Points...how many is enough?

[lovinlilo]

Okay, forgive me if this is a stupid question or its been answered somewhere else that I haven't found yet.

When you buy points how do you know how many to get? Like right now I'm thinking 150-200 is enough because a studio is enough and eventually we'll grow into a one bedroom.

But lets say I have 175 points and I have a need to rent for a week that requires 225 and I don't have any to borrow, etc. What do you do then? Do I have to buy additional? Can I rent additional from Disney for that particular year? Do I have to go for the lesser accomodations? Or do I rent from another owner?

Please help me understand it all.

[TW1]

You can try to rent the points you need to make your reservation. If the total number of points you need is 200 and you only have 175 available you can try to rent 25 from another member.

I'm guessing you are thinking ahead to when you'll have a larger family and need larger accomodations. There are three ways to plan for this.
1) buy what you know you will eventually need on a regular basis.
2) buy what you need now and rent the points in the years you know you will neeed them.
3) plan to buy an add-on later.

1) If you buy more than you need now, you can rent the unused points each year, or just enjoy them by getting those larger accomodations now and enjoying all that space.

2) If you buy for your current needs you can rent in the years you need larger villas. The problem here is there is no guarantee you will get the points you need when you need them, (though I doubt that would happen often.) The plus side is you rent the extras for a set price and don't need to pay the dues fees every year for points you may not need later on.

3) Plan for an add-on now by working on your financial arrangements for this purchase knowing full well that in X years you'll be doing this all over again. Then you can even do an add-on at a different location after you've vacationed at several sites and find one you like as much as your original home resort.

We're planning on option 2, knownig our kids will be of an age when we cannot live comfortably in a studio and following that, when they will be working and/or on a different cycle of vacation needs/interests when we'll be alone again. (Though my DW can already see us buying them their own contracts at some point when they can start a new 50 years cycle somewhere!)

Keep asking questions! You'll find lots of great Mouseowners more than willing to walk you through this.

[ghost1000]

How many points is enough? I think we would all agree that 1,000 points is probably enough for most folks.

But getting back to reality.

If you own 175 points and need 225 for a vacation, you would either have to plan ahead and bank points from the previous year, or borrow from the next year. Another option is buying/renting points from a member who has them available. They could be transferred into your account. But Disney has no option available where you could buy or rent the 50 points you need on a one-time basis.

What you can do is examine your vacationing patterns and check out the point charts (http://www.mouseowners.com/PointsCharts.html) to see how many you would want to purchase. And don't base it on one resort, unless you only plan to stay at that one resort. You may want a studio at OKW one time, and to try BWV the next time. And resorts cost different amounts of points depending on the time of year.

[nono]

337.:cool:

[jaysue]

We have found that the uses for points rises to meet the supply of points within budget - so buy as many as you think you will need - and then if you find yourself going on more vacations, buy more points within budget to what you need to vacation with.

While the above may seem a silly line of reasoning IMHO it does work - we started with 270 BCV went to 320 on the spot and then because I started vacationing on regular basis, DW was thrilled and we changed our spending habits to enable us to buy 130 and 50 at VB (took us to 500) and then another buy of 163 at SSR to make a total of 663.

I would start with what you figure you will need including weekends and then go from there based on your enjoyment and utility from your vacations

For DW it was a layup since it brought me into going on vacation on a regular basis

Cheers
jaysue

[mushu]

Enough to use. You don't want to lose points.

[dianeschlicht]

How many points is enough is a personal question that depends on how each individual member uses points. I would LOVE to have thousands, but I can't afford that, so we have 380.

I would reccomend you get the 200 and see how it goes for a year or two. Then if you feel you need more, add on a little at a time. We started out with the minimum of 220 and quickly discovered we needed more, because we decided there wasn't much point in ownership unless we used at least a 1 bedroom each trip. We then added on 150, and the total of 380 seems to be just about right for us.

[ljldml]

I just purchased 200 points. We'll start with that and add on if necessary

[Shelley]

That is a tough question. We bought in 1998 150 points. DH wanted to purchase years before 1998, we really should have. But since then have added 5 more times. Unfortunately the 2nd or 3rd contract was a different use year. It is hard to keep the points straight since we own at both OKW and BWV. April and June Use Years.

I suggest also deciding how often and what accomodations you want to use and then add 100 extra points. Don't buy the points in a large block just in case you need to sell a contract. It might be more signing of documents, but it is easier to sell smaller contracts.

It is amazing how quickly you want to just go back again. In the last 3 years we have been there 18 times. Still can't wait to go back in about a month from now. We have 560 points between the 2 use years and sometimes I wish we had a few more. But for now that number gets us there 5-7 times a year. Thank goodness for the DVC discount on annual passes!:jumpingbe

[greenban]

5,200 points.

-Tony

[magicalmcwho]

Hi Tony,

Wow 5200 points, is that so you can take all of your frogs. lol

Jim.

[DisFlan]

5,200 points.

-Tony


Oh, sure. You say that NOW. It'll be 6,000 next week.


DisFlan

[magicalmcwho]

5,200 points.

-Tony

Maybe he is building up so he can stay there for the whole year.

Jim.

[jdvm]

I think you should sit down and realistically figure out how often you could afford to go to WDW, and the size room you would need. Be honest. If you don't plan to go every year, that's fine. Then look at the point charts and buy what would accomplish what your best guess is. I really wouldn't buy more points than you need. If it happens that your usage changes, I think it is easier to adjust the number of points you have at a later date. Good luck.

[Niki]

If you purchase more points than you need, yiou can always rent them to other people by using a DVC rental forums board, or mentioning it to your friends. We originally purchased more than we needed, and rented out to friends. Even using the "friend" rate, we made back our $$ for the initial buy-in in 6 years. We still got at least a week (no week-ends) each year at BWV or HHI in a studio. Unfortunately, we now need more points. Disney just exercised its right of 1st refusal on a contract from a client who owed us $. Now we are looking for more. If we have extras, we can always rent to friends that bug us about renting points for WDW or HHI (we are golfers.) So don't hesitate to purchase as many points as you can afford. If you can't use them, it is very easy to find someone who will rent them from you.:grouphug:

[greenban]

5,200 points = 1 Bedroom at OKW from Sep1 through March 31, minus Christmas and Thanksgiving weeks, every year during our retirement.

Or, everyday of the year in an OKW studio, decisions, decisions, decisions.

That's my Hoppy Place :doublejum

-Tony

[DisFlan]

Tony...here's a Hoppy Frog for your Hoppy Place - http://www.boomerweb.net/users/garden/eanews/frog13.gif


DisFlan

[Dennyha]

JUST 130 MORE!:bouncingg

[greenban]

Tony...here's a Hoppy Frog for your Hoppy Place - http://www.boomerweb.net/users/garden/eanews/frog13.gif


DisFlan

Thanks DisFlan!

YOU are the BEST!!!!

-Tony Hopping to it!
http://www.boomerweb.net/users/garden/eanews/frog13.gif

[Plutofan2]

We joined DVC in January 2005. At that point we thought 250 points would be good. Fast foward to today. If we pass ROFR on our latest contract we will be over 1000. Can not wait until retirement.

[Dale-n-chip]

I think you should sit down and realistically figure out how often you could afford to go to WDW, and the size room you would need. Be honest. If you don't plan to go every year, that's fine. Then look at the point charts and buy what would accomplish what your best guess is. I really wouldn't buy more points than you need. If it happens that your usage changes, I think it is easier to adjust the number of points you have at a later date. Good luck.

I'm with JDVM. Here were our thoughts on why we thought 200 was the "right" number of points for our family of three:sherlock: :
1. We love WDW, but simply don't have the vacation time to visit for 10+ days at a time or multiple times each year. We think one week (6-7 nights) each year is what we want.
2. Driving 1208 miles EACH WAY is not an option, since it would eat up 3-4 days of vacation, so that means flying. At $200 a ticket (Southwest can't fly from Dallas to Orlando, so no cheap tickets for us), that's $600 a trip just in airfare. And that is a low-ball estimate. The "real" cost is anywhere from $600 to $1000.
3. A one-bedroom should work well until DS5 is a teenager, so we looked at how many points we would need for a full 7 nights at our home resort (SSR) in the seasons we might vacation in. 200 is enough for Adventure and Choice for 7 nights and Dream and Magic for 6 nights--all we can "afford" for WDW at a time.
4. While it would be nice to vacation with family and friends, we decided that our DVC purchase would be about us alone. Because we banked all of our 2005 points at purchase, we have a few "extra" points to play with for a while. We've invited friends who share their vacation home with us to WDW in 2007. But our purchase was for the three of us, not "others to be identified later."
5. I'm not going to say addonitis won't get us later, but I'm thinking we wait until VDL (the Villas at Disneyland) to add on. My *current* idea is to buy enough points at VDL to vacation there every other year, totally separate from our WDW vacations.

Our logic seems sound to us, but keep in mind we are in our first few months of DVC ownership. Our first trip "home" isn't until October, a full 11 months after our buy-in. Numbers 1 and 2 won't change, but 3-5 might change based on our vacations. Ask us again in two years. :beaniepro

Remember, only YOU can decide what is best for your family. These were our thoughts, but YMMV.

Happy planning!

[lovinlilo]

Dale-n-Chip, your profile (we're a family of 3, nearly same ages, flight considerations) is almost exactly the same as ours. I've used the same rationale and think that for now, 200 will be right for us.

Thanks to you and everyone else who have given me their advice on this tought (to me) question.

[mssparrrow]

Hi,

My mom & I have 210 points (for a one bedroom) & would like to 250 someday. It's really up to you! Even though it's just the two of us we like the room that a one bedroom affords us. We will do a studio for shorter trips & to save points! Good luck!

[Deep-Thots]

It depends on your vacationing habits and likes/dislikes. For example, it's just DH and I (and will be -- no kiddies in our future). When we were looking at DVC, we knew that when go to WDW, we'd like to stay in spacious 1BRs. We originally thought we'd like to go for one week a year, and so we knew we'd need about 240 pts. We liked SSR, but, with some research, found that we could get it cheaper than what DVC was offering it for via resale (this was in early 2004). So, we bought a 200 pt contract through TTS.

We wanted to add-on, and when DVC offered free APs for 130 pt add-ons the first time around, we jumped on those. At that point, we had more points than we wanted (or so we thought), but we also got more and more "into" the idea of inviting family and friends along -- which we've done twice already.

In fact, we now find ourselves in something of a points-deficit (this is due, however, to having traded 300 of our points for 2 weeks in June at the Westin Kanapaali in Maui). Anyway, we still need a Disney fix... so off in search of more points we went.

Enter another 100 pt add-on (through TTS). We're due to close this week, and since we'll be pts-challenged, we'll have to stay in a studio for our trip this fall. But, hey, it's Disney.

So... what is our perfect amount of points? 430 (which we can share with family and friends) -- and that should last us until retirement!!