Buying point from DVC members

[TwinFoxes]

Has anyone had experience doing this? I'm very interested in staying at Bay Lake Tower or one or two other properties, and I'd like to try buying points, but I'm worried about being scammed. What are my protections? I get the basic idea, but after I pay can't the owner cancel my reservation and then keep my $$? What would be my recourse? TIA! (there needs to be a hidden Mickey smiley!)

[las710]

We rented points via an owner last November and it went great. I found the owner at disboards.com under the DVC section in Rent/Trade. There are a lot of people renting points there, and I think the best way to protect yourself is to find someone who has been subscribed to that board for a long time and who has had many posts. You can look at their old posts and track those -- you can see whether they've rented before and how that seemed to go. In our case, I asked the owner for a couple of referrals off the boards and those people had good things to say about their experiences. I also asked for a contract with the seller and I paid via PayPal. I know there is also a way to verify that someone is an owner... some State of Florida Web site that has real estate info. If you need that Web info, I can try to find it in my notes.

All that being said... there is always the possibility that something could go wrong, but the more cautious you are, the better off you should be. It turned out the be a great deal for us -- we stayed at AKL in a 2-bd unit for less than a third of the cost Disney was charging and we got to take advantage of the dining plan which was great too.

We enjoyed it so much, we are now owners at Bay Lake Towers : )

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Good luck!
Lisa

[malibelle]

Before we bought into DVC we rented points from a DVC owner. We had a very good transaction and made sure it was a regular on the DIS board. It worked out very well, we gave 1/2 the money, they made the reservation and send us the confirmation when they recieved it, then we sent the rest of the money. Its the way to go if you want to save money and stay in a DVC resort. We have considered renting our points but havn't done so yet, I just don't want to give them up! I can always find ways to use them but my husband on the other hands has different thought process.lol.

[alien_host]

We are renting from friends we know well. You are able to check your reservation number on-line. You should ask for the mailed/written confirmation from DVC (the member would receive it and be able to send it to you) and it will have your reservation number on it. You can check-online and verify your accomodations.

Although you make a good point about the DVC owner cancelling after the fact...that's a tricky one. I don't have to worry about it since we know the owners personally.

ETA: Here is the link to where you would check your reservations once you book:

http://MyDisneyReservation.com/dvc