Another Question - Transfer/Trade

[melifeld]

Hi all.

Seriously considering a DVC resale and I have more questions.

1. What is the difference between a transfer and a trade?
2. How does a transfer work?
3. How does a trade work?
4. Once you are a DVC owner, is there a limit to the number of transfers and/or number of points you can send/receive via transfer?

Thank you,
Melissa

[drusba]

A transfer is when one member actually transfers points to another member who can then use them to make a reservation. You are allowed one transfer, either in or out but not both, during each use year.

A trade is what you do when you attempt to reserve outside of DVC such as through RCI or to the Disney Collections (cruise, Disney hotels, others; if you buy resale certain of the collections including the WDW hotels and the cruise will not be available to you). You give up your points for getting the reservation elsewhere. You can do that multiple times per use year although few would. You do those trades through Member Services and there is a $90 charge per trade. It is not always easy to get what you want when you want through RCI.

A rental of points is another term you will see and is not actually a rental of points. You enter into an agreement with an owner for which you pay the owner to reserve a room for you at your desired time and resort and the owner then makes a reservation in your name using his own points. The owner can do that multiple times per use year except Disney has created a presumption that if you do that more than 20 times per use year you will be presumed to be a commercial enterprise engaging in the business of renting for which there is a prohibition in the official documents.

[chalee94]

1. What is the difference between a transfer and a trade?

A “transfer” is when points actually move from one member account to another. If I transfer pts to you, you can control them – you can call DVC member services (MS) and book a reservation with those pts and make changes to that reservation if needed. You can bank transferred pts (but not borrow them). You are only allowed one transfer (either in or out, but not both) per UY.

A “rental” is when I use my pts to book a reservation for you. I can rent that reservation to a DVC member or a nonmember. I still control the reservation until you check in. You cannot call to cancel or change the reservation – MS will not discuss the reservation with you even if you are a DVC member.

A “trade” is usually when I book a reservation for you and you book a reservation for me (usually at each other’s home resorts). That would work more like a rental, and due to the lack of control and risk of being the party traveling last, trades are pretty rare from what I understand. The one transfer per UY means trades involving transferred pts are also pretty rare but theoretically you could trade your current UY’s pts out and accept the other member’s next UY pts in.

2. How does a transfer work?

An example of a transfer is when I call up MS and tell them to give X number of my OKW pts from my 2013 Oct UY to you. You would then be able to call up MS and book OKW at 11 months out since the transferred pts home resort and UY remain attached to the pts.

Technically, I should add that accepting compensation for a transfer is prohibited in the contract.

3. How does a trade work?

As I mentioned, barters are complicated (how many OKW pts does it take to equal a BLT pt?) so most people deal in cash…

[chalee94]

Ha – yeah, “trades” between point owners are so rare, when you see the word “trade” on the boards, it does tend to mean “trades out of the DVC resort system”, including trades for cruises or for hotels like the poly…which involve extra DVC fees and typically low trade values…

[melifeld]

Thanks everyone for the clarification!