Financing DVC Purchase

[Babyboo]

We are going to look at buying into DVC possibly on our Dec trip as we will have a bit more time.

Can anybody advise the best way to finance a DVC purchase. Do most people use their savings or do Disney offer finance for UK residents in the same way as US citizens.

Also would anybody recommend a resale over a Disney purchase. I would prefer AKV over Sarratoga Springs so may have to wait a bit or go for a resale at BCV or BWV.

Thanks

 

[CustardTart]

I don't think DVC offer finance directly to UK residents tho' I'm sure my guide implied that finance was available but I can't recall who with. We have used savings but, when I purchased the AKL add-on, I stuck the amount on a credit card and later transferred the balance to a 6 months interest-free card - I wish I'd thought to do that before...

We've bought direct from DVC and thro' the Timeshare Store - TBH I preferred buying from Disney as the transaction took about 15 minutes over the phone as opposed to the 8+ weeks of emails and faxes with TSS. DVC sent all paperwork via FedEx and, once signed, it was so simple to return the documents. With DVC you are in the system really quickly - I was able to book a week at SSR in December within 3 days of buying the points which was fab!

If you prefer AKL, it is available at the moment for $96 per point (including $8 discount) but I think the price will rise in June and thro' DVC you have to purchase a minimum of 160.

Hope that helps.

 

[Boss Hogg]

Disney will do finance for UK residents. As long as you make a 30% deposit they will finance the remainder - not a very cheap rate though I think. Also, guaranteed acceptance, which I understand annoys our US cousins as they have to undergo the usual credit-checks.

The 30% does not have to be paid when you commit (ie when in WDW on vacation), but you need to pay at least $500 towards it there and then. When we bought ours, we had a $15 per point discount, which we used towards our 30% if that makes sense.

 

[Minniespal]

We paid for DVC purchases with a credit card and then paid the balance off when the statement arrived.

We have bought direct from DVC and through the Timeshare Store. AKV is the only one that we have bought direct from DVC. The transaction was very smooth and took minutes over the telephone. When we bought through the Timeshare Store - two different occassions. Once for BCVs and the other for VWL and BWV the entire process took about 10 weeks.

If you are interested in either BCV or BWV - I would check the Timeshare Store's website every day. I did this and just kept waiting until the right one for us became available.

 

[jns]

rember if you go with the US , the dollar rate could change
good rate at the moment but you never know when it might change
we bought out in WDW as we live in Ireland and can not buy from home
all we paid was some kind of paper work fees and the had a month to get the money sent over to them

wish we done it years ago

Good luck with what ever you decide

 

[paulh]

as minispal did we did it with cc and paid it of over 6 monts (it was an intrest free offer)Would use nationwide CC if did it again for the better rate
Paulh

 

[Lisa1976]

We used finance to buy our DVC, we would never have been able to raise £7,500 to pay for it all in one go, so finance was the way to go for us. We did everything for Disney direct and they use GE Money here (well thats who ours is with), you don't have to contact GE yourself, Disney does it all for you.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[tubtruck]

Disney do finance for UK guests, I used it. You only need a deposit of 10% and this includes any deal Disney are doing i.e we actually needed to find only $500. The finance is extremly good value for a flexible loan at 10.2% (before anyone comes saying I can get finance for xx% please ensure that it is a FLEXIBLE loan, i.e you can make overpayments as often as you like and dont wind up with a massive early redemption penalty at the end) I took only part finance and paid part cash, i.E I borrowed £11000 over 10 years, the first payment was in November, I have already paid half the loan off and now owe just over £5000 I intend to pay the rest off over the next few months and it will be paid before next year. This type of loan can be very cheap if you are able to make overpayments, its not if you have to pay it over full term.
You also get the better commercial rate of buying dollars rather than a credit card rate which is a few more cents to the pound.
The loan was accepted within about ten minutes of agreeing to buy so all paperork was completed within the sales office.
The exchange rate is locked in on the day of agreement so if there is a fall after this day it is not your problem.

 

[Young Pooh]

We used the Disney finance option when we bought in 2002 - they are unable to take payments from a UK bank account so they set it up to come from your credit card.

We used our Tesco card so earned points every month. It has also been very good seeing the monthly amount reduce every month as the exchange rate gets better.

We have just paid off the balance, again earning Tesco points, with no redemtion fees etc.

 

[Babyboo]

Thank you all for your advice.

Just need to decide where to buy and how many points now!

 

[Minniespal]

Just need to decide where to buy and how many points now!

That's the exciting part though

 

[tubtruck]

We used the Disney finance option when we bought in 2002 - they are unable to take payments from a UK bank account so they set it up to come from your credit card.

We used our Tesco card so earned points every month. It has also been very good seeing the monthly amount reduce every month as the exchange rate gets better.

We have just paid off the balance, again earning Tesco points, with no redemtion fees etc.

They now offer an alternative loan for UK customers through GE Money, the rate is more competitive and it is in UK pounds so currency fluctuations are no longer a risk. It is paid by direct debit through a UK bank accont to GE Money's UK arm. The dollar rate is taken from the day you sign the loan and it is converted into UK pounds. Now is an excellent time to take advantage of this and lock in at well over $1.9 to the £. The other type of loan runs the risk of becoming much larger if the $ strengthens.

 

[orangetiggs]

Do they do the same credit checks as we would here in the uk when you purchase it through disney when your out there?

 

[Tarzan]

I've been wanting to do this for a while and we're ready to commit now. We'll be there in 21 days, has anybody signed up recently? How do we go about this? I would like to pay monthly rather than use all my savings.

 

[Miffy2003]

Do they do the same credit checks as we would here in the uk when you purchase it through disney when your out there?

No they don't.

It's basically a very low risk operation for them if you default on your repayments they will just (in effect, I am paraphrasing here) "repossess" your points so you would not be able to use them any more. Assuming you would have already paid a deposit, there is really very little risk in credit terms to Disney.

We looked at doing the financing when we bought our DVC in '04 but the rate of interest wasnt very attractive at the time (I don't know what it is like now).

 

[martinrmn]

Can someone tell me how much it costs to join DVC and what kind of yearly fees they charge please?

 

[Hilary]

Can someone tell me how much it costs to join DVC and what kind of yearly fees they charge please?

Short answer :
Currently DVC are selling points at around $102 (?) per point. There is a minimum no. of points for buying direct through Disney and there are currently some incentives offered to reduce the cost per point or take a one-off allocation of extra points. Prices through a resale agent will be cheaper per point, but there may be other costs incurred. The number of points bought gives you an annual allocation of that number of points for the life of the contract.

Maintenance fees currently run at around $5 per point (they vary depending on your home resort) per year.