Understanding Banking

[Lancer]

Last week, I bought 160pts into AKV. I understand everything, except, I just cant get a good grasp on banking. It seems so basic!

My situation:
My use year is August and was given 160 pts when I signed. I also got 125 developers points(one time) as a Disney shareholder(special offer) for signing. My window for vacations starts October 15th and ends February 20th. From what I have read and understand, because I wont use any points until atleast october, I need to bank atleast the 160 points by march 31st or I will start losing points already. The way I look at it, is having a big pot of 445 points, come august 1st. If I take a 200pt vacation in october, the first points out will be the original 160 points. If I never take a vacation in the next UY, all I should lose are the original 160 pts.

My Questions:
Is banking just another term for rolling over points to the next use year? Or is it a whole different thing. If I understand, you can only accumulate points over two years before you start losing them. So, If I bank the 160 points from this UY, to use them in October, I must use them by the end of the next UY or lose them? My biggest ,basic question is, why do you need to "bank" points? Isnt is assumed that everyone would want to rollover any unused points to the next UY rather than losing them? Why isnt it done automatically? Can anyone tell me if my 125pts from the shareholder offer also needs to be banked by march 31st also.

Thanks for the help!
I feel like I'm standing in front of a door, but just cant figure out how to open it!
Lancer

 

[Buckeye Fan]

My Questions:
Is banking just another term for rolling over points to the next use year? Or is it a whole different thing.

I have an Aug UY as well...so I'll do my best to explain.

Yes. Truly that simple. Here's how it works:
Points deposited 8/1/07 - good for vacations from 8/1/07 - 7/31/08
Points deposited 8/1/08 - good for vacations from 8/1/08 - 7/31/09
Points deposited 8/1/09 - good fro vacations from 8/1/09 - 7/31/10
...and so on...

In your case, if you decide you do not want to vacation from 8/1/07 - 7/31/08, you can bank those points into the next UY ('08). Once banked, you cannot change your mind and bring those points back into your original ('07) UY. Because we have an Aug UY, we have through March 31 to bank some or all of our current UYs points. You can only bank a set of points once, so if you bank 160 '07 points into '08, you can use those points for reservations from 8/1/08 - 7/31/09. After 7/31/09, you lose those points. Also, you have to complete your travel by 7/31/09, not just make your reservations by then.

From what I have read and understand, because I won't use any points until at least october, I need to bank at least the 160 points by march 31st or I will start losing points already.

Yes, this is true. Because these points were deposted on 8/1/07, if you don't bank by March 31, they will expire at the end of the '07 UY, which is 7/31/08.

The way I look at it, is having a big pot of 445 points, come august 1st. If I take a 200pt vacation in october, the first points out will be the original 160 points. If I never take a vacation in the next UY, all I should lose are the original 160 pts.

Someone will have to help me with how developer's points work, as I think they are different than just your normal contract points. However, let's just deal with the 160 points on your contract. If you bank them at the end of March, you will have 320 points become available on 8/1/08. Think of those 320 points in two pools - 160 banked points and 160 new points. MS will always use banked points to cover a reservation first, but I always ask them just to make sure.

Of the two pools of points, the 160 banked points will expire on 7/31/09 if not used. Again, once banked, you can't bank points again. As for the new pool of points, you will have until March 31, 2009 to decide if/how you want to use them. You can bank some or all depending on your vacation needs. If you bank all of them, they will become available to you again on 8/1/09. If not, they will expire on 7/31/08.

My biggest ,basic question is, why do you need to "bank" points? Isnt is assumed that everyone would want to rollover any unused points to the next UY rather than losing them? Why isnt it done automatically?

Because the banking deadline is prior to the end of the UY. Let's assume that the deadline to bank for us was 7/31 of a given year. Then yes, rather than lose points, any member would want to carry them over into the next UY. However, Dis only allows you to bank within the first 8 months of your use year (for us...8/1 - 3/31). Dis has no way of knowing if we'd like to use those points 4/1 - 7/31, so, it's up to the member to bank if they won't be making a reservation during their UY.

Another reason is flexibility, which is what many people love about DVC. Most timeshares give you a certain week every year at a given resort. With DVC, if we want to take a cruise, we can. Let's say I have a 200 pt contract and want to take a cruise that costs me 600 points, I can bank this UYs points into next year, schedule the cruise for next year and borrow 200 points from '09. Granted, I would use 200 points from '07, '08 and '09, but I could do that if I chose to do so.

Can anyone tell me if my 125pts from the shareholder offer also needs to be banked by march 31st also.

Sorry...can't help with this one.

Thanks for the help! I feel like I'm standing in front of a door, but just cant figure out how to open it!
Lancer

Absolutely!!! You'll get the swing of things. UY really confused me as well. One of the moderators on the Disboards was so helpful and made it really simple to understand. These boards are so wonderful with so many people really wanting to help!

Lastly, congratulations on your purchase and WELCOME HOME!!!

 

[LisaS]

First of all, developer points are good for one year from your purchase date so you will want to use those first. They do not have a home resort so if you want to use them to book a DVC resort, you have to wait until 7 months prior to your check out date to use them. I don't know what the time frames are to use them for other things (cruises, etc).

As far as your regular points go, with an August Use Year:

Your 2007 points are valid for stays from 8/1/07 - 7/31/08
Your 2008 points are valid for stays from 8/1/08 - 7/31/09
Your 2009 points are valid for stays from 8/1/09 - 7/31/10
Your 2010 points are valid for stays from 8/1/10 - 7/31/11
and so on...

When you bank points they are moved from their current Use Year into the next UY. If you bank your 2007 UY points they move into your 2008 UY. They cannot be banked again so you would need to use them for a stay that occurs between 8/1/08 and 7/31/09. They would expire at the end of July 2009.

You can bank up to 100% of your points during the first 8 months of your Use Year and nothing after that. So as you already stated, your banking deadline is March 31st.

DVC needs to keep the points in balance so there are not too many points in circulation for the number of rooms available to be booked. If there are too many points being banked and not enough being borrowed or used in the current Use Year to compensate they reserve the right to suspend banking and borrowing to keep things in balance. They have never had to do this as far as I'm aware but if points automatically rolled over every year, they would probably find themselves in that situation.

 

[pinnocchiosdad]

Her is banking in a nut shell. My user year is also AUGUST. Each year we get our new points on August 1st. If youdecide to bank them you must do so within 8 months. So we have to bank our pts by March 31st. if you miss the deadline its to late and you must use those points before they expire on July 31st. Once they are banked, they must be used by July 31st of the future use year. So if we bank the points that we receive this 8/1/2008, they become 2009 points and will expire 7/31/2010. Its like I keep telling my wife, you have to train your brain to operate on a user year calender not a normal calender. Think of july31 as new years eve, and august1 as new years day. in a sense it is. Welcome home new neighbor.

 

[RobDoc]

...
My Questions:
...Can anyone tell me if my 125pts from the shareholder offer also needs to be banked by march 31st also.
....

I believe those "shareholer" points are Developer Points, and as such they cannot be banked. They will expire 12 months from your purchase date and can be used to make a reservation within 7 months. They have no Home Resort status (and can't be used more than 7 months ahead) and otherwise have no Use Year.

 

[castleri]

Last week, I bought 160pts into AKV. I understand everything, except, I just cant get a good grasp on banking. It seems so basic!

My situation:
My use year is August and was given 160 pts when I signed. I also got 125 developers points(one time) as a Disney shareholder(special offer) for signing. My window for vacations starts October 15th and ends February 20th. From what I have read and understand, because I wont use any points until atleast october, I need to bank atleast the 160 points by march 31st or I will start losing points already. The way I look at it, is having a big pot of 445 points, come august 1st. If I take a 200pt vacation in october, the first points out will be the original 160 points. If I never take a vacation in the next UY, all I should lose are the original 160 pts.

Lancer

If you do not plan to vacation before Aug 1 bank the 160 points before April1. When you make a reservation for the October or later time frame they should use the developer points first and then take the other 40 from the banked 2007 points. This will leave you with 120 banked points and 160 points in your 2008 UY. You can make the October reservation in March 7 months from your check out date or day by day if you are trying for a difficult to get resort. Since your developer points are good for 1 year they seem fit in you possible vacation schedule time very well. Good luck and enjoy your DVC membership to the fullest.

 

[Lancer]

Thanks everyone for your explanations! It did help. I am ok on use year, how and when to bank the points. As far as why, I am understanding it as a tool for Disney to keep track of to a certain extent of the points and predict future usage of them to avoid everyone using them for example, in the same month.

A Buckeye helping out a Hoosier! who would ever thought lol

And, it feels good to be home.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

A Buckeye helping out a Hoosier! who would ever thought lol

Hey, man, it's one Big 10 happy familiy! Now if you were a Wolverine ...just kidding.

 

[Mtnman44]

Lancer,

On the reason for banking question, it is important to understand that the points are not simply paper currency that that DVC can print up whenever they need it. Every point represents a portion of use of actual property (villas) each year.

When I bank my points into NEXT year, that doesn't create more useable property next year. DVC needs my banking decision commitment (and the deadline) so they can use my points THIS YEAR (even though I've banked my use of them into next year). They take my points and use them for reservations for someone else who is borrowing points into THIS year. make sense? Of course, when I use my banked points next year, I'll be using the property from that year that some other member freed up when they banked or borrowed points from that year.

The deadlines ensure enough time for DVC to put those points to use.

Thanks everyone for your explanations! It did help. I am ok on use year, how and when to bank the points. As far as why, I am understanding it as a tool for Disney to keep track of to a certain extent of the points and predict future usage of them to avoid everyone using them for example, in the same month.

A Buckeye helping out a Hoosier! who would ever thought lol

And, it feels good to be home.