Use year

[Tdisney]

Can someone explain use year ? I remember a thread about it but cant find it anymore. Thanks. We are on the fence on buying but still trying to compare it to rack rates. How do you find out about taxes and assc fees increase and if you add that in does it equal out. We always stay at beach or yacht club anyway and were looking into buying beach club villas. But with the highest dues or assc fees i was wondering if it equals out.

 

[RobDoc]

Use Year is the month each year when your DVC points are renewed. Your banking deadline is determined by the Use Year (you can bank points during the first 8 months of the Use Year and cannot bank during the final four months).

If you are likely to cancel reservations, Use Year can also be a concern. When a reservation is cancelled, the points used will be returned to your account in the Use Year of the date of the reservation. If you cancel a reservation near the end of your Use Year, it may be too late to bank the points used and you may be limited in yor ability to reuse those points.

For example, if you have a June Use Year - your points are current for June 1, 2008 - May 31, 2009 - banking them would extend their use an additional year. If you make a reservation for May 10 - 15, 2009 and discover in March you will be unable to go on that trip, the points will be returned to your account, but they could not be banked and will expire on May 31, 2009 - so unless you are able to use another reservation by that date you could lose those points. If you will usually travel in May, a February, March or April Use Year might offer better protection from problems caused by cancelling.

If you travel at a variety of times during the year and will be unlikely to cancel reservations, Use Year is just when your points are renewed each year.

Here is the history of DVC annual fees at all of the resorts:

Year OKW BWV VB VB(sub) HH VWL BCV SSR AKV BLT VGC

2009 4.73 5.21 6.41 4.97 5.36 5.04 5.00 4.34 4.85 3.67 3.82
2008 4.56 5.04 6.04 4.71 5.16 4.87 4.80 4.21 4.71
2007 4.40 4.85 5.63 4.39 4.98 4.73 4.63 4.12 4.62
2006 4.24 4.69 5.27 4.12 4.34 4.61 4.48 3.98
2005 3.86 4.41 4.87 3.84 3.86 4.35 4.27 3.83
2004 3.68 4.25 4.67 3.67 3.70 4.22 4.18 3.80
2003 3.49 4.11 4.37 4.37 3.69 4.05 3.97
2002 3.22 3.92 4.17 3.33 3.49 3.80 3.77
2001 3.13 3.83 3.98 2.70 3.32 3.63
2000 3.16 3.94 4.07 2.87 3.25 3.62
1999 3.16 4.02 3.99 2.82 3.18
1998 3.17 3.94 ---- 2.76 3.20
1997 3.14 3.84 ---- 2.90 3.16
1996 2.99 3.70 ---- 2.82 3.16
1995 2.84
1994 2.70
1993 2.63
1992 2.56
1991 2.51


I hope this helps!

 

[chalee94]

here's the thread with more detailed information on use year if you need it...

here is the history of all the dues increases.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Can someone explain use year ? I remember a thread about it but cant find it anymore. Thanks. We are on the fence on buying but still trying to compare it to rack rates. How do you find out about taxes and assc fees increase and if you add that in does it equal out. We always stay at beach or yacht club anyway and were looking into buying beach club villas. But with the highest dues or assc fees i was wondering if it equals out.

Value
Let's start with points and value. If you buy 160 points via resale, your initial purchase price at $95 per point will be $15,200. After this is paid off, your MFs will be the only thing you pay for your lodging. At $5 per point, that's $800 per year. For us, we could never vacation the way we do for the the cost of our MFs. This year, we'll spend a week at BWV (1-BR), and a week at VB (2-BR) for MFs of $2,550. My one week at WDW alone would be $2,650 (that price is rack rates - 25% + 12.5% tax). So for us, yes, it is a wonderful value.

Use Year
As for UY, choose a UY wisely. Most will tell you to buy a UY that is the month of or the month before you plan to travel. That way, if you have to change your plans or cancel, you still have plenty of time to reschedule or bank if you choose. Below is an example of a Dec UY. Just because points are deposited doesn't mean you can use them before or after the dates, you just have to borrow or bank.

Dec 1, 2008 - Points are deposited and are good for vacations from Dec 1, 2008 - Nov 30, 2009.
Dec 1, 2009 - Points are deposited and are good for vacations from Dec 1, 2009 - Nov 30, 2010.
Dec 1, 2010 - Points are deposited and are good for vacations from Dec 1, 2010 - Nov 30, 2011...and so on.

Banking
If you bank, it's like taking the points out of the current UY, and placing them into the next UY. You can bank up to 100% of your points within the first 8 months of your UY, so a Dec UY banking deadline would be July 31. In the example above, let's say you weren't going to use your Dec 2008 points. You could bank them by July 31, and they would then become part of your 2009 UY. They would be good for vacations from 12/1/09 - 11/30/2010, and you would still get your new points deposited on 12/1/09. So, in essence, you now have 2 UY's worth of points in one UY. At the end of November, the points you banked will expire (you cannot bank the same points more than once). However, all of your new 2009 points can be banked into 2010 if you choose to do so.

The only reason I bring up banking is because banking has impacted our travel plans. We have an Aug UY. We usually travel in Aug, and if we bank points, it forces us to travel earlier (in July) because the banked points expire 7/31. Though I am not that concerned about canceling, if we were to cancel, we would have no time to reschedule the vacation, as points expire 7/31. We would just lose those points.

I know it's a lot of information, but just think through when you travel, when you can bank, and when your points expire. You can take any UY, put it in the format above, and play around with different scenarios.

For us, Dec would have been ideal. We travel mostly in March/April and summer (DH is a teacher), and in Dec on occasion. We would have had through the end of July to bank, so if we needed to cancel any of those trips, we could have rescheduled or banked the points. Plus, had we banked points, they wouldn't have expired until the end of November. So it wouldn't have impacted our summer travel plans.

Best of luck on your decision! I know it's a big one, but I'm so glad we purchased. We have really enjoyed staying at all of the DVC resorts, and have two trips already planned for this year!