Understanding DVC Use Year: Which Month to Choose
Your use year determines when your annual points reset, and it matters more than most buyers realize. Here's how to pick the right one.
What Use Year Actually Means
Every DVC contract has a use year: a specific month of the year when your annual points allocation resets. If your use year is December, your points refresh on December 1 each year. If it's June, they refresh June 1.
This sounds simple, but the use year has practical consequences for booking and banking that every DVC buyer should understand before purchasing.
The 12 Possible Use Years
DVC offers 12 use year months (though not all are common):
- Most common: February, March, June, August, September, October, December
- Less common: January, April, May, July, November
The majority of contracts in circulation have February, June, August, or December use years, because those aligned with the earliest resort phases.
Why It Matters: Banking Deadlines
If you don't use all your points in a given use year, you can bank them: carry them forward to the next use year. But there's a deadline: you must bank before the banking cutoff, which is 4 months before your use year ends.
For a December use year:
- Use year runs December 1 – November 30
- Banking deadline: August 1 (4 months before the use year ends November 30)
- Points not used AND not banked by August 1 expire
For a February use year:
- Use year runs February 1 – January 31
- Banking deadline: October 1
This matters most if you vacation inconsistently. If you don't make it to Disney in a given year, you need to bank your points before the deadline, or they're gone.
Which Use Year Is Best for You?
The right use year depends entirely on when you typically vacation:
December use year, great for:
- Families who vacation in summer or fall
- Points reset December 1, giving maximum flexibility for spring and summer trips booked at 11 months
- Most common use year; easiest to find resale contracts
February use year, great for:
- Spring break travelers
- Points reset February 1, well ahead of spring and summer booking windows
- Very common; good resale liquidity
June use year, great for:
- Families who primarily vacation in summer
- Points reset June 1, right as you're planning or booking summer trips
- Common; solid resale supply
August use year, great for:
- Back-to-school / late summer travelers
- Points reset August 1; well-positioned for late summer and holiday bookings
The Borrow Rule
You can also borrow points from your next use year to supplement the current year. This lets you book a bigger trip than your current balance allows.
Rules:
- You can borrow up to 100% of your next use year's points
- Borrowed points must be used in the current use year; they can't be banked
- If you cancel after borrowing, the borrowed points return to the year they came from (not always useful)
The borrow window opens 11 months before your next use year begins. For a December use year, you can borrow next year's December points starting December 1 of the current year, which means you effectively always have two years of points available from December 1.
Use Year and the Resale Market
On the resale market, December and February use years are the most common, which means:
- More supply = slightly lower prices (all else equal)
- More selection when shopping
- Easier to find exactly the points/price combination you want
Less common use years (April, May, July, November) sometimes trade at tiny premiums due to lower supply, but the difference is usually negligible.
The more important thing: buy the use year that aligns with your vacation patterns. A December use year is no good if you only vacation in January and February: your points reset after you've already needed them, and you'd perpetually be borrowing or managing a mismatch.
What Happens to Points When You Buy Resale
When you buy a resale contract, the points come with whatever status the seller left them in:
- Full allocation: The current use year's points are intact (most common)
- Banked pts: The seller banked last year's points, giving you extra on top of this year's allocation
- Stripped: Points for the current (or sometimes next) use year were already used or given back to the seller as part of the deal. You may receive partial or no current-year points
Our listing detail pages show the exact point availability breakdown by year, so you know exactly what you're getting before making an offer.
Bottom Line
For most buyers: December, February, or June are the practical choices, and the differences between them are small. Match your use year to your vacation timing, prioritize finding the right resort and points count at a fair Lifetime Cost/pt, and don't overthink use year selection.