DVCNews Debates: Not enough points

[DVCNews]

To most members there is no such thing as "having enough points." **But personal finances have a way of interfering with dream vacation scenarios. *

Fortunately Disney Vacation Club has several avenues available for members who do not own enough points for a desired stay. *Points can be borrowed from the next Use Year or banked from a prior year with proper planning. *DVC allows owners to buy up to 24 one-time-use points per year. *Points can even be transferred or "rented" from another DVC owner. *And while it may not be ideal, members can often book a smaller room, shorter trip or cheaper view in order to stretch points further. *

Topic: *How do you typically deal with not having enough points for a desired stay?

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[KNWVIKING 2.0]

For many years we never borrowed points. We had enough points to cover all the vacation time my job allowed provided we stayued in studios. Studios are fine with us as we are Empty Nester. When I was unemployed for 2.5 years we pretty much broke the points bank at DVC and Starwood. Now that I'm off the dole, it's time to pay the piper and let my DVC points recover.

[nono]

We've banked and borrowed to make a longer trip. We've rented points to "goose" our number for a specific stay. We've pooled points with other DVCers and stayed in larger accomodations. We've bought more points. We do a 2 day "acclimate to FL" stay at a hotel with a great pool/bar and restuarant.

What's the question again?

[theoldgrump]

Unless you are fortunate enough to have enough points to go every year ( or twice a year ) -- you really have to "plan things out" .. That takes some doing -- sitting down and really thinking
things out.. You really do not have to stay in the "high points" villas every time..

In other words .. you have to "dream" to plan your "dream" ..
Good luck 73

[akvhutch]

Pretty much all we do is those things described. While I'd like to stay in a 1 bedroom, we stay in a studio. Rather than stay in a 2 bedroom if we are going with family, we book 2 studios. We have found that uses fewer points & has the added benefit of providing necessary privacy. We bank points when possible & borrow when absolutely necessary. I've found that the staff manning the phones at the DVC call in center are very good at providing any helpful tips regarding how to maximize or utilize points to get the best bang. I probably would not pay for one time points or rent others points, but, who knows, a situation may arise where I would need to do that. I would only do that as an absolute last resort!

[disneydadrrm]

What we've done in the past is .......borrow from the next year and then look for more points on the resale market. We buy small parcels at the same resort and use year as we are into. That way if we are having too many points (too many?) they are easier to sell. Easy in, easy out. FYI, we haven't sold points since we got rid of our points from other resorts and other use years. We have now consolidated all our points at OKW in the March use year, Very convenient.

[denlo]

So far we have banked and used current year points and this last trip we bought a few one time use points since we were using Holding Points.

[mousaider]

We have been lucky and had planned out our purchase ahead of time to make sure we had enough points for the two of us without having to pay too much for our maintenance fees every year. We feel very comfortable in a studio.

We looked at DVC in 2007 and decided against it. Then we found the resale route and it changed our mind when we found out DVC was building Aulani.

We wanted to celebrate a special anniversary in Hawaii in April, 2012 and then our son called and asked us to show him and his fiance and her daughter around WDW in January, 2011, so we took the money we would use for hotel stays on those trips and spent it on a loaded BWV, 100 point contract.

After our first DVC trip we decided to add a small (55 point) loaded SSR contract to it to make our options for Aulani even better and it worked out.

Since purchasing in 2011 we've been able to stay at WDW for a total of 21 nights and at Aulani for seven nights and we still have points to use for seven nights next April.

So far we've been lucky and not needed any more points, but we might as we go forward. If so I think we would rent them from somebody we know. If our friends did not have any, I'd use a rental service I knew I could trust.

[bakerworld]

Except for the 1st year when we had developer pts, we have borrowed every year. Consequently this year we're in the position of not having reached our DEC 2012 UY with about 30% of our pts left which I have 'ear-marked' for next October's F&W. We've already borrowed from the 2013 UY for our January family stay.

It's an interesting position to be in when DH looks at me and says he wants to attend this years F&W. I could've borrowed the rest of our Dec 2012 UY pts but we've waited so late that our only option was SSR and we want the Epcot location. Finally we reserved a cash reservation at YC for 4 nights = . So I started looking and found a SW vacation at the Dolphin which, for the same price as the 4N YC stay, is a 7N air inclusive. And that's how we handled being pt poor the year.

In October I'll use the rest of my 2012 pts for the 2013 F&W and probably need to borrow a few from 2013. I figure we'll enter our 2013 DEC UY about 20% borrowed - which is better than when we enter this UY with ZERO.

[Minne's Friend]

My brother bought at SSR and for 2 years told us how great DVC was, so one Saturday in his kitchen he and my DH called their guide and we bought 100 points at AKV. Never saw. The resort but we were excited we owned DVC. Have never regretted it.