Purchasing VGF/Use Year and Borrowing Questions

[Little E]

Hi Disfriends,

My DH and I have been dreaming of purchasing DVC for several years. Grand Floridian has always been our top choice, and it seems to make sense for us to pull the trigger on a contract before June 1. We have done the DVC tours on previous WDW trips, and we have a DVC guide (although it's been awhile, and I don't know if he's still around??). But, because we have never purchased DVC before, I have a few questions...

1. I'm still not clear on use year? What is the significance of a specific use year month, and what are the benefits for certain use year months? When purchasing, can we request a certain month?
2. Are there point borrowing restrictions on VGF, or is that just with RR? If there are, what are they and how does that work?

Thanks so much for any advice you may have for a long time DVC dreamer and very excited soon-to-be purchaser!

 

[PalmettoPath]

Use year is basically when your annual points reset. We went with February because we start our three annual trips in March each year (and also because I wanted it to be as close to a calendar year as possible, just to make it easier).

I don't believe there are any resale restrictions similar to Riviera at this time, possibly because the new allotment of points are still part of the original VGF corporation/contract. I just reread our VGF2 contract and it states that Disney has the right to add restrictions and that it may affect your ability to resell, but doesn't specifically note any in the contract itself.

Your guide should be able to answer all your questions once you reach out. Good luck!

 

[Little E]

@PalmettoPath thank you for the info!

Were you able to select your own use year month or were you assigned one? I'm just not sure what advantages one month has over another?

 

[kanerf]

If you are buying direct you can select your use year (assuming they have the inventory at the time). When choosing a use year you need to consider when you will be vacationing. Note that there are no Jan, May, July or November use years.

 

[Marionnette]

@PalmettoPath thank you for the info!

Were you able to select your own use year month or were you assigned one? I'm just not sure what advantages one month has over another?

Think of use year as the date when points expire if they are not used or banked forward one year. With that in mind, you want a UY that is just before the dates that you would normally travel.

For instance, if you normally travel in the fall for Food & Wine, an August or September UY would be great but a December UY should be avoided. The reason for this is because let's say that you have a December UY and you made a reservation for mid-October for F&W. Shortly before your vacation, something unforeseen happens and you need to cancel. If it's after July 31, you have missed your banking deadline. You have points that will expire on November 30 and trying to get something during a busy DVC time leaves you with few choices. You stand a very good chance of having to piece a split stay trip together, possibly at resorts that you didn't want to stay at or just losing those points because you just cannot travel before they expire.

 

[Little E]

This is helpful @kanerf. We will buy GF direct. We have typically gone to WDW at spring break (March), but we have taken summer (June and July) trips, and we have taken fall trips (October and November) too. So, I'm at a loss for the most advantageous use year month.

Our oldest is a sophomore in college, and our youngest is a junior in high school. So, we still have some spring break times ahead, but we won't forever.

Advice is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure what else I'm not considering.

 

[Little E]

@Marionnette thank you for the concrete example! That's helpful! Any advice for our "buckshot" approach to visiting Disney?

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

This is helpful @kanerf. We will buy GF direct. We have typically gone to WDW at spring break (March), but we have taken summer (June and July) trips, and we have taken fall trips (October and November) too. So, I'm at a loss for the most advantageous use year month.

Our oldest is a sophomore in college, and our youngest is a junior in high school. So, we still have some spring break times ahead, but we won't forever.

Advice is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure what else I'm not considering.

If you aren’t tied to spring break anymore I would avoid it if possible. It’s expensive points wise and very crowded. Weather wise it isn’t that different between mid April and early May, especially if you are willing to travel in the summer. May is cheaper points wise.

Fall is great for food and wine and the weather is pleasant. Disney is beautiful around the holidays as well and December is more affordable than November.

We like January because it isn’t crowded and our points go farther, but weather can be iffy.

Bottom line - I would think about when you are most likely to want to travel and pick accordingly. If you really don’t know I would avoid school holidays due to crowds and summer due to the heat, and pick something that makes sense to you. Maybe September to set you up well for food and wine through January?

 

[PalmettoPath]

Think of use year as the date when points expire if they are not used or banked forward one year. With that in mind, you want a UY that is just before the dates that you would normally travel.

For instance, if you normally travel in the fall for Food & Wine, an August or September UY would be great but a December UY should be avoided. The reason for this is because let's say that you have a December UY and you made a reservation for mid-October for F&W. Shortly before your vacation, something unforeseen happens and you need to cancel. If it's after July 31, you have missed your banking deadline. You have points that will expire on November 30 and trying to get something during a busy DVC time leaves you with few choices. You stand a very good chance of having to piece a split stay trip together, possibly at resorts that you didn't want to stay at or just losing those points because you just cannot travel before they expire.

We were able to select our own year, but I can't recall if it was from all 12 months or not. It was awhile back.

 

[Marionnette]

We were able to select our own year, but I can't recall if it was from all 12 months or not. It was awhile back.

There aren't 12 UYs. You can't get January, May, July or November.

 

[PalmettoPath]

There aren't 12 UYs. You can't get January, May, July or November.

That's what I thought -- that's why we went with Feb as we wanted calendar year (or as close to it).

 

[CarolynFH]

Are there point borrowing restrictions on VGF, or is that just with RR? If there are, what are they and how does that work?

The point borrowing restrictions apply to all DVC resorts - currently, we can borrow no more than 50% of the points from the next UY of a given contract. I've seen several very recent reports, though, of members getting pixie dust permission to borrow more than that by calling MS, so hopefully DVC is getting ready to return to allowing us to borrow up to 100% of next year's points.

Re selecting a UY, the Understanding Use Year thread can be very helpful. Since you think you'll visit pretty much any time of the year, the choice of UY may not be as critical for you as it is for others. We ended up with a September UY just by chance, but it's the perfect one for us, because we almost never visit Orlando in the months of May through August (it's too hot and humid!).

 

[Marionnette]

@Marionnette thank you for the concrete example! That's helpful! Any advice for our "buckshot" approach to visiting Disney?

Buckshot? You mean like someone who has no specific time of year that they generally visit, so they're just as likely to want a December trip as they are a March or July visit?

If that's what you mean, my approach would be to have multiple UYs that you alternate using depending on the time of year that you are traveling. So my December UY works well for Christmas time thru mid-summer and my September UY is great for fall trips thru the spring. Since that cover every month except August (which is just a brutal time to be in Central Florida) I just use the membership that has the least chance of losing points if I have to cancel.

 

[Little E]

@CarlolynFH thank you for the borrowing points clarification. Good to know that it's only 50% of the next year right now.

@Marionnette that's exactly what I meant by buckshot approach. Right now, we still have kids who will have spring breaks most likely in March for the next few years (one's in college and one's a junior in high school). But, we have done summer trips and we have done fall trips too, so I guess I'm not sure which UY would be best for us. Thank you for sharing the thread about use years...hubby and I will read it tonight.
It sounds like you have more than one contract and the contracts have different use years?

We were thinking of buying one larger contract. Is it better to break that contract into two smaller ones with different use years? What are the pros and cons of doing that?

 

[Little E]

Also, if you can only borrow 50% of your points, can you at least bank 100% of points? Sorry for so many questions.

 

[KVacc]

This is helpful @kanerf. We will buy GF direct. We have typically gone to WDW at spring break (March), but we have taken summer (June and July) trips, and we have taken fall trips (October and November) too. So, I'm at a loss for the most advantageous use year month.

Our oldest is a sophomore in college, and our youngest is a junior in high school. So, we still have some spring break times ahead, but we won't forever.

Advice is greatly appreciated. I'm not sure what else I'm not considering.

You have have the same vacationing schedule as us thought out, we ended up going with March use year.

 

[KVacc]

Also, if you can only borrow 50% of your points, can you at least bank 100% of points? Sorry for so many questions.

Yes you can bank 100%.

 

[Wedgeout]

Advise against different UY’s. Keep one UY and that way it’s one membership. You can split points up into smaller contracts. 150 for the first if a new buyer and smaller ones after that. UY comes into importance when canceling a reservation avoiding point holding and still within the points banking window of the UY. Look at your buckshot. Pick a UY two or three months after the least amount of months hit. Have a UY where you travel mostly in the first 8-9 months of it.

 

[Marionnette]

We were thinking of buying one larger contract. Is it better to break that contract into two smaller ones with different use years? What are the pros and cons of doing that?

Smaller contracts sell more quickly and for more $/point than large contracts. Although you may be in this for the long run, you just never know if you might need to sell someday. However, new members must buy a minimum of 150 points, all in the same UY.

Every contract will have its own fees for document prep and deed recording. It is slightly more expensive to buy 2 contracts of X points each than it is to buy 1 contract of 2X points.

If you have 2 or more contracts it's easier for your heirs to divide them between themselves if your ownership outlasts you.

You need to be more diligent about banking deadlines and expiration dates when you have multiple UYs.

Points from different UYs cannot be combined online to make a single reservation. You have to call member services to transfer points from one membership to the other in order to use the points together.

 

[Little E]

@Wedgeout and Marionette thank you so much. This info is so helpful, especially before we call our guide tomorrow.