When you finance a DVC resale purchase, two separate obligations appear in your budget. The first is your monthly loan payment, which goes to your lender for the duration of the loan term. The second is your annual dues payment to Disney, which comes every January regardless of whether you financed the purchase or paid cash.
Both costs are real, and both need to be in your budget before you commit to a contract. Buyers who calculate only the loan payment and ignore dues are building a monthly budget that understates their actual DVC cost by $85 to $175 per month depending on their contract size and home resort.
What Are DVC Annual Dues?
Every DVC owner pays annual dues that cover resort operations, housekeeping, property taxes, insurance, and a capital reserve fund for future repairs and renovations. Disney bills dues once each January for the full year. The per-point rate depends on your home resort and increases most years, typically reflecting changes in operating costs, property tax assessments, and reserve funding requirements.
For current 2026 dues rates at all 17 DVC resorts, see our complete 2026 DVC Annual Dues by Resort post, which lists verified per-point rates from $8.25 at Saratoga Springs to $11.66 at Vero Beach.
Building Your True Monthly Budget
Your total monthly DVC cost combines two numbers: your monthly loan payment and your monthly dues equivalent. Annual dues are billed once a year, but budgeting them as a monthly amount makes your cash flow planning cleaner.
Monthly dues equivalent = Annual dues / 12
Example: You purchase 160 points at Animal Kingdom Villas for $18,000 financed over 7 years at 9.90% APR.
- Monthly loan payment: approximately $307
- Annual dues: 160 points x $9.52 = $1,523.20
- Monthly dues equivalent: $1,523.20 / 12 = $127
- Total monthly cost: $307 + $127 = $434
That $434 is your real monthly number. Use our Instant Quote tool to calculate your specific loan payment at your actual loan amount, term, and credit profile, then add your resort's 2026 dues rate to get your complete picture.
Once the Loan Is Paid Off
Annual dues continue for the life of your contract regardless of whether the loan is paid off. The loan is a finite obligation that ends when the balance reaches zero. Dues are a permanent obligation that runs until your contract expires, which depending on the resort is anywhere from 2042 to 2075.
This is not a drawback. It means your monthly DVC cost drops significantly once the loan term ends. In the example above, the $434 monthly cost becomes approximately $127 per month in dues only after year seven. On a resort that runs through 2057 or 2064, that is still decades of annual dues, but at a much lower monthly burden than during the loan period.
Planning for Annual Dues Increases
Dues increase most years. The rate varies by resort and by year, reflecting actual changes in operating costs at each property. As a planning benchmark, a 3% to 5% annual increase is a reasonable assumption for long-term budgeting, though actual increases may be higher or lower depending on what happens at your specific resort.
Do not build a 15-year budget that assumes today's dues rate stays fixed. The dues on a 150-point contract at Animal Kingdom Villas ($9.52/point in 2026) will be meaningfully higher by 2035 and higher still by 2041. Factor that trajectory into your long-term ownership math.
Strategies for Managing Both Payments
Set Aside a Monthly Dues Reserve
Rather than waiting for the January dues bill and finding $1,200 to $1,700 you need to pay in full, set aside a fixed monthly amount throughout the year into a dedicated savings account. When the annual bill arrives, the funds are already there. A small amount of interest accumulates on the reserve while you hold it.
Match Your Loan Term to Your Budget
Longer loan terms lower your monthly loan payment but increase total interest paid over the life of the loan. If you are deciding between a 10-year and a 15-year term, the monthly payment difference on a $20,000 loan at 9.90% is approximately $107 per month ($263 versus $215). That $107 can go toward dues savings or other financial goals while you carry the longer term. Read more about choosing your loan term.
Right-Size Your Contract
Dues are per point, every year, on every point you own regardless of use. A member who buys 250 points because a larger contract had a better per-point price, but who realistically needs only 150 points per year, is paying dues on 100 points that spend every year being banked, borrowed, or rented. Buy the contract size that matches what you will actually use. The cheapest per-point price is not the best deal if it comes with decades of unnecessary dues.
Resort Choice and Total Cost of Ownership
Resale price and annual dues together determine the real cost of a DVC contract over its life. Two resorts may look similar in purchase price per point but carry very different annual obligations.
A buyer considering 150 points at Saratoga Springs versus 150 points at Animal Kingdom Villas is looking at a 2026 annual dues difference of $190.50 per year ($9.52 versus $8.25, times 150 points). Over 10 years, that difference is approximately $1,905 in additional dues at Animal Kingdom, before factoring in annual increases. Over 30 years, the cumulative difference is substantial.
The resale price per point at Animal Kingdom Villas typically reflects this higher ongoing cost, which moderates the advantage of a lower per-point purchase price. Total cost of ownership looks at both components over the contract's remaining life, not just the purchase transaction.
For a full comparison of 2026 dues at all resorts and how to calculate your annual obligation, see our 2026 DVC Annual Dues by Resort post. To understand the full financing process and what a DVC loan looks like from application to closing, visit our DVC financing page.