Confused about member's dues!

[momof3poohlovers]

We are new members and we purchased 160 AKV points and 150 BCV points. Both have a March UY. Here's the confusion, we originally wanted a Sept. UY because we couldn't vacation until Nov. and I didn't want to pay for an extra six months of dues if we didn't need to. My guide told me it wouldn't be that much more because we wouldn't have to start paying dues until our contract closed which ended up being May 16th(it was supposed to close in June). However I got a statement today saying we owed pro-rated dues for 267 days. So my question is how do they determine the date you start paying dues? It seems like they went back to the day it was entered? If so, why do I have to pay dues for a place I didn't even officially own until May? Member Accounting is closed so I can't even call to ask them. Does anyone have the answer? Thanks!

 

[LisaS]

Since AKV is new construction, the situation is a little different there so let's look at each resort individually.

BCV: You will owe dues for the 150 BCV points starting from the day you could start using the points, in other words, the day the points were placed in your account. If the dues bill is for 267 days worth of dues, then the points went into your account around April 8th. Does that sound about right time-wise? In this case, the UY you purchased makes no difference. You would owe dues starting from the day you had use of the points (April 8th) no matter which UY you bought.

AKV: With AKV you will owe dues starting from the later of: the date your Unit opens (this will be listed in your paperwork), and the start of your Use Year. Since you have a Mar UY, then you will owe dues starting from the occupancy date of your Unit which will be either July 2nd or Sep 1st. You will not receive a bill for the dues on AKV until that time but if you want to know how much you will owe, the dues for that contract should be available in your account on the members' website. In this case, a March vs. a Sep UY may or may not make a difference in the amount of dues you will owe, depending upon your occupancy date. If you have a Sep 1st occupancy date then your dues start on Sep 1st whether you have a Mar or a Sep UY. But if you have a July occupancy date, then your dues start either July 2nd (with a Mar UY) or Sep 1st (with a Sep UY). So worst case (July occupancy) getting a March UY instead of Sep will cost you 2 months worth of dues or $123. Best case (Sep occupancy) you would owe the same amount of dues either way.

 

[disneynutt1225]

My guess is, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, the 267 days is the days that are left in the remainder of this year (I'm not going to count, LOL). It seems right that you'd be charged for the May - December MFs. Maintenance fees are based January - December which means they don't correlate with your use year necessarily. Make sense?

 

[momof3poohlovers]

LisaS- Thank you! I got my contract out and my BCV contract was entered April 9th, leaving 267 days left in the year so you are correct. I am little irritated with my guide because I was originally going to go with a Sept. UY for my AKV contract and then go on a waitlist for a BCV Sept. UY(or purchase through the Timeshare Store). I didn't want to pay the extra in dues because I wouldn't need the points until Nov. and even then I only needed the AKV points for my Nov. trip(I am not using my BCV points until June 08). I hope I am making sense. She told me that my dues would FOR SURE not start until my contract closed, NOT on the day it was entered. We even discussed this. She did tell me, however, that because my AKV unit would be ready in July and my contract was supposed to close in June I would start paying dues in July. I figured it out though and the difference between April 9th and May 16th is only 38 days or about $72. Overall, having that March UY instead of Sept. cost me an extra $396. Oh well, I can stop my whining now .
Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[LisaS]

LisaS- Thank you! I got my contract out and my BCV contract was entered April 9th, leaving 267 days left in the year so you are correct. I am little irritated with my guide because I was originally going to go with a Sept. UY for my AKV contract and then go on a waitlist for a BCV Sept. UY(or purchase through the Timeshare Store). I didn't want to pay the extra in dues because I wouldn't need the points until Nov. and even then I only needed the AKV points for my Nov. trip(I am not using my BCV points until June 08). I hope I am making sense. She told me that my dues would FOR SURE not start until my contract closed, NOT on the day it was entered. We even discussed this. She did tell me, however, that because my AKV unit would be ready in July and my contract was supposed to close in June I would start paying dues in July. I figured it out though and the difference between April 9th and May 16th is only 38 days or about $72. Overall, having that March UY instead of Sept. cost me an extra $396. Oh well, I can stop my whining now .
Thanks for the help everyone!

You're welcome. If you want to look at the bright side, some people are on the waiting list for months and months for even a small number of points at BCV. Getting 150 of them right away as you did is really exceptional! If you don't mind my asking, what price per point did they charge you for BCV? Did they process the AKV purchase, then treat the BCV as a member adding on at BCV (at $95/pt) or did they treat both contract purchases as a non-member, charging you $101/pt for BCV. I'm just curious how they handle things when someone purchases two resorts at the same time. If you got the $95/pt members' price, then you did very well because the price for members is going up to $101 on Monday or Tuesday. If you had been put on the waitlist for Sep UY BCV points and it didn't come through by June 4th, you probably would have been charged the new price of $101/pt. So the March UY has cost you $396 but may have saved you $900!

 

[momof3poohlovers]

Wow! It never occured to me that by waiting for a Sept UY I probably would have waited past June 4th and it would have cost me more. That must be why she really pushed the March UY (because they had BCV points available for that UY). We only paid $95 a point for BCV because I told my guide that I would just wait until my AKV contract closed and then purchase BCV through the Timeshare Store. We had already found a contract through TTS for BCV(for $98 per point) that we had put an offer on but they didn't get back to us for almost 2 weeks. I was irritated with TTS for taking so long to get back to me and our guide wisely offered to let us purchase BCV for the current member price. I think normally if you purchase 2 contracts at once you get new member pricing for both but because they would have lost the BCV sale to TTS they let me pay the $95 price. So in the long run you are right, I did save money ! I don't feel so bad now. To be honest, I am just glad they are both closed and we are official now. Thanks for the help, I love the DIS Boards, there's always someone with an answer!

 

[CarolMN]

...(snip).... We only paid $95 a point for BCV because I told my guide that I would just wait until my AKV contract closed and then purchase BCV through the Timeshare Store. We had already found a contract through TTS for BCV(for $98 per point) that we had put an offer on but they didn't get back to us for almost 2 weeks. I was irritated with TTS for taking so long to get back to me ....(snip)....

Just for the record, it probably wasn't the TTS's fault. More likely, they presented your offer to the seller and it was the seller who procrastinated (or was on vacation or something).

But all's well that ends well! Sounds like you are very happy with both of your purchases - now that Lisa has given you "perspective", LOL.

Congratulations and welcome home!