Use Year Question...took the plunge! Dec?

[kathy carleton]

Ok, just made a contract on SSR through TSS. Tell me about Dec use year.
I know the points are still for the year, but why do I think Feb points sound better than December???(you know adding the '06 to '07 so early in the year makes me think I have a years more points) Will this work well for us, and why? We usually travel in June, July and either Oct/Nov (I am a teacher, so do go when school is out). I am still trying to figure out the banking/borrowing/etc.. I feel this was a good deal, and it had banked '05 points. Starting out at 150 points, as we know we will wish to add on when AKV comes out, and may later add a small BCV contract... I also had read many posters stating that they felt several small contracts offered much flexibility as well as easy re-sale if that need should ever occur.
I am one of those annoying people who worries about everything!! I was all excited, and felt good about everything, then started agonizing about the December use year!! HELP!!

 

[DVCLiz]

If you have a December Use Year, you will receive your new allotment of points each December 1. Don't stress about when the points come - everybody gets the number of points in their contract once a year, and they come every year - so no real "psychological" advantage to any particular Use Year!! What would concern me about your situation, though, is that with a December Use Year, you would have until May 31 of the next year to bank 100% of your points. Since all of your travel will be after that point, the issue is whether or not you'd ever have to cancel a trip or change plans at the last minute. If you made a reservation for October or November and then had to change that, you would be almost out of time to use those points during the Use Year, because come December 1 they would expire unless they had been banked. You could bank 50% of them after the 6 month period, and 25% of them even later than that (don't remember the particulars but someone will let us know!!) but you wouldn't be able to recover the use of 100% of them if you hadn't been able to use or bank them.

For your travel dates, a June Use Year would be ideal. June, July, October and November would all be in your first 6 month window for banking, so if you had to change your plans for any of those trips you'd still be in the 6 month window of June 1 - November 30 each year.

Having said all that, it's not really the end of the world no matter what your Use Year is. It just requires you to make sure before you book that you have every intention of using those points, and that you have some sort of back-up plan (last-minute renting of a reservation, selling or giving the points to your other family members or to friends, etc.) so they wouldn't be totally wasted.

Hope this helps!!!

 

[kathy carleton]

So I guess i just borrow from dec. for that use year? and if i am ever in doubt, can i not go ahead and bank, and then borrow from the next use year?

say i am not sure in june, if i am going to go to wdw in november... so i bank the current year points that i am not sure about, can i not then just borrow from the next year if i decide to travel inthe fall?

I drive myself nuts about these things! and guess i should have paid more attention to the use year, but it was a good deal. Your help is so very appreciated!! I do not know what people do that do not get on these boards!!

 

[LisaS]

It helps to think of your points like this:

Your 2006 UY points are valid for stays 12/1/06 - 11/30/07
Your 2007 UY points are valid for stays 12/1/07 - 11/30/08
Your 2008 UY points are valid for stays 12/1/08 - 11/30/09
etc.

So if you wanted to go to WDW in Nov '07, that stay would fall in the last month of your '06 UY. You can use any of the following points to book that stay: '06 points, banked '05 points and borrowed '07 points. As you mentioned, if you banked all of your '06 points prior to the end of your 100% banking window on May 31, 2007 but then decided in June to go to WDW in Nov '07, you could borrow '07 UY points for that stay. Just be aware that once points are banked or borrowed, they cannot be "put back" in their original UY. So if you borrow '07 points for a stay in Nov '07, those borrowed points will expire at the end of your '06 UY on Nov 30, '07.

You can book a stay at your home resort 11 months prior to your checkout date and at a non-home resort at 7 months prior to your checkout date, regardless of your UY.

Your banking deadlines are: 100% by May 31, 50% by Aug 31, 25% by Sep 30. Banking percentages are based on the total points in your contract and are cumulative. You might want to bookmark this handy chart from VAScubaGuy's DVC website:
http://members.cox.net/disneyvacationclub/pages/Charts/charts.htm

Hope this helps!

 

[T.E. Yeary]

Thanks for doing business with us!!

Happy "magical" vacationing,
Tom & Staff

 

[kathy carleton]

so would i have been better off to buy a Feb, March or June use year to feel like i had more points? (see what i am saying... if i had say, a march use year, then i would have 300 points to use for 2007 (150 for 06 and 150 for 07)??

 

[LIFERBABE]

Congratulations Kathy!!

What are the specifics of your resale contract? Are there current year points available (which would actually be 2005 points).

It depends on what you are purchasing via resale to be able to tell you which UY would be better. I would buy whatever contract that gave me the most points available if I was a new member buying resale.

All resales are different but you can compare what is availble to get the most out of it.

 

[3DisneyKids]

I don't think that you would feel like you had more points if your UY was different, however, you may feel like you could "lose" points due to the banking issues mentioned above.

Say you have a November trip planned. Uh-oh, you had to cancel that trip. Those points can now no longer be banked (missed the banking window), and thus they need to be used (by you or someone else) before the end of Dec. or they could go wasted (perish the thought!).

 

[kathy carleton]

I guess what has me hung up is: My purchase has unused points for 06 which are avail now... if you have an earlier use year, then more are available? for use in 07? or just do not think of them that way and think of them by year? thanks

 

[LisaS]

so would i have been better off to buy a Feb, March or June use year to feel like i had more points? (see what i am saying... if i had say, a march use year, then i would have 300 points to use for 2007 (150 for 06 and 150 for 07)??

You mentioned that your contract came with some banked '05 points. If you are also getting the full 150 '06 points, then you are starting off with more than one year's worth of points. When you buy on the resale market, the number of points currently available with a contract can vary from zero (a "stripped" contract with no banked or current points and next UY's points have been borrowed and used) to 3 year's worth (a "loaded" contract with all of last UY's points banked, all current UY points available, and none of the next UY's points have been used) and everything in between. If you got some banked points and all of the current and next UY's points are intact, it sounds like you did pretty well.

 

[aprince&princess]

Hi, keep in mind that the banked points for 2005 will need to be used between Dec 1st, 2006 and Nov. 30th 2007, or you will lose them.

As of Dec 1, 2006 you should have your points that are good from Dec 1, 2006 until Nov 30th, 2007. As long as they weren't already used before you made your purchase. If you plan a trip during that time and don't need all of those points, you can use your banked points from 2005 and whatever you need of 2006. You can then bank any leftover points. You do want to use the banked 05 points first since they can not be banked again. If you make your plans before May 31st, 2006, you can bank everything that you have leftover from 2006 points.

And if you decide to bank the 2006 points and then want to use points, you borrow the 2007 points instead. That is what our sales guide told us.

Welcome, we just joined DVC with a Dec use year too!!!

 

[Disney Doc]

Think of it this way... your December points are good for more of the next calendar year than any other use year. Everyone else has to use, or bank them before you do.
(I think I understand what you're hung up on... it isn't the right way to think about it, but you'll get it soon enough.)

 

[casper]

Has anyone tried the insurance? How does that work if you scheduled a trip in Nov with a Dec use year and had to cancel? Would you get your points paid for if you had the insurance?