How to Save Money on DVC Membership Dues

We’ve reached that dreaded time on the annual calendar. The Disney Vacation Club will soon announce the price of Annual Dues for all owners. These prices never go down, as DVC accounts for inflation when it sets rates. 

That doesn’t mean you must pay more each year, though. Here’s how to save money on DVC Membership Dues. 

Buy Gift Cards 

Here’s a trick that frequent Disney Cruise Line travelers seem to understand better than all other Disney fans. You don’t need to pay full price for anything Disney-related. As long as you know that you’ll spend money on an upcoming trip, there’s an easy way to mitigate the cost.

What you need to do is buy Disney gift cards. You naturally may wonder how that helps you. Well, let’s use BJ’s Wholesale Club as an example. In early November, BJ’s offered a six percent discount on Disney gift cards. That deal was available for a limited time, and you couldn’t even see the price in your shopping cart unless you were a BJ’s member at the time.

Remarkably, these sorts of gift card deals aren’t rare. You just need to know to look for them. I’ll level with you that six percent isn’t even that great of a gift card discount. I’m merely using it as a recent example. 

BJ’s sometimes offers even better deals, as do other retailers. We’ll discuss specifics in just a moment. Before we get to that, I want to highlight two stores where you’re likely to find discounted gift cards.

Costco Wholesale offers gift card deals throughout the year, and I’m not just talking about Disney. This is just good advice for anyone looking to increase purchasing power. You should always shop for gift cards at places like Costco, as you’ll find ten percent savings (or higher) on many things you’ll buy anyway. 

I’m talking about movie theater tickets, digital video games, and even weekly food delivery services. Do you use Uber or Lyft a lot when you’re at Disney? You can buy credits for these services, too.

Look for Holiday Deals 

Most importantly, Costco sometimes sells Disney gift cards at bulk rates, as does Target. The latter company typically offers the better deals on a regular basis, at least for people who own a Target Red Card. This form of credit has become so connected to Disney gift cards that it autofills on Google searches. You’ll find several online discussions about how to maximize purchases. 

The end of the year provides the ideal opportunity to do so. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to holiday deals. Major retailers want to entice you to buy from them. So, they offer loss leaders like gift cards to get you to shop there.

Over the next few weeks, you could feasibly find discounts higher than ten percent, and you can use these funds to pay for your Annual Dues. I mention this every year, yet DVC members invariably tell me that they’d never thought to do that. Here’s a video that details a few tips:

Consider the Disney Rewards Visa 

You’ll discover one other way to save money on Membership Dues. This strategy also relies on a credit card, but I trust that you’re capable of managing credit. It’s just a good card for Disney fans to have anyway.

The Chase Disney Visa accumulates points based on purchases. A regular buy only earns you one percent on Disney Rewards. However, most Disney purchases, including virtually everything related to theme park vacations, will double your Disney Rewards. Should you purchase Disney’s streaming services, you can earn five percent in Disney Rewards for them. 

So, those of you like me who subscribe to the Disney Bundle will get five percent back every time you pay for your subscription. Then, you’ll earn two percent in Disney Rewards for Disney theme park admission/annual passes, restaurants, and stores. 

Let’s say that you spend $10,000 on Disney each year. You could feasibly get $1,000 in Disney Rewards, which you can then spend to pay for your Annual Dues. I do this every year, and it protects me as a DVC member.

We all know that the timing of Annual Dues is a bit unfortunate, as we’re also receiving our holiday credit card bills around that time. For many of us, that’s not all. I know that I need to pay for the fire department and insurance each January. That’s a lot of expenses on top of the holidays. Thus, the Annual Dues can feel ill-timed.

When you use your Disney Rewards to pay for some/all of your Annual Dues, you sidestep that aggravation entirely. Last year, I reduced my total outlay by nearly 80 percent thanks to the card. If you’re anything like me and spend a lot of money at the parks and the Disney Store website, you will, too.  

Rent Your DVC Points

This isn’t a way to save money per se, but it’s definitely a good strategy to pay your Membership Dues and probably even get some cash back. You can rent your DVC Points at DVC Rental Store! 

You can earn up to $18 per point. So, you should feasibly be able to pay your dues AND have plenty left over to spend on your next vacation. Many clever DVC members have min-maxed their DVC Points this way. Watch the DVC Member Tutorial playlist here!

Once you pay for your DVC contract, you never need to worry about the annual fees again. Instead, you allot a small portion of your annual points allotment to sell to DVC Rental Store. Then, you use the rest for your own needs.

Renting your points is the ideal way to avoid unwelcome expenses in January. If you Banked DVC Points from the previous year, it’s that much better, as you’re playing with house money anyway. So, this suggestion isn’t just for this year. It’s a good strategy to maximize your DVC contract from now on. 

I hope this advice makes your holiday season a bit brighter, everyone!

Access all available Disney Vacation Club resale listings, or learn more about buying and selling with DVC Resale Market.