Understanding Use Year - Updated February 10, 2021

[mhawk4]

You are wrong about your date and use year. Since you have a June use year, your next trip in April 2016 actually is within your June 2015 UY. Your 2016UY starts June 1st, 2016. So April 2016 is still your 2015 UY.

If you need 240 or less points for your trip, then you can rent out your remaining 2014 points. If you need more than 240 I would bank the amount needed of the 2014 into your 2015 so you can use them along your 2015 allotment, then sell the remaining if any. That way you will not need to borrow the next year (I think is always best to bank instead of borrowing) and you can plan a new trip after June 2016 without borrowing.

Other alternative is to bank all your 2014 points, use those first and whatever amount of 2015 you need, and the rest 2015 either bank them into 2016 or sell them.

Thanks, I do get confused regarding how long banked points are good for and when they expire and how far forward I can borrow points.

Our next trip will be April 2016 but the following one won't be until April or June/July of 2018 as we have family trip to the Grand Canyon in summer 2017. So that was why I was thinking of selling the 2014 points and some of the 2015 points, holding some 2015 points and borrowing points for our April 2016 trip.

Thanks!

 

[agie65]

Thanks, I do get confused regarding how long banked points are good for and when they expire and how far forward I can borrow points. Our next trip will be April 2016 but the following one won't be until April or June/July of 2018 as we have family trip to the Grand Canyon in summer 2017. So that was why I was thinking of selling the 2014 points and some of the 2015 points, holding some 2015 points and borrowing points for our April 2016 trip. Thanks!

I look at this way, all pts have 2 yr life span. You can bank into next use yr if you are going to use it, otherwise I will rent them out to get money out. If you are short next yr you can always, borrow or get transferred in.

 

[DeefromOhio]

CAROLMN has a fabulous explanation of UY on page one of this thread and she updated it for 2014.

I'm brand new to DVC and just signed a contract for 220 points at SSR with a UY of December. Her example used an October UY, so I copied her post, pasted it to Word, and customized it to my December UY, by moving every example back by two months. For instance, her October UY required points be banked by May 31st, so I just moved mine to July 31st.

I really needed some help in understanding this stuff and her post really helped a lot. If you haven't read it yet, then check it out and customize it your UY!

Happy to "almost" be part of DVC.

 

[CarolMN]

CAROLMN has a fabulous explanation of UY on page one of this thread and she updated it for 2014.

I'm brand new to DVC and just signed a contract for 220 points at SSR with a UY of December. Her example used an October UY, so I copied her post, pasted it to Word, and customized it to my December UY, by moving every example back by two months. For instance, her October UY required points be banked by May 31st, so I just moved mine to July 31st.

I really needed some help in understanding this stuff and her post really helped a lot. If you haven't read it yet, then check it out and customize it your UY!

Happy to "almost" be part of DVC.

Thank you! You used the example to do exactly what I hoped people would do - used it to help you understand the use year you purchased.

Hope to officially welcome you home very soon!

 

[FF/MEDIC MEL]

OK Folks, my head is still spinning, We are going to buy a DVC through resale. We usually visit WDW in September, October, January, or February. What use year should we look at getting. Please make this easy. This will be a purchase in order to get our foot in the door when Poly goes on sale. Thanks in advance.

 

[disneynutz]

OK Folks, my head is still spinning, We are going to buy a DVC through resale. We usually visit WDW in September, October, January, or February. What use year should we look at getting. Please make this easy. This will be a purchase in order to get our foot in the door when Poly goes on sale. Thanks in advance.

August would be best for stays between August and March and it has more contracts than September.

Bill

 

[r5moores]

Hi All,

I have been going to Disney every year since 1993. I have been renting points from a DVC owner for the last 4. We have FINALLY decided on buying points ourselves. We toyed with it because we have been renting for $10 a point each year so it's been a dream $$ wise.

We just need to bite the bullet, I could kick myself because we could have already bought and had it paid off by now. And we typically go for two weeks at a shot, sometimes three so I should have already done this

Anyhoo, my head is spinning trying to read and digest all the information, so forgive me for just putting our typical plans out there for someone to help me figure it out.

We typically go June, or September, or November. So I'm trying to figure out the best use year for us.

Also, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way I can buy this year and still get points from last year. Meaning lets say I buy a December UY. Right now Dec 2013 UY points were good from 12/1/13 until 11/30/2014 if I got this straight. So can you still buy last years use year? So lets so I wanted to buy a December UY today, would I get last years points since we are still in that time frame then this December I would get my 2014 UY points that would be good from 12//2014-11/30/2015? And if that's the case, I could bank the 2013 points. Im just confused on what happens to the 2014 points I would get, when those would have to be banked by, would that be Next July or next month? Hopefully I'm making sense or I just have no understanding of this at all.

Thanks for anyone who is willing to read through my confusion and figure out what I'm trying to ask

Jackie

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Ok- really trying to understand. We are looking at HHI points. We would almost always travel April thru August. Am I right that we would want April through Dec for a use year?
Thanks

 

[disneynutz]

Hi All,

I have been going to Disney every year since 1993. I have been renting points from a DVC owner for the last 4. We have FINALLY decided on buying points ourselves. We toyed with it because we have been renting for $10 a point each year so it's been a dream $$ wise.

We just need to bite the bullet, I could kick myself because we could have already bought and had it paid off by now. And we typically go for two weeks at a shot, sometimes three so I should have already done this

Anyhoo, my head is spinning trying to read and digest all the information, so forgive me for just putting our typical plans out there for someone to help me figure it out.

We typically go June, or September, or November. So I'm trying to figure out the best use year for us.

Also, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way I can buy this year and still get points from last year. Meaning lets say I buy a December UY. Right now Dec 2013 UY points were good from 12/1/13 until 11/30/2014 if I got this straight. So can you still buy last years use year? So lets so I wanted to buy a December UY today, would I get last years points since we are still in that time frame then this December I would get my 2014 UY points that would be good from 12//2014-11/30/2015? And if that's the case, I could bank the 2013 points. Im just confused on what happens to the 2014 points I would get, when those would have to be banked by, would that be Next July or next month? Hopefully I'm making sense or I just have no understanding of this at all.

Thanks for anyone who is willing to read through my confusion and figure out what I'm trying to ask

Jackie

A June UY seems to be the best insurance. Don't worry about getting last years points, buy resale and save some money.

Bill

 

[disneynutz]

Ok- really trying to understand. We are looking at HHI points. We would almost always travel April thru August. Am I right that we would want April through Dec for a use year?
Thanks

Your UY would be April through March, you can bank your points during the first 8 months of your UY.

Bill

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Your UY would be April through March, you can bank your points during the first 8 months of your UY.

Bill

Right. But a Feb use year would work as well because i could still bank points from any trip cancelled April thru August? Am I getting this right?

 

[disneynutz]

Right. But a Feb use year would work as well because i could still bank points from any trip cancelled April thru August? Am I getting this right?

February UY will work for trips between Feb and September, 8 months.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Ok- really trying to understand. We are looking at HHI points. We would almost always travel April thru August. Am I right that we would want April through Dec for a use year?
Thanks

Right. But a Feb use year would work as well because i could still bank points from any trip cancelled April thru August? Am I getting this right?

Feb, March or April would all provide good "insurance" against late cancellations. As far as use any UY would work but May-Sept would be the least ideal to help in case of late cancellation.

 

[chitwndan]

Is it just me, or does it seem like your use year really doesn't matter if you're not canceling your trip 3 months prior?

I've read the 1st page a few time but not the 16 pages in the interim, to be fair, but from what I can tell it makes little difference other that to know when you will receive your points.

Obviously it's good to know when comparing contracts for purchase in knowing what points you have and when they will be available, but outside of that does it really matter?

Personally I like the idea of a Feb use year as your vacations can stretch into January if you go during Christmas. So then you are getting your points as soon as possible in the next year and your "fiscal year" or "use year" is close enough to the calendar year to be insignificant for the purposes of keeping track of it.

What am I missing?

 

[CarolMN]

Is it just me, or does it seem like your use year really doesn't matter if you're not canceling your trip 3 months prior?

Correct. If you never have to cancel a vacation that was scheduled for the last 3 months of your USE year, use year doesn't matter.

Personally I like the idea of a Feb use year as your vacations can stretch into January if you go during Christmas. So then you are getting your points as soon as possible in the next year and your "fiscal year" or "use year" is close enough to the calendar year to be insignificant for the purposes of keeping track of it.

What am I missing?

If I understand you correctly, you should read the first post again. Use year determines your banking deadline and the life of a particulars use year's points.

All of your points are already in your account. You do not have to wait for the beginning of the use year to be able to book with the points. You just need to have points in the use year that matches your vacation dates.

Remember that use year has no relationship to how far in advance you can call to make a reservation. No matter when your use year begins, you can call to book your home resort 11 months prior to arrival and a non-home resort 7 months prior to arrival.

A February use year is a poor choice if you regularly vacation in December or January. If you have to cancel it, all the points used for that trip expire on January 31. You would have very little time to reschedule before the points expire and it is too late to bank them.

No one plans to cancel, but life happens. Think of use year as free "insurance". You hope to never use insurance, but are grateful to have it if you do.

 

[disneynutz]

CarolMN mentioned "free insurance and "life happens".

We used the free insurance twice, once with a death in the family and once with a forced job relocation. We were able to bank our points and went on a longer vacation the following year.

Bill

 

[Syndrome]

We found it more useful (for our situation) , to determine a UY planning around times of the year we could NOT go .
Its very difficult if not impossible for us to go away (due to business reasons) Sept-November, and not good for us to go away March - July (except long weekend trips).
So we chose a December UY.
By the end of July (when we need to bank points for a Dec UY) we Know if we can still go on our planned trip in the beginning of August or bank the points. And we are still good for any trips Dec-March with no worries.
Since we can really never go on vacation Sept. -Nov. a December UY works perfect for us. If our points have been banked already, we have no worries that we CANT use them last minute Sept. - Nov. .

Works for us............

 

[chitwndan]

A February use year is a poor choice if you regularly vacation in December or January. If you have to cancel it, all the points used for that trip expire on January 31. You would have very little time to reschedule before the points expire and it is too late to bank them.

No one plans to cancel, but life happens. Think of use year as free "insurance". You hope to never use insurance, but are grateful to have it if you do.

Good point! That is something I didn't know and hadn't considered, but at this point we have no regular vacation plans, and would imagine they will be in early June for now. But that is something for me to keep in mind.

 

[disneynutz]

Good point! That is something I didn't know and hadn't considered, but at this point we have no regular vacation plans, and would imagine they will be in early June for now. But that is something for me to keep in mind.

Most of our vacation seasons will change with time so all you can do is take your best guess.

For our family we will never vacation at WDW in the summer or even late May when the temps start to warm. The cooler months are what we enjoy so for us an October UY works well with the banking window of Oct - May.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Good point! That is something I didn't know and hadn't considered, but at this point we have no regular vacation plans, and would imagine they will be in early June for now. But that is something for me to keep in mind.

Similar to Syndrome we considered when the least likely times would be for us to go to WDW - and that was during the warmest months of July, Aug and Sept so we started with an Oct UY. As it turned out later we did get an Apr UY also but I think a good way to consider UY if you don't have a definite time you will visit is to think about when you know you're least likely to go. If it's a consecutive time then a UY starting just after that is likely going to be the best UY to provide insurance against late cancellations.