How to Sell Your DVC Points? A Guide for Beginners

Do you love taking glamorous Disney vacations each and every year? Do you love exploring theme parks and family-friendly hotels across the country (and globe)?

If so, the Disney Vacation Club timeshare program is the perfect investment. By buying into the DVC timeshare program, you aren’t actually buying into a real estate investment. Instead, you are buying into a vacation membership program.

Instead of days spent at a specific property, you get DVC points that can be redeemed for stays at Disney properties. But there may be times when should be selling DVC points makes more sense than using them or holding onto them.

But are DVC members selling DVC points back to Disney, or are they selling them on the open market? What’s allowed, and can you sell DVC points when you need to? Read on to find out!

How Do DVC Points Work?

The DVC membership is a timeshare contract. Unlike traditional timeshares, these have expiration dates, often a few decades in the future.

Each year that you own your contract (and pay annual dues), you’ll receive your DVC points. These are your benefits.

With your DVC points, you can book a stay at virtually any Disney property. Depending on your home resort (that you choose when buying a contract), you can book your stay seven to 11 months in advance. 

Each property will have different points required per night. Booking a resort with points is similar to using popular travel rewards programs, such as those from Hilton or Mariott, where you earn points with a credit card.

If you don’t use up all of your points in a year, the remainder will roll over to the next year. Likewise, if you want extra points for a big vacation, you can borrow points from the upcoming year.

The amount of points you receive per year depends on the contract you choose to purchase. Many people choose between 150 and 200 points per year. 

The nightly redemption rate will depend on the resort, the room type, how good the room’s view is, and what season you are booking. Redemptions around Christmas or Spring Break will likely cost more than redemptions in the middle of October. 

DVC Points Chart

So what does it take to actually book a good vacation? Take a look at the Animal Kingdom Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

If you were to book a single night between Sunday and Thursday in September, it would cost you 7 points for their “value accommodation” rooms. During that same time period, you could book a room with a “savannah view” for 13 points per night. Or you could book the three-bedroom grand villa for 68 points per night. 

Those same rooms booked around Christmas or Easter would cost you 16, 26, and 117 points per night, respectively. 

So depending on where and when you want to take your vacation, you might not need nearly as many points, or you might need a lot more. So the flexibility to buy and sell points as needed would be useful. Unfortunately, it’s not that quite that easy to sell my DVC points that aren’t needed. 

Selling DVC Points

Wondering how to sell DVC points? It’s not a straightforward process. You need to work with a licensed broker. Because you have a contract deeded in real estate, it’s not as simple as having someone send you cash and receiving points on the other end.

Selling points often take weeks. Sometimes it can take months for the process to be completed. You’ll work with a broker to determine what your contract is and how valuable it is. They’ll then list the points in your contract for sale, and you’ll need to wait for a buyer. 

Selling the points means negotiating with the buyer and ultimately signing contracts to transfer the points. It’s complicated, it costs money, and it takes a lot of time to complete.

If you only anticipate selling points once, it’s worth it to do. If you think you’ll need to sell points on a regular basis, then the DVC membership may quickly become more hassle than it is worth to you. 

Selling Your DVC Contract

Selling DVC points online is helpful if you want to keep your timeshare program for future use but cannot use your points for one or two years. This is very common for many Disney vacationers.

You might need to take a non-Disney trip at some point, or life circumstances may prevent travel for a period of time. In these cases, you can sell off some of your DVC points in order to help cover the costs of your timeshare program.

But at some point, it just makes sense to sell your contract and be done with the DVC program. If your kids are aging and Disney vacations aren’t the same as they used to be, it might be time to make an exit. 

Most contracts don’t expire for decades, so unless you sell the contract itself, you’ll be on the hook for annual dues. In some instances, you can sell the contract back to Disney.

They are very selective with which contracts they buy back, only buying a few hundred per year out of the thousands they sell. If your contract is based at one of the more popular resorts, your chances of a Disney buy-back are higher.

But if Disney chooses not to buy it using their first right of refusal clause, you’ll have to find a private buyer. You can do this on your own or use an online resale shop. You can list your DVC contract on sites that focus on DVC resales, helping connect sellers with buyers looking to score a discount on a DVC membership. 

Making the Most of Your Vacations

If you don’t want to sell your DVC contract outright because you anticipate future Disney vacations, then selling DVC points is a possibility. Oftentimes, it’s not worth it, as you get far less than what you pay. But if you only need to do it once or twice over the course of your membership, it may make sense.

It’s not straightforward, so you’ll need to work with a broker to handle the complexities of selling your points. Make sure to choose a professional that doesn’t charge any fees upfront, and instead accepts a commission on the backend.

Looking for more tips on maximizing your vacation? Head over to our blog now to keep reading.