can you change your UY

[italiamom]

If i have an Aug UY and i want to vacation in May or June at my home resort Kidani and want to reserve 11 mos. in advance, isn't Aug UY wrong for me? can it be changed, or is it permanent? I was really not prepared when we purchased DVC last June 08' while at WDW. thank you.

 

[ACDSNY]

No you can't change your UY after you purchase. You would need to sell your existing contract and purchase a new contract with the UY you'd like. Most will tell you UY is not that important.

We were the opposite of your situation. We vacationed in the Fall and had a Feb UY. When DVC changed the banking deadlines to the new Rule of Four it made enough difference to us that we did sell most of our SSR points and started a new master contact in an Aug UY for AKV & VGC points. It was an expensive lesson learned.

 

[disneynutz]

If i have an Aug UY and i want to vacation in May or June at my home resort Kidani and want to reserve 11 mos. in advance, isn't Aug UY wrong for me? can it be changed, or is it permanent? I was really not prepared when we purchased DVC last June 08' while at WDW. thank you.

If you had it to do over again, a April UY would have been a better choice. UY has nothing to do with reserving 11 months in advance but should you have to cancel your vacation, a UY chosen prior to your normal travel month gives you more time to bank and not lose your points.

 

[Sandisw]

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to change your UY on an existing contract. And I know Disney won't since I tried!!! That is why I am selling my VWL with Oct UY. That is not a good one for my August vacations.

As PP said, you can sell your existing and rebuy with the UY that would make more sense, but you have to look at the loss you are taking to do that and whether it is worth it. Through resale, you can buy whatever UY you want. It will give you a 2nd member #, but that is one way to slowly transition over. Buy future add ons with an April UY and then eventually sell off the Aug UY.

UY doesn't affect reservations but does if you have to cancel a trip using points, especially those that are borrowed. It doesn't give you a lot of time to use them up if you are traveling toward the end of your UY.

Good luck!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

It's true that Disney does not allow use year changes nor could it, actually. There are a certain number of points associated with each UY month and in order to maintain balance in the system, they cannot just change your UY month without changing someone else's, sort of.

It seems to me that Disney could offer at worst a one-time change and at best a fee-based change of UY since they maintain a supply of points for every resort anyway.

I suspect that most people go into the sales presentation not having a clue how important UY may be to them and then end up buying whatever UY is being offered at the time. Many times, my bet would be that this is regretted later once UY is more completely understood by the purchaser. Then, unfortunately; it's too late.

This would be easy for Disney to remedy but they likely don't want to because it generates no new income for them (but it could) and overall, I'd bet it would just be a royal PITA.

I'm actually a little bit surprised that timeshare laws don't force them to at least do a one-time change. I guess the reason it doesn't is because the only way balance can truly be maintained and guaranteed is for the seller to be in charge of allocating the points in the system. What would happen if everyone wanted to change to December and noone wanted June?

It does seem kinda FUBAR though, that there's no methodology in place for changing your UY short of selling and buying back in. Jobs change. Kids' school schedules change. 9-month school systems change to 12-month which changes everything. It just seems a little unfair that there's not, at least, that one-time forgiveness there like there is for banking points.

 

[Crystal_27]

I suspect that most people go into the sales presentation not having a clue how important UY may be to them and then end up buying whatever UY is being offered at the time.

I agree with you here. When we bought in March, although we had done a lot of research prior to buying into DVC, when we signed our contract and were assigned a February use year, we just assumed that was our only choice. That said, DH and I vacation at different times each year depending on schedules, so in our case UY is less important than for those who have to vacation a set times. Still, if I had to do it over again, I would have opted for a June UY instead of a February. Live and learn!

 

[CarolMN]

If i have an Aug UY and i want to vacation in May or June at my home resort Kidani and want to reserve 11 mos. in advance, isn't Aug UY wrong for me? can it be changed, or is it permanent? I was really not prepared when we purchased DVC last June 08' while at WDW. thank you.

Just to clarify -

Use year doesn't have anything to do with when you may call to make a reservation. Even though you have an August use year, you may still call as early as 11 months prior to check in to book your May or June vacation.

Take some time to read the Understanding Use Year thread. It will help you to better understand your membership.

If you continue to vacation in May or June, your August use year will only be a problem for you if you have to cancel those vacations after March 31. That's because March 31 is your banking deadline and if you miss it, then you would have to use the returned points before July 31. Let's hope that doesn't happen very often if ever for you.

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

I suspect that most people go into the sales presentation not having a clue how important UY may be to them and then end up buying whatever UY is being offered at the time. Many times, my bet would be that this is regretted later once UY is more completely understood by the purchaser. Then, unfortunately; it's too late.

This is exactly what happened to us. We also vacation mainly in the fall (have Feb UY) but didn't realize we could have bargained to get something different.

 

[Dean]

It's true that Disney does not allow use year changes nor could it, actually. There are a certain number of points associated with each UY month and in order to maintain balance in the system, they cannot just change your UY month without changing someone else's, sort of.(

Actually they could if they wanted. All they really have to do is take back your contract and give you another that is what you want including points and different UY. So far they haven't taken this approach but there's really no reason for them not to. All they'd have to do would be to have what you want, require a min purchase above what you own and take in the money. There are other systems that do this exact thing. While not ideal to have August and vacation late in your UY, it's not worth the expense to sell and buy again unless you plan to alter your ownership including # of points and/or home resort. Even then it usually only makes sense if you're one of those that must own at a given resort or you're downsizing.

 

[parlay]

I suspect that most people go into the sales presentation not having a clue how important UY may be to them and then end up buying whatever UY is being offered at the time. Many times, my bet would be that this is regretted later once UY is more completely understood by the purchaser. Then, unfortunately; it's too late.

Wow, you described my situation perfectly!

 

[italiamom]

Thank you for your replies. WilsonFlyer did hit the nail on the head. we had no clue about DVC until the last day of our first vacation to WDW. i'm not complaining, i'm very happy that we purchased, we just jumped in immediately when the thought of leaving Disney behind and maybe never seeing it again...never thought to question the UY, didn't even understand what the heck a UY was!!! our fault for not learning more about the whole plan and taking our time, go home and then buy. my husband was ready and willing to buy, and boy that's all i needed to know!!! Once my grandson is a little older and is not so interested in vacationing with grandma and grandpa,(even if it's WDW), the month we vacation won't be as important. i just can't take him out of school, so we need to go in the summer. it is a shame they will not make it more convenient for our needs, as someone said, life changes, schedules change, we need to be more flexible. i hope i will not ever need to cancel.
we just came back 2 weeks ago and stayed at SSR with our Bonus points, and beside the fact that we almost drowned with all the rain, we still loved being there. Kidani looked fantastic. But, Chicago looked really good again also, once we hit dry land.