What use year should i choose

[mlayton14]

Sure you can use your prior year pts, never implied that you couldn't. I would rather get my annual points sooner than later, if someone else doesn't and knows exactly when they will want to vacation for the better part of their contract more power to you

 

[Dean]

If I have a February use year my points are available on February 1, if I have a December UY they are available 12/1 of that same year ... 10 month difference it's really not that complicated. Of course you can be creative with borrow/banking , but that is available to everyone.

As I said before I would never choose a use year on cancellation scenarios which are the exception. Personally I don't know which months I will want to travel in 20-30years ....

Getting points sooner only gives additional value on one cycle. It adds essentially 1/12 of the yearly value of a point per each month you get them earlier. And even that assumes you actually will use them for a desired trip or rent them at market prices. Over the years many people have to change or cancel that never thought they would, IMO, this is a much larger issue than most realize (same for RCI, DCL, etc as well). Since DVC allows you to use the points during the UY without paying maint fees ahead, you have a year to use them. If the UY opens sooner it also closes sooner and again, you only had ONE year where you had potential increased benefit. On such a contract in this situation you're talking at most a $700 advantage Dec to April, less Dec to Feb. That assumes you pay the full fees on all then current points. The risk of cancelations over the years is fairly high and the risk of using Title insurance essentially non existent with a little investigation. For one that doesn't have a plan to travel that is defined, I'd agree that getting the best deal with the earliest points is better but IMO, the benefit of a good UY outweighs getting the points earlier all else being equal.

 

[mlayton14]

I follow you but again you are also assuming your travel habits won't change over 30 or more years? I for one have been in every season and am not going to assume that I will always want the fall or Easter or whatever , the whole panic over cancellation and losing your points for scenarios that are unpredictable to start with is rather nonsensical to me. Give me my points early every year ...

 

[Dean]

I follow you but again you are also assuming your travel habits won't change over 30 or more years? I for one have been in every season and am not going to assume that I will always want the fall or Easter or whatever , the whole panic over cancellation and losing your points for scenarios that are unpredictable to start with is rather nonsensical to me. Give me my points early every year ...

That's why I prefaces for those that have a travel pattern in mind. Even if they change you're at worst back to your suggested scenario but no worse of than your scenario would put them and they're potentially better off with the other scenario. With DVC, getting your points early gives you no benefit unless you'll actually use them during that extra time and every extra time you get up front you lose on the back side. It's not like some systems where you either have to prepay the fees or get to a certain point before you can use your points. You can use them at the same time for a given trip with any UY. However, if you have to change or cancel you have extra months to either use those points or to bank them. Plus you have a better chance of banking them. The banking rules are what they are now but they could also change and haven't always been what they currently are. I would submit that it's be very unusual for a member to never have to change or cancel a trip on shorter notice over the life of the contract and only one such episode could easily cost a whole years points or even more in some cases. The ONLY benefit to your suggestion is that you may get more points earlier ONE year. That's potentially worth a few hundred dollars one time and one time only. If you can give me another scenario where there's actually a benefit to getting your points 4-6 months prior to when you'll actually use them, I'm all ears. I can't think of another benefit and there's risk.

One thing I have said in the past is this. For many it's often worth getting a better deal rather than worrying about the perfect UY. That potentially combines the one time benefit AND a lower price/better deal but still carries the same risks mentioned above. However, the numbers may end up being a couple of thousand difference rather than a few hundred $$ difference. I do agree that for some their habits are such that UY doesn't matter much but as the OP describes their situation, that is not the case here.

 

[maburke]

Thank you all.

I'm not too concerned about cancelling as we always have to book so far ahead and have that risk with our regular holidays, whether our travel insurance would pay out I'm unsure.
If we went for a feb/march/April UY we would need a contract with no points for 2013 on or we would need to sell them I think as by may 2014 they would have run out. I suppose a contract with no points on for 2013 would be best as then we wouldn't have to pay MF. We would then always be borrowing on our year ahead for our two yearly trip rather than banking.
I hope that makes sense.

More than makes sense, you've hit on something important. If you are reliably traveling only every other year, then you're better to be in a borrowing mode than a banking mode. We do this with our VGC points -- I know that we will only go to California every other year, so I book enough nights to use up all current and borrow a bit into the next year. That way, I'm never losing banked points. It is a bit risky in terms of cancelling, because the borrowed points stay in the current year, but that's okay with us. Since we travel early in the use year, if we had to change our dates, we'd be okay. (Also, I recommend you look into the DVC insurance -- I think it's a good deal, and with international flights, it might be a very good deal.)

But don't worry too much about finding a contract without 2013 points -- you can splurge and take a longer first trip! Or, you could consider buying a slightly smaller contract to start. You will gradually borrow more and more out of the following UY, and when it comes close to running out, you can skip a year, or rent what you need, or do an add-on.

 

[maburke]

Sure you can use your prior year pts, never implied that you couldn't. I would rather get my annual points sooner than later, if someone else doesn't and knows exactly when they will want to vacation for the better part of their contract more power to you

But your point depends entirely on when your starting point is. For resales, it really depends on whether the contract is loaded, current, or stripped. For new construction, it depends on the opening date. For a recent resort (I think it was BLT), it opened in September, and DVD decided that June UYs and later would get that year's points. Those of us with Feb, March, and April UYs lost out on a year's worth of points. No discount on the price, we just got one year's less points out of the lifetime of the contract, because everybody's contract ends the same year. It sucked.

 

[Jobelly]

Good to know Maburke about the banking/borrowing. Will also check into dvc insurance thanks.

 

[LisaS]

Good to know Maburke about the banking/borrowing. Will also check into dvc insurance thanks.

I don't know what the DVC insurance covers in terms of flight costs, but for lodging it reimburses you only for the dues on the points you used. Better than nothing but less than they're worth.

 

[Dean]

But your point depends entirely on when your starting point is. For resales, it really depends on whether the contract is loaded, current, or stripped. For new construction, it depends on the opening date. For a recent resort (I think it was BLT), it opened in September, and DVD decided that June UYs and later would get that year's points. Those of us with Feb, March, and April UYs lost out on a year's worth of points. No discount on the price, we just got one year's less points out of the lifetime of the contract, because everybody's contract ends the same year. It sucked.

And less maint fees but not a full years less, better to have the points in this situation if possible. However, the system can't absorb too many extra points so there has to be a limit. Their choice was reasonable but unfortunate for those on the outside looking in.

 

[maburke]

And less maint fees but not a full years less, better to have the points in this situation if possible. However, the system can't absorb too many extra points so there has to be a limit. Their choice was reasonable but unfortunate for those on the outside looking in.

Agreed. I was just making the point to mlayton14 that it's not always best to have a UY early in the year; it depends on your starting point.

 

[Dean]

Agreed. I was just making the point to mlayton14 that it's not always best to have a UY early in the year; it depends on your starting point.

And the reverse could be true too. Buying a stripped contract cheaper might be better for some if they get a better price and couldn't use the points now anyway. That's esp true if they didn't want to fool with renting extra points gotten up front.

 

[maburke]

And the reverse could be true too. Buying a stripped contract cheaper might be better for some if they get a better price and couldn't use the points now anyway. That's esp true if they didn't want to fool with renting extra points gotten up front.

Precisely. Every contract (including resale) has a "beginning," so to speak.

 

[Dean]

Precisely. Every contract (including resale) has a "beginning," so to speak.

As a rule stripped contracts tend to be more expensive because the discount for them doesn't match the loss of points. Also, for the 2042 resorts, they all have a ending that could come into play. While technically they all go to 31 Jan, 2042; it's clear that not all points will be usable the last 1-2 years minimum. Not a big deal but likely a few hundred dollars difference between one contract to another depending on UY and could further negate any benefit to "getting the points earlier" depending on the UY. It's likely UY late in the year will be most compromised.

 

[maburke]

As a rule stripped contracts tend to be more expensive because the discount for them doesn't match the loss of points. Also, for the 2042 resorts, they all have a ending that could come into play. While technically they all go to 31 Jan, 2042; it's clear that not all points will be usable the last 1-2 years minimum. Not a big deal but likely a few hundred dollars difference between one contract to another depending on UY and could further negate any benefit to "getting the points earlier" depending on the UY. It's likely UY late in the year will be most compromised.

Do you think that the last 2 years phenomenon is going to be as big a deal as originally thought, given how many other resort options we will have at that point?

Anyway, note to self, if I'm still alive: Be sure to be in borrow mode the last few years.

 

[Sur]

Anyway, note to self, if I'm still alive: Be sure to be in borrow mode the last few years.

If borrowing is offered then.

We bought slightly stripped due to no intent to travel for a while, figures a trip to another Disney location popped up, then another super-loaded contract did, had to have it! Someone help me!!

 

[Dean]

Do you think that the last 2 years phenomenon is going to be as big a deal as originally thought, given how many other resort options we will have at that point?

Anyway, note to self, if I'm still alive: Be sure to be in borrow mode the last few years.

Each resort will have to stand on it's on. Mathematically there are simply not enough points for everyone to use all points the last couple of years. Thus they'll have to limit in some way. Maybe voluntary non usage with no fees or a lottery or simply free for all with people losing points. But yes, I do think it's going to be a big mess and I'm hoping I'm alive and aware enough to see the BBS light up as that time nears and the limitations are discussed.