Do you frequently borrow points or.....

[alldiz]

just use the exact amount that you have...or bank...

I just added 50pts....and i already borrowed 68pts from 09:headache:
Just wondering how everyone usually uses their points.

I'm usually borrowing points....never seems to be enough.....
Kerri

[browniemtb]

So far we've done rental, bank and borrow. For us every year is different but we purchased enough points that I think we will be ok, but last night we did talk about an add-on if they open a CRV-Villa at the Contemporary.

Brownie

[wildernessDad]

We've been bankers so far. We've only been members since 2005, however.

[Disneydreamsk]

We are always in the hole. Borrrowed half of next years points for a June trip already. :confused3

[Disneydreamsk]

We are always in the hole. Borrrowed half of next years points for a June trip already. :confused3

[jenelope]

I borrow if I have to, but never a lot of points. I always make sure I still have enough points for a week in a studio in the year that I borrowed from. Of course, when I find myself planning a vacation in a 2 bedroom (as I am now), even a 20 point deficit seems huge.

[dianeschlicht]

We have both borrowed and banked, but mostly we are points ahead each year. The only time I have borrowed is when I have banked too early and then needed more points.

[dcfromva]

We generally bank....Last year, we banked most of our points for our DEC 2006 UY.
But for our 2007 UY, we took 3 nights at BWV in DEC, 6 nights at the Grand Calif over NYE (2 rooms X 3 nights) and 2 more nights at the GC (we check out today :( ). We used all our banked points, our current UY points and borrowed 2 points from next year!
(I was just thinking how sad it was that we used up all our Dec 2007 UY points. But, it was worth it and we got to see the GCV construction, too. :thumbsup2 )

[DVC Mike]

Never had to borrow yet; always banked excess points.

[SusieBea]

Always borrow; never bank (it's the American way! :rolleyes:)

[TDS'93]

We are always in a state of perpetual borrowing. We have been members for almost 15 years and I think we banked once. Oh well, I'll be 92 when our contract is up, so I don't think it will make much difference if we are in the hole a year before our contract is up. It will have been a great run.

[bwvBound]

So far we've banked every year. It looks like we'll be banking for a while to come.

[btrim]

I agree with SusieBea and TDS'93. We will be so old by the time our contract runs out, it won't matter, so I borrow if I need to. Right now, I have already planned trips with all of our 2008 points (March UY) and have borrowed a few from '09 for a trip in May.

We love to use our points and we enjoy every trip. I can use our other timeshare for a week in Orlando if I ever get to the point where I don't have points to bank or borrow. :laughing:

[starbox]

Knock on wood....but we have not borrowed more than 15 points - and even then, we had banked to not lose points and decided on a last minute trip. I'm just afraid that once I start borrowing, it will be a vicious cycle and I'll end up needing more points to maintain the level of trips I've gotten used to.

My 40th birthday is a few years away though, and I am already planning to take a week of personal time @ work and take a fall trip to WDW. My first trip to the MK was for my fourth birthday - so it should be a cool trip.

I just can't decide if I want to bring my kids or not.............(hope they don't read this!). I guess I'll just have to see if they are nice teenagers or grumpy teenagers....

[SuzanneSLO]

I consider us to be major borrowers. While we have banked points, that is only because we take 2 long trips during a UY, then take no trips the following UY. We have owned since 2005 and have already added on and had points transferred in as well.

But I look at my DVC points like they are "gift cards" I have already purchased. I would not spend more money at the same store (or not purchase an item I need) as long as I have a "gift card" that I can use.

Also, we are in CA and cannot just hop down to WDW at a whim, so I worry more about expiring points than needing more than I have. Inevitably, the time will come when we need to skip a trip and then we will be back in balance.

-- Suzanne

[bblanch]

So what's wrong with borrowing or being in constant borrowing mode?

Seems to me that's buying at or just below your minimum need and making good use of the systems flexibility.

[eva]

We do a lot of both. We do this to utilize the 11 month window for our stays. Since we own at 4 resorts, this works extremely well. For some stays we utilize banked and borrowed points for a reservation, like a week stay in a GV at AKV. Planning takes a bit more. But it is worth having the 11 month window for every trip we take.

[Boardwalker]

Started out banking.
Moved to borrowing.
Added on.
Banked again.
Borrowing again.
Anyone see a pattern here?:scared:

[llmurphy17]

So far we bank to save for our plan to take a 2010 cruise. :cloud9: :cool1:

[disney junky]

Borrowed more than banked. I fret more about not using points than using a few ahead.

[Splash Mountain Fan]

Bankers, so far. However we bought resale and received a full year's worth of banked points.

[Mamadis]

We bought a resale with a full year of banked points. Added on immediately and got developer points, so we are currently bankers.:)

[tksbaskets]

Interesting that this thread appears today. I just banked points (Aug. UY) but now we are contemplating a 4-Day NYE cruise next year. If I combine my banked with my 2008 and borrow ALL of 2009 we can book two cat. 8 rooms for the four of us. Now I'm thinking I'd love the cruise but be sad that that would mean no trips in 2009.

Sigh.

[bmalonef45]

Mostly been borrowing but as we just booked for Thanksgiving of this year we had to borrow from this years points to make the trip. By the time we take it we won't be borrowing. June UY. I'm of the perspective that if I've got the points available to use borrow or current and want to take a trip thats why I signed up with DVC.

[TriMom]

We have become cronic borrowers. We did bank the first year that we were members - but that was it.

My UY is March - we have 6 2008 pts coming then, but of course I have already used them, plus all but 2 of my 2009. :rolleyes1

However - we will have a wonderful!!!! 12 night trip this May before my oldest starts Kindergarten and we will have to give up slow times.

[javamom]

*chuckles at self* We told ourselves that we would make this first upcoming trip in June and then take a year off (except for a probable cash ressie in the Fall). We say that, because then we will not have to be borrowing points. We have decided that we want to go the week before Christmas again. Well, we could go Christmas 08, but that would mean borrowing. So, we've "planned" to wait until 09, so that we are not perpetually borrowing. We shall see how well we are able to control our Disney bug.

[alldiz]

Glad to see I'm not the only one borrowing:goodvibes

I still have enough for 2.. 5 night stays in a studio for 09....
unless I go 1x a year.....I can't seem to pay the weekend rates....

I did my 1st 2 trips.....but I start to get in a panic if I
don't have any disney trips on the horizon...so I don't use points
on weekend .....gives me another 5 night trip:goodvibes

Of course I bought DVC to stay in studios.....have yet
to stay in 1 yet:rolleyes1
Kerri

[simzac]

If a year comes up that an owner can't take a vacation, a banker who always has banked points runs the chance of losing those points. A borrower has the cushion of being able to then skip a year and not lose any points. On the flip side, a banker always has more points to work with than a borrower. Pros and cons both ways. Me, I'm a borrower, probably always will be.

[castleri]

Working with three contracts I currently have all three situations going plus some points in holding that I hope to be able to use tomorrow to book a reservation for March. Started out not wanting to borrow but then as several have said I will be 99 in 2042 so it won't matter if I have used all those OKW points - I will still have the SSR ones and maybe some BCV. The last two years I have seen the advantage of borrowing more and more.

[tomandrobin]

So far we have used our points during the year. But to use the system properly, we have banked and borrowed our points.

This coming year we may end up with excess points. We originally had planned a big December trip with the kids, but they are not going now. So the points we had set aside for a long two bedrrom reservation will be for a studio.

[durango kid]

You want to hear something sad...? We are ALWAYS borrowing, and if we lived any closer to the World they'd make us wear a costume. As silly as it may seem, a lot of Celebrators (Celebration-ites?) spend points on overnights even though we are only 5 minutes from home. We do this especially for kids birthday parties and when the grown kids come to visit.

[debbiepump]

always in the hole.

[dvcdisney]

We borrow more than bank. So I really think we are in need of more points. We just bought 100 AKV points and it's wasn't enough. We had to borrow more points. I think though that we use up more points because we stay at the 1 bedrooms (which is twice the points than studio). When the kids get older we are planning to book studios and just pack more clothes.

[tfc3rid]

Have never borrowed in 8 years... I've banked at least 100 points every year thus far...

[psu4glory]

always borrowing...we've gotten into the habit of taking two 5-10 day trips a year (which is a hard habit to break;) ).

as soon as we pay off some of our existing bills and can save up enough money, we'll need to add on to our current 200 pts so that we can finally get out of the hole...

[alldiz]

You want to hear something sad...? We are ALWAYS borrowing, and if we lived any closer to the World they'd make us wear a costume. As silly as it may seem, a lot of Celebrators (Celebration-ites?) spend points on overnights even though we are only 5 minutes from home. We do this especially for kids birthday parties and when the grown kids come to visit.

I think that is great:goodvibes

funny I was just wondering today if the people who live so close
to WDW.....actually lose the magic.
Glad to hear that it is alive and borrowing;)
Kerri

[bobbiwoz]

We have a few points banked, but mostly we are borrowed. There is still our Christmas/NYE vacation to book and we only have 70 or so '08 points, and more telling, we only have 550 out of 855 '09 points left. We also are waiting to find out if a DCuz can join us for our November vacation.

Bobbi:goodvibes

[liznboys]

We haven't been members long (3 yrs) and so far we've banked. However next trip we will most likely enter the borrowing state-and that is a-ok!! I think I used to feel that I wanted to "save" our points. But my attitude has changed and I want to use our points as much as we can sooner than later. Got to live life now. :wizard:

[alldiz]

Yes....I am a live for today kind of person......

I should have booked 2 studios for my Oct trip with my parents.....
but I splurged on the 2BR.....
those 1 BR units COMPLETELY spoiled me.....

If I strip my points 1 yr and need to take a break....maybe I'll go
somewhere else:scared1: .....Ok...I'll probably just pay cash:goodvibes
Kerri

[Halle]

Members since '93 and have always been in the borrowing mode. I don't know why but it always made sense to DH and I to borrow. When we first joined and for a few years you were only permitted to borrow 50% of points. A year ago we bought an additional contract with mega banked and borrowed points...woo hoo!!! More trips to our fav place!!

[shellybelly72]

So far we have not had to borrow.
I just banked the rest of our points for this year, but then we decided we want to take another trip in August-sooo we will be borrowing..

[BEASLYBOO]

I've banked, borrowed, rented and bought transfer points, we live for our vacations.

Banked to save up for the Grand Villas, and bought extra points to add a few days. My points (210) are usually enough but not always.


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[durango kid]

I think that is great:goodvibes

funny I was just wondering today if the people who live so close
to WDW.....actually lose the magic.
Glad to hear that it is alive and borrowing;)
Kerri


No way do we loose the magic. We go to the parks often, sometimes just for dinner. If it's too crowded we just go home. I never get over that first view of the castle as you walk down Main Street.:cloud9: So while my wife probably won't ever let me add on, we also never have a need to bank.

[wdw4life]

My first trip I used three years worth of points. Stayed in a GV with friends and had a wonderful trip. So, I've done both. I actually banked some of my '07 points but that was only a total of 4 so I don't really count that.

Once GCV opens I have a feeling I'll be in perpetual borrow mode.

[Anal Annie]

Hummm. We just bought in Dec. of '06 and so our vac. in '07 was on '06 points. We banked what we didn't use into the '07 points and then booked a cruise for '08. So we JUST now got our '07 points in Dec. and there are only 10 left because of the cruise - so we will bank those into the '08 points. Now. In 2009, we want to do sort of a grand gathering type of trip for my parents 50th anniv. - so rather than borrow into these '08 points, we have 2 trips booked on cash ressies for this year (we bought AP's which only leads to taking more trips!). So, I guess I'm a little weird, 'cuz the points are AVAILABLE, but I don't want to start borrowing already! :confused3 It just seemed like a hole I would never dig out of and I really wanted to leave these points for our '09 trip. Both of the trips we have booked for this year on cash are short (4 n next weekend over MLK and 3 n pre-cruise this summer) so neither trip is outrageously expensive with the DVC discount and most of the nights are weekend nights - which a lot of people don't want to use their points for anyway. So I guess we're savers but yes, we need to do an add-on!;)

[mello]

We've had extra leftover to rent, and we've borrowed, but we've not yet hit it just right. I imagine that will continue to be the case for us.

[MELSMICE]

So far we've only banked.

I try to work on the premise that we only have "x amount of points per year" & don't think about the ones that we would be able to borrow - it's just a mental thing! :rolleyes:

We just added 40 pts. this week & I'm loving that I have those extra points to work with every year now!!! The best part is DH said he knows we'll be adding more!

[TunaJr]

So far we have banked....but I see in the near future we'll be borrowing....I see a 50 point add-on coming on fast......:woohoo:

[StormTigger]

I bank, I borrow, unfortunately I even lost points once thanks to friends cancelling on us and then a math error on my part (I still blame them though. :-) )

So far I think we've managed to use are points at just the right level for the number of points we have, but I really would love to be able to add on, after staying in 1bedroom, those studios are hard to go back too!!

[brianm27]

So what's wrong with borrowing or being in constant borrowing mode?

Seems to me that's buying at or just below your minimum need and making good use of the systems flexibility.


That is how we make our 120 points work for us!