Add on......direct or re-sale?

[jrohdy]

i'm thinking about adding on to my current 220 pt DVC membership at BLT. I'm looking for some advice of buying direct again or re-sale. Also should I buy into BLT again or look at having another home resort also. What would be the benefit of same hotel versus having another home resort? Anyone have any experience with this situation and which way did you go? Thanks for the advice.

[KNWVIKING 2.0]

The benefit of home resort ownership is the 11 month booking window. If you are a planner and always know when you want to be at WDW, you can call at 11 months and pretty much guarantee your room. At the 7 month window, it's a free for all. Even though you own at a resort, you have no special booking priviledges over non owners.

As to where you should buy, the one common bit of advise you will always receive is "BUY WHERE YOU WANT TO STAY". If you REALLLLLY want to stay at AKV every so often, buy there. It's the only way to be certain you can get in when you want to.

As for Direct vs Resale: Personally, I would jump on the discounted resale points. Currently I have no desire to use my DVC points anywhere but my DVC resorts. The "ding" on resale points mean nothing to me. Besides, I already have direct points I could use for things resale points couldn't be used for.

[denlo]

Viking pretty much said it all.

However, I would do the math and compare buying direct with Disney or via resale. With the cost of BLT I wouldn't be surprised that it turns out to be cheaper buying resale. But someone recently was buying a small add-on of 25 points at HHI and the closing cost from Disney was less than $25 compared to the $350-$400 the resale company was charging. And the buyer got the points right away. Of course HHI's points are one of the cheapest points for sale even from Disney. So for that member it was much better to buy via Disney that taking 6 to 8 weeks to buy via resale.

[jrohdy]

The ultimate goal is having enough pts for 2 full weeks in 1 BR villas. The points are definitely more $$ at BLT so I'm thinking about getting enough for the week at another resort. Definitely agree with re-sale since our points will be used for WDW only for quite some time (maybe RCI down the road). The $ i'd save could pay for a cruise in the future if we really wanted. That way we'd have 2 main resorts to go to and wouldn't have to move pts around or bank/borrow to much. I also agree with the "buy where you want to stay" idea.

[denlo]

That would work well especially if you use two years of points from one resort each year. E.g. You use the new contracts 2012 and 2013 points to book a reservation in 2013. And then bank your 2013 BLT points into 2014. Then at the 11 month mark for 2014 you make a reservation for BLT using your 2013 and 2014 points. And then all starts over again using the points from one resort one year and other resort the next year. There is a chance though that you might have some extra points, but they are not enough to make a night's reservation. Then you can use points from both contracts together in one reservation at the 7th month to make another reservation (perhaps a short get away for mom and dad for Food and Wine) or add nights to your regular reservation.

[jrohdy]

Thanks! There are just so many options on how to use your points. We're new to this so it's been a little overwhelming at times, but still so much fun to plan so far ahead for our disney vacations.

[dizwiz]

Small BWV purchases go fast on the resale market. We go every few years so a small pt contract is all we need to bank and borrow points. We bought our first small 50 point contract from a large reseller. All their BWV small pt listings showed as pending sales. Called them and were wait-listed until one was available. After lots of emails and 8 weeks, we closed. Emailed about a second small purchase but no real response. Guess they prefer a call in order to be wait-listed.
Chose another reseller and they don't do calls but said to check email notifications instead. By the time you receive the notifications, BWV small contracts are also sold, like in one minute. This reseller suggested buying directly from DVC. Did that.
Even though total cost was more-$588 dollars in our case, it was worth it. Closing costs were $375 with a reseller and around $38 with Disney but Disney's point cost was higher. You have to bank during first 8 months of your use year and we were already in the 6th month, so a 2 month closing thru a reseller meant we might not be able to close in time to bank our new pts. We used our credit card to purchase 25 pts (the minimum) through Disney and the points were in our account in 1 day, plus we got credit card points for the purchase, which you can't do with cash.
Being able to bank or use new DVC points so quickly, the credit card points we earned, the ease of buying without getting 2 cashiers checks and exchanging several emails, and not having to wait 2 months to close, made it well worth it to go thru Disney. Can only thank reseller no. 2 for his honesty and desire to look after a Disney Fan. Message me if you would like to know the resellers we used.

[denlo]

Small BWV purchases go fast on the resale market. We go every few years so a small pt contract is all we need to bank and borrow accumulated points. We bought our first small 50 point contract from a large resaler. All their BWV small pt online listings and those sent by email notification showed as pending sales. Called them and were wait-listed until one was available. After lots of emails and 8 weeks we closed. Emailed about a second small purchase but no real response. Guess they prefer a call in order to be wait-listed.
Chose another resaler and they don't do calls but said to check email notifications instead. By the time you receive their notifications, small contracts are also sold, like in one minute. This resaler suggested buying directly from DVC because BWV small pt resales go so quickly. Did that.
Even though total cost was about 25% more-$588 dollars in our case, it was worth it. Closing cost was $375 with a re-seller and around $13 with Disney. Salesperson said we could use or bank the points during the purchase year. You have to bank during first 8 months of your use year, and we were already in the 6th month so an 8 week closing thru a resaler meant we might not be able to buy in time to use or bank our new pts. We used our credit card to purchase 25 pts (the minimum) thru Disney and the points were in our account in 1 day, plus we got credit card points for the purchase, which you can't do with cash.
Being able to bank or use the points this year plus the credit card points we earned, the ease of buying without getting 2 cashiers checks and exchanging several emails, and not having to wait 8 weeks, made it well worth it to go thru Disney. Can only thank resaler no. 2 for his honesty and desire to look after a Disney Fan. Message me if you would like to know the resalers we used.

Your situation is exactly why I say you need to do the math. Thanks for sharing the details of your purchase.

[sssteph]

Speaking of adding on, I've been entertaining the idea of adding on 25 points maybe from BWV or Vero if I can get them. I wanted to buy direct because I too see all the small contracts at the reseller's go fast.

I sent an email to the person that originally helped me with my purchase and I haven't heard back, anyone know should I just call in?

[dizwiz]

Our Disney DVC salesperson answered the email questions about point and closing costs quickly but was not in the office the next day when we were ready to buy. We were preparing to go out of town, so called DVC Sales 888 number and explained we were ready and couldn't get in touch with our salesperson assigned to our account. We were connected to a phone salesperson who took our order.

If you mean you originally bought from a reseller, try calling and ask to be wait-listed.

You can compare Disney and the reseller's total cost: points and closing, offset by rewards received for purchasing with a credit card. Remember resellers quote 8 weeks to close, more or less. Be sure you get your points in time for using or banking.