banking points question

[mjc2003]

I asked this before and it was explained to me that you bank points via the website, or member services. However, I am still confused; if you are going to bank points, do you have to do it at a certain time? Say I have 200 pts with April UY, for 2011 can I bank those points anytime between 4/1/11 and 4/1/12? Do I have to do it at a certain time?

As an aside, why in the world wouldn't points that are not used get automatically banked? Why is there even the risk of losing them? They should be good for 3 years, in your account, and then expire; this idea of having to make a phone call to state the obvious seems a bit odd.

 

[erionm]

You can only bank points during the first 8 months of the UY. An April UY would have a banking deadline of Nov 30.

 

[chalee94]

if you are going to bank points, do you have to do it at a certain time? Say I have 200 pts with April UY, for 2011 can I bank those points anytime between 4/1/11 and 4/1/12? Do I have to do it at a certain time?

your "banking window" (currently) closes 8 months after the start of your UY, so you can bank april 2011 pts any time between april 1, 2011 and nov 30, 2011. on dec 1, 2011, they are locked in as 2011 pts and will expire if you don't use them for a stay prior to april 1, 2012.

As an aside, why in the world wouldn't points that are not used get automatically banked? Why is there even the risk of losing them?

DVC makes the rules. they change the rules sometimes. (banking used to be different percentages at different periods of your UY).

when you buy a timeshare, you are responsible to learn the rules governing how it works. if you buy a condo, you would be expected to understand the HOA rules, right?

i'm not clear on why someone would someone spend 5 figures on a real estate interest and not bother to learn the rules...?

 

[nexttripdisney]

As an aside, why in the world wouldn't points that are not used get automatically banked? Why is there even the risk of losing them? They should be good for 3 years, in your account, and then expire; this idea of having to make a phone call to state the obvious seems a bit odd.

That would just be too easy--silly!

 

[LisaS]

As an aside, why in the world wouldn't points that are not used get automatically banked? Why is there even the risk of losing them? They should be good for 3 years, in your account, and then expire; this idea of having to make a phone call to state the obvious seems a bit odd.

You have to bank your points during the first 8 months of your Use Year. If your points were banked automatically at the end of the 8th month, they wouldn't be available to you for use during the last 4 months of your UY. To prevent that problem they would have to give you the option to disable automatic banking, and then deal with phone calls from members who forgot they had enabled/disabled that option and had the wrong thing happen to their points. Judging by how long it takes them to fix bugs on the website and fix problems with points disappearing from members' accounts, it seems like they don't have enough IT people to handle even the basic things. Even online banking has caused problems to some members accounts in the past so I'm reluctant to use it.

 

[erionm]

Plus, DVC can suspend or limit banking if there is a point imbalance. From the member website:

To maintain a proper balance of Vacation Points in the Club's central reservation system, banking may be suspended or limited from time to time.

 

[palaemon]

I do agree that your current points should automatically be banked at the end of your UY. Not at the end of 8 months and with no call necessary.

With that said, I don't have a problem with the banking policy now, as opposed to when you only got a % depending on how far into your UY you were. (hated that)

 

[mjc2003]

when you buy a timeshare, you are responsible to learn the rules governing how it works. if you buy a condo, you would be expected to understand the HOA rules, right?

i'm not clear on why someone would someone spend 5 figures on a real estate interest and not bother to learn the rules...?[/COLOR]

I am trying to learn the rules. I am in the process of buying right now; when would you expect me to learn the rules, a year in advance? I am asking the questions now so I understand them.
I understand Disney makes up the rules. Clearly this rule is in place for the singular reason to cause a percentage of people, however small, to erroneously lose out on points if they miss the banking date. I find this odd.

As an aside, I own several condo's. Often HOA rules are questioned, or become antiquated, and they are amended. Part of paying your dues allows you to ask questions. I'm not saying everything needs to be changed in accordance with what each individual wants, but membership/ownership affords the individual a right to expression.

I'm curious, when did you learn all the DVC rules? Before you closed (as I am)?
And isn't this a forum for asking questions?

Thanks to those who gave me a courteous response.

 

[mjc2003]

So how does it work if you bank points for multiple years? For example, if I bank my 2011 points with April UY by November 30th, and then next year I can't travel for some reason and I want to bank 2011 and 2012 points for use in 2013.....do I simply have to bank the 2011 (already banked) points and 2012 by Nov 2012?

 

[erionm]

So how does it work if you bank points for multiple years? For example, if I bank my 2011 points with April UY by November 30th, and then next year I can't travel for some reason and I want to bank 2011 and 2012 points for use in 2013.....do I simply have to bank the 2011 (already banked) points and 2012 by Nov 2012?

Points can only be banked once. Once banked in to the next UY they must be used during that UY or they will be lost.

 

[LisaS]

So how does it work if you bank points for multiple years? For example, if I bank my 2011 points with April UY by November 30th, and then next year I can't travel for some reason and I want to bank 2011 and 2012 points for use in 2013.....do I simply have to bank the 2011 (already banked) points and 2012 by Nov 2012?

Banking is a final transaction. Once banked, the points stay in the UY into which they have been banked and must be used by the end of that UY, otherwise they expire. So if you bank your Apr 2011 points into your 2012 UY, they expire at the end of that UY. You cannot bank them again (or borrow them back).

DVC has to keep the system in balance so that there are never so many banked points in the system that there are not enough accommodations available to be booked with all those points.

 

[mjc2003]

ok, this makes sense. i thought you could bank up to 3 years, but i guess you can only borrow up to 3 years....thanks for the clarification.

So we are buying a contract with 200 pts banked from 2010. We have to use them by 3/31/12. I wasn't sure why this was stipulated in the contract, so this answers that question.

Thanks.

 

[LisaS]

I do agree that your current points should automatically be banked at the end of your UY. Not at the end of 8 months and with no call necessary.

If all unused current UY points were banked automatically, whether they would ever be used or not, they would probably have to implement banking restrictions from time to time. With the current system, if a certain percentage of members forget or don't bother to bank their points, that leaves more capacity for those of us who are counting on banking their points for a trip occurring in the next UY.

 

[LisaS]

ok, this makes sense. i thought you could bank up to 3 years, but i guess you can only borrow up to 3 years....thanks for the clarification.

You can move points back one UY by banking them. You can move points forward one UY by borrowing them (at the time you are making a reservation). By banking + borrowing + using current UY points, you can accumulate up to 3 years worth of points to use for a single reservation occurring in the middle of three UYs. If your trip dates span two UYs, then you could use up to 4 UYs worth of points.

I believe the rules are different for cruises as far as how far ahead you can borrow points or how many UY's worth of points you can use but I'm not sure exactly what is allowed.

 

[chalee94]

I'm curious, when did you learn all the DVC rules? Before you closed (as I am)?

yes. i spent close to a year on the DIS reading threads about DVC before buying in. asked a few questions, but mostly poked around to see what the current owners liked and didn't like to see which issues might affect me. learned what was guaranteed in the contract and what might change (even if some of those changes were unlikely).

some wait till after they buy and then discover they made some critically bad assumptions. they can't book early december at 3 months out...or that they misunderstood the banking rules and wind up losing points while getting no value out of them. then they go to sell and realize that, after commissions, they won't be getting nearly what they hoped back.

much better to do the homework beforehand - and see if you might be a good fit before you make the offer. that only seems reasonable to me but i am sorry if such a notion offends you.

DVC is a timeshare. it's a good timeshare but if you expect a completely "disney" experience, you may be disappointed. you will be given a "guide" who is not primarily there to offer guidance but rather to sell you additional points. if you forget to bank pts in a timely manner, you may be forgiven once and allowed to bank them but the next time you will be on your own. you pay the dues but don't expect much of a say in how things go...it's a mostly benevolent dictatorship, but don't go in expecting a democracy.

keep asking questions. i'll leave you to the more polite posters going forward...

 

[Sandisw]

ok, this makes sense. i thought you could bank up to 3 years, but i guess you can only borrow up to 3 years....thanks for the clarification.

So we are buying a contract with 200 pts banked from 2010. We have to use them by 3/31/12. I wasn't sure why this was stipulated in the contract, so this answers that question.

Thanks.

Just to clarify, you can't borrow up to 3 years either. You can, at any one time, book a trip that uses up to 3 years of points (banked from previous UY, current UY points, and borrowed points from the next UY).

Basically, points are good for one UY, unless you bank them in to the next UY, which extends their use for another UY.

As far as borrowing, you can only do that when making a reservation and can only borrow what is needed to complete the reservation.

As already mentioned, banking and borrowing is a final transaction so once done, you can't reverse things.