New to DVC and wondering about additional points (rent/transfer)

[VTHops]

So we are newly minted owners of 200 its at Aulani. Like a lot of time share buys, it was more or less an impulse. Lots of fear, but reading these forums have been a HUGE help with getting comfortable with the whole idea. My fear has been ebbing and my excitement has been growing. but now the questions keeping popping up in mind and thought I would ask.

When we bought I wasn't comfortable with going any higher than the amount for 200 pts. for Aulani, and while it is a sizable chunk of change I am already seeing the limits of a smaller amount. However, after reading so many posts about resale, I am comfortable with keeping it smaller and should the need arise in adding a contract of another 100-200 points most likely thru resale.

That leads me to my question of adding another contract to our portfolio. I have searched these forums and seems like I haven't found the answer or am just not putting the pieces together properly. There seems to be a lot of people with more than one contract so I'm sure they know something I don't. My question is, if you buy a contract from another home resort, can you "move" points to another contract (essentially a transfer) even though you own both contracts, and if you do, do they become like your own original points and can be used for reservations 11 months out, or are they restricted and only able to be used on reservations 7 months out because it might not be at your home resort? Or do you need to have all the points come from contracts from the same home resort in order to book 11 months out.

The answer would greatly influence "where" we would buy our next contract. We might also be interested in getting a smaller WDW property contract to use for the parks and then "rob" from our Aulani account if we were short for our full vacation. Our Aulani contract is fairly expensive in comparison to most others (in terms of $/pt and MX fees), but if we could augment with a cheaper contract from an older resort that would make a lot more financial sense, but I'm sure DVC might not like that. Aulani was without a doubt where DW wanted to buy so I don't think we made a mistake in that regard ,but also doing WDW every few years would be a good idea as well.

There has to be a reason so many people have so many contracts at different places, I just want to try to make sure I fully understand the pros and cons.

I hope I am making my question clear . If not, let me know and I will try again and maybe break it down a bit more or give a hypothetical situation that would make it clearer than all of this theory .

[Deb & Bill]

Originally Posted by VTHops

So we are newly minted owners of 200 its at Aulani. Like a lot of time share buys, it was more or less an impulse. Lots of fear, but reading these forums have been a HUGE help with getting comfortable with the whole idea. My fear has been ebbing and my excitement has been growing. but now the questions keeping popping up in mind and thought I would ask.

When we bought I wasn't comfortable with going any higher than the amount for 200 pts. for Aulani, and while it is a sizable chunk of change I am already seeing the limits of a smaller amount. However, after reading so many posts about resale, I am comfortable with keeping it smaller and should the need arise in adding a contract of another 100-200 points most likely thru resale.

That leads me to my question of adding another contract to our portfolio. I have searched these forums and seems like I haven't found the answer or am just not putting the pieces together properly. There seems to be a lot of people with more than one contract so I'm sure they know something I don't. My question is, if you buy a contract from another home resort, can you "move" points to another contract (essentially a transfer) even though you own both contracts, and if you do, do they become like your own original points and can be used for reservations 11 months out, or are they restricted and only able to be used on reservations 7 months out because it might not be at your home resort? Or do you need to have all the points come from contracts from the same home resort in order to book 11 months out.

The answer would greatly influence "where" we would buy our next contract. We might also be interested in getting a smaller WDW property contract to use for the parks and then "rob" from our Aulani account if we were short for our full vacation. Our Aulani contract is fairly expensive in comparison to most others (in terms of $/pt and MX fees), but if we could augment with a cheaper contract from an older resort that would make a lot more financial sense, but I'm sure DVC might not like that. Aulani was without a doubt where DW wanted to buy so I don't think we made a mistake in that regard ,but also doing WDW every few years would be a good idea as well.

There has to be a reason so many people have so many contracts at different places, I just want to try to make sure I fully understand the pros and cons.

I hope I am making my question clear . If not, let me know and I will try again and maybe break it down a bit more or give a hypothetical situation that would make it clearer than all of this theory .

Only Aulani points can be used to book Aulani at 7 to 11 months out. Once you hit seven months or less out, you can use any resort points.

Also if you purchase a second contract resale with a different use year than the one you currently own, you would not be able to combine the points from each at seven months out without transferring points from one contract to another.

For example, I have a larger Sept UY contract and a smaller Dec UY contract. If I am short points to make a reservation with my Sept points, I have to transfer points from the Dec contract to make up the difference. If I need more than I have in my Dec current UY, I have to make a separate reservation with the Dec contract and ask for them to be linked.

[DizBub]

Originally Posted by VTHops

My question is, if you buy a contract from another home resort, can you "move" points to another contract (essentially a transfer) even though you own both contracts, and if you do, do they become like your own original points and can be used for reservations 11 months out, or are they restricted and only able to be used on reservations 7 months out because it might not be at your home resort? Or do you need to have all the points come from contracts from the same home resort in order to book 11 months out.

Yes you can move points from one contract to another but only at the 7 month mark. It would make it easier if all your contracts have the same Use Year and are titled exactly the same. If they are different from each other they will have different member #s necessitating transfers.

I know some people report that they have multiple UYs and make them work for them but I feel like, why make things more complicated than they have to be?

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by VTHops

My question is, if you buy a contract from another home resort, can you "move" points to another contract (essentially a transfer) even though you own both contracts, and if you do, do they become like your own original points and can be used for reservations 11 months out, or are they restricted and only able to be used on reservations 7 months out because it might not be at your home resort? Or do you need to have all the points come from contracts from the same home resort in order to book 11 months out.

Many of us own contracts at more than one resort to get home resort booking priority at multiple resorts. However, if you want to book a particular resort 11 months out, then you need enough points from that resort to pay for the reservation. If you own Aulani and BLT for example, you cannot use Aulani points to book BLT 11 months out. To book in the home resort window, only home resort points are valid for payment (BLT points at BLT, Aulani points at Aulani, etc.) so if you plan to purchase points at more than one resort to use them 11 months out, you need to purchase enough points to book your stay.

You can also use banking and borrowing if you don't plan to stay at a resort every year. For example, if you had a small BLT contract, you could bank and borrow your BLT points and use 3 years worth of points to make a reservation 11 months out. If you had a medium-sized BLT contract, you could bank your BLT points every other year and have two years worth of BLT points to use 11 months out.

If you have multiple contracts and they are the same UY and titled the same, they will be under one membership. You can just combine points from them (without transferring points between contracts) to make a reservation. For contracts at the same resort, you can combine the points 11 months out. For contracts at different resorts, you can combine the points to make a reservation 7 months out. Another strategy if you own contracts at different resorts is to use the points from resort XYZ to book as many nights as possible 11 months out. At 7 months out, you use your points from resort ABC to try to add additional nights to your XYZ reservation, subject to availability.

If your contracts have different Use Years (whether they are the same resort or different resorts) they will be under different memberships. If you want to use points from those contracts for one stay, you would need to transfer them from one membership to another. They would still retain their home resort and UY. They would not "morph" from one resort to another just because they were transferred. So if you had Aulani points with an August UY and BLT points with a December UY and transferred some of your Aulani points to your BLT contract, they are still Aulani points and cannot be used to book BLT 11 months out.

Another option for contracts under separate memberships is to book as many whole nights as possible from one contract as one reservation, and as many nights as possible from the other contract as a second reservation and then have Member Services link the two reservations. Again, the 11 month/7 month booking windows will apply.

[kenspidey]

How often can you transfer points between accounts? Can you transfer points to another member? How about to a non DVC member?

[DizBub]

Originally Posted by kenspidey

How often can you transfer points between accounts? Can you transfer points to another member? How about to a non DVC member?

I believe you can have only 1 transfer per UY in or out between members. Not both.

Not sure how they handle this between your own accounts.

Non DVC members can rent points from DVC members.

[puffkin]

Originally Posted by kenspidey

How often can you transfer points between accounts? Can you transfer points to another member? How about to a non DVC member?

1 time a year.

I personally have 3 medium sized contracts (100-150 points each) that are all seperate membership numbers (2 different use years and resorts). I don't really have a problem managing them seperately. I use 1 contract per trip. With banking/borrowing, I get enough for that trip. Then for the next trip I use the next contract. I found it easier to manage that way for our situation. We also tend to travel at different times throughout the year so I like to use my June UY for fall/winter trips and my Feb UY for Spring trips. I've only had to transfer points in once from another contract.

[LisaS]

Originally Posted by kenspidey

How often can you transfer points between accounts?

You can transfer points either IN or OUT once per UY. However, MS sometimes lets a member do more than one transfer per UY if the member has multiple memberships and is transferring points between them.

Can you transfer points to another member?

Yes and in this case the "one transfer IN or OUT per UY" rule definitely applies. Note that it is one transfer per Use Year, not calendar year. You could do two transfers in one calendar year if you transferred points in or out of the current UY and did another transfer in or out of your next UY. You could do both of those transfers on the same day.

How about to a non DVC member?

No because in a point transfer, the points are transferred from one DVC member's account to another DVC member's account. If someone isn't a member, they don't have an account in which to receive the points. Non-members have no way to do anything with DVC points anyway.

A member can use his/her points to make a reservation and then rent that reservation to a non-member.

[VTHops]

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody who answered. It was very helpful. The more I learn the more am getting excited about the whole thing, but it still is a little overwhelming. Hard to believe just a few weeks ago I didn't know anything about this and now I can't stop surfing the forums!

I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road!

Brent

[Hunclemarco]

Originally Posted by VTHops

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody who answered. It was very helpful. The more I learn the more am getting excited about the whole thing, but it still is a little overwhelming. Hard to believe just a few weeks ago I didn't know anything about this and now I can't stop surfing the forums!

I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road!

Brent

The DIS is very Addictive in my opinion

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by DizBub

Yes you can move points from one contract to another but only at the 7 month mark. It would make it easier if all your contracts have the same Use Year and are titled exactly the same. If they are different from each other they will have different member #s necessitating transfers.

I know some people report that they have multiple UYs and make them work for them but I feel like, why make things more complicated than they have to be?

Just to clarify, points can never be moved into a different contract. If you own more than one home resort under the same membership, you can use them together to book at the 7 month mark. If you own two different memberships--different UY's--then you can transfer once per UY between the two. If its the same resort, they can be used at 11 months--if not, at 7 months.

[kenspidey]

I also am very grateful to you guys ... It was very helpful

[lodge]

I've read about this numerous times and still have to pause and think about it sometimes.... especially when planning out a trip.

[DizBub]

Originally Posted by Sandisw

Just to clarify, points can never be moved into a different contract. If you own more than one home resort under the same membership, you can use them together to book at the 7 month mark. If you own two different memberships--different UY's--then you can transfer once per UY between the two. If its the same resort, they can be used at 11 months--if not, at 7 months.

Oops! I knew that. I misstated about points moving into a contract. I meant that you could combine points from two contracts at 7 months.

Thanks for setting that straight. All this stuff is already so confusing to new people, it's a disservice to give out wrong info, making it even more confusing. Sorry.

[Deb & Bill]

Originally Posted by DizBub

Oops! I knew that. I misstated about points moving into a contract. I meant that you could combine points from two contracts at 7 months......

If you are talking about two different memberships, you cannot combine them unless you transfer them. If you are talking about different resorts under one master contract, they can be combined at seven months for any DVC.