How many of you buy small and add on?

[Dsnygirl]

So, a question for you guys...

How many of you have started out small, and bought smaller amounts of points, and then added on as you needed more?? (I'm talking 75-100 points for starters...)

We're considering this, as we really don't want to finance the purchase, but also don't want to wait as long as it would take us to save up the $10-15K we would need for the amount of points we would (eventually) like to have.

If we started out small, an initial purchase would cover a short trip (just my DH and I) and a longer trip w/ our girls... then, by the time those trips are over & we're looking at a next trip, we could probably have saved up enough to add on a bit.

I realize we'd end up paying two sets of closing costs, and could end up with two "use years", but we're planning on purchasing a re-sale anyway, so we will save quite a bit just by going that route, and could potentially look for a re-sale with a similar, if not the same, use year. (and yes, we're aware of the new, upcoming restrictions -- but they aren't restrictions that affect will affect us at all.)

So -- any advice or ideas on going this route??

[TinkerbellT421]

Hi Dsnygrl! Well I really dont know what to advice regarding buying "add-ons" later. As DBF and I bought 160 at the start, and financed thru DVC. We have debated on buying add-ons maybe in the future if need be. But with DBF and I being the only travelers to the world 160 is perfect for us. We are able to stay in Studios, most of the time using fewer points than we have and sometimes borrowing 5pts. Depending on the length of stay, where, when why and hows.

I would first advise IMO to look at where or what you would be using your points for, look at a point chart and figure out where you would most likely be staying, for how long and what time of year. I know you mentioned 100 pts. But of the top of my head, I dont believe 100 pts would be enough for anyone stay unless I believe if you stayed at Old Key West which the last time I looked takes the fewest points out of all the resorts. But Im sure if I am mistaken someone will be long shortly to let you know.

But what DBF and I did was basically figure out where and when and how long we would be staying "typically on average". Because if 100 pts isnt enough your always going to be borrowing. For us we didnt always want to boorrow 60-80 points from the next use year every year so we knew right off the bat that 100 is by far not enough for us. If you have no problem with borrowing from the next use year then this is a mute point lol.

Also, I saw you stated you are considering buying resale. Im not sure if you know this or not, but as of March 1st, IMO the cons of buying resale will by far out way the benefits of buying and maybe financing thru DIsney. Theres a topic here somewhere about the changes made to resale purchases but I couldnt find it right away. It may be something you want to look into so you are not blindsided with the new rules of what you wont be able to do with resale purchases. I believe you will not be able to use your points basically for anything that isnt a direct Disney resort. You wont be able to travel to Italy, Ireland, I believe they call that the Concierge collection? I always get the "Collections" confused. If someone or I can find that topic I will post a link to it here just in case you werent already aware of it.

I hope this information has helped. And I am sure more people would be along shortly that have also bought "add-ons" later to help.

[TinkerbellT421]

I was able to find the new information regarding DVC resla epurchases. Hope this helps.

http://www.intercot.com/discussion/s...d.php?t=178563

[Disney4us2]

I bought a small point interest at VGC in Sept 2010. I got the minimum of 100 points financed through DVC. I was able to bank all my points to use in 2011 giving me a total of 200 points to work with. My August 2011 trip, 9 nights is 157 points for a studio at AKL with a savannah view at Kidani. I still have 43 points to bank for my 2012 trip. I will eventually add on to this, but in the mean time this will work for us.

[Basket Mommy]

We started with 150 HHI points through resale, which is what we could afford to pay cash for (we don't borrow money and don't use credit cards); that was just enough to get us a 2 BR for 4-5 days during value season. As we were able, we added on more resale points, all at HHI. We're now up to 375 points, purchased as 2 separate contracts, which gets us either 2 4-5 day trips to WDW or 1 trip to WDW and one trip to HHI per year, or one large trip in a 3BR villa. I think we're going to hold at 375 for awhile.

We thought about buying enough points to take a Disney cruise or an Adventure trip, but honestly, we don't NEED that many points and wouldn't use them every year. We'd end up banking so many points. We decided to save the money to take the cruises or Adventure trips and just pay cash for them vs. having too many points.

Resale points are still good for things other than Disney properties, but only if they were purchased before the cutoff date. We'll still buy resale if we ever decide we need more points to stay @ Disney (like when our 4 kids outgrow a 2 BR and we actually *need* a 3 BR villa!)

[Disney_Barbie]

This is something that we've been thinking about as well. Presently we rent a trip from a DVC owner each year (I can't think of exactly how to word it, but you know we pay them to use their points) it's been great for us, but eventually, we'd love to own!
We're kinda in the the same boat, we could wait 15+ years to buy all the points we would need (which is pretty predictable, we use 250-ish one year then about 325-ish the following year, alternatingly)
At the moment we could afford a REALLY small resale (like 50-75 points). My gut reaction is to buy what we can afford now, I'm thinking we can bank/borrow/etc plus purchase a point transfer from others (I know there is a limit on the times you can transfer & the # of points that you can transfer... but I forget the stats and can't re-find them). Then Ideally, we'd continue adding on points as the years progress.
I only want to buy re-sale because we ONLY want to buy into the Beach Club. And I really don't want to have to borrow any $ in order to make the purchase. (Oh those new limitations are not an issue to me either)
If anyone knows the details, can you pass them along regarding the limitations on transfering points.
Also, beyond that, any others have advice on buying now and adding on?

[Christine]

We made our initial purchase at BLT last year. We just added on a small amt of points at Aulani while on the Dream this week.
We figured it this way. We made that initial buy a little bigger to get the ball rolling. Now we will add on here and there to accumulate more. The cost of the add on was about what we'd spend on a vacation ( apx $5K) and we will now have said vaca for 50 years. We chose that #of points at Aulani bc one bank, use, and borrow will allow for apx one week at a studio there. We KNOW we will not go to Hawaii more than once on three years and now we will have the 11 mo booking window.

Although you have the multiple closing costs (Which at 50-75 points are pretty low- $175 ish I think we just paid), it's much more tolerable to me on a cash basis than a $25,000 purchase.

[Tink&Goofy]

Hi Blythe!!! Its been forever since I posted here, but just had to jump in!

I would most definitely buy small and add on (cuz no matter how much you get initially, you WILL add on. ).
I bought sight unseen a number of years ago, when we were trying to plan a trip for the 5 of us, which is tough to do on property. Not wanting to all be crammed into one room, we booked a villa - which wasn't cheap!! After looking into it, I realized that it made more sense to purchase. We didn't want to wait to purchase, since the oldest was just entering high school, and we didn't want to miss these special family memories!! I purchased enough for a trip every other year - and wondered if that was too much. So....we added on the next year, and are now thinking of adding on again, since I am tired of borrowing everytime. Plus we've taken trips and had to stay on cash, since we were out of points.
I would definitely consider purchasing small and adding on - cuz you will.

[okw2006]

I think starting small makes sense. We bought 50 OKW points resale in 2006 which gave us 5 nights a year in the fall in a studio ( just 2 of us). We ended up liking OKW alot and added on 40 and then 50 more when we decided to go twice a year. Nothing wrong with starting small to see if it is right for you.