Have 2 contracts and questions!

[las3888]

Hi all...I bought a resale package at BWV and recently added on with another resale package. They are not the same use years. I was surprised when I called and confirmed they showed that we owned the new contract, but we were told we would get all new membership numbers for this contract. This doesn't really bother me, but I was a little surprised. My question is the CM mentioned that I could transfer my points every year from one contract to another. However, you cannot transfer banked points. This becomes an issue when you want to use your banked points maybe in combination with your other contract. Our resale had banked points and it took a while for us to figure out a way to use them before they expired--just because we couldn't combine them with our other points on our other package. Hopefully this is making sense. Anyways, come June 1, I can transfer all my points from 2004 use year into my June contract. I can't see any reason NOT to do this since I can bank transferred points. I think I should make a habit of doing this, because I can't see any reason why not to??? Anybody else experience this and agree? Does anybody have any reasons that maybe the CM didn't explain why I shouldn't do this?

 

[dianeschlicht]

I agree with your logic. We bought both our contracts from Disney simply to have the same use year and to make tracking easier. Since you are allowed to do a transfer each year, I would do it the way you suggest.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Are both at the BWV?

The trouble I see with you doing it this way is that you lose a lot of the time that you could normally make reservations with those points by having to wait until you transfer them before you use them.

For example: You could make a reservation with your June 2004 points as early as May 2002 by borrowing. If not borrowing then you could make the reservation in May 2003. By doing the yearly transfer you have to wait until June 2004 before you can transfer them and make a reservation with them.

I have two use years because we bought a resale contract and some other contracts from Disney. I carefully track them but have never had to transfer points. If they are both at the BWV I would rather make the first three nights of the reservation 11 months in advance with one contract and then the next three nights with the other contract and have MS link the reservations. Or what about even using one contract one year and borrowing and then use the other one the following year in the same way? At least those options give you the 11 month window.

HBC

 

[dianeschlicht]

HBC is right, borrowing would be easier. Just be sure you track both contracts well.

 

[Cruelladeville]

Once you transfer points to your existing contract, you are done with having any flexibility with those points, since points can be moved only once. That means that if you had to cancel a night--or a whole trip--you cannot bank those points, since you had them transferred. I have three contracts, all at BWV, and what I do is make reservations for 3 or 4 nights on one contract, then 3 or 4 nights on the second contract, and so on. Then MS will link them so you won't have to move. The left-over points on each contract--if there are any--are then banked into the next year.

I can't stress strongly enough, though, to keep a notebook with the transactions listed, and DATE EVERYTHING. My notebook has a page for each contract, and each new use year gets a new page. Put your existing points at the top--with your member number--and don't forget to note which points have been banked into that year. Then, when you make ressies, write it on the page of the use year you used. Take one page and make a calendar of your trip, with a notation for each day where those points came from. That way you are going to know if you are using banked points, which MS needs to reallocate into the existing ressie so you don't lose them at the end of your use year.

And you thought accounting was something you would never need to know how to do!

 

[las3888]

Well, first of all, borrowing is not an issue because they won't let you transfer points between contracts until your use year has begun, that's why I have to wait until June to transfer. So if I ever wanted to borrow, the points would always still be there to borrow since I can't transfer them until the current use year.

Also, as it stands, we are booked up through this year with trips. Our next trip won't be until later next May, so I can't book it until later June anyways (this is usually our travel pattern). There isn't any way that I see I am limiting myself by not being able to book in the 11 month window, unless we changed when we went, then we would plan accordingly.

As far as banking goes, the opposite is true at Disney. You cannot transfer banked points, but you CAN bank transferred points.

With these two factors in mind, I can't see any reason still not to transfer my points. My plan is to bank them into the next year anyways.

It eliminates the hassle of having to book some nights from this account, and having leftover points.

PS - both contracts are at BWV.

Thanks for your responses...any other reasons???

 

[profdsny]

This brings up an interesting question. We are close to buying some add on points for a different month. I'm not worried that much about the 11 month window. but suppose that I want to book something that takes 120 points. I have 100 in the new one, and the remainder in the other. Will it be an issue to get points from two contracts or will I be told I don't have enough points?

 

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by las3888
Well, first of all, borrowing is not an issue because they won't let you transfer points between contracts until your use year has begun, that's why I have to wait until June to transfer. So if I ever wanted to borrow, the points would always still be there to borrow since I can't transfer them until the current use year.

That's not the way it works, at least not in my experience. I was able to transfer points from my next use year to another member.

I have an August use year, and in September 2003 I transferred 100 of my 2004 points to another member. I assumed I couldn't do that, because of what I read here. But MS assured me that it was no problem, and the transaction went through without a hitch. At that point the other member's account had an extra 100 points with a 2004 use year.

So... You can't transfer borrowed or banked points. You CAN transfer future year's points. And once they are transferred, the owner of the receiving contract CAN borrow those points if they want. That was the whole purpose of our transaction.

Right, everyone?

 

[IndianaDVCMember]

We are in a similar situation. We own 2 BWV contracts, 290 points in March and 100 points in December. We never transfer points. When we make reservations, we completely deplete the 100 point contract by borrowing until it's completely dry. If we need more points, we reserve under the March contract and link the two reservations together. It makes it easier for us to track because we only have one contract to look at once the December contract is depleted, and we have more power to book at the 11-month window since points have to be transferred within their use year.

 

[las3888]

They must not make it a hard and fast rule as far as transferring points until your use year. My CM told me unless I was trying to book something that I couldn't do it until 6/1. I got the feeling if I tried, he would have let me.

I realize alot of you out there just keep the contracts separate, but when you deplete your account, say at 100 points, don't you end up with a handful leftover? Do you just bank them for the next year?

I can see others do it differently, but by transferring, at least in my mind, as long as I wait for the current use year, all my points are in one place and I don't have to worry about bridging reservations or anything similar. I guess I will go ahead and do it this year and see how it goes for next year.

Thanks for the help, experts!

 

[Dean]

Actually they will let you transfer banked or borrowed points in some situations. Each transaction is handled on a case by case basis. The usual situations where they will allow this is when you need those last few points to make a single night and for the exchange options where all points need to be in one account, like adventurer collection and I suspect, DCL. You may have to talk to a supervisor though.

 

[IndianaDVCMember]

Originally posted by las3888

I realize alot of you out there just keep the contracts separate, but when you deplete your account, say at 100 points, don't you end up with a handful leftover? Do you just bank them for the next year?

[/B]

Actually, we typically borrow on this contract. We try to use up both the current year and next year points before we move on to our other contract.

 

[CRobin]

Originally posted by las3888
I realize alot of you out there just keep the contracts separate, but when you deplete your account, say at 100 points, don't you end up with a handful leftover? Do you just bank them for the next year?

That's what we have done.

The first couple of times I made ressies with the multiple contracts I tried doing the transfer thing. It can be very confusing to an inexperienced CM and usually a supervisor had to step in to make it work.

Finally I decided to just make it easier on me and MS and now when I need to I book X nites on Contract A, Y nites on Contract B, and bank the remains.

 

[las3888]

The only thing is, if you bank frequently, what do you do with those remaining few points that have already been banked, after you have used 'x' points from contract A and 'x' points from contract B? Say you are booking a trip and you end up with 6 points leftover in one of your contracts. Your 6 points are nearing the end of their banking shelf life (in other words, they are going to expire). They are not enough to use to book a whole night. Since they are banked, you can't transfer them to combine them with the others. They can't be combined with the points from the other contract, so I guess they are just lost??? This is the situation that I want to avoid. We are more banking than borrowing people, at least at this point, and I would hate to lose out on those few points that are left over in each contract once they expire that are not enough on their own to book a room.

This is I guess where I was headed with this whole post. I like the idea of having my points all in one pot so they can be combined with the others if ever need be. Make sense?

 

[CRobin]

Las -

That is probably the case where you have to go to MS and tell them you want to use 6 banked points from contract A and 4 from contract B to get a studio @ OKW (for example), then book the remainder of the trip using whichever contract works for you.

I believe MS actually will transfer the points from B to A in order to book that night, but that is the somewhat complicated scenario I described above.

Remember, MS has been known to show a great deal of flexibility on the transfer rules when the case is clearly a single member transferring his points between contracts.