The eternal question. Do you buy DVC from Disney direct for the speed, and perks or save money by buying on the resale market? We bought resale and will show you the numbers that helped with our decision.
So as mentioned in a different post we did the Riviera tour last year and were quoted some big numbers. It was a super slick presentation where we were shown around all the various rooms available. It really is a magnificent resort. Full of light and grace. We loved it.
Our cast member A, went through the points charts and asked us many questions about how often we visited the parks, how long we stayed and what we did whilst we were there etc. She concluded that, by the way we prefer to holiday that 150 points would see us perfectly well. Purely by chance, this happened to be the exact number of points all the extra Disney perks kick in.
Now the price, direct from Disney in July 2024 was $225 per point. Multiply that by 150 points and the base price would have been $33,750. However, from memory, because we were looking at purchasing 150 points the cost per point was reduced by 13 dollars, down to $212, bringing our quoted total $31,800. I cannot remember the closing costs involved but from looking on the DVC website this morning, that quoted closing cost for a 150-point contract as $895. The total cost being $32,695. Being in the UK we are governed by the exchange rate for a purchase like this. Looking back at that time, we were getting about 1.29 US dollars to the pound. Making our total approximately £26,000. (phew)
We thought about it for the rest of the trip, on the way home and for the next week that the quote was valid for but decided against it. It was just too much money to drop in one go. We had also decided to have a break from further trips (see post Why DVC….)
Cut to September last year, when the Disney Blues were coming in hard. Compared to UK options, static caravan parks, the resale cost of DVC was looking attractive.
Andy and I were at a loss for something to do on a cold and miserable Saturday afternoon. It was a week after my 50th birthday and maybe, feeling a little middle aged, we were looking at things to bring us joy. We happened upon the DVCResaleMarket website (other sites are available). Now, we had no idea really what we were doing. We had done a little research but I’m quite impulsive. We found a contract for 185 points at the Riviera for only $110 per point. That was quite the difference in price! I’m from the valleys of Wales and refuse to pay full price for anything so I persuaded Andy to make an offer of $105 per point. We made no extra negotiations over dues or closing costs and just did it!
We received a reply much faster than we expected. I think within an hour or so accepting our offer. Cue much excitement and a bit of panic. Oh, my goodness, this is terrifying. What if it’s a scam, what if we lose thousands. We had done our research (but not really enough looking back) and ploughed on.
The process involved is not particularly hard, the waiting can be tough, and I will cover what we had to go through in a different post but for now I want to focus on costs.
Our resale contract was larger 185 points, but the cost was less $105 per point making the base cost $19,425. Considerably less for a larger contract. We did have closing costs of approximately $879. This includes a settlement closing fee, owners title insurance, recording charges and state tax. We also paid the annual dues for 2025 at $1657.39. Bringing the grand total to approximately $21,961.39.
The exchange rate from the time of offer to when payment needed to be sent absolutely plummeted. That’s the downside of purchasing from the UK. For the deposit, we got an exchange rate of $1.33 dollars to the pound in late September. The sellers could not close, however, until the 1st of December and when we made the final payment on the 23rd of November to rate had fallen to $1.21 dollars to the pound. This increased our costs by approximately £1,500. So, all in all, we paid just shy of £18,000. Obviously, no one knows what is going to happen with the economy and we couldn’t have foreseen such a dramatic drop. With hindsight, we may have looked for a contract that didn’t have the closing delay. You don’t have the risk with buying direct. The price you see is the price you pay, and it’s done. Sometimes the same day but for us the savings outweighed everything else. That is somewhere in the region of $12,000 lower in price for an extra 35 point contract. Due to the exchange rate falling this made a saving of £9,000.
Buying direct form Disney does give extra perks that you don’t get by buying resale. They run special events for DVC members, access to members lounges and the freedom to book any of the DVC resorts on property. The main perk is the 10% discount on food/ drink and merchandise.
For us, the likelihood of us visiting at the same time as the events are running is slim. We book based on cost and work availability, Although the DVC lounges would be amazing during a hot park day, Disney have now started charging for priority access so the waiting for “normal” DVC members is now likely to be longer. Epcot is my favourite place in the world and probably for location, Beach Club would suit me better, but we stopped there last year, and I found the resort beautiful, but very large and very noisy.
So, let’s look at the savings on food, drink and merchandise. To save £9,000 (what we saved by buying resale) we would need to be spending £90,000 during our holidays over the course of the contract. We, on average take around $2,000 dollars for a family on a two-week holiday (approximately £1,500). By my maths, to make that £9,000 saving we would need to visit over 60 times. Andy and I are no youngsters so I think we would do well to still be flying in another 25 years, so the resale savings far outweigh the food discounts.
Just out of curiosity I did a mock up quote this morning on the official DVC website for what the same contract would cost direct. My goodness!!!
