Purchased Too Many Points

[intamin]

It definitely makes you start figuring out how to pay your dues in gift cards. 5% of $9k is $450.

It almost makes me want to switch out some contracts to Aulani subsidized…. and then I think about how long the break even would be after having to sell my standard Aulani less the brokers commission and a new round of closing costs….

Yeahhh it's definitely not worth to sell it back just to buy back in for subsidized IMO unless you managed to sell them back at a profit and even then it's a maybe. The non-subsidized contracts have the benefit of a significantly cheaper buy in which you could invest the remainder of the money and make the difference between them a lot less and possibly come out ahead? Part of me does think about if I had just bought a non-sub Aulani contract I could've gotten one in my original UY and saved about 8k up front but honestly I don't know which one really is better off long term.

We started buying Disney gift cards over time for our dues and that's pretty much what the friend fund goes to. I guess I can start adding in the 5% off to my breakeven spreadsheet.

 

[MartyParty]

Has anyone ever felt they have purchased too many points. We own (removed by mod) and (removed by mod) Should we just rent our excess points or sell a contract?

Interesting question and not the usual question for these boards. Thanks for posting.

We started with 200 points almost 10 years ago and now we are at 405. Been using the points for larger bedrooms, better views, larger groups, etc. Long term we plan to pass on to our kids as I believe the ability to visit Disney in the future will be an ever increasing price. Perhaps one that they won't be able to afford or enjoy the same way we have unless they have points. But potato potatoe, life will go on with or without Disney.

If you want to allow yourself some time to decide, you can always rent to cover the costs of dues. We did that for the first two years as we just were not able to make the trips.

And Brian Noble had some excellent thoughts as well. One of our favorite trips was simply booking a Savanah view room at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Felt like an exotic vacation. My wife and I have been on an African safari once. Its was fantastic but an expensive and time consuming vacation. Lot of convince doing the safari at WDW. Don't get me wrong, its not the same trip but also not the same expensive cost.

But nothing wrong if you want to sell out. Guessing you'd break even on the purchase price. And if you wanted to make a random trip in the future you could always rents DVC points from one of the rental stores. Seems to be pretty descent rates.

Good luck...

 

[skier_pete]

We started with 160 (AKV), added 75 (BWV), added 160 (AKV), added 50 (VDH). Happily add-on-itis is no longer a problem.

I don't see that we have too many ever, even though we mostly stay in studios. We have a couple times since we got to 395 rented out some points. I think it's nice to have more points than you maybe need because that option of rental is always there and there is never a problem making your dues back plus a little on the side.

We used all our 2023 points and are already down to only 100 points leftover right now in 2024, so unlikely to rent points before 2025.

I suppose the point at which you have "too many points" is when you can't afford your dues payments. Not there yet!

 

[Disdreaming479]

I’ll need to use almost 3 yrs of points to have a nice long trip in an ocean view 2 bedroom at Aulani so I’d really like to buy more points.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Has anyone ever felt they have purchased too many points. We own (removed by mod) and (removed by mod) Should we just rent our excess points or sell a contract?

I'm about at my limit with what I want to pay for dues, but I am always running out of points. I get transfers or rent points from other members to cover. I like to use my excess points to take family to Disney who otherwise wouldn't get to go without DVC rooms.

 

[D-Trick]

The only known cure for Addon-itis DUES

Feelings are cyclical, but right now yes, we have purchased too many points-- but it's all stemming from one feature available to us-- Interval.

II Getaways has been a very effective vaccine to addon-itis. I stayed in a 2bd/2ba MVC for $67/night(tax inc!) at a non-DVC destination. Compared to the $300+/night in dues at my home resort for the same time, I knew our future would include more non-Disney. Instead of constantly browsing the resale aggregators and disboards, I'm now checking II for cash deals. Of course everyone's travel habits are different, so fortunately ~60 days have worked for my family.

We don't plan on selling, but that's not to say that thought hasn't come up to sell all my contracts except for one 25-pointer just to keep my DVC-Y and Interval Gold (to DVC staying with II). We still love Disney, just not as much as we did years ago.

 

[pianomanzano]

Feelings are cyclical, but right now yes, we have purchased too many points-- but it's all stemming from one feature available to us-- Interval.

II Getaways has been a very effective vaccine to addon-itis. I stayed in a 2bd/2ba MVC for $67/night(tax inc!) at a non-DVC destination. Compared to the $300+/night in dues at my home resort for the same time, I knew our future would include more non-Disney. Instead of constantly browsing the resale aggregators and disboards, I'm now checking II for cash deals. Of course everyone's travel habits are different, so fortunately ~60 days have worked for my family.

We don't plan on selling, but that's not to say that thought hasn't come up to sell all my contracts except for one 25-pointer just to keep my DVC-Y and Interval Gold (to DVC staying with II). We still love Disney, just not as much as we did years ago.

Shhh, that's my family's secret too! We did 3 weeks at $352/week last October close to property at one of the MVC's booked through the getaways. Such a great deal!

 

[emchen]

If you want to, you can use DVC points directly for resort stays elsewhere through Interval. Most of those are not going to be very good deals, but some will be. For example, we stayed in an oceanfront 1BR at Marriott's Kauai Beach Club last summer. That would have cost 130 DVC points, which is a decent value. At $18/pt, that's pretty close to what an owner would pay at that resort just in annual fees for that room.

Was that 130 DVC points for a week?

 

[Brian Noble]

Yes. The point charts are here.

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/points-charts/world-collection

 

[npatellye]

Has anyone ever felt they have purchased too many points. We own (removed by mod) and (removed by mod) Should we just rent our excess points or sell a contract?

I find myself thinking this sometimes. We started with 200, thinking it would be enough. Then, we realized we really enjoy traveling over the holidays (Thanksgiving and NYE) so we added some more direct. It’s now 4 years from our original purchase and we are now mostly restricted to summer and Christmas trips because our kids have gotten older and it’s no longer logical to pull them out of school for a trip (especially because they now end up missing school for all star cheer comps with a day on either end of our bigger comps that require travel). So, this summer, we added some resale at a 2042 to allow for those higher points season trips.

We are now at 500 and I sometimes think we will sell some of our smaller direct points contracts off in 5-10 years (we would still qualify for blue card with either of our 2 remaining direct contracts). But that’s a long way off right now and we have time to figure it out.

 

[kboo]

TL;DR: DH wanted to go less and now likes going more, kids got older and travel patterns have changed. Everyone travels easier and lighter so shorter trips are more feasible. If you can afford it, see how your usage changes over time.

We recently added on at VGF, and have a mix of direct and grandfathered resale Added on over the last 6-7 years. For OP - it might depend on your kids’ ages and how you feel about taking them by yourself, etc. Our use has definitely evolved over the years, because of the kids’ schedules (now it matters if they miss school too much), and their ability to travel mostly independently (packing and carrying their own stuff), ability to stay up late, etc. The trips have gotten much easier and more relaxing. DH is also not as into Disney as we are, so we will sometimes leave him back at the villa to do a rope drop day, or an extra evening hours day. (Even then, he has slight FOMO so we do go back and forth). He was definitely an “at most once a year” person and now we us our DVC points on average every 7-9 months. Sometimes shorter stays, sometimes larger units with family, etc.

I have taken the kids to WDW a day or two earlier than DH (he’s since decided it’s not worth the extra time he spent at work) or stayed a day or two later. DH and I took a no-kids anniversary trip a few years back. Next year for the first time I am meeting a BFF there for a long weekend. We are now almost never in studios if more than 2 people are traveling.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I feel this way to an extent as I bought 250 pts this year (super loaded contract as it came with more pts from previous year) and so far haven't made it to WDW yet, nor am I likely to get there any time soon....however, I have one small trip to VGC booked, I've used a Getaway in Vegas, and I've rented out excess points to cover my dues. I'm not too concerned about the ability to rent out.

 

[Twohsieh]

We started with 300 points in 2010 when our kids were toddlers. Then ten years later we added on 270 points at another resort for the home priority. Currently, we have enough DVC points for our needs.

We love using and gifting our DVC points for resort stays however we like to vacation at other non-Disney destinations as others do. We really love the two bedroom space and the amenities that come with these rooms.

We are currently in escrow for a MVC resale fixed platinum plus week. We hope we can use this timeshare to open more 2 BR destinations for our growing family of five.

 

[jimmymc]

I have more than I use, but I rent them out. I definitely bought a larger contract as a way to future-proof my travel as my cousin's kids grow up and if my brother ever has children. Renting is a great way to essentially own a smaller contract but have the benefits of a larger one.

 

[Cfabar1]

We are currently in escrow for a MVC resale fixed platinum plus week. We hope we can use this timeshare to open more 2 BR destinations for our growing family of five.

can you walk me through this? I thought with MVC if you bought resale you could only stay at that one particular resort unless you paid an additional fee to Marriott?

 

[Brian Noble]

I thought with MVC if you bought resale you could only stay at that one particular resort unless you paid an additional fee to Marriott?

Sort of, but even with some additional fees the total cost can be very reasonable.

MVC uses Interval International as its exchange system. A resale week owner would use Interval to use their week at a different resort (or to use it in a season other than what they own, etc.)

Resale owners have to pay for their Interval account ($100/yr, discounted for 3+ years at a time). Marriott owners have some extra benefits when exchanging back into another Marriott resort. The exchange fee is lower ($160ish vs. $220ish), and there is a "preference" window for most new deposits, during which only other Marriott weeks can exchange into those deposits.

There are a few other odds and ends with direct costs. For example, if you are exchanging into a unit larger than the one you are trading, you pay a fee per "step". If you own a lockoff unit, you can deposit the sides separately, but there is a small fee to Marriott for locking off the unit.

You can pay a lot of these little fees before you come even remotely close to the price difference between retail and resale.

We currently own about one timeshare week too many--it's hard for us to use everything we own. But, the Kauai resort at which we own a couple of weeks is preparing to vote for termination, which might put us in a position of wanting something else in our portfolio. We don't currently own any Marriott weeks, but we do have a couple weeks at a different resort that is dual-affiliated with RCI and II, and it has done well there even back into Marriott resorts despite not having any preference. Granted, we are not looking for the super-prime resorts/units/seasons, so that makes it a little easier. But, I've thought about adding a Marriott lockoff resale week if our Kauai resort does end up closing. I'm a bit on the fence, because those non-Marriott weeks have fees that are much lower than even a "cheap" Marriott trader, and I'm not sure I need preference that badly.

 

[ivegotajarofdirt]

TL;DR: DH wanted to go less and now likes going more, kids got older and travel patterns have changed. Everyone travels easier and lighter so shorter trips are more feasible. If you can afford it, see how your usage changes over time.

We recently added on at VGF, and have a mix of direct and grandfathered resale Added on over the last 6-7 years. For OP - it might depend on your kids’ ages and how you feel about taking them by yourself, etc. Our use has definitely evolved over the years, because of the kids’ schedules (now it matters if they miss school too much), and their ability to travel mostly independently (packing and carrying their own stuff), ability to stay up late, etc. The trips have gotten much easier and more relaxing. DH is also not as into Disney as we are, so we will sometimes leave him back at the villa to do a rope drop day, or an extra evening hours day. (Even then, he has slight FOMO so we do go back and forth). He was definitely an “at most once a year” person and now we us our DVC points on average every 7-9 months. Sometimes shorter stays, sometimes larger units with family, etc.

I have taken the kids to WDW a day or two earlier than DH (he’s since decided it’s not worth the extra time he spent at work) or stayed a day or two later. DH and I took a no-kids anniversary trip a few years back. Next year for the first time I am meeting a BFF there for a long weekend. We are now almost never in studios if more than 2 people are traveling.

My son is 11 and my daughter is 5 so going solo with just the kids is now a viable option. I would probably even bring a buddy for my son. I think we have settled on next trip doing 2 park days with the waterpark option and then just doing resort days and maybe checking out some other things in the area. We only have 200 pts but when I was planning the next few years it seemed a lot. But I think we'll try save for a 1 bd for 2025.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We bought in 2007. Over the years we owned as many as 450 points. As DVC changed, so did we. We have rented and used all of these points, but now are down to 118 points with a fixed week with full member benefits. I am still on the fence with purchasing anymore as we don’t like the direction DVC and Disney is going. Plus forget about passing these contracts down to your kids. They can’t even afford the airfare let alone the food, tickets and incidental spending.

 

[Minniesgal]

We did and sold about 1/3 of our points. We have 315 now that’s about perfect for us

 

[Twohsieh]

can you walk me through this? I thought with MVC if you bought resale you could only stay at that one particular resort unless you paid an additional fee to Marriott?

We are planning to use the MVC week mainly at the home resort but we would like to use it to trade to other MVC resorts through II.

We don't plan on enrolling the week with Mariott as the point system would not be cost effective for our needs.

Brian Nobel-thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.