Does it bother you to borrow points?

[WolfpackFan]

We are in the midst of planning our first trip home. Because we already had a family cruise planned for June 2004, we had originally planned to go home to VWL for the first time Christmas 2004. My wife and daughter both are public school employees and we basically have to take our vacations during the Summer or at Christmas. We got to talking though and we hate to wait a year and a half before our first trip home. Heck we've only been back from WDW a month and are ready to go back now. So we decided to change our first trip home to July 2004.

Now comes the question, we have 150 points. It will be myself, DW and DD23. I plan on booking for 6 nights Sunday-Friday night. We will actually arrive at WDW on Saturday but plan to just get a room at the ASM for that one night. We had originally planned to just get a Studio and our 150 points would be more than enough and even give us some to bank. But last evening at the gym my daughter and myself got to talking to some friends of ours who are also DVC members and they about convinced us to book a 1BR instead. For six nights this will take 210 points, meaning I would have to borrow 60 points from 2005. I really hate the thought of starting off my DVC usage with borrowing points. But then again, staying in that nice big 1BR sure would be nice. Our daughter was joking saying she might would appropriate the BR, I told her only in her dreams, that was DW and mine .

So here finally is the question - does it bother you to borrow? Seems to me like once you start borrowing you'll be in the hole for future years until you either don't take much of a trip or possibly rent some points from someone else. What do you all think should I just book the 1BR and not worry about the future points? It looks like I will need to make a decision by the end of August, since that is when my 11 month window begins.

Thanks.

 

[JOC]

WolfpackFan,

I think that the DVC diehards are going to tell you that you need to add on so you don't run into this problem again!

Borrowing points doesn't bother me. We've got 39 years worth of points to play around with and I'm sure that there will be times when we can't get to WDW every year for whatever reason, so we'll eventually be on the plus side again as far as points goes.

 

[timC]

Because of magical beginnings, we started out with almost zero points. It took about a minute for us to decide that we needed to borrow so we could get on with our magical vacations. We spent the next couple of years borrowing, and paying cash occassionally. Finally, we bought more points to get us rightsided again.

There's nothing wrong with borrowing... but if you continue to do so, it means you've caught highly contagous Iwannagotodisneyitis virus... It's rampant on these boards

 

[marymrg]

It doesn't bother me to borrow, it just made it clear to me that I needed more points. I bought a resale with banked points and still borrowed for our first visit. We also go at Easter and wanted to split our stay with VB and BCV. We just added on 50 more points at Vero and will probably be in borrow mode for a few more years. On the plus side, I banked the new points though!

With 3 Adults staying almost a week, I would say you would be more comfortable in a 1 bedroom. But, a studio is certainly doable.

Mary

 

[jennymouse]

I'm sort of in the same situation with 150 points...not in the borrowing thing yet, but might. And I might add on a few too. I wouldn't worry about borrowing. Like JOC said, I'm sure at some point, you'll want to go somewhere else one year, maybe do another cruise, and you can catch up then. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

 

[JimC]

We bank and borrow. Right now we are banked on BCV contract and borrowed on OKW. That may change. It all depends on what we are planning to do.

 

[SamS]

Quite simply, I hope to be "in debt" when I die. Otherwise, one trip that could have been taken never was!

 

[SimbaNoodle]

I just borrowed 8 points to book one night at vwl to keep from losing 6 points from this year. They were banked points from last year, so it was use them or lose them. I will stay at a moderate for about 3 days then at a vwl studio for one night. Should be fun.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

I have no problem borrowing........you never know what next year will bring.

 

[Marisa'sMom]

We borrow all the time! As some of the others have said, I guess it's time for us to add on!!

It doesn't bother us to borrow. Our use year rolls around pretty quickly and if we us all of our points before the end of our contract it won't matter anyway, because we'll be in our 80's!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Yes, it bothers me to borrow, it makes me worry about future trips. But, I think you should not worry about this, because once you take your trip, you will do an add-on, and then you won't worry about the points you already borrowed.

 

[Granny]

It seems to me that the core issue here is not borrowing, it's being satisfied with the original thought process in buying DVC.

The OP decided to join DVC with 150 points, thinking that the family would be excited to be staying in a studio. After all, they are at WDW and in a nicer room than a regular resort room.

But once we try the 1BR, it is very difficult for many to go back to the nice studios. It is a huge leap in accommodation comfort.

We don't mind borrowing from time to time, but if it's every year, or it means that some year's we don't go to WDW, then we would have to ask ourselves if we have enough points to enjoy our WDW trips the way we want to. In our case, we needed more points to get the kinds of accommodations and number of days we wanted, so we purchased another contract.

If you are borrowing 60 points a year from a 150 point contract, then you will be in a position where you can't go to WDW on DVC points every third year or so.

For some that's not a problem. For us, it meant adding points.

Good luck!

 

[Poorman]

Here is an option. I don't know where your home resort is ,but I'm assuming BCV. You could book Sun-Thurs and pay cash for Friday night. If you are BWV try a standard room ,it will only be 171 points. Or OKW 164 points. Just a few options.

Good luck. Rich

 

[dbond]

We've been traveling on borrowed points for years. It just limits when we can go next, but our use year works well for our travel shedule and we're anxiously waiting for an add-on to come through via the wait list, but it hasn't stopped us yet from doing what we want.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Does it bother you to borrow points?

Absolutely not. Flexibility between years is a must, some years we take family, others we have smaller accomodations. The capability to borrow points is a critical requirement of the program.

 

[married@wdw]

We actually borrowed 127 of our 2004 points for our cruise this coming January. We figure we'll just keep borrowing/banking as long as we can, and if we hit a time when we can't get the room we want for the points we have, we'll either have to pay cash, add more points or suffer in a studio.

That said, rethink the one-bedroom. Do you spend a lot of time in the room? If not, it might not be worth it. Also, you could save a large chunk of money by shifting your plans a bit -- what about leaving on Friday and coming home on Friday instead and getting an AS room for Friday and Saturday night? It'd save you a weekend night's points, which is probably the biggest chunk of your reservation, but only cost you about $120 or so for the extra AS night.

Just some ideas. No matter what you decide have a great time!

 

[Dancind]

Well, it doesn't bother me to borrow right this minute. It might bother me when I get into mid-2004 and realize I won't be going to WDW for a while. We're cruising in Dec. 2004, I hope that will be enough to keep me from being too unhappy. I've already got three contracts, so I need to refrain from adding on for a while. Diana

 

[nezy]

Banking-good!

Borrowing-bad!!


Solution-Add-on!!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Yikes, I'm in the real minority here-I absolutely hate the thought of borrowing. We have a total of 275 points and DH thinks we should sell a small 25 point add-on we have. So far I've been able to convince him we need all 275, but haven't dared borrow.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Doesn't bother to borrow, I just did for Vero in Feb 2004, my only concern is I have a March use year, and if something horrible were to happen, I would loose alot!!!!