Best Use Year???

[rljslo]

I had done some research on this earlier and thought I had the correct answer but after following a number of different posts I'm not so sure...

For at least the next 8-9 years (for the most part), we will only be able to travel to WDW in July or August (I know - its super hot. We went the last week of July this year and lost about 5 pounds each and kept checking our shoes to make sure they weren't melting. It was still awesome though).

Anyway, since our travel will be in July and August, my initial research said that June would be the ideal Use Year.... Lately, I've been reading posts that say i should look for UY that are 4 - 5 months before our ideal travel month.

I may be opening the flood gates here - but is there a "correct" answer - or is UY really not a huge issue?

Thanks!

 

[littletommy]

We only travel to the world Aug-Nov. Our use year is June...works out great for us.

 

[Coach81]

December is PERFECT for us.. we normally go in Feb-March and May-June

 

[Sandisw]

With mostly July or August trips, I would go with a June UY. That will give you the most flexibility if you have to cancel a trip, especially one that has borrowed points, since you are traveling at the beginning of it.

We also travel these times since I am a teacher. The banking window is not until January 31st so plenty of time.

If you did end up having to cancel and had borrowed points, you would still have a good 10 months to use those up.

When we considered UY, we also considered our 2nd choice time of travel--when we might go when we retire--and that was either the fall or January.

June UY works well for these times as well so its perfect. If you think that you might also want to travel in the Spring, then I might go with a March UY as it also works well for summer travel.

Good luck!

 

[DebbieB]

June would be a good use year for you for travel June-January. You would have to bank your points by Jan 31.

 

[chalee94]

I may be opening the flood gates here - but is there a "correct" answer - or is UY really not a huge issue?

if you never have to cancel, UY will never be an issue.

june sounds like a great choice for what you have stated.

the other thing to consider is "when would i be least likely to travel to wdw?" so as sandisw says, if you might travel in march or may, a june UY is not a good choice and an earlier UY might suit you better.

but no UY is ideal to cover all 12 months...

 

[MarshallMoore6]

My UY is Feb. It should be called Use Month. Oh well... I travel for Spring Break and Summer. This works great for me. No borrowing into the current year for vacations. Borrowing is risky due to the rules preventing returning the points to the original year if the trip is canceled. Enjoy

 

[Lucy D.]

I have had to take several last minute trips at the END of my use year for lingering points that could not be banked. So you may want to think about which months you definitely COULD NOT use points short notice in making your decision. Ex. June UY, if you would likely never be able to use points short notice in April/May then that could be a problem. But if you are usually pretty able to vacation in January if necessary then an April Use Year could work for you too.

 

[DebbieB]

My UY is Feb. It should be called Use Month. Oh well... I travel for Spring Break and Summer. This works great for me. No borrowing into the current year for vacations. Borrowing is risky due to the rules preventing returning the points to the original year if the trip is canceled. Enjoy

It's use year because points can be used for a year. So with a February use year, your year to use points is 2/1/10 to 1/31/11.

 

[bmtta2003]

Just a thought about UY. I have a DEC UY. Using 2010 as an example, my dues for the 2010 pts were due in Jan. 2010. Almost a year before I receive them in Dec 2010. Not terribly important, but Disney gets 10 mos of my money before I get the pts.

According to DVC by-laws, accommodations can be witheld or cancelled if your account is passed due. Does that mean that if I was taking a vacation in mar 2010 w/ my 2009 pts which would have been received in dec 2009 that my accommodations could be cancelled if my 2010 dues were not paid by that time?

 

[Sammie]

Depends a lot on when you vacation. We have an October use year and I hate it, especially since the change to the banking where we have to bank 4 months out.

Our work vacation time is based on a the yearly calendar of Jan-Dec. We hardly ever vacation in Oct, Nov. Dec. and therefore I have to wait 10 months into the calendar year before I even get my points.

Therefore I have to constantly bank or borrow, and worry about the limits on that, it's a major pain.

I wish I had understood how it worked and the limits before we bought.

Of course when we bought we did not have the 4 month banking limit.

 

[staceymay00]

We picked Oct UY, which should work well for us now and in the future. We like to visit WDW from October through April. Our points have to be banked by May 31. Right now we usually plan WDW trips during breaks within the school year. We don't pull the kids out of school but we do have a few breaks that are at least one week long. Once our kids are grown we'll likely travel to WDW during the same months to avoid the heat. June through September are the least likely months we'd go to WDW so Oct UY works well. I know UY does not matter if you never cancel, but I feel better knowing if we have to cancel we have time to bank or use the points on another trip.

 

[Sandisw]

Just a thought about UY. I have a DEC UY. Using 2010 as an example, my dues for the 2010 pts were due in Jan. 2010. Almost a year before I receive them in Dec 2010. Not terribly important, but Disney gets 10 mos of my money before I get the pts.

According to DVC by-laws, accommodations can be witheld or cancelled if your account is passed due. Does that mean that if I was taking a vacation in mar 2010 w/ my 2009 pts which would have been received in dec 2009 that my accommodations could be cancelled if my 2010 dues were not paid by that time?

If your account is not up to date, I believe that Disney can put a "hold" (or whatever they call it) on your account.

We pay dues as owners for the calendar year that we own the points. You are not really paying dues on a specific set of points but rather paying based on the number of points you own via your contracts.

So, as an owner, if you have not paid your 2010 MF's by that March trip, regardless of what points you are using, you may find it cancelled. Realistically, I don't think that a March trip would be in jeopardy since dues are not late until mid February, but technically, I think they can.

When I was billed for 2010 (June UY), I owned two contracts with 180 points. I paid dues for the entire year of 2010 on those 180 points. Now, I just added another 30 points in mid August. Since I now own another 30 points, I will pay dues from that point until the end of 2010 because I am the owner of those new points in 2010.

If I had waited until January to get the points, I would only owe 2011 MF's because I didn't own them until it was 2011, even though I would still get 2010 UY points.

This is why those buying in 2010 and getting 2009 UY points don't owe any 2009 MF's. They did not OWN those points in 2009 and therefore can not be billed for something as an owner when they were not one. They pay dues from the date they become owners.

 

[LisaS]

Just a thought about UY. I have a DEC UY. Using 2010 as an example, my dues for the 2010 pts were due in Jan. 2010. Almost a year before I receive them in Dec 2010. Not terribly important, but Disney gets 10 mos of my money before I get the pts.

That's not actually how it works. Disney bills you as if your points are spread out evenly over your Use Year. The dues you pay in 2010 pay for the last 11 months of your 2009 UY and the first month of your 2010 UY.

It's easiest to see this if you look at what happens when you purchase new construction (which is where the process begins). Let's say you purchased a new resort in 2009 with a Dec UY and I bought the same resort on the same day with an Aug UY and our 2009 UY points were our first points. Disney pro-rates the first year's dues based on when you receive your points so you would owe only 1 month of dues in 2009 (for Dec 2009) and I would owe 5 months of dues (Aug-Dec 2009). Hang on a minute, why do they charge you less if we both receive a full set of 2009 points? It's because Disney gets the rest of the money for those points in the following year's dues. In your case, you will pay for the remaining 11/12ths of those 2009 points in your 2010 dues (at 2010 dues rates). I will pay for the remaining 7/12ths of my 2009 points in my 2010 dues (at 2010 dues rates). Your 2010 dues also cover the first 1/12th of your 2010 points.

So Disney doesn't get your money 10 months in advance. The dues you paid in Jan 2010 were for the last 11 months worth of points from your 2009 UY and the first month worth of points from your 2010 UY.

According to DVC by-laws, accommodations can be witheld or cancelled if your account is passed due. Does that mean that if I was taking a vacation in mar 2010 w/ my 2009 pts which would have been received in dec 2009 that my accommodations could be cancelled if my 2010 dues were not paid by that time?

Unless you pay your dues monthly, your payment is due in full by Jan 15th. There is a 30-day grace period so your final date is Feb 15th. However if you have a vacation planned for anytime after Jan 15th and you haven't paid your dues yet, you may not be allowed to check in until you pay up.

And it doesn't matter which points you are using for that stay. You could argue that if you are using banked points, you already paid dues on those points and should be allowed to use them. But if Disney used that logic then they would also have to make you pay dues in advance on any borrowed points you wanted to use. I think that would be an administrative hassle for MS. It's much simpler to have us all pay in January, regardless of UY and regardless of whether we are using banked, current or borrowed points for our reservations.

 

[hitman007]

Don't get too caught up on use year. Like was said before, unless you plan on canceling many times, it really isn't relevant. Since you can bank points, borrow points etc, it really doesn't matter.

 

[bmtta2003]

Wow, I knew I should have taken accounting! Thank you LisaS for your answer and example.

 

[johnsonville5]

We have 3 contracts and they are all the same use year. I felt more comfortable about keeping track of my points that way. As far as which month to buy I don't think it matters. We never gave it thought when we bouth our first contract - just took what they were offering. Never had a problem with it.

 

[disneydenisel]

Hi,

Great thread! I am trying to figure out if a June UY is best for June-December travel. We have a Feb UY on our BCV contract, and I have never thought about it much. I am now looking at a resale VGC contract, and suddenly it seems like UY might matter.

If I want to go in June 2012, does that mean that I book in July 2011 (11 months out) and use my June 2012 points? If I have points left from June 2011, I will need to bank those by end of January 2011 and those points will extend until May 2013, so those points would be used first? Does this sound like if I use the 11 month window, that I will always need to be banking one year ahead to be able to use them in June, since they will expire in May?

This is confusing just to type it!

 

[Sandisw]

Hi,

Great thread! I am trying to figure out if a June UY is best for June-December travel. We have a Feb UY on our BCV contract, and I have never thought about it much. I am now looking at a resale VGC contract, and suddenly it seems like UY might matter.

If I want to go in June 2012, does that mean that I book in July 2011 (11 months out) and use my June 2012 points? If I have points left from June 2011, I will need to bank those by end of January 2011 and those points will extend until May 2013, so those points would be used first? Does this sound like if I use the 11 month window, that I will always need to be banking one year ahead to be able to use them in June, since they will expire in May?

This is confusing just to type it!

I have a June UY and we travel in August. When you call for that reservation at 11 months, the only thing you need to be concerned about is when the travel and that will help you know what points can be used for that trip.

So, if you want to go in June 2012, it will fall in your June 2012 UY. It can be paid for with banked 2011 UY points, 2012 UY points, and borrowed 2013 UY points.

When you call in July 2011, you would only need to bank the June 2011 UY points if you wanted to make them available for that reservation. However, if you are only traveling on current UY points, you would not have any banking to do.

For example, when I called in Sept 2010 to make my Aug 2011 reservation, I still have 92 points left in my 2010 UY. I did have to bank those at that time because I knew that I wasn't going to use them prior to the May 31st date.

But, had I already used up my 2010 UY points, then MS would have simply used my 2011 UY points for that trip.

I would very seriously think about a new UY, however. Once you have two, it is two different memberships. You can not combine the points for a single night without transferring between the two.

We had it for a short time and to be honest, it was more trouble than it was worth.

I do think that a June UY allows for more flexibility for those Dec trips than a Feb UY since you are still in the banking window for June UY but not Feb UY, but not sure if it would be worth owning different memberships.

 

[Lucy D.]

I agree with Sandy, for simplicity just look for resales with the same Use Year as you have already. Feb UY still works OK for June to December trips. (If you had a December Use Year that would be more problematic). With your Feb UY if you had to cancel a June trip short notice you'd still have until Jan 31st to reuse the points if they weren't bankable.