How do you make your points work for you?

[VanessainWonderland]

I know that I will DEFINITELY use 100 points per year.

So let's say I purchase 160 points. What should I do with the rest??

Let's say I wanted to bank those 60 points to next year, but then I will be short 2 points. What can I do?

I just keep doing the math and end up being over a few, and if I bank, under just a couple. It never really breaks even for me.

What do you guys do to make them work for you? Especially those of you that never let any go to waste?

 

[AKLFan3]

I'm not sure what you mean by saying if you bank 60 points, then you will be short 2 points. But when we started off with a 160 point contract, we just tried to use our points wisely. We always booked the room we wanted, a 1 bedroom, and tried to travel during the Adventure or Choice season when we could save points on a room.

If we also noticed a substantial difference in points between one resort versus another, we would stay at the cheaper point resort. For example, Saratoga Springs and Old Key West rooms use fewer points than any other DVC resort on WDW property.

We also never stay on the weekends. We prefer a maximum of 5 nights, checking in on Sunday and departing on Friday because paying extra points on Friday and Saturday nights just isn't worth it to us. Sometimes we only take 3 or 4 night trips several times a year to save points.

We have banked 1 point, 6 points and 12 points to roll over into the next use year and have always enjoyed that feature because we know we're going to travel within each use year. We never borrow points from the next use year because we don't want to establish the habit of always taking away points from the next year. There is nothing wrong with borrowing but we just prefer to save our points if we happen to find we have extras.

We were able to get by on 160 points for two years then we decided to purchase a second contract worth 50 points at our home resort, so now we have 210 points per year. It adds a bit more of a cushion for us, allowing for more trips and moving from a 1 bedroom to two bedroom if we choose.

If you will use 100 points, I would still try to use those remaining 60 points during the Adventure or Choice seasons and stay for just 3 or 4 nights, then bank whatever points you have left, if any.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you only use 100 points the first year and bank 60, then the next year you need 222 points (160 current and 60 banked) and are two points short, you just borrow from the next year. So that year you would have 158 points to start with.

But if you know for a fact you will never use any more than 100 points, find a resale of 100 points and buy that.

 

[Muhlenberg]

You could try "planning" out several years of vacations, with several different scenarios to see where you stand "on paper." It might not work out in actuality like your "plans" but it would allow you to see how it would work for you.

I know we'll never use EXACTLY 220 points every year, but with banking and borrowing, none of those precious babies are going to go to waste.

 

[papertraveller]

I think DH may think I'm crazy, but we've figured out how to use the points through to March Break of 2011. We're making use of a 1-bedroom where we think we'll really need the kitchen, downgrading to a studio at other times, and in a couple of cases checking in from Sunday to Friday, so that we're not getting the maximum value out of every point possible. It's also helped in a planning sense, because once we know where we're going and how many points we need, we can watch for good air discounts.

 

[VanessainWonderland]

Thank you all for the input. Think I am finally letting go of my doubts about DVC.

 

[ccigliano]

DVC works if you plan to go the Disney a couple of times a year for about a week each. We make use of studios whenever we can and save the points for bigger family trips with my sisters' families when we take advantage of two bedrooms. We also take advantage of the DVC annual pass so that we purchase our passes the 2nd week of December (since we are early Christmastime regulars) and then go back the following year right after Thanksgiving while the pass is still valid. Of course when I have the annual pass it's easy to sneak in another 1 or 2 trips in between. Then I wait a year until the 2nd week in December to purchase the next annual pass and the cycle continues. In case you don't know the DVC annual pass is $100 off the regular annual pass. I have even gone to the resort and not stepped foot in a park and found several things to do that still gave me the Disney vibes.. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Anal Annie]

I initially made a spreadsheet (which is no longer valid with the point reallocation for 2010.) Trust me, it is not hard to use 160 points!!

Anyway, I initially made an excel sheet which listed each resort in the seasons we were most likely to travel and figured up how many points we'd need for a variety of combinations. From long weekends to split stays to larger units to different seasons. We settled on buying 250 points so we'd have plenty to work with to plan 2-3 trips per year in studios OR enough to have a weeks trade "out" with some to spare for a trip to Disney. This past year we did 4 n at SSR over Memorial Day Weekend then we had 7 n at BCV and 3 n at Vero Beach in August for a total of 14 nights. We had a few points left from last year when we started and we ended with 25 "leftover" to bank into next year. I just booked 6 n at AKV Kidani for spring break in March and I think we have 167 left for our summer vacation next year. We're thinking of doing a split stay in August between BLT and BWV for 8-10 nights (so we can say we've stayed at all of the DVC resorts at WDW).

Even tho 250 points in nothing compared to how many some people have planning ahead is half the fun and we're glad we bought at least that many!

(PS) You don't HAVE to buy an even steven number of points, although that is what most people do. If you buy directly from DVC then you have to buy a minimum of 160 but you could buy 165 or 170 or whatever you thought worked out for your plans. If you buy resale you can find a contract for less than 160. 100 points is not a lot tho if you're planning annual trips.

 

[adminjedi]

Initially bought 250pts thinking we would go every other year with all the kids. Immediately realized we wanted to go every year so bought another 280pts. Then bought more. Then bought more.

We have a detailed spreadsheet and we plan as far out on the calendar as possible to make sure we don't end up not using points. We don't mind borrowing from the next year - we feel that puts us ahead on the cost of points curve.

We usually go for 2 weeks at a time, since we travel from the West Coast.

 

[maddmike]

When buying points we decided we like to visit WDW two out of every three years. We then figured out how many points we needed per visit doubled it (two visits) then divided it by three (years) for the yearly number of points needed. We actually bought a resale contract with a few extra points just in case. This worked well for us.