Use Year About This Page:

[CarolinesMom]

Is the month of the use year important and why? Can you see I have really been gearing up for buying my own peice of the magic!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img]

[tjkraz]

If you suspect you will be vacationing at various times of the year over the next 20-30 years, then no, it isn't particularly important.

However, if you are adamant that you will be visiting WDW in December (or any other specific time period) every single year for as long as your health provides, then yes, it can be important.

The Use Year does two things:

1) It determines the period over which your points are valid annually.
2) It determines your banking deadlines.

If you expect to vacation at the same time every year, you ideally want a Use Year that immediately PRECEEDS your expected travel dates.

Here are two examples, assuming you have a trip scheduled for October 1-7, 2006:

SEPTEMBER UY: Your points are good annually from 9/1 to 8/31. Your deadline to bank 100% of your points is 2/28. Let's assume you book your trip well in advance, but discover on July 1, 2006 that you won't be able to make the trip. You still have until 8/31/07 to use those points, or you have until 2/28/07 to bank all of them into the next year if you won't be able to use them.

In other words, here you have a lot of flexibility.

DECEMBER UY: Your points are good annually from 12/1 to 11/30. Your deadline to bank 100% is 5/31. Here you also find out on July 1, 2006 that you can't keep your October reservation. With a Dec UY, you only have until 11/30/06 to use the points, and you've already passed the deadline to bank 100% (it passed on 5/31/06).

Having a Use Year that starts right before you would normally use your points leaves you with a lot more options if an emergency should force you to cancel or re-schedule.

Try to remember that DVC is a long term proposition. If I had tried to guess going in when we would prefer to vacation, I'd have probably guessed September / October. We ended us with a February Use Year, which is less-than-ideal for Sept/Oct trips. However, we've sinced discovered our favorite time is actually late-April / early-May. That works great for our UY. I also know that as our kids get older, we may well be relegated to summer trips, which also work well for our year.

Give it some consideration--particularly if DVC openly offers you a choice of more than one month. But I wouldn't sweat it too much unless you're really confident of what the future holds.

[Wendyismyname]

Wow Tim, that's some great info!!!

Mine is June 1, which is great for us as we usually always travel in the summer!

[kathy320]

So if I understand correctly you have 5 months from your UY month to be able to bamk 100% of your points???

[tjkraz]

You have 6 months to bank 100%. In the next 3 months you can bank 50%. Then for one more month you can bank 25%. Over the last two months of your Use Year no banking is permitted.

I have a February UY, meaning that my points are good annually from 2/1 to 1/31. Here are my deadlines:

100% Banking: July 31
50% Banking: October 31
25% Banking: November 30

Also note that the banking allotments are cumulative. If I bank 50% of my points before July 31, I CANNOT bank the remaining 50% between 8/1 and 10/31. Since I'm already 50% banked on 8/1, no more banking would be permitted for the year.

[flechette]

[ QUOTE ]

100% Banking: July 31
50% Banking: October 31
25% Banking: November 30

Also note that the banking allotments are cumulative. If I bank 50% of my points before July 31, I CANNOT bank the remaining 50% between 8/1 and 10/31. Since I'm already 50% banked on 8/1, no more banking would be permitted for the year.

[/ QUOTE ]

So if I understabd your example - lets say I have 200 pt then my banking options would look like this

100% Banking: July 31 - 200 pts max banked
50% Banking: October 31 - 100 pts max banked
25% Banking: November 30 - 50 pts max banked

If I banked 50 pts June 2006 I could still put another 150 points as long as it was before July 31, or another 50 pts between Aug 1 - Oct 31. After Oct 31st if I've only banked 50 pts thats it for the year.

Am I on the right track?

[RobDVC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

100% Banking: July 31
50% Banking: October 31
25% Banking: November 30

Also note that the banking allotments are cumulative. If I bank 50% of my points before July 31, I CANNOT bank the remaining 50% between 8/1 and 10/31. Since I'm already 50% banked on 8/1, no more banking would be permitted for the year.

[/ QUOTE ]

So if I understabd your example - lets say I have 200 pt then my banking options would look like this

100% Banking: July 31 - 200 pts max banked
50% Banking: October 31 - 100 pts max banked
25% Banking: November 30 - 50 pts max banked

If I banked 50 pts June 2006 I could still put another 150 points as long as it was before July 31, or another 50 pts between Aug 1 - Oct 31. After Oct 31st if I've only banked 50 pts thats it for the year.

Am I on the right track?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, you got it right.