotels). Again I am only staying the weekend or long weekend.

When I rent I am able to lock in studios pretty much anywhere (less beach club) with most of my stays being primarily at AKL, OKW, & SSR.

I’ve only upgraded to a one bedroom if I found value (less than $18 per point renting) and if it was a big occasion (birthday, anniversary, girls trip, etc) and some of those stays have included: Fort Wilderness cabins, Riviera bedroom(standard), old Key West(standard) , Animal Kingdom (Savannah) , Aulani (garden view) and Saratoga (standard). These are the trips that tend to be longer- like 4 nights or more.

I joined these forums because I’m curious at what contract values (and dues and point charts) could be the best option for me!

Shout out to all the owners that found their home! Can’t wait to join you soon!

Awesome thread, thanks! We do like 2 big trips a year and I've been wondering if I could save with DVC.

To stay in Deluxe resorts do you need to wait a few years to accumulate points?

I'm new to this, sorry for the random questions.

Welcome!

All DVC resorts are Deluxe Resorts...so as soon as you join you are staying Deluxe :)

If by saving you mean saving up points, you can bank points one year later and borrow points one year forward, so some folks buy 1/3 of the points they need and go once every 3 years and some buy half the points they need and go every other year. For example, let's assume the trip I know I want to take costs 150 points. I have 3 options to make that happen:

1. 1) Buy 150 points and go every year

2. 2) Buy 75 points and go every other year. For example, don't go on a trip in 2026, and bank those 75 points into 2027 so I have 150 points to use in 2027

3. 3) Buy 50 points and go every 3 years. For example, don't go on a trip in 2026 and bank those 50 points into 2027 so I have 100 points in 2027. Then when I book my trip in 2027 borrow 50 points from 2028 to give me the full 150 points. So trips in 2027, 2030, 2033 etc

If by saving you mean over cash rates this depends on how you typically stay:

• -If you typically stay in value resorts you won't be saving money

• -If you typically stay in moderate resorts you likely won't be saving money considering

• -If you typically stay in deluxe resorts you will 100% be saving money (if you use your pts yourself or rent them out)

@DVCDani:) @Kurosaki I just started this thread (DVCFan Forums) and shared a spreadsheet that you are free to copy and edit to understand the costs (contract price and dues) for trips over time and total lifetime of contracts.

Here's my comprehensive list of all the ways to save money on DVC.

1. Don't buy DVC.  This is an expensive timeshare, and if you aren't going to Disney resorts at least every three years, you shouldn't buy it.  If you don't love the deluxe resorts and are fine with Pop Century or staying offsite, or if the deluxe perks don't sound worthwhile to you, you will probably save money by not buying DVC.  DVC would mean spending for upgrades you don't really value. If you are all about going rope-drop to fireworks every day, and view your room as just a place to recharge overnight, DVC might not reach its full potential for you. If you buy a timeshare you can't really afford and have to resell it later, it will usually be a costly mistake.

2. Don't finance your DVC purchase.  If you can't afford it up front, you probably should wait until you can.  Financing DVC removes all or almost all of the value it brings vs renting points or paying cash.  The interest rates are usually in the 10%-18% range. If you want to throw sound financial responsibility out the window, at least look at your financing options. Go talk to @YamKriegs at Monera for a quote, but also look at 0% interest offers on credit cards, HELOC options, and other lenders. You should try to pay it off aggressively whatever you go with.

3. Paradoxically (given #2), pay for DVC using credit cards (but pay them off that month to avoid interest charges).  Resale brokers will allow an initial escrow payment to be made via credit card with no additional fee.  This is limited to 10% of the sales price and/or sometimes up to $7500.  There are many cards offering sign up bonuses worth $1500+ for that level of spending, and that's in addition to the \~$150 in rewards points or cash back you would normally get from $7500 in spend.  For direct purchases, the entire amount can be charged to credit cards, and you can work with your guide to space out payments or split them among different cards to max out the value.  As an example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card has offered a 200K point sign up bonus if you spend $30K within 6 months of opening the card. This, plus the additional points you would get for the spending, is worth ~$4200 if redeemed for statement credit and up to ~$7000+ in value if redeemed through the Chase travel portal.

4. Read and research first.  Before you spend five figures on DVC, take the time to learn all about how it works, all the details, the benefits, and the costs.  It's complicated, and it's only "worth it" if you use it well. If you let points expire, make reservations too late to get the rooms/resorts you want, or lose value through expensive exchanges for DCL or others, it will make DVC more expensive vs what you get out of it.

5. Pay your dues with Disney Giftcards.  These can be purchased at 5% off at Target with a RedCard and also occasionally go on sale ~10% off at Sam's Club, BJ's, and other places. Last fall there was a 10% off deal at giftcardsdotcom that stacked with some Chase/PayPal rebates and some other cashback sites. I ended up with a total of 16% off by the end.

Saving Money When Buying Resale

6. Buy a Resale contract.  Resale DVC contracts typically sell for at least 25% less than direct, even after incentives.  Many resorts are over 50% discount vs direct prices.  You may not even need direct benefits, so research both benefits and restrictions carefully.

5. Shop around. Use aggregators like dvcforless to see and compare multiple brokers at once.  Don't just buy the "best" option available at a single broker or site.

6. Be patient and don't offer the full asking price.  You can make successive offers on multiple listings and eventually one will either get accepted or countered at a good price.  If you jump on the first contract you like at full asking price, you will almost always get it done sooner, but you'll also pay more.

7. Time your resale purchase by buying right before your Use Year.  With resale, most contracts are priced higher if they have points on them.  Buying right before the use year means most other buyers will only think about the current points available without considering that more points are coming very soon and may even arrive before you close. This is especially true of buyers using listing aggregators because the aggregators usually just show how many points there are from each year - that makes the perceived value lower on contracts that don't have points yet, but are about to get them.  Buying right after the use year means the current points inflate the perceived value, but it's a full 11 months until the next set arrive.  There is some seasonality to resale pricing, so it can often be advantageous to buy when inventory is higher, which usually . Resorts with a lot of ROFR activity will typically see upward pressure on prices because buyers have to beat

8. Consider the expiration, points chart, rack rates, dues, availability, and your typical vacation plans.  Longer expiration home resorts are almost always much cheaper per year over the life of the contract.  Expensive points charts can make resorts like Riviera or PIT a lower value (i.e. higher cost per stay).  Resorts which have low rack rates or restrictions like Cabins at Fort Wilderness or ample availability like Saratoga Springs aren't as valuable to own, but they could also lower your total upfront cost.  Consider how much the 11 month vs 7 month booking window helps you when choosing a home resort and only pay a premium for a particular one (e.g. Beach Club) if you plan to use it there. Remember that it's always an option to save money by buying fewer points and using banking and borrowing for your vacations. Consider the dues - don't just buy Vero Beach because it's the lowest buy-in price.

9. Give yourself "Magical Beginnings" by renting out points from a resale purchase. For direct purchases, DVC will typically allow you to sell your starting points back for $20 each. This isn't an option for resale, but you can still do it yourself if you just rent out your initial points. You can even buy a "double points" or "loaded" contract that has points banked from a prior year. You should expect to pay more for such a contract, but the points will often rent for more than the premium.

Saving Money When Buying Direct

10.  Buy Resale first. If you decide you want to buy direct to get benefits or avoid restrictions, buy a resale contract first because existing members almost always see better discounts and incentives when buying direct vs new members.  Note that a resale purchase will typically take 8+ weeks before it's all done, and there's a new rule that you must be a resale member for a year to qualify for member discounts, so plan ahead.  You will save money by buying the minimum number of points to qualify for benefits (currently 150) vs buying direct for all the points you want.  So if you want 300 points at AKL and you want benefits, buy 150 direct and 150 resale with the same use year.  This will save you about $17K vs buying all 300 points direct, and you'll have 99% of the value.

11. Do a virtual tour and buy within 7 days. This is generally a soft requirement to get the current incentives being offered, but it's worth noting that almost any phone conversation with a DVC guide can count as a "tour."  Incentives range from a few hundred to over $10K depending on the resort and number of points. Ask your guide for a full list of all the incentives and discounts available (e.g. military, D23, Castaway Club, Dream It Forward, Visa Cardholder, etc).

12. Use Magical Beginnings to sell your first year's points back to Disney for $20 each.  Note that the points your contract comes with will not require dues, and it's kind of a bummer to start out with no points. But it can definitely save money.

13. Use your Disney+ subscription to get D23 Gold.  D23 Gold members get a $500 discount on direct purchases, and you can get D23 Gold for free if you are a Disney+ subscriber.  Alternatively, if you are military, a cast member, or have a Dream It Forward Referral Discount, you could use this instead.  These do not stack though, and you can't use Dream It Forward if you are already a member.

14. Consider using a Disney Visa card.  Compared to other credit cards, the points earning is not very good with these cards, and neither is the sign up bonus.  But direct purchases will qualify for 6 months at 0% interest, and sometimes there are additional DVC discounts offered for Disney Visa cardholders. The new Inspire card has the best perks and bonuses, and people have reported being able to charge giftcards to their room to get one of the $200 credits to trigger.

15. Buy right before your Use Year to maximize total points vs total dues paid.  This is a HUGE one that is almost always overlooked.  Say you want to buy in 2026 with a June Use Year.  If you buy direct in May 2026, your contract will come with 2025 points, but you won't pay any dues on them.  AT ALL.  You can sell them back with Magical Beginnings or bank them into the 2026 use year.  Then when June 1 rolls around, you will get your 2026 points.  You pay prorated dues each month between May and December 2026, then you owe your full dues in January 2027.  By contrast, if you buy that exact same contract in June 2026, you will get one full year fewer total points because your purchase will only come with the current year (2026) points.  It will then be a full 11+ months until you get your next allotment.  But you only pay one month less in total dues.  Buying right before your use year instead of right after only raises the total cost by one month of prorated dues, but the value is increased by one entire year's points.

16. Wait to pay in full.  When you buy direct, you have to make an initial payment of at least 10% of the price.  But the rest can be stretched out for 30 to 45 days with no extra fees or interest.  There's a small time-value-of-money benefit to paying later, and if you're using financing through a third party, this would give you 30-45 days interest free.  If you stretch out your payment period to the maximum allowed, you can also potentially take advantage of any new discounts or incentives offered.  If you see any new ones before you make the final payment, just reach out to your guide and ask if they can be added.   It's worth noting that they are not required to give them to you, but historically they have.

17. Buy within 10 days of the end of an incentive window. The current incentive window ends 4/27/26.  If the new incentives on 4/28 are better, you can switch over to them instead at no cost.  Your guide will simply "rewrite" your deal. If the incentives aren't better, keep what you have.  For the ten day window, the guide essentially has to give you the better incentives because Florida law requires a ten day recission window for timeshare buyers to back out at no cost.  So within 10 days, you could exercise this, then repurchase under the new incentives.  To save time, work, and goodwill, your guide will usually simply issue you a refund for the difference.  As noted above, DVC has historically honored any improvement in incentives before the final pay-in-full date (which can be up to 45 days after initial payment).  But only 10 days are guaranteed.

Great work on this, really helpful way to see things over time. The way I approached it to normalize the data was to convert everything into a true cost per point so I could compare any stay, any season, apples to apples. Here’s the method I used:

1) Start with total lifetime cost: purchase price plus total dues over the life of the contract (I assumed an annual inflation rate of 3%) plus any loan interest if financing

2) Then subtract savings discounted gift card savings and tax benefits from mortgage interest and property taxes (if applicable)

That gives a net lifetime cost.

3) Then take the total points you’ll receive over the life of the deed (annual points multiplied by remaining years on the contract)

4) Finally, divide net lifetime cost by total lifetime points.

That gives you a real dollar per point. It is the only way to be able to understand your true stay especially if you like to stay in different size rooms.

Once you have that number, you can price out any stay by multiplying points required by your cost per point and directly compare it to Disney rack rates to see the true value.

Thanks for sharing!!!!

@Buckeye This is a really balanced take, especially calling out both the financial and emotional sides.

I agree that financing gets a bad reputation, but it doesn’t automatically erase the value. You can absolutely finance and still come out hundreds per night ahead versus paying cash rack rates or even those “30% off” return offers.

When we ran our numbers at the Polynesian, we were still seeing roughly $300–$700 per night in savings depending on the time of year, even with financing factored in. That’s where normalizing the full cost really helps put things in perspective.

Also worth keeping in mind, there are some offsets people forget. You’ll receive a 1098, so loan interest and the property tax portion of dues can be itemized if it applies to your situation, which helps bring the effective cost down further.

I think the key point you made stands. DVC isn’t an investment in the traditional sense, it doesn’t make you money. It’s a long term cost control strategy for vacations if you plan to use it consistently.

Thanks for contributing!! Hope to see you at the park!!

@DVCDani:) This is a great discussion. There are definitely deals that pop up from time to time, and those can narrow the gap in the short term.

That said, when you zoom out and look at it over a longer horizon, the savings with DVC are generally real if you plan to use it consistently. The key is actually modeling it the right way.

I’ve put together and used a spreadsheet to compare staying cash versus DVC over time. It normalizes everything: purchase, dues with inflation, financing, and offsets into a true cost per point and then converts that into a cost per night. From there, I compare it against a normalized rack rate that also grows over time.

Happy to share the sheet I’ve been using below. It helped make the decision a lot clearer by taking the emotion out of it and just letting the math speak (for the most part 😉).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KidvBnZLj6csJ_iP-7jnrlwvl-JmFOx5/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=110643754041783692491&rtpof=true&sd=true

And if you want larger Villa accommodations DVC also offers predictability that inventory will be there when you need it.

That said, we are hybrid members in many ways... Direct and Resale...

Sometimes we stay DVC, sometimes we stay Swan and Dolphin, sometimes we stay Hyatt Regency (both of them), and sometimes we stay Interval Getaways...

We are trying a value resort (AoA Family Suites) for the first time this summer... the Skyliner made us think lets give it a try...

Perhaps at some point we go even deeper into DVC... we shall see

We did exactly that with our last resale at Floridian. Our HELOC had a lower rate compared to other financial offers. Another thing to note, Disney allows you to pay your direct loan principle with a credit card. This can be done at any point during your pay down period. I 100% recommend doing this before just paying a large chunk to principle. It's a wonderful way to get a small bonus from CC benefits like 2% back or flight points etc. Every little bit helps! Thanks for contributing!

Hooray for math! This is a great resource and I can’t wait to use it! Thanks!

In addition to what many have already said. I believe that flexibility in resort shopping is the best way to maximize. From an upfront value standpoint...heck and overall pound for pound you can't beat SSR.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/most-economical-resort-beyond-year-1.3950476/

@GVel Interesting take, and I agree with the flexibility angle.

One thing I dug into a bit more was the cost per night on points between Saratoga and Polynesian using the spreadsheet in my earlier link. Going in, I expected a pretty wide gap given SSR’s reputation as the “value play.” But when you actually normalize it to cost per night, the difference was much tighter than I expected if you wanted to stay at poly on SSR (96/night for a Poly stay low season and 235/night high season). Factors like deed expiration, dues cost per point are the driving force behind this overall interesting convergence.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KidvBnZLj6csJ_iP-7jnrlwvl-JmFOx5/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110643754041783692491&rtpof=true&sd=true

You will absolutely save, no doubt. It almost reframes SSR less as a clear-cut bargain and more as a lower entry point with different tradeoffs, especially when you factor in booking windows, the potential for unavailability and where you actually may want to stay most of the time.

Curious how you think about that. Do you still see SSR savings as materially better or is getting him resort benefits now starting to be a driving force now?

Thanks for contributing!! Hope to see you in the parks!

Skip a year - honestly my best advice.

Look - if you are buying DVC, and it actually makes sense for you, you have to be going to Disney fairly often. Every year, every other year, maybe more than once a year. This was the case for us. And we did some basic math. At the time we were staying in moderate resorts and going for 1 - 2 weeks a year. Run the numbers right now, and if you figure a moderate resort at 10 days a year, that's easily $3000, add in 10 day tickets and now you are looking at $5000 - $7000 depending on the size of your family, add in travel expenses, and this could be 1000 - 2000 more, then add in food, merch, etc, another 2000 - 3000 easily. That's about $10 000 all told, and I think that's at a fairly low end estimate, we all know things can get crazy.

Take that $10 000 and buy a resale contract. You could finance part of it if you want to go bigger. Of course these numbers get even more wild if you are already staying deluxe.

I appreciate the mathing on this, but I think the expiry date and the direct purchase price completely skews the value proposition. Though if you are buying direct regardless, I guess that doesn't matter :) Limit this calculation to the next 10 years or 20 years for instance, and the math completely changes. And let be real, none of us know where we are going to be in 20 years, and we can't even know the value of the contracts in 20 years, or if we should care (like, if I die and I'm sitting on a poly vs an SSR contract, it really makes no difference to me). There is also the possibility that in 10, 15, or 20 years, you can "re-up" the SSR contract and move horizontally into a longer term contract for little or no money. We really don't know what that will look like. As I've said elsewhere, the fact you can sell a BCV contract right now for the price you can is wild.

Well you can pass points on to your children or grandchildren. My wife and I are inheriting BRV and OKW from my parents and we will be 100 when our Riviera points expire, odds those will get passed on.

Yup, that's true - but again, not really that big of consideration for me/us. And, the value of those points at any point in the future is quite unknown, as is the comparison to any other resort. Again, I'll point to BCV or several of the soon expiring contracts as examples of this.

We are doing this and have there separate 150 Point contracts eligible for member benefits that we plan on individually adding our three daughters to so that each of them gets one of the contracts eventually.

That’s a fair perspective, especially on the uncertainty piece. Where I land a bit differently is that the expiry and direct price don’t just “skew” the math, they’re part of the math whether we like it or not.

If you compress the horizon to 10 or 20 years, SSR can absolutely look stronger on paper. But the tradeoff is you’re effectively accepting a shorter runway on something that’s designed to be a long duration asset. That longer tail on Poly isn’t just theoretical value, it’s flexibility and optionality over time as travel patterns, family needs, or even resale dynamics shift.

A simple parallel is something like buying a home versus a shorter-term lease. If you know you are only staying 5 to 10 years, renting can look more efficient on paper. But if there is any chance you stay longer, the ownership runway starts to matter a lot, both in terms of cost smoothing and optionality. The same dynamic shows up in something like a 30 year bond versus a 10 year bond. The shorter duration can look cleaner in the near term, but you are giving up long term stability and control over that asset.

On the “re-up” point, I’d just be cautious building that into the thesis. It’s possible, but it’s also speculative, and Disney hasn’t exactly been in the business of giving away extensions cheaply. I tend to discount that scenario rather than rely on it.

I do agree with you though, the current resale strength, especially at places like BCV, is hard to ignore. That’s probably the biggest wildcard in all of this

Yours is also a very fair perspective. Though again, I'd really like to see data on who actually carries their contract the full term, because that ultimately matters. What percentage of users, or resale users, etc actually keep it to full length. Because if you aren't going to, that makes that calculation moot. I don' think renting is a good example here, because you still own the asset, but I do think I get your overall meaning in long vs short term calculations and that parallel.

What I actually meant by re-up, is not so much the extension by disney, but selling your contract and buying another. This might be the best strategy for anyone who owns resale. Buy a contract, use it for 10 or 15 years, sell it and buy another with a later expiry. But again, hard to know how this plays out in the future, can only know its played out well in the past. For instance, I could sell my first AKL contract for about 50% more than I paid for it in inflation adjusted money today, even though I've had that use. And I've used it at the Poly, and the GF, and Riviera, and Beach Club etc. When you include that in the price calculation, the Poly (as of yet) can not compete :)

Unfortunately, The landscape will change going forward with new resorts as their contracts will only be good at their resorts. The value proposition of resell will be way less than it is now.

I used to get an employee discount

Discount on head waxing?

Right on main st

Listened to a My DVC Points podcast recently that talked about whether the golden age of DVC was over. A big point there was that the days of being able to buy a direct contract and have it go up in value over time were probably done. That was the case for me - we started in 2007 and our AKV points cost $96 / pt. They are worth more now even though 20 of the 50 years are used up!

Resale is clearly going to be essentially a completely different product than direct over time. In the end while those restrictions are less consumer friendly than DVC has historically been, it does seem Disney had gotten to a point where they had a clear problem. The size of DVC made it hard to manage resale pricing with ROFR and created a business imperative to more substantially differentiate points bought from them vs resale points.

Would love to see your math on this (not challenging just curious to see it). By my calculations within 5 years Poly Direct and SSR Resale are only ~$10 different in cost per stay which makes Poly the clear better value.

DVC is an emotional purchase so math isn’t all that matters, but I don’t see a way that SSR carries more mathematical value unless you don’t want to own a contract past 2042.

Sorry for the double tap reply but just catching up on the thread. You should check out my Freak in the Sheets thread. I specifically was comparing contracts/resorts on value staying at other resorts vs home resorts. And Poly is terrible for home resorts stays due to the point chart but it is great for staying at other resorts because it’s dues are comparatively low and dues account for the vast majority of your overall DVC cost.

Oh that's a REALLY good point going forward. Dang. But wait - what does a Poly resale contract look like in say 2057? I know that's quite the horizon. But would you still be able to use that at the legacy resorts, if they have all been resold with new restrictions ? Oh man, what do AKV or SSR, or extended OKW look like after 2042? Will we still be able to use AKV at Beach Club and Board Walk etc ?!?!?

It’s the bad point chart paradox! A bad point chart should generally mean very low dues per point.

Ok that's really interesting, but that's because SSR is an insane price direct. I didn't realize we were talking direct sales - I don't think I'd recommend anyone buy SSR direct unless it was heavily incentivized.

Here's my math on a Poly vs SSR resale contract, and I've used pretty generous math to favor Poly here high 150s is the lowest I've seen for stripped Poly contracts, but I also see them in the high 170s and low 180s. and the lowest I've seen SSR is in the 80s, with the highest being in the low 100s.

(Initial Cost per point/Number of years) + yearly cost of dues = Average price per point.
So SSR looks like $95/point / 5 years + $9.20 = $28.20 per point over 5 years, $18.70 over 10 years
Poly looks like $160/point / 5 years + $8.34 = $40.34 per point over 5 years, $24.34 over 10 years

Double tapping right back !

But the thought of using $160+ poly points (let alone direct points) at AKL or SSR hurts my heart, vs using my $60 - $90 AKV points at poly which warms my soul.

At the end of the day, you kinda said the most important part. If it works for you and you’re happy with it, that’s really all that matters. There isn’t a single “right” answer with this stuff. The math can point you in a direction, but because of trade offs the emotional side is real too. Some people want maximum efficiency, others want the feeling of staying where they love every time, others want a sense of belonging. All are valid.

Bringing it back to the original thread question though, the more practical piece becomes how you actually fund the decision. Are you paying cash, leveraging credit, or doing some mix of both? That part can shift the equation just as much as the points strategy itself.

It always comes down to this - what do you want? The right financial decision is probably to stay at the La Quinta Orlando, and if that makes you happy (I know quite a few people who love doing something just like that) then by all means. Most of us are here because that isn't how we want to do our Disney trips!

Even on the financing question - it's absolutely true that borrowing cuts into the savings. For some people it isn't about the savings though - it's about knowing they can come back to their favorite place again and again. For others financing works as a budgeting tool - if you were likely to spend the money on other things but the loan gives you the opportunity to buy now and have a real asset when you're done making the payments, that's great.

How good is the CM discount?

How much do you have to work there weekly to get it? How long do you have to be an employee to be eligible?

Maybe get a part time job, buy DVC points and high tail it out of there?

Related note - is there a former employee discount?

I love all this math talk and price per point (no I really do), but back the original question what did people do in order to save? Or did everyone just have tens of thousands lying around at time of purchase? I know someone said something about gift cards to cut on annual dues and I love using my credit cards to work for me (I treat them as debit cards and do not carry a balance) but how can you use credit cards to make a DVC purchase?

To answer your question directly, we had access to liquid assets... everyone's financial status is different of course. Gift cards can help in some places, but the discount tops out at 10%~ which can still be a big chunk but I'm fairly positive these can't be use these for purchase a full contract though. You can use a credit card to buy DVC direct; I've done it every time.

Some people pay cash

Some finance - probably many more than pay cash is my understanding

Some people will use the Disney Visa to get 6 months no interest and pay it off over essentially 9 months (you used to be be able to make payments over 90 days)

Additionally, you can do a balance transfer after the promotional finance period ends with Disney onto another card. That buys you another 12-24 months depending on the card with a flat 3-5% fee

Another strategy people used to do a lot (less so now I think) is take out a HELOC to pay for the timeshare purchase (with Disney or many other developers)

We originally purchased in 2018 direct. Since then have purchased multiple contracts resale as well as another direct.

When we first bought we had no idea about resale or really the ins and outs of DVC. We have since learned a lot and become very diligent in how we can make our purchases work well for us.

If you can work with the restrictions, buying resale over direct will give you a better chance to make back more of your purchase amount if/when you sell. Resale will help you just capitalize on the most savings if you sell or keep a contract for its life span. Especially with today’s direct per point amounts. With that said, hybrid works very well for us but our minimum amount to “Blue Card” was less than today’s.

Depending on how long you keep a contract, dues will likely be your biggest long term DVC expense. Gifts cards help us save on our dues. We go the route of saving on gas. I strategically purchase gift cards each month so we have $1 saving per gallon each time we fill. We pay our dues yearly, but this approach allows us to budget monthly and not have a big amount out of the account in January.

Also, we use an airline benefit credit card that help reduce flight purchases, which makes our travel much more financially manageable.

Purchase DVC if you will use it! It very likely save you in the long run regardless of paying cash outright or financing. Financing makes the “breakeven point” take longer to reach, and the overall saving margins thinner, but if it works for your family great. I would recommend paying off a loan ASAP. Use this info based on your personal plans.

Home Equity loans might be a good way to finance, if you are able.

The DVC Store swap/rental program is a great way to add variety and use points that won’t be able to be used.

Each persons route is personal and must work for them!

Another part of this picture is just how quickly DVC direct prices go up…

Looking at that, our DVC Direct purchase a little less than 3 years ago was around $24,500 after incentives and Magical Beginnings for 150 points.

Today, a direct DVC Purchase for 150 points would run about $31,383 on 150 points points with current incentives on the points add on tool and Magical Beginnings.

That is a big increase! Close to 30% more over those 3 years…

So, Disney has now offered longer loan terms, lowered the points buy in minimum to 100 (though no perks until 150!), and done other things to try to disguise how expensive direct is getting!

As those prices go up, I would imagine fewer and fewer potential buyers have that amount of money lying around in cash…

I’m not sure I would choose to buy direct today.