Picking your UY

[JLitfin]

I would like information on picking the right UY. From what I am learning the UY is the month that you receive your annual pts, correct. Plus, the MFs are paid in January of each year, right. So how do you decide what your UY should be? Is it better to pick early in the year or later? Is there a price difference between early in the year vs. late in the year or is the price the same? I'm still researching and trying to understand how the pt system works.

Thanks,
-Jean

 

[bwvBound]

Yes - UY is the month each year when you receive your new points. It also drives your banking deadlines. We chose our UY based on our anticipated travel plans: primary trip is in January each year -- but next favorite travel times are early Dec or Oct in that order. Best UY for us: OCT.

Breakdown:
* New points each Oct 1
* first banking deadline March 31. Banking points before this deadline allows us to bank up to 100% of the current year's points into next "year."
* second banking deadline is June 30. Assuming we chose to not bank anything in March, we may now bank up to 50% of our total point ownership into next year.
* last banking deadline is July 31. We may bank up to 25% of our points (if we have any left!) -- but anything not banked by this deadline will have to be used before Sept 30.

Since our typical travel windows are "early" in the UY we have little risk of having points lingering in our account beyond the last banking deadline. Even if we don't travel in Oct, Dec or even Jan -- we may still bank 100% of the year's allocation before the March deadline.

ETA: I do not believe there are cost differences across the different UYs. Yes, dues are paid in Jan -- or may be spread out across monthly payments.

Hope this helps.

 

[RobDoc]

There is no price advantage with a Use Year - purchase cost and annual fees will always be the same regardless of Use Year.

The only issue regarding Use Year would be if you need to cancel a reservation especially on short notice. If you have an October Use Year and cancel a September trip - you will need to be able to bank or re-use those points by the end of September. If you cancel a September trip early in the Use Year you may have plenty of opportunity to bank or re-use the points- but if you cancel that trip a week before arrival you would be past your banking deadlines and would have to use the points by September 30 or they would be lost. For those who mainly travel in September- a September Use Year would be best IF you will need to cancel reservations often.

For the vast majority of owners Use Year is probably of little concern. I would not allow it to be an issue regarding a purchase.

 

[Cruelladeville]

We have usually taken 3 trips per year, in March, July, and December, so I bought contracts accordingly. For the March trip, I had a Feb contract. For July I had a March, and for December, I had August. Now, I am retired, so all that planning flew out the window! For the first time in my life, I can vacation when I want to, so I am planning trips in December, May, and October, never during high point times anymore, so I am giving a contract to my kids for their trips. Remember that, no matter how much you plan, things change. Just make sure that you aren't vacationing at the END of your use year, ever, so you don't run into banking or borrowing problems.

 

[JLitfin]

So would it be better to have your UY toward the beginning of the year? Right now when we travel to WDW it's usually Jan., Feb., Nov. or Dec. that's because we still have school age kids, for another 3 years. My youngest graduates High School 2009. We vacation at WDW around holidays. Don't like the summer months at WDW, it's to hot. With this said what UY would be better if traveling in these months?

Thanks!!

 

[RobDoc]

If you will never likely travel in the fall a December Use Year would work well for the winter months you mentioned. Again, this has significance ONLY if you will be needing to cancel reservations, otherwise any Use Year is fine.

 

[bwvBound]

It seems I place higher priority on UY than Webmaster Doc (re: last line, post #3) -- but I would suggest considering an OCT UY if your travel plans will remain {Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb -- specifically avoiding summer travel}.

There are no Nov UYs; Dec UY might make Nov travel a bit risky should plans change.

 

[RobDoc]

Sorry, I missed the desire to travel in November.

I agree, October would be better for November-Feb travel dates if you will be cancelling reservations.

 

[bwvBound]

Sorry, I missed the desire to travel in November.

I agree, October would be better for November-Feb travel dates if you will be cancelling reservations.

Phew! I wondered why we seemed out of sync !

ETA: Another benefit of OCT UY: the beckoning call of the Food&Wine events.

OP: In some cases -- the matter of UY may be out of your hands. We thought we wanted a DEC UY (as our #1 DVC priority is conference travel in January) ... but after several failed attempts to find the "perfect resale" account we started weaking our position. In the end we bought directly from DVC - and still didn't have full control over the UY. Our Guide described the transaction over the phone as DEC -- but the paperwork arrived as OCT. Thinking it was a simple mistake we called him and were shocked to discover that it was intentional -- "OCT" is what they were selling at that time. He talked us into signing anyway -- and I'm very glad! We love our OCT UY and now consider it a far better choice for us than the DEC we were chasing. Live and learn!

 

[lisareniff]

It is hard to predict future travel plans decades in advance but if you know a couple months you will not ever travel to WDW then choose the UY following that time. For us, we will never go to Florida in June-Aug, TOO HOT! So a Sept or Oct UY is good. Also we will be dealing with school vactions for the next 14 years so Nov, Dec, Feb and Apr will be the times for us to go, which works well with our Oct UY.

Having a well timed UY not only helps if you have to outright cancel a reservation but if you need to modify or adjust or deal with a wait list.

 

[Inkmahm]

It is hard to predict future travel plans decades in advance but if you know a couple months you will not ever travel to WDW then choose the UY following that time. For us, we will never go to Florida in June-Aug, TOO HOT!

Same reason that we picked October. I'd add September to that TOO HOT list, too! Went once in September and roasted. Now we go in December and then again in March or April.

 

[Boston5602]

I have to count my blessings. Of all the years ( decades , oh my gosh that sounds old ) I've travelled I have never cancelled a trip once I booked it.

When thinking about which UY to buy I thought about which months I went to WDW and found its all over the calender.

I had no choice in buying DEC UY but now it only matters when I'm waiting for Dec 1st to come so I can borrow points <G>

 

[Tamar]

We have a December UY, because we thought we'd always travel in the Spring....then we discovered the F&W festival, and now we always visit in November, and every-other May. The good news is that if we ever need to cancel, I suspect we wouldn't have any trouble finding a taker for the BWV std view rooms we reserve (hope that never happens, tho). Hindsight being 20-20, I'd go for an August or October UY now.

 

[Dean]

I would generally agree with the above but would suggest there are a few exceptions. In generally I feel that use year is important for many, far more so than usually portrayed on this BBS. If one buys from DVC, the use year may determine how many points you have to use that first couple of years, basically whether you get last years points or not. Remember you do not pay back dues to DVC so if you get more immediate points on a retail purchase, your dues are the same for the same size contract. Also if you buy resale and are looking for specific use years, you may miss out on the best deal otherwise.