Is it better to be in banking or borrowing mode?

[katandmouse]

Just got our new membership account set up, and now I am playing around with our vacation points. We are planning every other year trips. For others who do or did the same, do you prefer to bank or borrow your points and why? Any other tips or things I should know about?

 

[Grumpy6264]

Personally, I prefer to be in borrowing mode.

If you have banked points, you need to use those points by the end of the use year or you lose them. If you are in borrowing mode, you borrow when you need them.

That doesn't mean that we never bank, especially if we take a year off, but we typically borrow.

 

[DduzDis]

Could be either for us, but we rent any left over points to offset $$ for APs before the points would expire.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

Personally, I prefer to be in borrowing mode.

If you have banked points, you need to use those points by the end of the use year or you lose them. If you are in borrowing mode, you borrow when you need them.

That doesn't mean that we never bank, especially if we take a year off, but we typically borrow.

This is true for us as well. We generally borrow instead of bank but that isn't to say we haven't banked on occasion.

 

[suebeelin]

Banking! I hate borrowing bc I want the option to go as much as possible!!

 

[mom2rb]

In 15 years I think that I have banked a whopping 7 points. We generally buy APs, borrow points and book 3 trips in a year. Then we take 18-24 months off and do it again.

 

[Louis morrell]

Borrowing, that way when this all comes to an end (DVC resort expiration or my experation) I know I have used as many points as I possibly could have

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Banking. I like to know I have more points to work with for the next year

 

[stewart715]

Banking mode, no question. The best is if you are able to skip a year and then distribute banked points over many years.

Example:
1 - Buy 100 points
2 - Skip year 1
3 - Book 120 points per year for the next 5 years.

This strategy gives you flexibility to add add'l nights or better views/room types.

 

[Louis morrell]

Or borrow 20 the first year, 40 second year, 60 third year 80 fourth year, 100 fifth year and skip year 6

 

[stewart715]

Or borrow 20 the first year, 40 second year, 60 third year 80 fourth year, 100 fifth year and skip year 6

My only problem with this is you can start the "cycle" on a year that you know for sure you can give up using points. Whereas you don't know what life will bring in 6 years when you will inevitably be out of points. You may really want to go that year but now have no points. But ultimately does serve the same purpose.

 

[ScubaCat]

I vote borrowing. Anything prepaid is better to use sooner vs. later. The value always diminishes once they have your money. That's generally less so with DVC, but even here we have the original 2020 point reallocation that raised the point cost for most rooms. With borrowing, the 2020 points would have been redeemed at the 2019 rate.

 

[stewart715]

I vote borrowing. Anything prepaid is better to use sooner vs. later. The value always diminishes once they have your money. That's generally less so with DVC, but even here we have the original 2020 point reallocation that raised the point cost for most rooms. With borrowing, the 2020 points would have been redeemed at the 2019 rate.

Kinda goes both ways tho, no? Original 2020 allocations were better for some folks than the 2019 allocations (depends on room type). At end of day, you paid for all the points so when you use them doesn't really matter.

 

[Louis morrell]

My only problem with this is you can start the "cycle" on a year that you know for sure you can give up using points. Whereas you don't know what life will bring in 6 years when you will inevitably be out of points. You may really want to go that year but now have no points. But ultimately does serve the same purpose.

But then you have an excuse to buy more points

 

[FFMickey]

We're in the banking mode right now. We bank so if we need extra points for our trip we can borrow the rest. Continually borrowing seemed like more hassle to me, however there are pluses with it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have no strategy and no concern with it. I do what I need to do with my points to get what I want to get. I've banked AND borrowed. It's all good.

 

[gillep]

One of my contracts has been in borrow mode for a while and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future, and the other contract has a lot of points banked into it that I am not exactly sure what we are going to do with, so I am clearly having some issues, but we will figure it out. For some reason I prefer the math of the borrowed contract, but I have had that one much longer, and we travel much more predictably on it, so I think I am just more accustomed to it than anything else.

 

[kboo]

I vote borrowing. Anything prepaid is better to use sooner vs. later. The value always diminishes once they have your money. That's generally less so with DVC, but even here we have the original 2020 point reallocation that raised the point cost for most rooms. With borrowing, the 2020 points would have been redeemed at the 2019 rate.

I agree. Also, when you have more than 1 contract or home resort, it's easier to be in slight borrowing mode so you are not at risk of losing points. I'm a point miser, and unless I have a solid plan to use the banked points and then some the following year, having banked points puts me in a use them or lose them position, and sometimes life happens. For example - we are "only" planning 1 big trip in the summer of 2020. We will have a few banked points from our BLT and RIV contracts that we will have to use, but there's only about 1 night's worth of banked points to use. If we don't also use our current 2020 UY points, we will be in a banking situation in 2021, and so on. And if any of those future years, life happens, we run the risk of losing those banked points. I know you can always rent the points or transfer them, but the amount of points is not really big enough to make it worth the hassle.

And, more to the point, we are only planning 1 trip in 2020, and we have to use banked points from 2 resorts, which means we will have to be booking a split stay at 11 months and then deciding whether to consolidate somewhere at 7 mos. On top of that, that was the trip we were hoping to take some extended family, and if you read on these boards, those are the trips that are most likely to end up with people bailing or changing plans at the last minute. (Or there will be family that will complain about having to move resorts, etc. etc.)

...At the end of day, you paid for all the points so when you use them doesn't really matter.

That's kind of what the guide said to me when talking about the difference between Feb UY and Aug UY at RIV. I said, we'd have current (2019) UY points to spend for our Dec. 2019 trip, rather than having to borrow from Feb 2020 (there are no Feb 2019 points for RIV). The guide said, "but works out in the end because at the end of the contract you'll get points; you get 50 years of points no matter what." I looked at them and said, "I am not going to care about those points 50 years from now. I'd rather have more points up front." To which the guide said, "Yeah. You have a point there."

 

[Marionnette]

I do whatever fits into my long range plans. Last year was an “off year” and my brother used his points for treehouse villas. This year was a week-long split stay between BWV and AKV, a week-long stay in a VGF GV and 6 nights at BWV the first week in Dec. Next year, I’m renting out points at BWV for a 2BR villa during the Princess Half, splitting a stay between BWV and AKV during F&G and then a week in a BWV GV during F&W. The following year, my brother will book the treehouses again and I’ll bank my points.

So, I’m almost always banking AND borrowing to make trips work out.

 

[ElizabethG]

I don't think there is a right or wrong either. We have just switched to every other year. So, you have to do both. This summer we had banked points we are using. Since we are not planning to go in 2020, we also had to use all of our 2019 points. So, we went over by a few that we borrowed from 2020. That way, in 2021 I'll have banked and current year points to do it all again.