almost ready to sign on the dotted line, some questions first!

[allicat]

We are very close to joining. The representative we spoke to is sending us out a contract.

Beach Club Villas now is selling the April use year.
We would primarily be taking our trips in the summer(probably late June or late Aug) Would an April use year affect us? Im not too clear on how the use year impacts the points.

Also, as of now, we would be fine in a studio and we could stay for over a week in a studio during the summer with 162 points.
Sounds good but for those of you with experience with DVC, is it really enough?

 

[spiceycat]

buy what you are comfort with - and what your budget can afford. You can add on later if you find that is not enough - with Disney or the resale market.

 

[DoeWDW]

We just bought BCV. My guide said we'd be getting a January use year. However, we generally vacation in November/December. If our vacation was cancelled, we would not be able to bank those points into the next use year - we would lose them.

Therefore, I asked our guide if we could have an August use year. She had no problem doing that and agreed that it met our needs better. We have until the end of January to bank 100% of our points into the next use year, which works best for us.

Hope this helps you!

Doreen in PA

 

[allicat]

Im confused with the banking of points. If we get an April use year, when would we have to bank our points by?

 

[Mattsmom]

We're buying an April use year. Our guide told us we had until Sept 30th to bank 100% of our points.

 

[CarolMN]

If your usual vacation is/will be in June, July or August, an April use year is perfect for you.

First of all, use year has no bearing at all on WHEN you can make a reservation. It is always 11 months (or less) ahead of the check out date at your home resort and 7 months (or less) at the other DVC resorts. You do not need to have points in your account on the day you MAKE the reservation. They need to be there by the time you start your stay.

Use year determines banking deadlines. For an April use year, you can bank 100% of your current use year points if you do it by the end of September. The 50% deadline is the end of December and the 25% deadline is the end of January.

Use year becomes important If you ever have to cancel a reservation and cannot use or bank your points before they expire. For example, if you had an August use year and had to cancel a June 2002 vacation (let's say you called to cancel it in March 2002), you would have to rechedule that trip before July 31, 2002 (end of August 2001 use year) to avoid losing the points altogether. You would be past your banking deadlines.

Note: If you had an August use year, that June 2002 vacation would most likely be using 2001 use year points. With an August use year, 2001 points would be good for stays between 8/1/2001 and 7/31/2002. Unless banked, the points expire if not used by 7/31/2002.

Now if the same thing happened and you had an April use year, you could bank all of your current use year points if you were unable to rechedule your trip before March 31, 2003. Those banked 2002 use year points wouldn't expire until March 31, 2004.

Note: With an April use year, that June 2002 vacation would most likely be using 2002 points. April 2002 use year points are good for stays between 4/1/2002 and 3/31/2003.

Anyway, IMHO, an April use year would be very good for your usual vacation pattern. We all hope that you never have to cancel a reservation and then this whole discussion is moot!

Good Luck with your decsion.

 

[dougmatt]

You do not need to have points in your account on the day you MAKE the reservation. They need to be there by the time you start your stay.

Not necessarily true. We have a tendancy to borrow our points alot. While you don't need to have the points in your account for this year, BUT they must be available to borrow from the next!!!

Example:

Use year April. Total 2002 remaining - 0; total 2003 remaining - 50; total 2004 - 350.

I want to book June 2003 for 150 points. I plan to borrow from 2004 to do it. I should be able to make that home resort ressie in July 2002.... MS wil NOT let me book it until APRIL 2003!!! Only 3 months prior...

So if you are BORROWING alot... USE YEAR is HUGELY important.... Some folks may disagree with this, but I know from personal experience that it's true. I have been declined booking 2 straight years at my 11 month window for this very reason.. Even spoke to a supervisor at MS and they explained it to me. VERY frustrating, and not well documented!

So when considering use year, be sure to consider when you want to vacation most often, and whether you plan to bank AND borrow.

 

[CarolMN]

Dougmatt - That's something I never knew/thought about, probably because this is the first use year, I've ever borrowed points. (Unlike Uncle Sam, I don't like to be in a "state of deficit, so we'll be taking a shorter trip next year). Thanks for bringing it to my attention.


One of the borrowing rules in the current Members' Guide is:

"You may borrow up to 100% of your allotted Vacation Points from the next Use Year into your current Use Year."
(bold highlighting is my addition)

Apparently, you can only borrow points into your CURRENT use year, which is why that June 2003 ressie can't be made until April 2003 if you need to borrow from 2004. Must be part of the controls to keep members' borrowing practices "under control".

I didn't know this and suspect many others don't/didn't either. Again, thanks for bringing this to our attention

 

[Terry S]

dougmatt.... please explain a bit further. Are you saying there is a restriction on when you can borrow your points? I assumed as long as they were putting them into the proper use year i.e. 2004 point into 2003 use year you could do this whenever. This would really stink as far as the 11 month window goes.

 

[dougmatt]

The only clarification I can offer is one provided by MS, that TO MAKE A RESERVATION you must have points available to your account (either in the account or available to be borrowed) to cover the reservation... Still confuses me. I agree with you. You would think If I wanted to make a 2003 ressie I could use 2004 points... But I am here to tell you that you can't!

What's worse is that even the MS staff doesn't understand it well. This last Nov 2001 (my use year is DEC) I tried to make VB (one of my home resorts) reservations for June. I was using some points from 2002 (borrowing since it wasn't DEC yet) and 2003. I was told my 2003 points would not be available since it was more than 1 year out so I couldn't make the ressie. SOOOOO I called back DEC 1 to make the ressie.. I was then told I could not make the reservation since it wasn't 2002 yet and I wanted to use 2003 points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am actually doing an add on just to get myself out of the hole that MB and a cruise has put me in............

Don't know about you, but I have had REAL trouble getting reservations lately for anything inside 8 months so the 11 month window is becoming critical. We always travel during peak times due to my wife's education profession.

 

[dougmatt]

I was re-reading all my posts, and I want to be clear for alliecat's benneifit. I am only pointing out a problem that has affected me personally to help you decide how use year might affect you. Sounds kind of negative ('cause it is), but don't let that small negativity influence your purchase decision. I am only pointing out one small nuance of membership that will probably never affect you.

As for your question RE is it enough... NOPE We bought 150.... then added on 50.... In process now of adding on another 50.... In waiting line for another 50....

 

[allicat]

DougMatt, I appreciate that the negatives and positives are being pointed out to me!
I hate to say it but Im a little confused about this borrowing issue.

Would the following situation be able to be done:
Say I purchase at BCV with an April use year and I have enough points for a studio in October 2002, with some points left over. If I wanted to get a second studio for relatives travelling with us, I couldnt use my remaining points and then borrow my points from the upcoming 2003 year?
I am truly confused and I thought I had it all straight.

 

[DVC1996]

Originally posted by dougmatt
This last Nov 2001 (my use year is DEC) I tried to make VB (one of my home resorts) reservations for June. I was using some points from 2002 (borrowing since it wasn't DEC yet) and 2003. I was told my 2003 points would not be available since it was more than 1 year out so I couldn't make the ressie. SOOOOO I called back DEC 1 to make the ressie.. I was then told I could not make the reservation since it wasn't 2002 yet and I wanted to use 2003 points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DougMatt ....... I've had another lightbulb go off regarding your situation In the two examples you have provided in this thread, you are always using borrowed pts when you try to make a reservation at 11 months. Maybe the process wasn't explained to you properly when you first joined DVC. You could have made the reservation in Nov 2001 for June 2002 if you were using some points from your Dec 2001 Use Year ( not Dec 2002) and some borrowed points from Dec 2002 ( not Dec 2003).

 

[Terry S]

allicat.... You could use your points you received in April 2002 to make your Oct 2002 studio reservation and borrow points from April 2003 (these points would have been for use between April 2003 and March 2004, if you don't borrow them to the 2002 use year) for a second studio, this would be fine!

 

[dougmatt]

Sorry I didn't see your post. I've been trying to keep up with the 'spawn' of this thread! I see someone else has already answered your question. You could definitely do as you wanted with the additional studio.

Don't worry about the whole borrowing thing I have exposed.. IF it truly is an issue (there is quite a debate going on about it) I doubt you will be affected unless like me you try to have every last point booked up way ahead of time. The whole situation was caused by using a program called magical beginnings (MB) where you traded your first years points for a discount. ($10 at the time), so we started a year in the hole and gone down ever since (cruise for 6, disney collection, concierge collection etc..). ('nother reason for the add-on's)

Not sure why they have refused my booking reading some of the posts by others that say they haven't had issue, just know that MS did. Sometimes the person on the other end of the line knows less about dvc than we do but that's ok too, just post your questions on this site and folks will help you out.

Good Luck on making your decision. I have never ONCE regretted mine. I have been to every DVC resort at least twice (except OKW - the whole bed thing) and truly enjoy them all (even OKW if they would JUST REPLACE THOSE HARD BEDS!! ). The CC resorts are excellent and the cruise / disney collection are a blast as well (though very point consuming)