What Disadvantages exist when Banking Points

[PHILCT]

Hi Everyone

I have 250 points that I will be banking in January.

I also will have 350 more points as of August 2005.

My next planned and not yet reserved trip, is for October 2005.
I will probably use around 300 points on that trip.

I am not sure I need another DVC vacation between now and July, so
I would like to bank the 250 points while I can bank 100 percent of them.

Are there disadvantages for banking points, if I change my mind that I might like a Disney Trip before July 2005 afterwards?
Are there any other disadvantages for banking points?
If there wasn't any disadvantages, why don't people bank them immediately?


Thanks for any advice,

Phil

 

[amandaC]

Once you bank points you can't get them back. That is, say your use year is August. Now, in Sept 2005 you bank all 250 points. Then you decide you want to go to DVC in July 2006. Your only option is to borrow your 2006 points coming in August 2006. You can't borrow banked points. In addition, you can only bank points once. So, those points you banked from your August 2005 use year must be used before August 2007.

 

[PamOKW]

If there wasn't any disadvantages, why don't people bank them immediately?

It's usually best to try and use your points in the year where they are current. If something falls through with your plans, you might still have the option to bank them into the next. If you automatically bank points forward (not leaving any current), you are always locked in to having to complete trips in a Use Year with no option to bank in an emergency -- you are reserving with banked or borrowed points.

However, if you know there's little chance of taking a trip in a given Use Year, you are right that it's probably best to bank at the 100% mark.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

If you're not sure you will be going between now and the end of July, bank them while you can still bank 100%.

If you decide a few months from now that you'd like to go before July 31st, then you can borrow against the points you'll be getting on 8/1/05. The only drawback is that once you borrow, they stay in this use year and will expire as of 7/31/05.

If you are not going until 10/05, your banked points will be used 1st, then you'll be using 50 of you 8/05 allocation. You may wind up banking the 300 leftover 8/05 points until your 8/06 use year.

If you keep finding that you're banking points, you may look at renting or transferring them.