Question about use year...

[starry_solo]

So, after 10+ years of renting points (we only go every 3-5 years), sis has brought up the question of whether we want to buy DVC...I'm like, what?!

I wanted to make sure I understand this correctly.

For use year, if a use year is December, then points are valid from December 1 to November 30 for that use year. So 2021 use year points come December 1, 2021 and expire November 30, 2022.

The points then have to be banked by July 31, 2022 to make them valid from December 1, 2022-November 30, 2023? That's no later than 8 months at the beginning of the use year?

I'm off to do some research, but we do typically plan vacations at least 11+ months in advance, we like Beach Club and Bay Lake Towers for their proximity to EPCOT/HS and MK and we like studios..... although after staying in a BWV 1-bedroom, one of our vacation friends doesn't want to go back to studios.... which led sis to the question of buying DVC points and going every 3 years or so....

We are West Coast people so if we look into one bedrooms, maybe we might look into sleep around points for last minute vacations.... although I'm not so sure about that.

Oh, and we've also discovered we like traveling to WDW better in the fall (November) rather than spring (April/May)

 

[Lorana]

For use year, if a use year is December, then points are valid from December 1 to November 30 for that use year. So 2021 use year points come December 1, 2021 and expire November 30, 2022.

The points then have to be banked by July 31, 2022 to make them valid from December 1, 2022-November 30, 2023? That's no later than 8 months at the beginning of the use year?

That is correct. If you want to use them in the following UY, you would need to bank them by the deadline (7/31/2022 in this example) to use them. If you did not bank them, they'd expire 11/30/2022.

 

[starry_solo]

Ok, so now I need to figure out our travel patterns and decide which use year is better to get for us. We’ve gone several times in the spring and just last month, we agreed we liked November better…

 

[Lorana]

Ok, so now I need to figure out our travel patterns and decide which use year is better to get for us. We’ve gone several times in the spring and just last month, we agreed we liked November better…

If you like November, I would recommend either an August or a September UY. This gives you the ability to walk the reservation as you are traveling in peak time for DVC owners -- 1BRs will admittedly be easier to get, however. And if you need to cancel, you have until end of March or end of April, respectively, to bank your points.

August is a fairly popular UY, and so you're much more likely to find the contract you want if you target an August UY. Sep and Oct are much less popular, and so it's harder to find contracts. Of course, if you are going direct, you are able to choose your UY.

 

[robinb]

If you like November, I would recommend either an August or a September UY. This gives you the ability to walk the reservation as you are traveling in peak time for DVC owners -- 1BRs will admittedly be easier to get, however. And if you need to cancel, you have until end of March or end of April, respectively, to bank your points.

August is a fairly popular UY, and so you're much more likely to find the contract you want if you target an August UY. Sep and Oct are much less popular, and so it's harder to find contracts. Of course, if you are going direct, you are able to choose your UY.

We went to WDW for NYE for nearly 20 years and we have an August UY and we almost always bank forward. It's worked quite well for us. Now that our DD is grown, we now really like May and Oct/Nov. My banking deadline is the end of March and I will know for sure by then if I'll use the May reservations or if I should bank the points. Oct/Nov is a little easier since it's in the middle of my UY and can be cancelled up to 31 days in advance.

Edited, August isn't a great UY if you like to travel in June or July, but I think it works very well for the rest of the year.

 

[starry_solo]

We went to WDW for NYE for nearly 20 years and we have an August UY and we almost always bank forward. It's worked quite well for us. Now that our DD is grown, we now really like May and Oct/Nov. My banking deadline is the end of March and I will know for sure by then if I'll use the May reservations or if I should bank the points. Oct/Nov is a little easier since it's in the middle of my UY and can be cancelled up to 31 days in advance.

Edited, August isn't a great UY if you like to travel in June or July, but I think it works very well for the rest of the year.

We could barely take the humidity in late spring (April/May) so I don't think there's ever a chance we would go in June-September

 

[Wiltony]

I didn't think about use year when I bought my first resale contract, and ended up with October. I honestly lucked out an am very happy with it. I have since bought 7 more contracts and they are all Oct as well.

 

[Wedgeout]

Real quick when you posted points are “valid” from December 1 through November 30. It’s better to look at it as..points are already there in the UY and already “valid” for making bookings in that UY.

 

[Vulnox]

Real quick when you posted points are “valid” from December 1 through November 30. It’s better to look at it as..points are already there in the UY and already “valid” for making bookings in that UY.

Yeah this is a great point. It's the hardest part to wrap your head around I think. So we just joined direct w/ a September UY, and we have almost always traveled in November (this coming February trip being the exception). We know we have a big trip this coming Nov that will be in a 2BR, but we only have 200 points currently (our '21 points). If we use 150 of them for the Feb trip, we only have 50 left, but for the 11 month window of our November trip, we need to book it in a few weeks. Since our November trip falls in our '22 points window, so after September 2022, we actually have 250 points (200 for '22 UY, and the 50 we will bank left over from '21). You can only pull 50% from the following year, so we will have to borrow some from the '23 UY, but not much. But that is where UY can be soooo important. If we had a December UY (if those exist, I think they do), our November trip would be a bust, we would have our December '21 points leftover, so the 50, and wouldn't have our '22 points until December of next year, after our planned trip. So the most we would have for November is the 50 leftover from '21, and 100 points (50% of 200) from the coming '22 points.

Knowing your travel time and UY is certainly key. Hopefully I didn't mess up my December UY example.

 

[CarolynFH]

led sis to the question of buying DVC points and going every 3 years or so....

Be careful if you plan to use your DVC points only every 3 years. You can end up with unused points, which cost you $$ in member fees (dues). Going every other year can work pretty well with banking and borrowing, but every 3rd year is risky, since points can't be banked more than one year ahead and can't be borrowed more than one year ahead. If you plan to rent out your points in years you don't use them yourselves, that can work.

 

[starry_solo]

Be careful if you plan to use your DVC points only every 3 years. You can end up with unused points, which cost you $$ in member fees (dues). Going every other year can work pretty well with banking and borrowing, but every 3rd year is risky, since points can't be banked more than one year ahead and can't be borrowed more than one year ahead. If you plan to rent out your points in years you don't use them yourselves, that can work.

OK. We are on the West Coast so I wonder if there will ever be a unicorn 1 BD available at VGC sometimes...

 

[DonMacGregor]

OK. We are on the West Coast so I wonder if there will ever be a unicorn 1 BD available at VGC sometimes...

There are (occasionally). I snagged a 1BR there on a whim in September.

 

[starry_solo]

OK, I guess it will be time to crunch some numbers this weekend and see what we like...

 

[CarolynFH]

OK. We are on the West Coast so I wonder if there will ever be a unicorn 1 BD available at VGC sometimes...

Yes, probably there would be! Planning to book something somewhere to use points every 2 years, if not every year, is a better plan than every 3 years.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Yes, you are correct on how the UY works. And remember that UY only really matters if you end up having to cancel. And as Lorana mentioned, an Aug or Sept UY for your purposes would be good because if you had to cancel a Nov trip you would have more time to use or bank those points.

You mentioned BCV as a possibility. Our only contract is BCV and we LOVE IT (which is why we bought there)! I'm sure I don't have to tell you because it sounds like you have already experienced BCV, but the 100 yard walk from the hotel to the gate at EPCOT is fantastic. We always do park hoppers, so the 5 minute walk from our hotel to world showcase for an evening cocktail after a day at another park is one of my greatest WDW joys. And SAB makes non-park days awesome, too.

Good luck!!

 

[swaysui]

Just wanted to confirm something about different use years with different home resorts. Is having the same use year not an issue if we think split stays is a great idea? Is there any reason why it's not a good idea. I got my first contract past ROFR and already looking at a second.

 

[JETSDAD]

Just wanted to confirm something about different use years with different home resorts. Is having the same use year not an issue if we think split stays is a great idea? Is there any reason why it's not a good idea. I got my first contract past ROFR and already looking at a second.

If you're not going to use the points together often it's not as big of a deal.

 

[CarolMN]

Just wanted to confirm something about different use years with different home resorts. Is having the same use year not an issue if we think split stays is a great idea? Is there any reason why it's not a good idea. I got my first contract past ROFR and already looking at a second.

If you're not going to use the points together often it's not as big of a deal.

Agree with @JETSDAD. If you won't need to use points from both contracts to book the same night, the only "downside" that I can think of is having two different banking deadlines. That's not a big deal for most.