Is the banking deadline based on your use year?
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Yes. For a Dec use year, I have a 7/31 banking deadline. Buying on 7/2 was âjust in timeâ according to the guide
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So, for your Dec use year, when do your points get re-loaded? Do you choose your use year based on the month you typically like to travel? Letâs say we like to travel in April, would we choose an April use year, or a March? Do you have to have the points in your account when you book your reservation, or only right before you use them?
Sorry for the barrage of questionsâŚ
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You should choose your use year based on when you typically travel. Your points need to be available at time of travel, not at time of booking
My points are loaded Dec 1. That means I can use them for Dec1 or later; they expire November 30th and have to be used before then, or banked by July 31st.
I can book for December 1 travel any time after January 1 for my home resort, using the 11month window. Those points are not yet in my accoun ton January 1, but they will be by the time I arrive on December 1. Does that make sense?
Itâs important to pick a use year that is closest to your usual travel month without going over - think of it like The Price Is Right. I was not well advised when I bought my first contract, so I didnât quite do it right - not bad, but not perfect. My family prefers to travel in April. I should have gotten myself a February use year. The points are available Feb 1, and I can use them in April. But, if I have to cancel that tripI still have several months to use the points and I will not have hit the banking deadline (which I think would be Sept 30?). In other words, you want to have as much time available to you after your usual travel time to either bank or rebook so you donât lose your points.
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This is great information. Thanks! 
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It can be a bit confusing. I hope I explained it well. Ask more questions if you need to!!
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I donât think it does have to be. I think your Guide just meant it was just in time for you to bank.
But Member Services will bank new points for you if youâve missed that window.
Edit: applies to new points bought direct from DVC.
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Could be. It was 3 years ago now and I donât remember my breakfast from yesterday 
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Coffee and chocolate? 
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I donât think so. I bought February use year in December, past the banking deadline, and my recollection was that he offered to bank the 2023 points. I sold the points back to Disney instead so Iâm not 100% but it would be worth asking a guide.
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Yeah @Nicky_S thinks they meant just in time for my banking (even though theyâd have done that anyway)
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Iâm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but just checkingâŚ
At the 11-month window, you have to have enough points from your home resort to book a room, right? In other words, if I wanted to book a reservation at the Riviera at 11 months out, I would have to have enough Riviera points to cover that room type, correct? I canât have half from Riviera, and half from another resort.
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Thatâs correct.
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No.
You have to have enough points by the date you travel/are booking for.
And at 11mos you can only book home resort. So youâre correct that you canât use your home resort points to book elsewhere yet
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Sorry! Thatâs what I meant to ask. I understand. I just wanted to verify that I canât âmixâ points from different resorts and get the 11-month home resort booking window.
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For all of you spreadsheet gurus, how have you present-valued the cost of future maintenance fees? I mean, I can use the current fees, but over time, as the unit ages, maintenance fees will presumably escalate.
ETA: over and above inflation
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Oops! Youâve lost me now
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I tried to look at the historical average increase in the annual dues, and applied that annually going forward as well. Of course, it can fluctuate, but I figured it would give a decent enough number to work from.
By comparison, I did a similar calculation on the likely rise in the price on renting points, since I wanted to see if it would make more sense to just rent each time.
In the end, I found that there was a slight advantage to buying (when I actually bought, based on the factors we were looking at), but only slightly so. The main advantage was being able to book at a nicer resort for what works out to be closer in price to a value resort, but at the resort we wanted to be at!
ETA: I also found that I hit my âbreak even pointâ after staying approximately 5 times on points.
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Sorry, LOL. I probably did not word that well. In my former life, I was a CPA.
I am trying to look at the cost of ownership, including lifetime maintenance costs, and do a break-even analysis on how long I would have to be physically and mentally capable of visiting WDW to make purchasing a DVC worth it. Iâm sure I am overanalyzing this, as I do everything. 
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It is a huge investment. Better to overanalyze! I did the same thing, which is why I found out buying resale was the only way to make it worthwhile, financially.
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