Hey everyone, it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD! When you buy Disney
Vacation Club your contract will have an annual allotment of points. Interestingly
though, if you don't want to use your points that year you can actually "bank"
them in order to avoid them expiring and just losing them. Similarly, if you're
going on a vacation and you're short some points you can actually "borrow"
points from your next year's allotment. This is called banking and borrowing
your points. We'll go over these topics in today's video.
Let's start with banking.
Perhaps you have other obligations and so you can't do your annual Walt Disney
World trip one year. Or let's say you do go, but you have some points left over--
maybe twenty from your annual allotment. If you don't do something with these
points, either your full year's worth of points if you don't go at all or your
leftover points from your trip, then they just disappear. Your points do expire and
this really is money wasted if you don't do anything with them. Disney Vacation
Club does allow you to save points from one year to the next though, this is
called banking. Now of course, there's some fine print. You do have to thank
your points by a certain deadline. This deadline is four months before the end
of your Use Year. We're going to go over Use Year in detail in a future video, but
for now just know that every contract has a Use Year, and this is when your
allotment [of] annual points begins. For example, let's say that I have a 100
point contract with a September 1st Use Year. This means currently I'm in
the Use Year that runs from September 1st 2019 until August 31st 2020, and then
my next allotment of points is going to start on September 1st 2020 and run
until August 31st 2021. Now, if I have unused points for my current Use Year,
that is September 1st 2019 to August 31st 2020, I can go ahead and bank them
to use during my next Use Year. With a September use year you're going to have
to Bank your points 4 months before August 31st
of that year, in this case April 30th 2020. Now, these banked points will be
available for use during my next Use Year: from September 1st 2020 through
August 31st 2021. Note that banked points can't be banked continuously. So if I bank
20 leftover points right now into my September 2020 Use Year and I don't go
to Walt Disney World at all next year, I can't bank those points again into my
2021 Use Year. So if you bank from one Use Year, during your next Use Year
you better be sure to use them or else you're going to lose them completely. On
the flip side, let's say I'm planning a vacation that costs 118 points--but shoot
my contract only has 100 points. Well thankfully, I can just borrow those 18
points that I need from the next Use Year. In this example, I'll use all 100 points from
my current Use Year (September 2019 to August 2020), and then I'll borrow 18
points for my September 2020 Use Year. This leaves me with 72 points left
starting in September 2020 to use for that Use Year. And similarly to how you
cannot continuously bank points, you also can't borrow points past that
one additional Use Year. So if I was planning a trip that was 220 points, I
could use all 100 points from my current Use Year, I could borrow all 100 points
from my next Use Year, but then I'll be 20 points short.
I cannot proceed to go ahead and borrow those 20 points from 2 Use Years from
now. Now, if you find yourself in this situation
Disney does offer one-time use purchase of vacation points: up to 24 per Use Year.
These additional points are restricted to the 7 month booking window, and
cannot be used for your 11 month priority home resort booking window. But
in my prior example, I could use all 100 points from the current year, borrow all
100 points from the next year, and then buy the additional 20 points I need from
Disney and just have to book at the 7 month window instead of the 11 month
window. Note that when banking or borrowing points: once you've moved
points away from their Use Year you cannot move them again. So you want to ensure
that you're using those points that you're moving around Use Years first. So
for example, let's say I'm unable to go to Walt Disney World this year and I bank
all 100 of my points. And next year I'm planning a vacation that I'll need 170
points for. When I book this vacation I better ensure that I'm using all 100 of
my points from last year that were banked before I touch my 100 points from
the current Use Year. This is because if I use the hundred points for my current
Use Year and 70 of the banked points then there are 30 banked points that I'm just
simply going to lose. In that example, if I do this properly and use my 100 banked
points and 70 of my current points I can still go ahead and bank those 30 points
if I have no plans on using them this year. Now, banking and borrowing can get
pretty complicated if you have multiple Disney Vacation contracts at different
home resorts or with different Use Years, as you'll have multiple deadlines
to keep track of. But if you're just thinking about this for one contract it can be
relatively straightforward. In my opinion, one of the beauties of banking and
borrowing is that it really makes DVC an option if you're the type of person who
only wants to go to Walt Disney World every other year. Certainly if you go
more frequently than that Disney Vacation Club could be a great option,
but if you're the type of traveler who wants to experience places other than
Walt Disney World for your one big trip a year it's nice to be able to spread it
out .So you can go to Disney one year, maybe Greece the next, Disney the year
after that, Japan the next, etc. By having the option to bank and borrow points if
you do it smartly you can purchase a relatively small contract and then bank
and borrow to suit your vacation needs. By pooling points across multiple Use Years
you'll be able to enjoy a longer stay or in larger accommodations at Disney when
you do go. Banking and borrowing can also make Disney Vacation Club more
attractive if you have a travel partner who is not as Disney obsessed as you are.
This way you can compromise and go to Walt Disney World every other year for
your big trip, but still make great use of those Disney Vacation Club points. So
those are the basics of banking and borrowing. Does knowing about banking and
borrowing points sway your decision to purchase DVC at all? I know it's a huge
factor for me. Let us know in the comments down below. If you found this
video helpful I hope you like the video, and consider subscribing and turning on
that bell icon to get notifications anytime a new video is posted. And we'll
see you next time at Pixie Dust PhD!