How do you manage multiple contracts?

[wrighter]

I just explained the concept of "resale" to my husband in terms of an add-on, and he didn't walk away! Lol! So I will continue to do my homework on the off chance he'll permit such a purchase in the future.

We currently own at AKV with a December UY. When thinking about adding on, I get anxiety when I think about owning at another resort with a different UY. How do you keep track of "when" you can use your points, "where" you can use them, and "how" to pull from multiple contracts?

For example, what happens if I purchase points at BWV with an April UY. How can I possible keep track of multiple 11 mo and 7 mo windows? Does the online booking system allow me to choose which contract to pull which points from? What happens if I have enough total points to book at one of my home resorts at 11 months, but need to pull from the non-home resort to make that booking? Do I have to wait until the 7 mo mark? It's all very confusing.

I need a "Multiple Contracts for Dummies" thread!

I guess I could make it easy on myself and look at points at AKV with our same current UY. But that's sort of boring. Easy! But boring.

 

[LSchrow]

we own 3 resorts, all same use year.
when i looked into buying with differing use years, the one thing that brought it to a screeching halt was the inability to combine differing resort points at 7 months (without a transfer).

at 11 months, the online system (and MS) will only allow you to use the points from a contract at that resort (that holds even if you have differing resorts with same use year). you would need to bank/borrow (or transfer in from an owner at that resort, rent one time points) if you need more.
at 7 months, you can use points from the other resort contract, but you still cannot combine points from each resort to make a single night if you have differing use years. since we've only had 1 instance in 14+ years where our points in a contract exactly fit our bookings, i knew we would wind up letting points expire somewhere along the way.

differing use years can be beneficial if your current use year doesn't fit your vacationing habits however.

 

[chalee94]

What happens if I have enough total points to book at one of my home resorts at 11 months, but need to pull from the non-home resort to make that booking? Do I have to wait until the 7 mo mark? It's all very confusing.

this part is actually very easy.

for booking AKV at 11 months, it would be exactly as if you did not own a BWV contract. and for booking BWV at 11 months, it would be exactly as if you did not own a AKV contract.

you need AKV pts to book AKV at 11 months. period. (and the same is true for all other resorts.)

if you own under the same member number (and DVC historically treats resales with the same UY and titled the same as an "add-on"), then you can pool pts at 7 months out.

if you purchase a contract (direct or resale) with a different UY month, then it is not an "add-on" but an entirely new membership and the contracts basically work just as they would if you were 2 different owners. you would have to book 4 nights with one contract and 3 nights with the other contract (at the 7 month window) and then ask MS to link the 2 separate reservations so that you don't have to move.

How do you keep track of "when" you can use your points, "where" you can use them, and "how" to pull from multiple contracts?

the biggest thing is to track both contracts separately. you have 2 different banking windows so don't forget to bank pts from one of the contracts...

some people don't mind building a spreadsheet to track separate contracts - it's not extremely difficult but you'd need to put in a little extra effort.

here's more reading material if you are interested:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3133031

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3041868

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=48651568

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3114688

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2904643

 

[wrighter]

What great replies! Thanks, guys!

Guess I have lots more homework to do - JUST IN CASE an add-on is in our future. A girl can dream, right!

 

[RobDoc]

At one time, we had 4 different Use Years at two different resorts. We still have 3 different UYs- which, as explained, means we have 3 different membership numbers. All are viewable on the member's website - just a mouse click and you can review the information in any membership/any contract.

MS has been allowing members to transfer points from one membership to another without regard to the one-per-year rule (but that could change as it is not an official, written policy) so making reservations is not a problem at all. We have usually just reserved as many nights from one membership as possible , reserve the rest with another and MS will link them together into a seamless reservation (although you might need to get new keys during the stay).

As far as the 11 month/7 month reservation priority, Use Year has nothing to do with when you can reserve. It will always be 11 months for your Home Resort (if you have 2 home resorts, it is 11 months for each/both). Points from multiple resorts cannot be combined until 7 months to make a reservation.

As for tracking the points, using the Member website certainly simplifies that process as long as you keep checking. A longtime DIS moderator, Caskbill created free DVC tracking/planning programs - http://web.nalu.net/~wneth/dvcplanner.htm .You can also use a spreadsheet or a simple checkbook program like Quicken to track point usage/reservations.

Good luck!

 

[cwdefouw]

We have 4 contracts all with the same use year, so all on same membership, all direct sales. As previously stated, points cannot be combined for use at 11 months for DVC resorts, however with banking and borrowing you could potentially get enough points together at one resort to handle your needs at 11 months. We frequently use points for cruises, although the value is not as good. The points are combinable for this purpose as far out as booking is allowed. When we allocate points for cruises, we always try to use our smaller contracts first, saving our largest contract (BLT) until last, that way if we decide to make a visit to WDW, we still have those points (in a large enough quantity) available. With diligent, advance planning you can use all your points, without expiring any. We have never expired a single point in 14 years. We are typically planning 18-24 months out. I use two spreadsheets for tracking, one designed by Lew Rafsky, that I think came from this board many, many years ago, and one that I created that shows each years use for each contract in a little more detail.