for those with 2 use years

[Pluto 2]

i only have 150 points at bwv with a february use year, just got it paid off.
i have been thinking about getting 150 at ssr. feb use year isnt too bad right now since i go in the summer, but my kid is 15, i wont be going in the summer too much longer. i would probaly go in early december or january which a feb use year will not be good if something happens and i have to cancel. so if you got 2 use years do you wish you would of stayed with one use year?

 

[JimC]

We have two use years and really it is fine with us. The only importance of a use year is how much safety cushion you have with changes in plans regarding banking and reusing points.

We use Dave Fredrickson's program to manage the contracts.

http://hometown.aol.com/dmfredrick/Download.html

 

[DBBN]

We have 2 use years. June and December, all our points are at OKW. We chose 2 use years versus one for 2 primary reasons.

Our initial purchase in 1995 was the June UY. Most of our vacations over the last 10 years have been in Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb so having a June UY worked well for us, we've never had to forfeit/lose even one point. But, our vacation/extended stay pattern will change in a few years when we retire and stay primarily in Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr. We considered another UY when we did 2 add-ons in 2004 and decided a December UY would best serve our future needs.

Another benefit of two UY's is the ability to transfer points both in AND out of our accounts. We ocassionally transfer OUT of our June UY and should the need arise we'll be able to transfer INTO our December UY.

Owning two UY's does take a bit more time but the benefits of having both far outweight the time and effort spent managing them. We use Quicken financial software to track each account.

 

[RobDoc]

We have four different Use Years and currently use Microsoft Money to track them easily. (Any checkbook program will work well for this purpose.)

The multiple Use Years do provide some nice flexibility in vacation planning and the additional tracking is minimal.

BTW, Caskbill is adding the capability to track points into his software and the early beta tests look very promising. Hopefully, that software will be available soon for all to enjoy.

I wouldn't worry too much about having more than one Use Year - it is a very manageable DVC problem to deal with.

 

[Pluto 2]

thanks everyone when i got my dvc i knew nothing about use years i just got what they gave me

 

[Disney Doll]

We have 2 use years,and it's not that terrible. I just keep a running tally of which one is which. Kind of looks like this(note that points values are totally made up):

September Use Year
230 9/1/04
- 50 1BR OKW Nov.5-11, 2004 res#1234567 spoke w/Mary
180
-100 GV OKW Feb. 6-10, 2005 res#98765432 spoke w/Tony
80 banked #135798642 March 3, 2005 spoke with Bob

I keep that same type of running tally for both contracts...it's pretty simple really, but I have always been able to stay on top of banking. borrowing etc.

 

[iankh]

In terms of managing UY banking deadlines, I set-up recurring events to remind me of the deadlines This particular calendar emails me alarms, so I have it set up to send me an email 30 days in advance to reminding of an upcoming banking deadline.

 

[Dean]

There are advantages of each option. The main advantage to different use years is the one you mentioned, being able to chose the one that works best for a given grip. The others would center around the transfer options and are mostly related to the problems with that system, all of which could go away at some point though I doubt it.

The benefits of one use year with multiple contracts are the simplicity and the fact the banking window encompasses all points as they were one contract, giving more flexibility. The other is that one can more easily combine points from multiple contracts for a single night though it is possible with multiple use years as well even with banked and borrowed points.

 

[Pluto 2]

thanks everyone