Owning both direct and resale points

[Ajaysummer]

We are anticipating buying our first DVC membership in the coming days and plan to buy 150 points direct from Disney to get all the perks/benefits. After speaking with a bunch of you wonderful DVC owners, I am hearing that a lot of you have done the same and then purchased resale contracts for "additional points". I understand the restrictions for resale contracts, which is one of the main reasons we plan to buy direct initially. My question is, for those of you who may have done the same, are these resale points "flagged"? For instance, if I bought resale points at Riviera and moved these points from my resale account to my direct account every year, do these points get flagged as resale points so that the restriction to "only Riviera" still exists, or does that restriction sort of get lost in translation when transferring/gifting from one account to another. I would assume that Disney is well aware of this process and is smart enough to flag these resale points with restrictions to prevent this kind of thing, but wanted to check with those of you who may have experience with this scenario.

 

[hhisc16]

We are anticipating buying our first DVC membership in the coming days and plan to buy 150 points direct from Disney to get all the perks/benefits. After speaking with a bunch of you wonderful DVC owners, I am hearing that a lot of you have done the same and then purchased resale contracts for "additional points". I understand the restrictions for resale contracts, which is one of the main reasons we plan to buy direct initially. My question is, for those of you who may have done the same, are these resale points "flagged"? For instance, if I bought resale points at Riviera and moved these points from my resale account to my direct account every year, do these points get flagged as resale points so that the restriction to "only Riviera" still exists, or does that restriction sort of get lost in translation when transferring/gifting from one account to another. I would assume that Disney is well aware of this process and is smart enough to flag these resale points with restrictions to prevent this kind of thing, but wanted to check with those of you who may have experience with this scenario.

We own both resale and direct. Disney keeps track of both and makes sure they are used at the correct resorts.

 

[chalee94]

Yes, you'll probably find posts from 20 years ago where Disney had trouble tracking transferred points with their Pentium II processors but they have gotten a handle on it now...

If you really love Riviera, then you'd need to buy Riviera resale and understand that you can't use the points elsewhere.

If you are flexible, other "original 14" resorts will be an option for the next 20 years if you purchase at a resort like SSR, which is a much better value than Riviera (unless you would absolutely hate being stuck at SSR.)

 

[RoseGold]

Points keep their own restrictions and home resorts and UYs. Just like you can't modify your 11 mo RIV booking at 7 months to use your SSR points.

It's not that they are "flagged," those are just the properties of the points, which is kind of the whole point of the system. You don't "move" points from a resale account to a direct account, unless they have different owners or UYs or something. You just click which contract you want to use. If that contract can't do it, it won't even show up as an option. If you can't book RIV at all (like me), it won't show up as an option at all ever.

If you have 2 UYs, this can be more complicated, if you are transferring. That's like transferring between two different people.

I would actually do this backward and buy resale now, and then use the existing member discount for Poly2. That discount has historically been significant at that point level.

 

[intamin]

I would actually do this backward and buy resale now, and then use the existing member discount for Poly2. That discount has historically been significant at that point level.

This is the correct order to do it so that way Disney will match the UY of your choosing instead of just being given whatever Disney wants to give you. Then you also won't have to worry about transfers between memberships since all of the points will be under the same membership. Non-Riviera resale points were never going to be able to be used at Riviera anyways. Like others have said, resale points aren't "flagged", they're just simply not able to be used at any resort built in 2019 and later.

 

[Sandisw]

Points carry the rules and not the owner. And, to help you understand, you can’t move points into another contract.

if you have more than one membership…different UYs or contracts owned by different owners…you can transfer points ibetween the two so you can use together for a booking. DVC creates a temporary contract in your account to hold the transferred points.

But, it doesn’t change anything about the points. Resale points bought today will not be valid at RIV, VDH, and presumably all new resorts.

RIV and VDH points bought resale can only be used at their home resorts. When you go to book a restricted resort, your resale contract won’t even show as an option.

I own RIV resale and if I am trying to book anything with my VGF points, it’s not even an option to use, except when I am booking RIV.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

I third what @Sandisw and @intamin said. If you're not in a rush, I would do resale first then direct. But just be prepared from when you make a make an offer on a resale contract until you actually have points in your account will be around 80 days give or take. Direct contracts your points are loaded sometimes the same day. But yes buying direct points after you are already a member will be significant savings rather than buying them as a new member.

 

[Straulin]

Just to point out something that came up for us when buying direct. The plan was to buy 150 but we ended up going 175 and by my math I would have gone all the way to 200 before doing a resale contract for more points.

For us we needed 175 to get that week long trip at any time of year except the highest 3 weeks at VGF. The way the discounts worked the extra 25 or even 50 points just made sense to go direct. The price per point was close, you lost the hassle involved in resale (smaller contracts in your use year are hard to find), and didn’t have to pay second closing costs.

So if you are planning on adding on sooner rather than later, be sure to do the math for more than the minimum 150. It surprised us.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

I agree with @Straulin , do the math and don’t assume. They ran a promo earlier this year for AKV where once you bought 150 points the next 50 were under $100/point each. I’m not big on buying direct past 150, I think people tend to overestimate how often they’ll need unrestricted points, but I’m that case it was just flat out cheaper.

The other thing to know is if you have 1 use year for your direct and resale points (and most people should have just 1 use year), you’ll have 1 account. As an owner of direct points, When you go to book a room it will show you every resort, and then when you click through something the system will make a guess as to which points you want to use (which contract, which year, banked or borrowed, etc), and you can change it if you want. If you own resale and direct, when you book at Riviera it will default to your direct points and it will simply not let you switch it to your resale ones.

 

[Sandisw]

I agree with @Straulin , do the math and don’t assume. They ran a promo earlier this year for AKV where once you bought 150 points the next 50 were under $100/point each. I’m not big on buying direct past 150, I think people tend to overestimate how often they’ll need unrestricted points, but I’m that case it was just flat out cheaper.

The other thing to know is if you have 1 use year for your direct and resale points (and most people should have just 1 use year), you’ll have 1 account. As an owner of direct points, When you go to book a room it will show you every resort, and then when you click through something the system will make a guess as to which points you want to use (which contract, which year, banked or borrowed, etc), and you can change it if you want. If you own resale and direct, when you book at Riviera it will default to your direct points and it will simply not let you switch it to your resale ones.

Just to clarify for those who might consider it as to what it will look like. The restricted points contract wont even show up on the page where the contracts show up. You will only have the direct (or eligible) contract. If you choose a non restricted resort, then both contracts will be there to choose from.

 

[geargrinder]

Just to clarify for those who might consider it as to what it will look like. The restricted points contract wont even show up on the page where the contracts show up. You will only have the direct (or eligible) contract. If you choose a non restricted resort, then both contracts will be there to choose from.

My account is the other way around. Both of my contracts show up, but it always sets my resale contract as the default contract. If I want to book with my direct, I have to use the resale contract to attempt a 7-11 month search in a non-home resort prompting for a new search.

At that point I can toggle between contracts and select the direct contract for a reservation search of restricted resorts.

At least that's the quickest way I've found. Still looking for a more simple process to get to my direct contract.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I agree with @Straulin , do the math and don’t assume. They ran a promo earlier this year for AKV where once you bought 150 points the next 50 were under $100/point each. I’m not big on buying direct past 150, I think people tend to overestimate how often they’ll need unrestricted points, but I’m that case it was just flat out cheaper.

The other thing to know is if you have 1 use year for your direct and resale points (and most people should have just 1 use year), you’ll have 1 account. As an owner of direct points, When you go to book a room it will show you every resort, and then when you click through something the system will make a guess as to which points you want to use (which contract, which year, banked or borrowed, etc), and you can change it if you want. If you own resale and direct, when you book at Riviera it will default to your direct points and it will simply not let you switch it to your resale ones.

FWIW, I purchased 200 AUL direct points to add on to my resale AUL and VGC in the winter of this year and part of the value proposition was that I could use them at VDH, which I now have a booking for. The incremental price from 150 to 200 was very reasonable and so I broke it into 2x100 point contracts.

 

[Sandisw]

My account is the other way around. Both of my contracts show up, but it always sets my resale contract as the default contract. If I want to book with my direct, I have to use the resale contract to attempt a 7-11 month search in a non-home resort prompting for a new search.

At that point I can toggle between contracts and select the direct contract for a reservation search of restricted resorts.

At least that's the quickest way I've found. Still looking for a more simple process to get to my direct contract.

I wasn't referring to the order of the contracts in your membership. My RIV resale shows up before my VGF direct does because my resale RIV was in my membership first.

I am talking about when you actually go to book a resort in which the contract can't be used. So, if I am booking RIV, both my resale RIV and VGF show up and I can toggle between the two if booking 7 months or less. RIV first and VGF second.

But, if I go to book VGF or any other resort, then my resale RIV isn't even there as a choice after I have selected dates and said "book'. Only my VGF contract will be there.

But, are you using the front page search or the one under "Plan a Vacation" at the top. When you use the "Plan a Vacation" at the top, it is much easier and you can search all resorts to start...once you choose, and go to book, the system will show the contracts that are eligible to book it.

If you have a resale contract that can't book VDH or RIV, then if you go to book those, only your direct contract will be a choice for actual booking.

 

[KPeterso]

My account is the other way around. Both of my contracts show up, but it always sets my resale contract as the default contract. If I want to book with my direct, I have to use the resale contract to attempt a 7-11 month search in a non-home resort prompting for a new search.

At that point I can toggle between contracts and select the direct contract for a reservation search of restricted resorts.

At least that's the quickest way I've found. Still looking for a more simple process to get to my direct contract.

I have 2 memberships (2 use years). It tends to default to the one with only resale points if I just go and put in my dates. I assume it is because the membership number is lower (Feb UY member ID starts with a 5, Dec UY member ID starts with a 6). As Sandisw states, at the top, choose the option to Plan a Vacation. That will give you a drop down to choose which membership you want to use for your search.

 

[DSLRuser]

Yes, you'll probably find posts from 20 years ago where Disney had trouble tracking transferred points with their Pentium II processors but they have gotten a handle on it now...

That MMX Technology brought them up considerably.

 

[lawboy2001]

We are anticipating buying our first DVC membership in the coming days and plan to buy 150 points direct from Disney to get all the perks/benefits. After speaking with a bunch of you wonderful DVC owners, I am hearing that a lot of you have done the same and then purchased resale contracts for "additional points". I understand the restrictions for resale contracts, which is one of the main reasons we plan to buy direct initially. My question is, for those of you who may have done the same, are these resale points "flagged"? For instance, if I bought resale points at Riviera and moved these points from my resale account to my direct account every year, do these points get flagged as resale points so that the restriction to "only Riviera" still exists, or does that restriction sort of get lost in translation when transferring/gifting from one account to another. I would assume that Disney is well aware of this process and is smart enough to flag these resale points with restrictions to prevent this kind of thing, but wanted to check with those of you who may have experience with this scenario.

Yes, I assume so. I know I think it must be very complicated to keep track of all the restrictions on the particular points, but DVC seems to do so!!

 

[Ajaysummer]

Points carry the rules and not the owner. And, to help you understand, you can’t move points into another contract.

if you have more than one membership…different UYs or contracts owned by different owners…you can transfer points ibetween the two so you can use together for a booking. DVC creates a temporary contract in your account to hold the transferred points.

But, it doesn’t change anything about the points. Resale points bought today will not be valid at RIV, VDH, and presumably all new resorts.

RIV and VDH points bought resale can only be used at their home resorts. When you go to book a restricted resort, your resale contract won’t even show as an option.

I own RIV resale and if I am trying to book anything with my VGF points, it’s not even an option to use, except when I am booking RIV.

We ended up purchasing 150 points direct for VGF so we have all the discounts and membership perks of direct. So if we decide to get additional points in the future (assuming we buy resale instead of using a discount on more direct points - which we should surely look into before purchasing) and have different UY than our original direct VGF contract (which is Feb by the way) we can transfer points to or from the different accounts then? For example, say we love AK and purchase 100 resale points for AK so we can book out 11 months at AK from that contract. Would we be able to move our 150 direct points to the AK resale contract to book a 250 point trip at AK at 11 months out or will I not be able to use my VGF points at AK at 11 months out? Do I need to have a different UY in order to transfer points?

 

[Ajaysummer]

I agree with @Straulin , do the math and don’t assume. They ran a promo earlier this year for AKV where once you bought 150 points the next 50 were under $100/point each. I’m not big on buying direct past 150, I think people tend to overestimate how often they’ll need unrestricted points, but I’m that case it was just flat out cheaper.

The other thing to know is if you have 1 use year for your direct and resale points (and most people should have just 1 use year), you’ll have 1 account. As an owner of direct points, When you go to book a room it will show you every resort, and then when you click through something the system will make a guess as to which points you want to use (which contract, which year, banked or borrowed, etc), and you can change it if you want. If you own resale and direct, when you book at Riviera it will default to your direct points and it will simply not let you switch it to your resale ones.

We ended up purchasing 150 points direct for VGF so we have all the discounts and membership perks of direct. So if we decide to get additional points in the future (assuming we buy resale instead of using a discount on more direct points - which we should surely look into before purchasing) we should aim to have the same UY? For example, say we love AK and purchase 100 resale points for AK (with the same UY) so we can book out 11 months at AK. Would we be able to book a 250 point trip at AK at 11 months out or will I not be able to use my VGF direct points portion (150) at AK at 11 months out? Sounds like if we purchase resale with the same UY we will still only have 1 account and not need to "move/transfer" points from one account to another in order to book a 250 point trip correct? If we have two different UY we would have 2 accounts/contracts that would require "moving/transferring" points from one account to another in order to book a 250 point trip (understanding that the 100 AK points will have restrictions attached to them), correct?

 

[Sandisw]

We ended up purchasing 150 points direct for VGF so we have all the discounts and membership perks of direct. So if we decide to get additional points in the future (assuming we buy resale instead of using a discount on more direct points - which we should surely look into before purchasing) and have different UY than our original direct VGF contract (which is Feb by the way) we can transfer points to or from the different accounts then? For example, say we love AK and purchase 100 resale points for AK so we can book out 11 months at AK from that contract. Would we be able to move our 150 direct points to the AK resale contract to book a 250 point trip at AK at 11 months out or will I not be able to use my VGF points at AK at 11 months out? Do I need to have a different UY in order to transfer points?

VGF points remain VGF points even when transferred. So if you buy an AKV contract in a different UY, and transfer your VGF points, they still can’t be used at AKV until 7 months.

Same if you move AKV points to the VGF membership. They are still AKV points and can’t be used at VGF until 7 months out.

If you have the same UY, they will simply both be there and at 7 months can function together for a single reservation for all resorts except RIV, VDH and presumably new resorts.

Only your direct points at VGF will work for those.

 

[CarolMN]

We ended up purchasing 150 points direct for VGF so we have all the discounts and membership perks of direct. So if we decide to get additional points in the future (assuming we buy resale instead of using a discount on more direct points - which we should surely look into before purchasing) we should aim to have the same UY? For example, say we love AK and purchase 100 resale points for AK (with the same UY) so we can book out 11 months at AK. Would we be able to book a 250 point trip at AK at 11 months out or will I not be able to use my VGF direct points portion (150) at AK at 11 months out? Sounds like if we purchase resale with the same UY we will still only have 1 account and not need to "move/transfer" points from one account to another in order to book a 250 point trip correct? If we have two different UY we would have 2 accounts/contracts that would require "moving/transferring" points from one account to another in order to book a 250 point trip (understanding that the 100 AK points will have restrictions attached to them), correct?

You cannot use VGF points to book AKV during the home resort priority booking period. To use VGF points for an AKV stay, you would need to wait until the 7 month window opens to book it.

Points retain their home resort tag when transferred. Even if VGF points are transferred to a membership that has AKV points, the VGF points can only be used to book a non-VGF resort after the 7 month window opens.

If you want to book a 250 point trip at AKV during the home resort priority period (i.e., before the 7 month window opens), all of the points used must be AKV points. They can be from different memberships, but they must be AKV points.