The entry-level requirement to purchase a new direct Disney Vacation Club contract just got a little lower! DVC is now allowing new members the ability to purchase a contract for as low as 100 points. This is a departure from the 150-point minimum introduced in 2021 that aligned with the minimum to qualify for Membership Extras.
Note: Direct Members will still need at least 150 Vacation Points to qualify for direct member benefits and Membership Extras at this time.
The following promotional brochure was found in the Grand Floridian lobby and shared on DISboards:
While no official announcement has been made by Disney or Disney Vacation Club, multiple owners have reported seeing this advertisement around Walt Disney World and discussed when speaking to DVC Cast Members.
This decrease is the first of its kind since Disney Vacation Club went on a spree of increasing the minimum purchase requirement from 2018 through 2021. It also comes at a time when perks such as Annual Pass sales have recently returned.
We last saw the minimum raised from 125 points to 150 points on June 3rd, 2021. Before that, DVC raised the direct minimum for new members and Membership Extras in the following intervals:
- February 2018: Raised to 75 points.
- September 2019: Raised to 100 points.
- October 2020: Raised to 125 points.
- June 2021: Raised to 150 points
- April 2023: Lowered to 100 points (150-point requirement for Membership Extras)
With the sales of The Villas at Disneyland Hotel coming very soon, this decrease may be part of a larger sales plan for DVC as they continue to struggle with direct contract purchases.
Join in the conversation over on the DVC Forums, as well as the DVC Fan Facebook Group! Also, stay tuned to DVC Fan for additional information as it becomes available and commentary about this pending change.
Would you need 150 “Direct Points” to get the benefits or can you combine a resale contract with those 100 direct points? For example, I am in the process of purchasing 63 VGC points via resale, once I have those I am also interested in purchasing 100 VDH direct points, would I get benefits?
You would need to accumulate 150 points purchased direct to qualify.
Disney trying to pull a fast one on people who don’t know squat about dvc, and don’t read fine print, to sell those California towers! I have a feeling this goes over like a turd in the sun and that many people who buy into this because it looks like they got a deal realize that no perks besides having a crappy timeshare that they are overcharged for are not worth it. Bring on the resale contracts!
PAUL – Just to be clear, those direct members that currently have membership extras (grandfathered) but lower direct points than 150, will continue to be grandfathered – CORRECT?
Correct – This has no impact on the Membership Extras requirements and current status of grandfathered members.
What is the benefit to Disney to lower the minimum points without lowering the point minimum for Membership Extras? We were excited to read the news, but then, without the benefit of DVC Membership Extras, it makes no sense to purchase direct at double the cost of DVC resales.
This allows for new sales at a lower threshold which decrease the barrier to entry for some. It’s purely sales driven.
But with no Membership Extras you are basically paying top dollar for something equivalent to a resale. For alot of the people that are financing for up to 10 years, they most likely will not be adding anymore points until the current contract is payed off. So an arguement for “may decide to purchase more in the future” does not really make financial sense, since the people that finance these 100 point direct contracts, a full 50% less points than needed for extras (and as Disney keep increasing that minimum, it could be 75% to 100% in 10 years – see side note) will have to finance another 50+ points (which will be even more expensive in the future), meaning they could be financing DVC for up to 20 years and they did not even get the perks for the 1st 10 years of that. That is alot of interest to pay with no guarentees of anything in the future. The money they will save purchasing resale contracts, in this case, makes alot more sense (unless you are purchasing or wanting to stay at Riviera).
Side note – we purchased a small 30 point OKW resale so that we could add on small 25 to 30 direct points, at a time, on our Disney Visa and have 6 monthes to pay, interest free (would save quite a bit on interest in the long run). When we purchased the resale contract, you only needed 75 direct points to get extras. We then turned around and bought 30 direct AKL points from Disney. A month later they raised it to 100 direct points needed. We held off buying another direct contract because we figured this was probably going to be a trend for Disney. Sure was, as the next year it went up to 125. And now it is up to 150. So when we bought our 3rd (another AKL), we just decided to go back to buying smaller resale contracts that we can have paid off in 6 months to a year (saving on price even w/ interest). Same with the 4th resale contract I just bought for Vero Beach (literally saved over 50% vs direct) When it comes to Disney these days, you can not depend on what future rules (or even perks) will be. They are always changing them to suit themselves. But I am pretty sure Disney will pull the wool over many people eyes with this. Truly, so sad.