New DVC members typically have a hard time understanding the “Use Year” concept. When you buy into the Disney Vacation Club, the points you purchase will be available to use every year throughout the term of your membership. For each of the years on your contract, you’ll be given what’s called a “Use Year” — the 12-month period of time in which you can use that year’s points.
Each contract is assigned a Use Year (UY) at the time of purchase. The Use Year is the month that points are put into your account.
It’s important to note that the Use Year of a particular contract is determined and assigned by DVC at the time of the original sale of an ownership interest in a DVC resort to a member, and the Use Year on a contract is fixed and unalterable.
Most new DVC members who purchase direct from Disney don’t pay much attention to the Use Year that is assigned to their contract, and may not even be aware of the limited choice of UY that DVC is presently selling. In many cases, when you decide to add-on points direct from DVC later on, they will typically require your add-on contracts to have the same Use Year, unless you purchase a larger add-on. When purchasing via the resale market, you will see that contracts are listed by: resort, the number of points, and their Use Year.
WHAT IS A USE YEAR?
So, what the heck is a Use Year?
In a nutshell, it marks the time each year when you receive a new allotment of vacation points. You have one year to use those points before they expire. You can bank points from one Use Year to the next, or even borrow points from one Use Year to the immediately preceding one.
Use Year affects when you can bank and borrow vacation points, and sets the deadline for certain vacation decisions.
It really only comes into play when you have to cancel your reservation.
We cover the details in Understanding Use Year.
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