For us it has definitely been worth it. We bought our first two contracts in 2003, and added on in 2004 and 2007 for a total of 600 points. All our contracts were bought direct from Disney, and we did not finance any of the purchases. I very much doubt we would have bought in if we’d had to finance.
We have paid $40,300 in annual dues over the life of the contracts. Taking this into account, our current average buyin cost per point (including both the buyin cost and all annual dues) for all contracts is $6.32
Our last trip we stayed for six nights in a Standard 1BR at Saratoga Springs and six nights in a Garden/Pool 1BR at the Boardwalk. We used 398 points for this trip, which would be $2,515.36 using the total cost per point calculations above. In September we’ll be spending six nights in a Value 1BR at Animla Kingdom Villas and six nights in a Beach Club 1BR. Total point cost is 283, which works out as $1788.56. There is no way we would be able to get this accommodation for an even similar cost if we weren’t members. Staying offsite isn’t an option for us, and neither is smaller accommodation - we’d always want the separate living area. So for us the purchase has absolutely made sense, even without taking into account any extra value from discounted Annual Passes etc.
All our contracts are now worth a lot more on the resale market than we paid for them direct, so if we sold we’d make a “profit” of $12,000 (that’s a conservative estimate based on what similar size contracts are selling for today), and potentially as much as $18,000 on the initial purchase. That could cover almost half of what we’ve spent on annual dues, making it even better value. Of course, there is no guarantee that resale prices will continue to rise, but it’s nice to know that we’d get our money back (plus some extra) at the moment if we did decide to sell for some reason.
