Question about banking borrowed points?

[MamaKate]

I need help.

I'm planning a last minute trip (well last minute for me anyway) for March 2008.

As a gift to my DS who is working extremely hard in school, I want to surprise him with a trip to Orlando for Wrestlemania 24 in March (he loves wrestling).

Well my dilema is I'll have to borrow points from my 2008 use year since I've used all my points for our November trip. If for some reason I can't find reasonable aifare or get tickets to Wrestlemania, will I be able to bank borrowed points?

I'm assuming no, but I wanted to check with more knowledgable DVC members first. I would wait until I secure the airline tickets & Wrestlemania tickets, but since it's around spring break, I don't want to be stuck without accommodations .

What would you DISers do?

Thanks,
Katie

 

[JimMIA]

No, you can't bank (or unborrow) borrowed points. Banking and borrowing are one-way transactions which cannot be undone. If not used, the points will expire at the end of the UY they are borrowed into.

About the only thing you can do in these situations is use borrowed points for future trips, and depending on circumstances, possibly bank any current year points that you have left. It doesn't sound like you have any current points left, so that would not be an option.

The only other real alternative would be to rent the points which are about to expire. If you have a ressie during a spring break week, you might be able to keep the ressie and rent it to a non-owner. If a renter's itinerary did not fit exactly with your ressie, you could cancel the existing ressie and make what they wanted. The problem with renting with borrowed points is that obviously you will be in big trouble if the renter cancels on you.

 

[MamaKate]

Thanks! That's what I thought.

But I didn't even think about renting them out.

I'll probably just wait until November to book a room after I buy the wrestling tickets. Then I'll just worry about airfare later.

With this new 4 month rule, will I be able to book a reservation at a Disneyland hotel with by borrowed points in January if my use year is March?

 

[CarolMN]

...(snip).....With this new 4 month rule, will I be able to book a reservation at a Disneyland hotel with by borrowed points in January if my use year is March?

Yes.

 

[kgc07]

With this new 4 month rule, will I be able to book a reservation at a Disneyland hotel with by borrowed points in January if my use year is March?

If your use year is March, wouldn't you be using your current use year points in March 08 and not borrowing the points?

 

[Caskbill]

I don't quite understand. In post #1 you said you want to borrow points for a March 2008 reservation. But in post #3 you say your use year is also March.

If that's the case, then for a March 2008 reservation you would use regular March 2008 use year points. You would not be borrowing points at all.

As for a January DL reservation, that date would be in your March 2007 use year, and yes, you could borrow points for January 2008.

 

[MamaKate]

I don't quite understand. In post #1 you said you want to borrow points for a March 2008 reservation. But in post #3 you say your use year is also March.

If that's the case, then for a March 2008 reservation you would use regular March 2008 use year points. You would not be borrowing points at all.

As for a January DL reservation, that date would be in your March 2007 use year, and yes, you could borrow points for January 2008.

I thought since I will be calling to make the reservation now and I don't have any available points for my current year, I would have to borrow them in order to make my reservation .

So are you saying that since my reservation will be in March and my UY is in March, it's not actually borrowing? So if I don't end up going, the points will go back into my account for my 2008 UY??

 

[Caskbill]

I thought since I will be calling to make the reservation now and I don't have any available points for my current year, I would have to borrow them in order to make my reservation .

So are you saying that since my reservation will be in March and my UY is in March, it's not actually borrowing? So if I don't end up going, the points will go back into my account for my 2008 UY??

The date you actually call to make the reservation has nothing to do with the points that will be used to make the reservation. You can call at 11-months / 7-months ahead of your checkout to make the reservation. The points used must come from the particular Use Year that the vacation dates are within.

So yes, you can call now and make that reservation, using regular 2008 UY points. If you cancel, those points are returned to their regular 2008 UY.

Sometimes it helps to have a use year chart to look at. For yourself, a March UY chart looks like this:

Use Year.....Vacation Dates
2007.....Mar 1, 2007 thru Feb 29, 2008
2008.....Mar 1, 2008 thru Feb 28, 2009
2009.....Mar 1, 2009 thru Feb 28, 2010
2010.....Mar 1, 2010 thru Feb 28, 2011

and so on.

The vacation you want to take is March 2008. That requires UY2008 points. There are three ways to have UY2008 points: 1)Regular alloted points for UY2008, 2)Points banked from UY2007 into UY2008, 3)Points borrowed from UY2009 into UY2008.

Points do not have to be in your 'account' the day you call. They have to be 'assigned' to the use year from which the points will be drawn. The assignment can be any of the three listed directly above.

Suppose your contract is for 150 points and you have 150 2007 UY points, and 150 2008 UY points coming Mar 1, 2008. You could call today and make a 250 point reservation in one call by having the CM bank your 2007 points into 2008. This leaves you with zero 2007 UY points, and 300 2008 UY points which are comprised of 150 banked points and 150 regular points. You make the reservation (using the 150 banked points and 100 of the regular points for a total of 250 points). This leaves you with zero 2007 points, 50 2008 UY points, and your full allotment of 150 UY 2009 points still available.

Hope this helps.


One final thing about your March 2008 reservation: If you cancel less than 31 days ahead, the points go into the holding account which is different than the regular 2008 allocation account, so if you need to cancel be sure to do so at least 31 days ahead of the check-in date.

 

[MamaKate]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I really confused myself by thinking about it too much .

Now I have nothing to worry about so everyone can disregard my thread .

 

[kmermaid]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I really confused myself by thinking about it too much .

Now I have nothing to worry about so everyone can disregard my thread .

I'm not disregarding it! It help answer a question I had about banking and borrowing, so thanks!