Hello Frank!
Welcome Home! At planDisney, we are Disney fanatics and experienced Disney travelers from around the United States and the World, here to answer your trip planning questions, or in my case, I am also here to help with your
Disney Vacation Club questions! We have been a Member Family for 12 years and I always love talking about DVC!
Since you just mention
banking and borrowing without a specific question, I can try to give you an overview of how they both work. I have banked and borrowed Vacation Points on several occasions, and until the pandemic, I had never lost a single point!
Each Membership has a Use Year, which is the month at which your
Vacation Points can be used for a stay. For example, with my June Use Year, my Vacation Points for 2021 can be used for a stay beginning June 1, 2021, and I can make the last day of a trip as late as May 31, 2022. Even though I can’t stay on those Vacation Points until June 1, I can still
book 11 months before then if staying at my Home Resort, and up to 7 months before then if staying at another Disney Vacation Club Resort.
If I am not going to use all of my Vacation Points, and would like to
bank them into the following Use Year, this can be done from the first day of the Use Year up to 8 months into the Use Year. If my Use Year was June, I could bank beginning June 1, up until January 31. This is known as your Banking Window. Once your Banking Window has closed, you must use those points for a stay before the end of the Use Year (May 31), or they will expire. Alternately, you can also consider depositing them into RCI to extend their life. Banking can be done on the DVC Member Website or by calling Member Services and is a permanent move. Once banked, they cannot be returned to their original Use Year, and they cannot be banked a second time. You must use them by the end of the Use Year they were banked into.
If you’d like to book a stay, but don’t have enough Vacation Points, you can
borrow points from the upcoming Use Year. For example, if I had 200 Vacation Points, but I wanted to book a stay this July that was 250 Vacation Points, I could borrow 50 Vacation Points from my 2022 Use Year to use in 2021. Once Vacation Points are borrowed, they cannot be returned or banked into their original Use Year, and so this is a permanent action. You can borrow only when making a reservation, and this can be done online or by calling Member Services.
Under ordinary circumstances, Members are usually able to borrow all of their Vacation Points from their upcoming Use Year. However, with so many Members having to cancel and postpone vacations from 2020 who need to be able to use those points in 2021, currently, Members are only allowed to borrow up to 50% of next year’s Vacation Points. In my example of a 200 point contract, I would only be able to borrow a maximum of 100 Vacation Points.
I hope this helps explain a bit about banking and borrowing, Frank. If you have a more specific question I can help you with, please feel free to submit it. I love our Disney Vacation Club Membership and am always happy to help a fellow Member out!
Wishing you
Membership Magic!-Kate