questions

[tinkabella627]

What is use year? What does this mean? I looked through the boards and can't find it and the search never works.

Also, if you purchase DVC how long are you actually paying?

 

[Donald is #1]

Use Year (UY) is the month in the year when your DVC points renew/expire. It also determines when you can bank your points. For example, I have an August UY. So my 2008 points will expire on 7/31/09 and my 2009 points are available 8/1/09. In my case, I can back my points up until March.

 

[Donald is #1]

On your paying question, assuming that you pay cash for your points, then you will be paying maintenance fees (MF) every year until the term of your resort ends (2042, etc.). If you are financing your points, then you will pay the loan up to 10 years plus maintenance fees for every year of your term.

 

[Grandbuddy]

"Use year" denotes when your particular points "renew." If you have a use year of December, for instance, your points for 2008 are actually current beginning December 1, 2008 - meaning your 2008 points are "current" for nearly all of 2009. If you are not going to use any portion of your 2008 points, you must bank within the first eight months of the use year - so no later than July 31, 2009.

If you finance your points purchase, the length of time you will pay for your points will depend upon your financing. Additionally, you will pay maintenance fees for the life of your contract. (Any condominium or time share you might purchase will involve association fees.) These fees vary by resort. Mfs are due in January of each year, but you can make arrangements to have them paid on a monthly basis, by bank draft, should you desire. Maintenance fees are subject to being adjusted each year, for inflation, etc. So far, they have generally risen a lesser percentage than have rack rates for Disney accommodations.

 

[tinkabella627]

I had received the book from DVC in the mail but I was really confused. I guess I don't see how it pays for itself. How are people that only have 160 points able to go more than once a year?

 

[Donald is #1]

I had received the book from DVC in the mail but I was really confused. I guess I don't see how it pays for itself. How are people that only have 160 points able to go more than once a year?

Do you normally stay at Value, Moderate, or Deluxe resorts?

I tend to stay at deluxe places, so for me, when I had 160 points, my break even would have been 5-7 years.

To stretch 160 points for multiple trips per year, many people stay during the week and either have short strips or switch to a value resort for the weekends. Personnally, I am not going to change to a value resort on weekends, I am just going to use my points.


The math works something like this:

160 points at $96 per point (assuming $8 per point discount) = $15360.

Let's assume $4.50 per point MF. So a years worth of maintance fees are 160x4.5 = $720 per year.


So, let's just take the costs for 7 years = 15360 + 7x720 = 20400.

This averages out to $2915 per year. So in this example, if you spend more than $2900 per year on resort costs at WDW, then you will break even in 7 years or less.

Of course, my example is simple since I didn't raise the MFs each year.


Now many people don't worry about breaking even because they feel that they have up-graded accomodations.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I had received the book from DVC in the mail but I was really confused. I guess I don't see how it pays for itself. How are people that only have 160 points able to go more than once a year?

Yours is a good question. It "pays for itself" only if you are used to staying on site at WDW in a Deluxe resort every year. If that is not your pattern, then DVC will seem costly to you. If, on the other hand, you WOULD travel to Disney more frequently if you could do so without spending 3-5 thousand on accommodations, then DVC makes a lot of sense and will "pay for itself" after a few years. As for doing all that on 160 points...I don't think it's that possible.

You need to look at your current vacation habits and determine the number of points you think you will need for the times you are likely to vacation. In our case, we assumed 230 was a good number for us....It was until after our first trip! Then we decided we needed more trips in a year, so we had to add on another 150 points. Now our 380 points have served us well over the past 11 years, but then along came AKV and we KNEW we wanted to stay there at least every third year, so we added a 69 point contract there to be used on an every third year basis (bank one year and in the next year use the banked points, current points and borrow from the following year).

Even with all of that and paying maintenance fees, we still felt we "broke even" about the 4-5th year. Now we go 2-3 times a year and often stay up to 28 days a year at WDW in Deluxe 1,2, or 3 bedroom villas for the cost of maintenace fees that amount to a small portion of what the accommodations of one small trip would cost us in a deluxe. In that regard, it "pays for itself" very quickly.

 

[CarolMN]

Here are two threads that will help you to understand the use year concept:

Use Year?

Understanding Use Year

Note that the booking policy has changed since the threads were posted (from prior to check out to prior to check in), but otherwise the information is still correct and should help you understand the concept.