Thoughts on an August use year

**skstorm** · 18 Oct 18, 08:26 AM

Could I have everyone's thoughts on an August use year please if we would normally holiday in August?

Holidays are likely to be August or October maybe December (School holidays) may occassionally do the may/april one but not as keen on that and very unlikely to go Jan, Feb, March.

seen something that might be worth an offer - although its a long shot but unsure on use year

wedgeh · 18 Oct 18, 08:37 AM

Generally you want your use year to begin when you take your holidays, so that if you end up cancelling you're still within your banking window. For the times of year you plan to go away, August use year sounds perfect.

YorkshireT · 18 Oct 18, 09:47 AM

A few things to consider. If you'll regularly need to borrow, will the points come on early enough when you first use it. Will they come on early enough for when you may want to use it in future?
Regarding the first year of use this is obvious, will the points on a contract you buy be available in time for the first trip, in other words if it doesn't have current years' points, will they have come on by the time you travel so you can also borrow the following years' points?

Then consider when you may travel the year or two after if you need to borrow a future years' points when making the booking.
Example, you want to go August next year, and need to borrow but the contract doesn't have points on until 2019. Fine, as they'll have come onto the contract before your August 2019 trip, and you can borrow August 2020's points. No problem, all good.
Now, you want to go in May 2021 and need 2 years' points again. This is still in the 2020 use year, as you haven't hit August 2021 yet.
So your points haven't come ontp the contract yet in May 2020 when you want to travel, so you'd only have 1 years' points available, by borrowing from the 2021 use year. Thus there would be no way to use 2 years' points.
Of course, if you are not using 2 years' points or if you are buying a loaded contract this becomes less of a consideration.
The next is cancellation. This is because of the banking deadlineI- see this chart-

For August trips an August use year is great because the points come on in August, you can cancel (as long as it's more than 31 days before the trip) and you'd have until the following end of March to bank the points.
But if you had a May trip planned and had used that year's points (remember these would have come onto the contract the previous August) then you may already be past that 31 March deadline when you cancel. This means then, say you cancel in July, you'd HAVE to use the points in a month or lose them.
Frankly I would give little consideration to cancellation and be more concerned I could get my first few trips in if I was buying a contract without current years' points and I was having to borrow.
I wouldn't let any use year overtly influence me on first purchase, as long as I could get my first planned trip in.
Also I think they have been taking less August in ROFR than Feb.
August sounds fine for you to me.

**skstorm** · 18 Oct 18, 05:23 PM

I put an offer in but the guy wasn�t budging below $114 per point which is probably why it was still there - far too much for me for Saratoga!

YorkshireT · 18 Oct 18, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by skstorm

I put an offer in but the guy wasn�t budging below $114 per point which is probably why it was still there - far too much for me for Saratoga!

Unless it was loaded with banked points I agree.

**skstorm** · 18 Oct 18, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Unless it was loaded with banked points I agree.

Oh it was loaded with lots of points but still to expensive for me and I was apparently at least the 2nd person to pass it by because of price :-)

eaglesrest · 20 Oct 18, 09:24 AM

This caught me out when I first started looking. The price per point varies depending on the number of banked points with an assumption that the banked points can be rented and seller pays that years dues e.g. which is the best deal for a 100 point contract

1)$100 per point - normal points
2) $110 per point - loaded
3) $95 per point stripped

On the face of it either 1 or 3 is the better deal, but if you are prepared to rent out the points its actually option 2.

Assuming a rental of $13 per point via Davids, that's 100x $13 or $1300. Deduct that from the overall costs and you get a figure of $97 per point. There are some minor variances such as increased closing costs, short-term higher capital outlay etc, but the reality is the figures are not always what they seem.

SSR seems to be around the $100 mark for a 200 point contract at the moment, so it does seem a bit steep even with loaded points but depends on the size of the contract, and if the UY fits your needs.

18 Oct 18, 08:37 AM	#2
	18 Oct 18, 08:37 AM wedgeh Trying for More Ears
wedgeh Trying for More Ears Join Date: Nov 13	Generally you want your use year to begin when you take your holidays, so that if you end up cancelling you're still within your banking window. For the times of year you plan to go away, August use year sounds perfect. __________________ 2004 Pop 2008 Honeymoon 2009 OKW 2010 WBTA & AKV 2012 BCV/BLT/AKV 2014 OKW & BCV \|\| WBTA & AKV 2016 DLP \|\| Tokyo & Hong Kong 2017 AKV/BLT 2018 SoCal & DLR May 2019 - BLT, Royal Pacific, AKV club Sept 2019 - WBTA & NYC

20 Oct 18, 09:24 AM	#7
	20 Oct 18, 09:24 AM eaglesrest Apprentice Imagineer
eaglesrest Apprentice Imagineer Join Date: Apr 08	This caught me out when I first started looking. The price per point varies depending on the number of banked points with an assumption that the banked points can be rented and seller pays that years dues e.g. which is the best deal for a 100 point contract 1)$100 per point - normal points 2) $110 per point - loaded 3) $95 per point stripped On the face of it either 1 or 3 is the better deal, but if you are prepared to rent out the points its actually option 2. Assuming a rental of $13 per point via Davids, that's 100x $13 or $1300. Deduct that from the overall costs and you get a figure of $97 per point. There are some minor variances such as increased closing costs, short-term higher capital outlay etc, but the reality is the figures are not always what they seem. SSR seems to be around the $100 mark for a 200 point contract at the moment, so it does seem a bit steep even with loaded points but depends on the size of the contract, and if the UY fits your needs.