Understanding Use Year - Updated February 10, 2021

[KBoopaloo]

Thank you so much! I thought I had it figured out but wanted to be sure.

 

[NJ2Boardwalk]

I hope June is good. We have gone mostly over summer but also late October and early November. Can we make a reservation as soon as we close or do we have to wait until June 1st. Listen to me - like we own already, we still have to pass ROFR, I pray It is Disney though I can dream BIG

 

[5forDiz]

I hope June is good. We have gone mostly over summer but also late October and early November. Can we make a reservation as soon as we close or do we have to wait until June 1st. Listen to me - like we own already, we still have to pass ROFR, I pray It is Disney though I can dream BIG

You do not wait for your Use Year month to come around to make a DVC reservation; you can make a reservation at your Home Resort as early as 11 months before the check-in date you would like (ie to reserve at your Home Resort for check-in on Feb 20 2011 you may call on Mar 20 2010).
For non-Home Resorts you can make a reservation as early as 7 months before check-in date you'd like.

June is good UY if you travel summer through December/January: banking deadline for June UY is January 31 so based upon what you say are your travel habits, June UY would work well.

Sending lots of pixie dust your way that you'll hear you've passed ROFR real soon

 

[DVCGeek]

Can we make a reservation as soon as we close

Since this sounds like a resale I believe it may take another few weeks after you close with the seller before Disney has you in the system, but as others said you do NOT have to wait until your use month, just the 11/7 month ressie rules.

FYI, if you buy directly from the Mouse you don't even have to wait until you close; you can make a ressie the day you pay your deposit in many cases - for my add-ons the points were showing online before I even got the paperwork to sign!

 

[johnsbelt]

Potential "future owner" question. After reading the OP multiple times, I may be getting the hang of this, but if I ever become an owner, I can see using Excel to manage all of my current, banked, and borrowed points several years out. Has anyone ever created a detailed Excel spreadsheet to track and manage point usage?

I built one as I'm also looking into ownership as well. What I did was attempting to accomplish with the spreadsheet was to look at payback on a resale for a small number of points (40-50) since the wife and I would be interested in going to WDW every other year usually in the fall, and for about 5 days in a studio. Columns were labeled Month, Trans Type (purchase, interest, amount of transaction, Balance, Points available (past, cur, future), MF per point (adjusted for 3.5% inflation), Value per point (rack rate of a studio discounted 50%, adjusted for 5% annual inflation). When I used points I subtracted them from the columns beginning with past, then current, then future). At the beginning of my use year (used Feb since there seemed to be a lot of those on the resale mkt for BLT), I shifted the points from Current to Past, from Future to Current, and then added my new points into the Future.

All in all, using an interest rate of 1.35% (what I would get if the money were in a savings account at Discover Bank online), the payback was 4 trips over a 9 year period.

Hope this helps,
John

 

[chrisatl]

Hi everyone, thanks for the good information on the usage year. I just wanted to verify that I had this stuff figured out correctly. We are about to buy a contract from Disney for BLT and our primary travel months would be March-July, and sometimes December (X-mas time). I am thinking that a December usage year would be a good choice - am I right? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Sandisw]

Hi everyone, thanks for the good information on the usage year. I just wanted to verify that I had this stuff figured out correctly. We are about to buy a contract from Disney for BLT and our primary travel months would be March-July, and sometimes December (X-mas time). I am thinking that a December usage year would be a good choice - am I right? Thanks in advance!!

Yes, December works well for those times of travel! Good luck!!!

 

[AimeeMichele]

I have a meeting with a DVC guy when I'm in the World next month (looking to buy at BLT). He told me that they contracts currently have a use year of February. As we usually travel at the end of November, beginning of December and occassionally October I'm thinking a UY of February isn't ideal for me. What would the ideal UY be? Sorry, it's been a long day and I just can't seem to wrap my head around this. Thank you so much in advance!

 

[Sandisw]

I have a meeting with a DVC guy when I'm in the World next month (looking to buy at BLT). He told me that they contracts currently have a use year of February. As we usually travel at the end of November, beginning of December and occassionally October I'm thinking a UY of February isn't ideal for me. What would the ideal UY be? Sorry, it's been a long day and I just can't seem to wrap my head around this. Thank you so much in advance!

With Oct, Nov, and Dec travel most of the time, I would ask for an Oct UY. Having a UY that starts just prior to your typical vacation offers the most flexibility if you have to change or cancel a trip.

 

[lisaann1170]

This is incredibly helpful! Thank you!

 

[kristintrod]

Thanks so much for the detailed explanation of use year. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of it now but there is one thing that I have read on different posts that is confusing me. Many people suggest getting a use year in the same month as you plan on taking your vacation. For example, if you vacation in June, then some people suggest a June use year. How does that work?
We normally vacation in October or January. I was thinking June would be the best use year because it would allow us to bank our points if we had to cancel in October or January but I'm wondering if October would be better. Can someone help me out with this? Thanks!

 

[chalee94]

Many people suggest getting a use year in the same month as you plan on taking your vacation. For example, if you vacation in June, then some people suggest a June use year. How does that work? We normally vacation in October or January. I was thinking June would be the best use year because it would allow us to bank our points if we had to cancel in October or January but I'm wondering if October would be better. Can someone help me out with this?

october is slightly better if you are traveling in oct and january. put it this way:

if you cancel a january reservation less than a month out, your pts become "holding pts" - they can't be banked and can only be used for reservations within 60 days. if you used any banked or borrowed pts, they also can't be banked.

so with an oct UY, you still have till the end of september to figure out how to use those pts. with a jun UY, you have till the end of may. even if you can't use them yourself it's probably nice to have the option to rent a reservation to the summer schoolkid crowd...

not a big difference. a june UY and oct UY are both fine in most of your situations - if you cancel the jan reservation more than a month out, you can still bank your current pts - correct. an oct UY just gives you a little longer to figure things out if a last minute cancellation messes up your pts.

but if you see a june UY contract for a good price, UY month probably shouldn't be a dealbreaker...that's true.

 

[kristintrod]

Thank you Charles! That was very helpful. So I do have a couple of follow up questions. If we have an Oct. UY and we vacation in Oct, do the points come from the current year? Are the points not withdrawn until the actual vacation? So if we had to cancel for any reason, we wouldn't have to worry about banking points because they had not been deposited yet?

 

[chalee94]

If we have an Oct. UY and we vacation in Oct, do the points come from the current year?

my suspicion is that you might want to read the first post in this thread again.

your oct 2011 UY pts are valid for stays from oct 1, 2011 to sept 30, 2012. so if your planned stay is oct 10, 2011 for 6 nights - which occurs in your 2011 UY - you can call to book as early as nov 10, 2010 for your home resort. and at that date, you would be calling to book with any combination of banked pts from 2010, current pts from 2011 and/or borrowed pts from 2012.

so yes, i think that is what you are asking. if you call in nov 2010 to book oct 2011 with an oct UY, the 2011 allotment used to book the reservation would be current pts - correct.

your first question is "what use year do the dates of my stay fall in?" (or something like that but more grammatically correct.)

Are the points not withdrawn until the actual vacation? So if we had to cancel for any reason, we wouldn't have to worry about banking points because they had not been deposited yet?

pts are no longer available for another use when you book the reservation - so if you banked your 2010 pts when you called in nov 2010 for an oct 2011 reservation, they are now in your 2011 UY and will expire on sept 30, 2012...if you needed to borrow any 2012 pts when you called in nov 2010 to complete the reservation, they are now in your 2011 UY and will expire on sept 30, 2012. you can bank pts at any time prior to your banking window closing - borrowing only occurs if you need the pts to complete a specific reservation.

banking and borrowing are "final" which means you cannot put them back into their original UY. so be sure when you book the reservation.

so for example, if you call in august 2011 to cancel that oct 2011 reservation, all the pts used will drop back into your 2011 UY. any banked or borrowed pts will be stuck in the 2011 UY no matter what and will expire if not used for a stay by the night of sept 30, 2012 (the end of the oct 2011 UY). any current 2011 pts can still be banked forward into 2012 (which means they would be valid for stays from oct 1, 2012 to sept 30, 2013).

also consider that if you booked a stay in nov 2010 for oct 2011 using 150 current 2011 pts and then in march 2011 you called to book a stay at a nonhome resort, you would most likely need to cancel the first reservation to rebook that oct 2011 stay for a new resort. the 150 pts are considered "used" by the home resort reservation and would likely need to be freed up to book a replacement reservation.

one tricky thing is not to think about pts in terms of when they are "deposited." my online account shows my pts through my 2013 UY. i can't use those pts since my booking window for my home resort hasn't opened yet...but in a sense, they are already in my account.

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you Charles! That was very helpful. So I do have a couple of follow up questions. If we have an Oct. UY and we vacation in Oct, do the points come from the current year? Are the points not withdrawn until the actual vacation? So if we had to cancel for any reason, we wouldn't have to worry about banking points because they had not been deposited yet?

Everything is based on when you travel and not when you book the trip. So, if you have an Oct UY, every Oct 1st, your points for that year go from being next years point to current UY points.

Say you want to travel in Oct 2012, which would be your Oct 2012 UY. In November, 2011, you call to book that trip (since you can call to book 11 months in advance). MS will look at your account and use any banked 2011 points, current 2012 UY points, and borrow any 2013 UY points you need.

 

[EWL]

Thank you for this post and all the extremely helpful information! I am struggling to get my brain wrapped around this and my head is still kind of spinning in circles.

If I am considering buying into DVC with a 75pt resale contract with the intent of traveling every 3 years, or at most every other year (since those are the only scenarios where I can get the numbers to look favorable for me), then I would be relying heavily on banking and borrowing to have 225pts every 3 years. And I'm thinking that it also makes the choice of use year more important too. So I want to have a good understanding of how this all would work.

If I guess that we'd likely travel in August, but perhaps sometimes in June or July, and rarely but possibly at other times, what use year is our best bet?

If I go with August for the sake of the example and buy in today, do I have this right:

1) On 8/1/2011, I get 75 points for the 2011 use year, which runs 8/1/2011 to 7/31/2012.

2) On 9/15/2011, I can call and book a reservation at my home resort (probably AKV) for August 15, 2012, (11 months prior) which falls in my 2012 use year, requiring 225 points. At that time, all 75 of 2011 points would be banked, I would use my 2012 points, and borrow all 75 of my 2013 points.

3) If all is fine, I am done. But if I need to cancel in February 2012, I get all my points back because I am more than 31 days before checkin, but I now have all 225 points in the 2012 use year. (Right? They stay in the year that the reservation was made?)

4) If I act before the end of March 2012, I could bank 75 current year points into the 2013 use year, but would have to use the other 150 banked and borrowed points by the end of my 2012 use year or 7/31/2013. But since it's only March, I would still be able to take advantage of the 11-month booking for summer 2013 so should have good options.

5) If I don't act before the end of March 2012, I am past the banking deadline so have to use all 225 by the end of my 2012 use year. (Right?)

6) If I cancel in July 2012, within 30 days of checkin, my 225 points all go into holding and I have to use them by the end of my 2012 use year but cannot book more than 60 days ahead. If I don't use them, they're gone.

So using this approach, I would call at the 11-month window in September to book a trip for the following August; I'd basically have until the end of March banking deadline to cancel if needed and either use 150 points the following June or July and bank 75 into the next year, or I could cancel up until July and use all 225 points the following June or July or whenever but with 60 day max advance reservations. Have I got this right? Thank you!

 

[CarolMN]

Thank you for this post and all the extremely helpful information! I am struggling to get my brain wrapped around this and my head is still kind of spinning in circles.

If I am considering buying into DVC with a 75pt resale contract with the intent of traveling every 3 years, or at most every other year (since those are the only scenarios where I can get the numbers to look favorable for me), then I would be relying heavily on banking and borrowing to have 225pts every 3 years. And I'm thinking that it also makes the choice of use year more important too. So I want to have a good understanding of how this all would work.

If I guess that we'd likely travel in August, but perhaps sometimes in June or July, and rarely but possibly at other times, what use year is our best bet?

Since you plan to do the every other or every third year thing, there may not be a "best" use year. August would give you the most time to reuse the points if you mostly travel in August and had to cancel a trip. The plan you describe below is a good one, IMO.

If I go with August for the sake of the example and buy in today, do I have this right:

1) On 8/1/2011, I get 75 points for the 2011 use year, which runs 8/1/2011 to 7/31/2012.

Correct.

2) On 9/15/2011, I can call and book a reservation at my home resort (probably AKV) for August 15, 2012, (11 months prior) which falls in my 2012 use year, requiring 225 points. At that time, all 75 of 2011 points would be banked, I would use my 2012 points, and borrow all 75 of my 2013 points.

Correct.

3) If all is fine, I am done. But if I need to cancel in February 2012, I get all my points back because I am more than 31 days before checkin, but I now have all 225 points in the 2012 use year. (Right? They stay in the year that the reservation was made?)

Yes, correct.

4) If I act before the end of March 2012, I could bank 75 current year points into the 2013 use year, but would have to use the other 150 banked and borrowed points by the end of my 2012 use year or 7/31/2013. But since it's only March, I would still be able to take advantage of the 11-month booking for summer 2013 so should have good options.

Correct and I agree that in March of 2012, you would still have good options for the summer months of June & July of 2013.

5) If I don't act before the end of March 2012, I am past the banking deadline so have to use all 225 by the end of my 2012 use year. (Right?)

Yes, correct.

6) If I cancel in July 2012, within 30 days of checkin, my 225 points all go into holding and I have to use them by the end of my 2012 use year but cannot book more than 60 days ahead. If I don't use them, they're gone.

Yes, correct again.

So using this approach, I would call at the 11-month window in September to book a trip for the following August; I'd basically have until the end of March banking deadline to cancel if needed and either use 150 points the following June or July and bank 75 into the next year, or I could cancel up until July and use all 225 points the following June or July or whenever but with 60 day max advance reservations. Have I got this right? Thank you!

You've got it! Congratulations, you go to the head of the class!

 

[EWL]

You've got it!

Wow-- I can't believe I have it straight! All thanks to your great explanation, no doubt. Thanks so much!

 

[PKS44]

and.....if you book your trip to fall at the end of JULY you could actually use up to 300 points not just 225pts

If you had 75 pt from 2010 points banked into 2011 use those for the July 2012 dates, then use the other 3 years as you planned--you could also use 2 years worth in July and 2 years worth in August-so long as you use up one years' worth in July before the start of the next Use Year- you can use up to 4 years worth on one trip.

 

[EWL]

and.....if you book your trip to fall at the end of JULY you could actually use up to 300 points not just 225pts

You mean basically a split trip at the end of July going into August? So using 150 points (banked plus current UY) at the very end of July and then 150 more (new current UY plus borrowed) in August? Very interesting!! Is that complicated to book? Does a reservation that crosses into the next UY count as being in each year separately or would it have to be split into two reservations?