Anyone buy a Use Year you did not want ?

[MicheyMouse]

We are stuck deciding between a loaded contract with a Use Year we don’t really want but overall is more readily available (Dec) and a mid year stripped contract (no pts until 2026) that fits our travel months and is the one we really want. Pricing is only about $5/pt difference.

We are not currently bound to a Use Year.

How many of you just sacrificed your ideal Use Year for the better deal and tried to just learn to live with it?

 

[AstroBlasters]

We are stuck deciding between a loaded contract with a Use Year we don’t really want but overall is more readily available (Dec) and a mid year stripped contract (no pts until 2026) that fits our travel months and is the one we really want. Pricing is only about $5/pt difference.

We are not currently bound to a Use Year.

How many of you just sacrificed your ideal Use Year for the better deal and tried to just learn to live with it?

Hold out for what you want at a price that makes sense.

 

[BamaGuy44]

We did. Our resale contract is April use year, which is perfect for us. But when we bought Riviera direct, because of the time we bought, we would not have gotten the current year’s points with April. So we went with June and used those points for MB.

It will probably cause some minor irritation at some point but for thousands of dollars I’ll deal with it

But the June points will be used for Riviera almost always so it shouldn’t be too bad.

 

[Matty B13]

We bought a loaded contract before we knew why a good UY was important to have, it was a June UY and our kids have spring break in April. We eventually sold that contract for a February UY contract, which cost us a little bit more than if we had done our research better. It was our first DVC contract so we still didn't understand the system that well.

 

[Sandisw]

Our very first contract was an OCT UY which was not a good one for our travel times (summer). We didn't understand its importance and sold it after we bought a direct contract with the UY that was better, June UY.

Whle no one intends to cancel or change trips, it happens. If you are regularly going to travel outside of your banking window, you have a much higher risk of losing points.

For example, with a December UY, trips in Sept/Oct/November would be at high risk if you had to cancel. Even changing dates would be tough because that time of year is very popular for DVC and if you were looking to change dates after July 31st, you'd have a tought time finding availability.

My advice is to wait for a contract that works in the long term and not the short term, and find a UY that has the time you think you'd be traveling the most falling within your banking window.