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.

 

[Brian Noble]

There are always more contracts. You do not need to be in a hurry. You can make an offer on that stripped contract that you think is fair, or wait for another that better fits your needs.

In particular, choosing a "bad" UY just to get a loaded contract is putting too much weight on the first year of something that is going to last a very long time.

 

[sndral]

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?

The asking price per point may be only a few $$ different, but the value of those contracts is very different. Assuming by ‘loaded’ you mean the Dec. contract has this year’s points (2024) you can easily rent those points for $15 - $20 per point, or, because you’ll likely close before Dec.’s banking deadline (July 31) you can bank them into next year if you don’t plan to use them before they expire 12/1/25. The Dec. contract will get its 2025 points on 12/1, which you could rent for $15-20 per point as well. Thus that Dec. contract is ‘worth’ $30 -$40 per point more than the mid year stripped contract that won’t get any points until 2026.
The other thing to keep in mind is that your WDW travel habits may change through time - mine have. You don’t say when you’re likely to travel, if it’s typically in the fall, then I’d avoid Dec. & keep looking for a non-stripped contract in a better for you use year, if you’ll be traveling Dec. through July 31 (Dec. use year’s banking deadline) a Dec. use year might work.
If you intend to add on in the future then starting w/ an easy to find use year is worth considering.
Here’s some dated info. re: use year ownership break downs: https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...ear-distribution-charts-updated-february-2018

 

[D-Trick]

Wait for the ideal UY. Never buy a new UY for a cheap deal.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Honestly, I wish I had a different UY for our BRV contracts. We originally thought we'd just get a 50 point one and then use any leftover VGC points, as needed for trips every other year. So we got the same UY as our VGC...which is June.

But then we decided we wanted to visit WDW more and purchased 150 more BRV points. I sometimes wish those were December UY instead since we pretty much only plan to travel to WDW in January/February (or maybe December.) June UY isn't super ideal for that but I don't really want to fuss with changing it now.

So all this is to say...I'd hold out for the UY that you truly want.