Banking, Borrowing Total confusion

[Iggipolka]

Total DVC newbie here, please have patience with me. I tried to search for this information, but the search function isn't working.

In September we bought 560 pts at AKV and also have 560 developer points. Our use year is April.
We used 104 Developer points to stay at DisneyLand in a couple weeks. (yeay!)

I just booked a concierge studio at AKV for June 2008 for 10 days at 204 pts, using my regular pts, not Developer Points because I'm booking before the 7 month window to use Developer points.

The person I talked with at MS said that I couldn't use my 2007 pts for a 2008 vacation and that unless I would be taking a trip before April 2008, I should bank my 2007 pts. I went ahead and did that and then she said that she would borrow from my 2007 pts to book the June 2008 reservation.
Umm..what? I thought she just said I couldn't use my 2007 pts for a 2008 trip?

I'm totally confused about how many 2007 points I have left. Can I still use them, even though they are banked? If I don't use them when do they disappear?

I should also mention, that I don't have my packet yet with my pin and therefor cannot logon to DVC.com. I'm hoping that once I can do that, this wil all make more sense.

Is there some sort of FAQ on banking and borrowing?

Thanks again!

 

[doconeill]

You can't use 2007 points to directly book a reservation in your 2008 Use Year. You would need to bank them into your 2008 Use Year, then use those Banked points first to make the reservation.

Once points are banked, you can no longer use them in their original Use Year, but if you decided to make a reservation before then now, you can borrow from your next Use Year instead (or use up those developers points, which cannot be banked at all).

As for how many you actually banked, you'd have to ask MS. They may have banked all of them, or just the amount needed.

If you follow the link in my signature, I've got a page explaining banking and borrowing. I find it helpful to think of them in various pools per Use Year. You can only do certain things with the points in certain pools.

The whole think on banking deadlines is getting thrown out the window with the new 4 month rule, but if you want to know how it used to be, its explained there too...

 

[Caskbill]

To understand banking and borrowing, it's important you first understand use year.

DVC points are assigned a Use Year month. A use year has absolutely no relationship to a Calendar Year. Your use year month is April. This means that every year you will receive a new allotment of points on April 1st, and those points are good for the 12 month period, Apr 1st thru Mar 31st.

When you bank points you put points from one use year into the following use year. When you borrow points, you take points from the next use year and put them into the current use year.

If you make a use year chart, your chart (April) would look like this:

Use Year.....Vacation Dates
2007....Apr 1, 2007 thru Mar 31, 2008
2008....Apr 1, 2008 thru Mar 31, 2009
2009....Apr 1, 2009 thru Mar 31, 2010
2010....Apr 1, 2010 thru Mar 31, 2011

and so on.

If we just look at your regular points (not your developer points), you received 560 AKV 2007 UY points. They can be used to book vacations between now and Mar 31, 2008. They could also be banked and if so then would be used for vacations between Apr 1, 2008 and Mar 31, 2009. In other words you simply moved them from line item #1 above into line item #2 above.

Your AKV studio for June 2008 requires 2008 UY points. (Based on the vacation dates in the chart above) You said the CM said she would "borrow" your 2007 points for your 2008 trip. What she really said would have been that she was going to bank your 2007 points into your 2008 Use Year so they could be used for a June 2008 trip.

She may have banked ALL your 2007 points, or possibly only as many as was needed for your June 2008 vacation. You should call MS and find out for sure. Don't wait until you get your PIN number.

The banking deadline for an April use year is September 30th so you've already passed that deadline. However, in the case of new purchases (which yours is), you are still allowed to bank. But you need to do it now since it takes an override of their system and has to be done manually.

If you don't plan on taking any vacations before April 1, 2008, then you should go ahead and bank all your remaining 2007 use year points. Otherwise they could get locked into their current 2007 use year and not bankable and you would have to use or lose them by March 31, 2008.

Hope this helps.

 

[Iggipolka]

WOw..Thank you so much! That was amazingly clear and very very helpful.
One question though, what is the "new four month rule"?

MS did bank all of my 2007 points and I'm glad that she did that, since I would have lost them otherwise! I didn't know that they had to be banked by the end of September for an April UY. That's so early!

 

[doconeill]

WOw..Thank you so much! That was amazingly clear and very very helpful.
One question though, what is the "new four month rule"?

The new rule is that you can bank 100% of your remaining points into the next UY up to four months remaining in the current UY (although it has also been mentioned as "120 days", which isn't quite the same as 4 months). It used to drop by percentages at points during the year.

MS did bank all of my 2007 points and I'm glad that she did that, since I would have lost them otherwise! I didn't know that they had to be banked by the end of September for an April UY. That's so early!

Usually when you purchase points part way through the current UY, they waive the time to bank, so you should have been all set anyways. Still, 560+560 points is a lot to use in a short amount of time...I'm jealous