And yet another question

[Carole]

Ok, am I correct in saying that it would be best to have my use year start a year before we would normally go, so the points are available to use 11 months out?

I recall a thread on the US DIS where someone was saying that they were too late to bank their points so they had to use them. Do you have to use them by a certain time, or risk losing them? I'm thinking that sometimes we would want to use them at other resorts and then you have the 7 month thing <img src="http://www.disneybb.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/non-cgi/emoticons/sconf.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':sconf'>

Help, I'm really confused by all this. If we normally want to go in either October or November, when should our use year start?

[Hil]

I really didn't understand this concept before I joined, either - I couldn't see that it mattered when our use year was.

However, our guide did explain it to me, and I'll try to explain it to you, but incase I get it wrong, the short answer would be that for regular Oct / Nov trips, you don't want an October use year. We also travel most often in October and our guide recommended Feb / March use year.

I think it has to do with banking deadlines and unexpected cancellations. If you plan to use your points, and do use them as planned, it probably doesn't make much difference when your use year is. But if you had to cancel plans at short notice, it might make the difference between being able to bank those unused points or losing them altogether.

With a March use year, you would be able to bank 100% of your points up until the end of August, 50% up to the end of November and 25% up to the end of December. You would not be able to bank any points during January or February. Similarly, if your use year was October, you would not be able to bank any points during August or September.

So if you plan to travel in October, you don't want an October use year because a last minute cancellation would mean you would be too late to bank any of those points.

I don't remember whether use year was all that relevant to getting your next allocation of points - you don't have to have the points actually in your account when you make a booking, just to have a use year that will make sure they will be in the account before the start of the holiday.

Phew! I don't know whether any of that makes sense, or even whether I've completely grasped the reasons for choosing one use year over any other - all I can say is that for a similar holiday time to yours, we were told Feb / March would be good!

[Carole]

Thanks Hilary. That actually made perfect sense.  .

[theFatman]

Carole  this is really exciting stuff, please keep us updated on your progress, costs etc as I'm sure theres a lot of us here who would love to by DVC.

[Carole]

I don't think I need any encouragement Dave  .

It's great to be able to share our excitement about it all with people who understand.

[Carole]

Thanks Vernon .