What to do with banked point leftovers?

[cricketjamest]

I recently bought into DVC and was given 2009 points which I banked. I would like to take a conservative approach to point usage and stay a year ahead by banking my points each year and only using banked points for reservations. However, I have quickly learned that it is very difficult to use the exact number of banked points that I have and each year I will probably have a couple of points or so left over.

What do most of you do if you have a few banked points left over?

 

[bwvBound]

While living in a perpetual banking mode is a wonderful goal -- do try to avoid the chances of facing a few left-over points. Your choices, should you have any, include:

• Booking a 1 or 2 night reservation and renting it.
• Transferring the points to another member. (NOTE: each member is allowed only 1 transfer per year)
• Letting the points simply expire, unused.

Better to use up 100% of your banked points each year. If needed, add a night to your normal vacation stay, upgrade to a larger unit, squeeze in a short visit during a different time of year. Burn those points!

While we generally bank points from year to year -- we are only banking approx. one third of our annual total. Each year we book reservations that consume 100% of the banked points and make up the balance on "new points." Works well.

 

[sissy_42]

I recently bought into DVC and was given 2009 points which I banked. I would like to take a conservative approach to point usage and stay a year ahead by banking my points each year and only using banked points for reservations. However, I have quickly learned that it is very difficult to use the exact number of banked points that I have and each year I will probably have a couple of points or so left over.

What do most of you do if you have a few banked points left over?

I just became a member as well. I had the same approach to 2009 points. I planed our two vacations for this year, and low and behold we had an extra 30 points I would have lost. If it had been just a few I would not have cared, but 30 seems like an awful lot to lose my first year! So I called MS and added an extra day to each trip. I ended up using 11 points from 2010. I figure if I am banking MOST of my points I am still ahead if I ever decide to take a much longer trip or bring friends.

 

[Sandisw]

I just became a member as well. I had the same approach to 2009 points. I planed our two vacations for this year, and low and behold we had an extra 30 points I would have lost. If it had been just a few I would not have cared, but 30 seems like an awful lot to lose my first year! So I called MS and added an extra day to each trip. I ended up using 11 points from 2010. I figure if I am banking MOST of my points I am still ahead if I ever decide to take a much longer trip or bring friends.

This would be my suggestion as well. Try to make it work in such a way that most of your trips are with banked points, but to supplement an extra night. If you take this approach, every few years you will find that you won't have those extra points.

 

[Dean]

I recently bought into DVC and was given 2009 points which I banked. I would like to take a conservative approach to point usage and stay a year ahead by banking my points each year and only using banked points for reservations. However, I have quickly learned that it is very difficult to use the exact number of banked points that I have and each year I will probably have a couple of points or so left over.

What do most of you do if you have a few banked points left over?

I would suggest you reconsider your decision to keep a years worth of points banked a year ahead. You have so much more flexibility and less risk if you live using current UY points as much as possible. You could rent, transfer to another member or do an exchange. You could even do an RCI deposit for a future exchange consideration.

 

[DenLo]

I just became a member as well. I had the same approach to 2009 points. I planed our two vacations for this year, and low and behold we had an extra 30 points I would have lost. If it had been just a few I would not have cared, but 30 seems like an awful lot to lose my first year! So I called MS and added an extra day to each trip. I ended up using 11 points from 2010. I figure if I am banking MOST of my points I am still ahead if I ever decide to take a much longer trip or bring friends.

We too hoped to never borrow points but couldn't waste any leftover points so borrowed a few from the next year. Now my worry is that we will always be borrowing in the future and I understand borrowitis leads to addonitis.

 

[Crystal_27]

While it does seem very prudent to stay a year ahead with your points, be careful about being so "point conscious" that you get yourself into a situation where you are unable to use your banked points before they expire. In theory, you bought enough points to accomplish your vacationing goals every year, so, again in theory, you should be using your current year's points when you vacation each year. You should consider the 2009 points you received as "gravy" and use them to book a bonus vacation or to upgrade to another view or room size, not use them so always stay a year ahead of the game.

We were in a very similar situation when we bought in 2009. We bought while we were at the parks on vacation in March, and had already booked a cruise in September with cash. So, we used 23 points for a one night's stay before our September cruise and ended up banking the rest, which then gave us the ability to book 14 nights in December, 2010 and a cruise for 2011 using our banked 2009, current 2010 and 2011 points. We do have about 70 points remaining for 2011 to use for a couple nights before the 2011 cruise, but we will have all of our 2012 points for our 2012 vacation...which is exactly where we should be. Hope that helps!!

 

[Sunshine22]

While it may be nice to use banked year points each year for your vacation, it may leave you in a bind if you need to cancel a reservation that year, especially if you aren't able to travel for the remainder of the year. You would then have the option to rent or give the points to someone or let them expire. I don't think you can transfer points that have already been banked.

There is much more flexibility when using current year points. If you are using current year points for your reservation and can't travel that year, you would be able to bank them (if within banking window), transfer them to another member, rent them, etc.

 

[cricketjamest]

Such good advice! Thanks all for your opinions and insight. I am going to rethink my approach to point usage.