Inital purchase payment options / offers?

[GusMan]

Hi All,
Well, with the Mrs. and I heading down to WDW next week, we are planning on doing a DVC tour. Mind you, we have been contemplating this for several years and we have been crunching some numbers and it it looks like in the long run, we will come out ahead.

My question today is: does Disney offer their own financing for memberships and if so, what kind of terms were they offering at that time?

Also, does anyone know if there are any current price incentives going on?

Thanks in advance!

[Tony]

They do offer financing.

12 Month Financing: Requires a 50% down payment, and you pay 5.95% on the balance.

5- or 10-Year Financing: Requires a 10% down payment, and you pay 11.75% on the balance.

For both plans, you can drop 1% off the rate if you set up a direct EFT payment through DVC.

As for promotions, last I heard was $10 off the current price per point - bringing $104 down to $94. But, I am checking to confirm that.

[Little John]

Make sure you ask if there are any referral bonuses if you know an existing DVC member. They only need the current DVC member's fist and last name.

We were able to save another $5.00 per point when we joined the DVC last year.

I was unable to confirm if this added incentive is still in effect though.

[DVC Mike]

Ask if they're still offering double developer points for AKV and SSR. If you purchase 100 points, they'll give you 200 developer points that are good up to a year.

[GusMan]

Ask if they're still offering double developer points for AKV and SSR. If you purchase 100 points, they'll give you 200 developer points that are good up to a year.

I had a brief convo with our rep the other day and he did mention something to this extent. I will have to look into this a little further for sure.

Right now, it does look like they are offering $10 off pp for SS and $8 off pp for AKV. Current APR is 10.75% for 10 yrs with EBT.

We have been really looking over the figures and to be honest, dont be surprised if we come back as members. I mean, for us, it just makes sense.

[FigmentFigment]

Is it the $8/$10 off and the double developer points, or do you have to choose between the $ off or the double points?

DH and I are still on the dvc fence ourselves, and I am trying to get a feel for the offers

[Tony]

Last I checked, it was both.

[DVC Mike]

Is it the $8/$10 off and the double developer points, or do you have to choose between the $ off or the double points?

My understaning was it was both only in Chicago, but not in Florida. However, I may be wrong.

[GusMan]

Is it the $8/$10 off and the double developer points, or do you have to choose between the $ off or the double points?

Last I checked, it was both.

My understaning was it was both only in Chicago, but not in Florida. However, I may be wrong.

Well, I can provide some clarification on this...
We took the tour and went through the presentation when we first arrived at WDW (on the 11th) and found the everything to just like we anticipated. No pressure and extremely professional.

They were giving an $8/point discount for AKV and a $10/point discount for SSR.
They were also offering double "developer points" that could be used within the first 12 months of membership - but only if you signed up while still on your vacation. These points cannot be banked.

BUT - you could not have both the point discount AND the developers points. (That is what we were told while in FL.)

If you took the developers points, you could bank your current year's points to use them later as well, since they back-date the use year.

So... if you bought the minimum of 160 points, you can technically have 320 to use in your first 12 months (developers points) and another 320 in your second use year as well, if you do some banking.

For us, we took the developers points. Yep, thats right... we are now members with SSR being our home resort. And we are pumped!

Now, I need to add some clarification... we took the points instead of the discount because of our upcoming vacation plans. The savings by using the additional points were greater than the cash discount. If we would have taken the point cost discount, it would have shaved off quite a bit as well. However, it is noteworthy that you could not use the point cost discount as your down payment... you still had to shell out some cash. (We put ours on our Disney Visa - got 6 months 0% on that amount.)

To be honest, we could not have asked for a better experience and wish we would have done this a lot sooner.

Thanks a bunch for the input from earlier... It gave us a heads up as to what we could expect.

[Tony]

Congrats! And welcome home...

[DVC Mike]

Congrats!

[frdeb1999]

I have a question. What is the payment like after you put down the 10% and finance? Assuming you were to do the 160 pts. This is something I've been talking to my husband about also. He hates going to the sales presentations as he's never been to anything other then high pressure types. But we do at least 7-9 days if doing just WDW a year. And now we are hooked on the cruises and already have another planned for next summer. And also does your credit score have to be perfect? We have really good credit, but have heard that if it isn't way up there financing can be about impossible. Thanks for any help!

[GusMan]

Well, here are the current terms, going though DVC:
10.75% if using an electronic debit from your bank.
120 month (10 year) term.
If you do the base 160 points with the 10% down payment, you are looking at a monthly payment of about $205.
IF they offer you the choice of reduced points costs in lieu of the developer points, then you are looking at even more savings, and using the same example, of a payment of about $185 or so.
There is no prepayment penalty so you can pay it off or add to your payment with no problem.

The payment does NOT include anything towards your annual fees but it does include closing costs.

Some people open up (or already have) a line of credit against their home and use that for possibly better rates and possibly tax advantages.

As for how good your credit needs to be? Im not sure. Like any other loan or mortgage, the interest rate can vary depending on your credit score.

As for the presentation ... all I have to say is that I have never had a better experience when it came to something such as this. They answer all our questions, gave us some good examples, and only presented facts. No pressure what so ever. While they do ask something like "would this be something that you would like to consider?" when it came time to the whole "would you like to buy?" type of question, it was again a no-pressure thing at all.

[frdeb1999]

Thanks GusMan I am really considering looking closer at this. Even if I have to first and then fill my husband in. It just sounds more and more like something that we would deffinately benefit from since we already spend so much on our disney vacations to begin with.

[GusMan]

It just sounds more and more like something that we would deffinately benefit from since we already spend so much on our disney vacations to begin with.

No problem. The point you made above is exactly why we joined. While there are many different ways to look at it and/or justify the purchase costs, in the long-term, there is significant savings.

[KJSJpipe]

As far as credit goes, ours is not stellar but not horrible either and we had no problems going through Disney for the financing.

[frdeb1999]

Thanks KJS....I hate having credit checks done period. So I'm in the process of talking my husband into maybe taking a dip into the retirement and then paying it back in a 2 yr type thing since there's little to no interest in doing so this way. Just makes more sense then paying whatever the going rate is. And he is actually thinking about it after reading some of the threads. If we're already spending large sums at WDW yearly it makes sense in the long run. Thanks for your help! :-)

[dznyphreak]

Just a quick question...sans financing, what's the price per point? What are the minimum and maximum amount of points you can have per year?

Okay, so that was two questions.

[DVC Mike]

The minimum initial purchase through DVC is 160 points. The minimum initial purchase on the resales market is 25 points. The maximum points you can own is 2000 at any one resort and 5000 overall.

The prices I have are a bit dated, but they still may be accurate. I suggest contacting your DVC sales guide.

AKV = $104 - $8 incentive = $96
SSR = $104 - $10 incentive = $94
BCV = $101
BWV = $98
VWL = $98
OKW = $92
HH = $92
VB = $92

[dznyphreak]

So wait...you have to choose where you're using your points before you buy them? You can't just buy basic points and spread them around?

[GusMan]

No, you cannot. You have to choose a "home" resort. Currently, if going through DVC directly for your initial purchase, your main options are the new Animal Kingdom Villas or Saratoga Springs.

You can use your points at all the DVC resorts, but the main difference is the time you have to make your reservations. You can make your reservations up to 11 months in advance for your home resort and 7 months in advance for the other DVC resorts.

[dznyphreak]

So you can choose, say, AKV as your home resort and pay $96 per point, but then use them at OKW, thus losing $4/point? Or, theoretically, use them at BCV and save $5/point? Sounds confusing and unnecessarily complicated. I get the reservation time windows...they're more expectant of you staying at your home resort, but the pricing seems weird to me.

Sorry for asking so many questions...just wanted to see how much this costs. It sounds like a great idea, really. Not only can you stay all over the Disney map, but you can go around the world with your investment. Those are two things I've always wanted to do.

[Drince88]

The pricing is for purchasing your points only. You 'pay' the same points regardless of where your home resort is based on the room type and resort, the difference is when you can make your reservations. For example, unless your home resort is Beach Club Villas or Boardwalk Villas, I've heard it can be difficult to get a room there during the Food and Wine Festival - but no matter what your home resort, it 'costs' the same amount of points.

[GusMan]

Looking at it from a "how much per point did I pay when I joined vs what is the "value" of the place where I am using my points" perspective is going to confuse you quickly. In my opinion, this is taken care of by the point system itself.

Here is a link to a points chart. This will tell you how many points you will need for what resort during a specific time of the year. As you will see, the number of nights you can stay somewhere will depend on the time of year, where you are staying, and the room type. As a result, staying at OKW is going to require fewer points, in most cases, than a stay at BWV during the same time period.

[dznyphreak]

Okay thanks. That chart helped make some sense of it. Waiting for my DVD to come...hey, it's free, right? And in the past these DVDs have influenced my parents well.