DVC Lobbying for Debt-Cancellation Policies

[DVCNews]

Disney Vacation Club is joining with other timeshare developers in lobbying Florida lawmakers for the ability to sell customers debt-cancellation policies which would relieve them of timeshare liabilities in the event of a job loss.
DVC Lobbying for Debt-Cancellation Policies (http://dvcnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=875)

[7swans]

If they succeed in getting that through I am sure it would up sales, give the reluctant spouse one less argument against buying in.

[DisneyGeek]

Definately couldn't hurt; I got Hyundai's free "Assurance" policy when I bought my new car earlier this month and all the other manufacturers are starting to have them; why not timeshares?

I thankfully only owe about $81.25 pp on my BLT contract and plan to pay off VGC in cash, so it wouldn't make sense to me personally, but I like your 'reluctant spouse' thought!

I think it might be better if they made it free, though- perhaps an incentive option at least? Especially if the policy is just to return it, unlike the autos with "we'll cover x months of payments and if that still isn't enough THEN you can return it, we'll cover negative equity, blah blah blah..." Perhaps changing the down payment policy was in preparation for this? :confused24:

[CarolMN]

Wow! Pay a monthly fee so that you can give back your timeshare if you lose your job. Sorry, but I think that is a sleazy thing to offer.

Too many people think that financing luxury purchases is an OK thing to do. Whatever happened to saving up for what you want?

[DisneyGeek]

Whatever happened to saving up for what you want?

That was certainly my plan; I had stock options ready to go to buy a small resale this coming May then probably do a BLT add-on. The more I thought about wanting home resort @ BLT and crunched numbers on total cost of ownership including dues I started wanting straight BLT more and more, around 100 points. So debating hoping a deal like the had @ AKV with a reduced new member cost...

THEN all of a sudden said options went under water, and since the overall cost of ownership vs. our planned hotel trips (DW wanted to stop staying at values and that was just fine with me! ;)) still were a savings even with interest factored in I decided to bite the bullet and do it anyway after getting her 'blessing'... We also worried a bit about BLT selling out since Disney financing and therefore deductible mortgage interest was desirable; not enough home equity for a loan there.

Was it a financially 'good' idea from a best practices standpoint? Admittedly no. Susie Orman would've definitely said "DENIED!". Do I regret doing it? Nope- it still seems to make sense for us, ideal or not. I had three relatives die in the past 13 months and my parents agreed- do it while you're young and can still enjoy it!

Many years ago another set of grandparents died with $250k in the bank they weren't touching thanks to pentions and the like. They planned to travel after they retired but health wouldn't allow it.

I still but 10% of my gross pay in a 401k w/ an employer match. I put some of my net pay into "emergency fund" savings. I have enough life insurance for DW to pay off the house and all our other debts (car, DVC...) and then some. Also have disability insurance. I try to be prudent overall, but also balance that with enjoy the moment since I might not have one later!

For me it boils down to what is important to you. Not having human children to pass things down to might give me a different perspective from many, but that is how I rationalize things at this stage in my life, for whatever it's worth!

[lllovell]

I have never used the credit card options and would not pay extra for it, but I know some people that do. I think if one of you has lost your job that there is a dang good chance that your credit is going to shreads anyway if things are THAT bad, so why pay them all that money for a risk where you aren't really going to benefit.

What is the worst case here? Your points end up back with DVC or whom ever you used for financing (since I assume this doesn't cover dues in any way). Your credit is probably trashed either way. So....pay the $x.xx per month or put it towards your bills? For me, the choice will always be to put it towards bill or into savings.

I think that these guys are just getting more and more despirate as times are hard. Encouraging people to buy timeshares when their common sense tells them NOT to is exactly why we are in this mess. I don't have a beef with credit in general - I have a beef with giving people credit who can't afford it and don't deserve it.

I remember when DH and I went to look at houses the first time. We were in our late 20s and making about 65000 together. We qualified for $180000 worth of house. Hubby got excited. I laughed and said NO WAY. We ended up with $65000 hud house, put some money into it and have almost paid it off.

We financied our DVC purchase. That isn't best for everyone and financially, I understand that it is better to buy with cash, but it wasn't worth it to me to wait. The cost of the credit has well been overcome by other items (some cash and some unmeasureable joy and happiness). I know for some that really jerks a knot in your drawers, but for me it is what I wanted and I have never regreted it.

So - from a perspective of offering people what they want, I see no problem with this "addition". Offering people a plan and then monkeying with it until you help talk them into a bad investment for their family...underhanded and not good.

Laura

[TimK]

Wow! Pay a monthly fee so that you can give back your timeshare if you lose your job. Sorry, but I think that is a sleazy thing to offer.

I don't know that I would call it "sleazy" since people always have the option to decline. But especially with the high resale values of DVC it seems extremely unnecessary. If someone finances and then has to give back in a year to two, this "insurance" (or whatever we want to call it) may come into play. But beyond that the resale value should be higher than what's owed.

To me this is a lot like extended warranties that are so frequently offered these days on electronics purchases and so forth. Every once in a while my wife convinces me to get the added coverage. But overall I make out much better NOT buying those policies.


Too many people think that financing luxury purchases is an OK thing to do. Whatever happened to saving up for what you want?When it comes to DVC, I do disagree to a point. I think there are a lot of people who can easily afford $2000-3000 per year for a Disney vacation, yet don't have $20,000 sitting in the bank which they consider expendable. In the long run they'll still do far better financing a DVC purchase--even with the interest--than the would continuing as cash guests or skipping their trips for 7 years to save for DVC.

We added 100 pts at VGC and could have easily paid cash. But I chose to finance instead. I guess I'm a victim of the economy in that I feel a little better keeping that cash in the bank. At least I get the benefit of earning interest on my savings plus the tax deduction on the DVC payments. And I can guarantee it won't take 10 years to pay off the purchase. :D

[DiZ NeE 08]

well, I wonder if they consider someone that has already had no job for the past month and a half now! I don't want to lose DVC but would like to keep it and have some type of benefit. I don't know not sure. but if I had the money to pay cash for DVC I would more than likely finance and do installments directly to the principal every so often. while we have money to pay more to the principal since I lost my job we have not done this. the original purchase price was 16640 and we put 4k down including the incentive of 1k and that left 12640 which we have now downsized with installments to the principal to about 8k.

[Circhead]

We brought DVC right after 9-11. We live in the New York area, and though that tragedy didn't touch our family personally we know lots of people it did.

No one in my family has made it to retirement age - so between the two we decided to buy memories on credit. If something happened we and our children would have "magical" memories.

The decision to purchase DVC has never been regretted by either of us. The chance it gave us to bond with our kids and to create memories has been invaluable. Looking back over the past nine years we've probably actually saved money doing it. We were going to go on vacation anyway, but wouldn't have paid the cost of staying in a luxury resort every year. Being able to make a cup of tea at midnight and discuss the day's events or plan for tomorrow while the kids are asleep in another room - priceless! :)

If I had to do it again - I would.

[M5ward]

We didn't finance our original DVC purchase or our first point add on. We are in the process now of adding more points, and I'm going to put it on our home equity line of credit so that I can claim the interest. Our home has been paid off for several years, so we have no major debt and not a lot of tax deductions.
Some of the issues I had with adding points this time was use year and resort. Our home resort is SSR, and our use year is October. I definitely wanted the same use year because I only wanted one member number, and if I understood correctly, I would have gotten a second member number if I had a different use year. After a lot of thought we decided to stay with added points at SSR because we often go at less busy times of the year so booking at 7 months isn't too bad. Besides, I don't really care a bunch where I stay. I have lots of favorites!