Pros and Cons to Banking and Borrowing DVC Points

With Disney Vacation Club, you don’t have to use your points every year.  Instead, you can choose to bank or borrow your points.  With banking, you can save your points to use them next year, and with borrowing, you can use your points a year in advance.  So what are the pros and cons to banking and borrowing your points?

Pros to Banking and Borrowing

They Add Flexibility in How You Use Your Points

Banking and borrowing gives DVC Members much more flexibility in how they use their points.  Since you can bank and borrow at the same time, it means that you can use up to 3 years’ worth of points for a single trip.  For example, a 100-point contract may not stretch all that far, but if you bank and borrow, you can have up to 300 points to use for one trip!  Having 3 years’ worth of points can translate into booking a longer stay, a nicer view, or even a larger villa.

View from a Boardwalk View Deluxe Studio at the BoardWalk Villas

There Are Now More Options for Your Banked and Borrowed Points

DVC recently changed point transfer rules to make banked and borrowed points even more flexible: you can now transfer banked or borrowed points.  Transfers can be helpful if you wish to book a trip for a larger travel group by pooling together points with friends or family who are also DVC Members.  You can make a transfer by calling Member Services.

Borrowing Gives You More Time to Use Points

It may be advantageous to keep borrowing points when you get closer to your contract’s expiration date.  For example, if you own a contract that ends in 2042, it actually ends on January 31, 2042.  Should you have a December Use Year, you have very little time to use those 2041 points since they would be good for stays starting on December 1, 2041.  You would be better off borrowing those 2041 points in advance to have more opportunities to use them.  

Cons to Banking and Borrowing

Banking and Borrowing Are Final Transactions

One caveat to banking and borrowing is that once you bank or borrow points, you can’t move your points back to the Use Year they came from.  For instance, if you borrow points from the next year for an upcoming trip but then end up canceling that reservation, those borrowed points can’t be put back into the next year.  Instead, they would expire at the end of the Use Year.

Polynesian Bora Bora Bungalows

Banked and Borrowed Points Are Risky to Use at the End of a Use Year

With banking and borrowing being final transactions, making a reservation with banked or borrowed points near the end of your Use Year can get dicey.  If you cancel that trip, the points cannot be banked into the next Use Year.  This means that you may not have enough time to book another trip with those points before they expire at the end of the Use Year.  

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