Last year's points when buying in???

[Caskbill]

Hi Lisa: I agree, sometimes it seems like the consistency is not there. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been better off. In post #16 I stated I lost out on 400 pts, because that was my initial buy in. Nov 14, 2003 was my purchase date, but if I would have insisted on a Dec 2003 UY, I would have received 400 pts for one time use, which I could have used once SSR opened in May 2004. People that bought in Aug 2003 early on received 2003 points, I bought 90 days later and received zero. I know what you mean about consistency. Matt

Keep in mind you can only choose a use year if it's available. The number of points sold for each UY is fixed. Maybe all the December UY's were already sold when you bought, as well as all the February, etc.

Even if you had gotten Dec '05 points, that means your '06 points wouldn't come until Dec '06. As of now you get your '06 points in May, 7-months earlier. Aside from the 5-month offset, your 'loss' of 400 points will not actually occur until 2054 when the program expires.

SSR opened in May 2004. Those who got a Dec UY could use their points between May and Dec 2004. You got a May UY so you could use your points between May '04 and May '05. The only real difference is that your points are offset by 5-months.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

True, but they are free in a sense that you do not have to maintenance fees for that years worth of points.

 

[doombuggy]

Can someone explain the $8 rebate to me? Our family is thinking of buy and I was told about this - but I am confused. Is it a discount off of the per point price, or is it a "rebate" that I would get for selling back my first year point allotment? I have been inundated with info over the past 3 days.

 

[Disney-Kim]

If you buy the current deal with Sept UY....Please remember you must bank/book your points by tomorrow Feb 28th or you lose points !!!!!

My sis just bought last week and had to bank right away.

just a heads up !!

 

[unixadm]

I have an April UY....and my Guide says I can add on 120 points, I get my 2005 points, can immediately bank them and use them for our trip in April, which coincidentely is 120 points (Sun-Fri BWV standard view)....which would then allow us to take the 120 2006 points we were going to use for the trip, and the new 120 2006 points and either use them for 2006, or bank them for 2007.

Basically, it would give us 240 2006 points, when I was going to have none left after our April trip.

Basically for us, it would be 120 free points, since I would be getting them less than 1 month before they would expire and they will still allow the banking and 2006 use.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

If you buy the current deal with Sept UY....Please remember you must bank/book your points by tomorrow Feb 28th or you lose points !!!!!

My sis just bought last week and had to bank right away.

just a heads up !!

So if i was to purchase tomorrow I would need to immediately bank my 2005 points to not lose any of them - once banked would the 2005 points expire september 06? Once I hit my use year, all points would be available (banked + 2006 points) until September 07? is that right? If so I better get on the blower buy asap!

 

[Jen D]

So if i was to purchase tomorrow I would need to immediately bank my 2005 points to not lose any of them - once banked would the 2005 points expire september 06? Once I hit my use year, all points would be available (banked + 2006 points) until September 07? is that right? If so I better get on the blower buy asap!

Don't panic, talk to your guide. If you buy past the deadline they will probably give you a banking extension. But do ask.

 

[cobbler]

Can someone explain the $8 rebate to me? Our family is thinking of buy and I was told about this - but I am confused. Is it a discount off of the per point price, or is it a "rebate" that I would get for selling back my first year point allotment? I have been inundated with info over the past 3 days.

You don't have to sell the current UY points back, its a discount per point.

So lets say you buy 150 points. Those 150 will cost you 14700 (150 x 98). Disney will give you 1200 towards your down payment, deposit whatever. Meaning you would have to come up with 13500 out of pocket (14700- 1200), if you pay all at once.

If you finance it would be different.
The cost would be 14700
You would have to put 10% down so 1470
Disney would "put down" the 1200 (basically discount)
leaving you to finance 12030.

 

[Caskbill]

True, but they are free in a sense that you do not have to maintenance fees for that years worth of points.

Maintenance fees go by calendar year, not by use year. Nobody ever really gets 'free' maintenance fees.

Suppose you bought points last September and paid pro-rated maintenance fees. You paid for 4 months. You paid maintenance fees for the 4-months remaining in the calendar year.

You did NOT pay all the maintenance fees for those September 2005 points. If you want to equate to UY, then you paid 1/3rd of your Sep 2005 UY points when you bought, and you paid the remaining 2/3rds maintenance fees on those points when you paid your calendar year fees this past January.

If you want to apply it to points, then with a September Use Year, 2/3rds of your January 2006 dues are fees toward your September 2005 UY points (to cover the months of Jan 2006-Aug 2006, and 1/3rd of the ANNUAL fees you paid will apply to your Sept 2006 points, that is, covering the months Sep 2006-Dec 2006.

Somehow people keep getting the impression that when fees are pro-rated, that they're not paying a full year's worth of fees. They still are, because fees are Annualized by the calendar year, not by the use year.

 

[DisneyFreaks]

We bought in January'06 and they gave us our use year of August 1st. Once we signed we received 200 points that have to be used by July 31st or had to be banked by Feb.1st. We will receive another 200 in August. Since we were planning on going at the end of August we had to bank the 200 points before we made our reservations. Hope this helps.

Okay, now I'm confused. We just bought in and have a September UY. We booked a trip for the first week of Dec. 06. The trip is taking 243 pts. 150 from what we received when we purchased and 93 of the points we'll get Sept. 1st. MS said we did not have to bank anything yet until we get the 06 points and bank the 57 that will be left providing we aren't going to use them. Was this right?

 

[TAKitty]

If you buy the current deal with Sept UY....Please remember you must bank/book your points by tomorrow Feb 28th or you lose points !!!!!

My sis just bought last week and had to bank right away.

just a heads up !!

My guide said that I have until July to decide what I wish to do with my 05 points.

 

[LisaS]

Okay, now I'm confused. We just bought in and have a September UY. We booked a trip for the first week of Dec. 06. The trip is taking 243 pts. 150 from what we received when we purchased and 93 of the points we'll get Sept. 1st. MS said we did not have to bank anything yet until we get the 06 points and bank the 57 that will be left providing we aren't going to use them. Was this right?

It sounds to me like the Sep '05 points you got with your purchase were banked into your '06 Use Year either automatically when you purchased, or by MS when you called to make your Dec '06 reservation. So the status of your points at this point would be:

Sep '05 Use Year: All 150 points banked into your Sep '06 Use Year
Sep '06 Use Year: 57 points remaining

Since those 57 points represent less than 50% of your total points, you would have until May 31, 2007 (your 50% banking deadline) to bank them into your Sep '07 Use Year if you are not going to use them for a trip between now and Aug 31, 2007.

If you want to verify this, either call MS or log in to the DVC member's website and go to "My DVC" and "Points" and you can see how many points you have left in each of your Use Years.

 

[DisneyFreaks]

It sounds to me like the Sep '05 points you got with your purchase were banked into your '06 Use Year either automatically when you purchased, or by MS when you called to make your Dec '06 reservation. So the status of your points at this point would be:

Sep '05 Use Year: All 150 points banked into your Sep '06 Use Year
Sep '06 Use Year: 57 points remaining

Since those 57 points represent less than 50% of your total points, you would have until May 31, 2007 (your 50% banking deadline) to bank them into your Sep '07 Use Year if you are not going to use them for a trip between now and Aug 31, 2007.

If you want to verify this, either call MS or log in to the DVC member's website and go to "My DVC" and "Points" and you can see how many points you have left in each of your Use Years.

Yep, that's exactly what it says on the website. All 150 pts are banked. Like you said MS must automatically do this when a reservation is made. Thanks for explaining this to me LisaS. I was a little worried that we got something mixed up there for a second. We have so much to learn. Thanks again.

 

[LisaS]

Yep, that's exactly what it says on the website. All 150 pts are banked. Like you said MS must automatically do this when a reservation is made. Thanks for explaining this to me LisaS. I was a little worried that we got something mixed up there for a second. We have so much to learn. Thanks again.

I just want to correct one thing so that I don't confuse anybody. MS doesn't automatically bank points, as far as I know. They only do it if you ask them to do it for you. When you made your reservation, did they ask you which points you wanted to use? If you said you wanted to use your '05 points, then they would have banked them for you at that time. They usually double check that this is what you want to do by reminding you that banking is a one-way transaction and cannot be undone, or words to that effect.

When I said the points may have been banked automatically, I was thinking that maybe your DVC guide (not MS) might have done this when you bought in since you were at your banking deadline.

Anyway, I'm glad you were able to verify that everything is all set. It's nice to have the option of checking this stuff online!

 

[DisneyFreaks]

I just want to correct one thing so that I don't confuse anybody. MS doesn't automatically bank points, as far as I know. They only do it if you ask them to do it for you. When you made your reservation, did they ask you which points you wanted to use? If you said you wanted to use your '05 points, then they would have banked them for you at that time. They usually double check that this is what you want to do by reminding you that banking is a one-way transaction and cannot be undone, or words to that effect.

When I said the points may have been banked automatically, I was thinking that maybe your DVC guide (not MS) might have done this when you bought in since you were at your banking deadline.

Anyway, I'm glad you were able to verify that everything is all set. It's nice to have the option of checking this stuff online!

I learned from this board to tell them we wanted to use the 05 points first so they knew that right off. All of the DisBoards hold a wealth of information and I don't know what I would do without you all. Our Guide did not give us one bit of information or help. After our first conversation with him about joining dvc he told us to keep him posted on what we found out. He really seemed more like a salesman to us than a "guide". Thanks again for explaining all of this.

 

[Glorydaz]

this is what happened for us:

we just bought 200 SSR points on 2/15/06 while on vacation...our guide explained we would get $8 off per point ($1600) to be used towards our down payment or if we were paying in full, to be taken off the final price. our use year is Sept and we were given 200 Sept'05 points immediately with our next allotment of 200 coming in Sept of '06.

on Monday, 2/20, with our guide's help, I booked a 3 night stay at BWV ( a 1 bedroom) for myself and my daughter. being our stay includes 1 Friday night, I used 112 points, leaving me a balance of 88 2005 points. yesterday (2/28), I called MS and made reservations for 10/29 through 11/3 of '06. MS advised me to bank my 88 points first and I was given a banking number. as the MS was kind enough to point out, I now had a total of 288 points for Sept'06 use year. I was also told, once points are banked - you cannot return them to the original use year. Banking is a final transaction.

after checking for availability , ( we did that first!), I booked a 1 bedroom at my home resort, SSR using 110 points. 88 of these were my banked points, the remainder was from my '06 allottment. I will now have a balance of 178 use points for the remainder of my '06 year.

I financed thru Disney, putting down 20% ( no 10% was ever offered - it's not even on their point/pay scale sheet in my folder). my first payment will not be due until June of this year.

we are extremely thrilled and know this was a great move for us. I'm hoping my above details help explain this for anyone who wasn't quite sure of how it works....

 

[LisaS]

I'm hoping my above details help explain this for anyone who wasn't quite sure of how it works....

Welcome home, Glorydaz! That was a great post -- clearly expressed and very informative.