Asking a Seller to Bank Points During a DVC Resale Transaction
If you are purchasing a DVC resale contract and worried about points expiring before the transfer completes, you are not alone. Banking requests are one of the most common things purchasers ask about, and for good reason. The closing timeline for DVC resale is typically 60 to 90 days, and Disney's banking deadlines don't pause while your deal is in progress.
Here's what you need to know about banking requests, how to make one, and what sellers should do when they receive one.
How DVC Banking Works
Every DVC contract has a use year. That's the annual cycle during which your allocated points are available for use. Points that aren't used by the end of the use year expire permanently unless they were banked before Disney's banking deadline for that year.
Banking moves your current-year points forward into the next use year. The catch is that banking must happen before Disney's deadline, which typically falls around two-thirds of the way through the use year. You can only bank points into the immediately following year. You can't bank them two years out.
Because a DVC resale closing takes time, there are situations where the banking deadline falls in the middle of your transaction. If the seller doesn't bank the points before that deadline, they expire. The incoming purchaser loses points they paid for and may not even know it happened until they try to make a reservation.
This is why banking requests exist. They protect the purchaser's points when the closing timeline creates a real risk of expiration. For a complete explanation of how banking and borrowing interact with resale purchases, our how DVC works guide covers the full picture.
How to Request Banking as a Purchaser
If you want the seller to bank points before closing, communicate this as early as possible. The best time is when you're making your offer. You can add it as a term in the offer itself, which means it becomes part of the purchase agreement if the seller accepts.
You can also contact the DVC Sales team directly and ask us to relay the request to the seller. We handle this regularly and can make sure the request gets communicated clearly and in writing.
One important thing to understand: sellers are not automatically required to bank points unless it's written into the purchase agreement. If banking isn't specified in the contract, the seller has no legal obligation to do it. That's why including it as a term from the start is the cleanest approach.
Most sellers are cooperative about banking requests. It doesn't cost them anything, and it keeps the transaction running smoothly. A seller who refuses a reasonable banking request without explanation is worth taking note of.
What Sellers Need to Know About Banking Requests
If you're selling your DVC contract and a purchaser asks you to bank points, here's what the process looks like from your side.
You log in to your Disney Vacation Club member account online. From there, you navigate to the points management section and select the contract in question. Disney gives you the option to request banking for points within that use year. You submit the request, and Disney typically processes it within a few business days. The change will then show in your account dashboard.
There's no fee for banking. It's a standard feature of DVC membership, and Disney makes the process straightforward. The only constraint is that you have to do it before the banking deadline. If that deadline has already passed, banking is no longer possible for that use year.
It's worth logging into your Disney account before accepting an offer just to confirm the current state of your points and whether banking is still an option. If it isn't, that's something you should disclose to potential purchasers upfront so there are no surprises later in the transaction.
What Happens If Banking Isn't Possible?
Sometimes the banking deadline has already passed by the time a contract goes under contract. In those cases, the points simply can't be banked. If that's the situation, there are a few ways to handle it honestly.
The seller can acknowledge upfront that the current-year points won't be bankable. The purchaser can then decide whether the contract still makes sense at the listed price. In some cases, the price gets adjusted to reflect that some points won't be available to the incoming owner.
Alternatively, if the closing date can be moved up to happen before the banking deadline, that solves the problem without any price adjustment. This is worth exploring with your title company if the timeline allows for it.
The key in any of these situations is transparency. Purchasers who find out after closing that points expired during the transaction are understandably upset, and disputes over this issue can be avoided entirely by addressing it at the offer stage. At DVC Sales, our team is available to help navigate exactly these kinds of situations and make sure both parties understand what they're agreeing to.
Why This Matters More Than People Expect
Points have real dollar value. Annual dues are paid whether or not the points are used, so expired points represent money that was paid for nothing. On a 200-point contract where annual dues run $8 per point, a single year's worth of expired points represents $1,600 in value that simply disappears.
That's not a trivial amount. And because the banking issue is easy to overlook in the excitement of getting a contract under agreement, it's exactly the kind of thing that benefits from a knowledgeable brokerage keeping track of the details.
If you're buying and you have any concern about the current-year points on a contract you're considering, ask us. We can confirm what's bankable, what's already been used, and what's at risk of expiring before closing. That information should be part of every purchaser's due diligence.
Including Banking in Your Purchase Agreement
The cleanest way to protect yourself as a purchaser is to include a banking requirement as a written term in the purchase agreement. Something along the lines of "Seller agrees to bank available current-year points within 10 days of contract execution" is simple and enforceable.
This approach removes any ambiguity. The seller knows exactly what's expected, and if they don't follow through, there's a clear contractual basis for addressing it. Our team can help draft this language and make sure it gets included properly when an offer is accepted.
If you have questions about banking, points, or any aspect of the DVC resale process, we're here to help. You can reach the DVC Sales team at our contact page, and we'll walk you through your specific situation.
Costs and Timeline Reference
To keep everything in context: at DVC Sales, purchasers pay Disney's $500 Administration Fee and the title company's closing costs. Sellers pay our 6.9% commission and Disney's $150 Estoppel Fee. The full closing timeline from accepted offer to completed transfer is generally 60 to 90 days.
You can view current annual dues by resort on our dues page, and explore available DVC resale listings to see what contracts are on the market right now. If you want to understand how the points system works more deeply before making an offer, our how DVC works page is the best place to start.
