# Question about expiring credits



## chemteach (Feb 27, 2018)

I just purchased a worldmark contract that will likely not close until June or July.  (The seller says it is taking 4 months for Worldmark to close transfers right now - is that what others are experiencing?)  I am looking forward to owning Worldmark, and have a question:

If I reserve a unit in July 2018 for August 2019 with credits that expire say, November 2018, and realize in December, 2018 that I cannot use the August 2019 reservation, is my only option to deposit the August 2019 unit in an exchange company, or can I cancel the reservation and still use the credits?  I am thinking the answer would be "No," because the credits would have expired a month earlier.

Thanks in advance for any answers!


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## VacationForever (Feb 27, 2018)

4 months to close is about right.

In your example, you can cancel and change your reservation only if you call the WM desk to do so.  If you try to do it yourself, you will lose the expired credits.


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## uscav8r (Feb 27, 2018)

VacationForever said:


> 4 months to close is about right.
> 
> In your example, you can cancel and change your reservation only if you call the WM desk to do so.  If you try to do it yourself, you will lose the expired credits.



Actually that is not true. You can cancel the booking online and the expired credits will immediately show up in the account. You must then book those credits into a NEW reservation that is within 13 months of the original expiration date before the online system closes for the night. 

I do this all the time to ensure the credits shuffle into the reservations I desire and to keep those expired credits alive until they can be used. 

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## chemteach (Feb 27, 2018)

Thanks for the quick replies!!


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## VacationForever (Feb 27, 2018)

uscav8r said:


> Actually that is not true. You can cancel the booking online and the expired credits will immediately show up in the account. You must then book those credits into a NEW reservation that is within 13 months of the original expiration date before the online system closes for the night.
> 
> I do this all the time to ensure the credits shuffle into the reservations I desire and to keep those expired credits alive until they can be used.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



They must have improved their system.  The conventional wisdom has always been call the WM desk.


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## Travel1 (Feb 27, 2018)

Actually, the way I am reading it, your credits will expire.

Why?  You have credits with an expiration date of 30 Nov 2018, which means you must have used or *made a reservation by 30 Nov 18*.  Note, if you make a reservation by 30 Nov 18, you can make that reservation 13 months out using those Nov 2018 credits.

So, if you make your reservation in July 2018 (good) for August 2019 (good...within 13 months), but then cancel the reservation in December 2018 (bad), you will most likely loss those credits.  Why?  The July 2018 reservation used the Nov 2018 credits....when you cancel in December, the credits to be returned will be past the Nov 2018 expiration, so you won't get them back to use or make another reservation.

At least this is my understanding...and I have spent a lot of time with owner care trying to understand myself.


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## Travel1 (Feb 27, 2018)

As a follow-up to my response above...in regards to be able to transfer the August 2019 reservation to an exchange company....that question, I am not able to address if that is allowed or not (but curious to know and which exchange companies allow you to do that).  Your best bet however for that question is to call Worldmark owner care.


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## uscav8r (Feb 28, 2018)

Travel1 said:


> Actually, the way I am reading it, your credits will expire.
> 
> Why?  You have credits with an expiration date of 30 Nov 2018, which means you must have used or *made a reservation by 30 Nov 18*.  Note, if you make a reservation by 30 Nov 18, you can make that reservation 13 months out using those Nov 2018 credits.
> 
> ...



As I mentioned above, expired credits from a cancelled reservation are still “alive” until the end of the day during which you cancel. They will absolutely expire for good if you do not book them into another reservation before the system closes. 

So in the case of the OP, let’s say he books a Christmas 2019 reservation before November 30, 2018. As of December 1, 2018, the credits in that reservation will become “expired credits.” But they are not “dead.” Sometime in January 2019, he decides that he wants a long summer vacation instead but he doesn’t have enough available credits. He can cancel that Christmas 2019 reservation (online or by phone) to free up those expired credits. He can then immediately rebook those credits into his Summer 2019 vacation. If he waits until the next day to rebook, those expired credits will have disappeared. 

Why is this? Because the system waits until the overnight credit shuffle occurs. 

On the other hand, if you have credits that expire 3/1 (today being 2/28) that are just sitting in your account, they WILL expire and disappear tomorrow morning. 


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## DaveNV (Feb 28, 2018)

As for transfer time:  I bought resale in mid-October 2017 and my sale closed in mid-January 2018.  So right at about 3 months for me.  YMMV.

Dave


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## Travel1 (Feb 28, 2018)

Chris...thanks for the follow-up update.  Good information to know and interesting that expired credits can work that way.  So past the expiration date, there can still be life in expired credits (if you have a current reservation) as long as you cancel and then rebook a new reservation in the same day....again, very interesting.


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## djyamyam (Feb 28, 2018)

uscav8r said:


> You can cancel the booking online and the expired credits will immediately show up in the account. You must then book those credits into a NEW reservation that is within 13 months of the original expiration date before the online system closes for the night.



Ok.  So I'm going to complicate the scenario a bit.  I also purchased another account that has April 1 anniversary and I am doing a combo with my current account which has Aug 1 anniversary.  Paperwork is just going in so it's going to be tight.  I'm going to have seller book some reservations for me.  Let's say they are ressies with Dec 2018 dates.  If I cancel the reservations after the accounts have been combined, do the new ressies have to be booked within 13 months of the now non-existent Apr 1 account anniversary or the combined Aug 1 anniversary?

And second question, since accounts are frozen during combo period, I would get new credits once the accounts have been combined.  So I would have 2018-2019 current year credits, 2017-2018 prior year credits and 2016-2017 expired credits tied up in reservations?  Have I got that right?


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## uscav8r (Feb 28, 2018)

djyamyam said:


> Ok.  So I'm going to complicate the scenario a bit.  I also purchased another account that has April 1 anniversary and I am doing a combo with my current account which has Aug 1 anniversary.  Paperwork is just going in so it's going to be tight.  I'm going to have seller book some reservations for me.  Let's say they are ressies with Dec 2018 dates.  If I cancel the reservations after the accounts have been combined, do the new ressies have to be booked within 13 months of the now non-existent Apr 1 account anniversary or the combined Aug 1 anniversary?
> 
> And second question, since accounts are frozen during combo period, I would get new credits once the accounts have been combined.  So I would have 2018-2019 current year credits, 2017-2018 prior year credits and 2016-2017 expired credits tied up in reservations?  Have I got that right?



The credits in the booking will likely retain the original expiration date of 4/30/18, which means you can use them up to the end of May 2019. 

I’ve not done a combine, but your description sounds about right. 




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## ecwinch (Mar 1, 2018)

I second everything that Chris has said. Combining the accounts will not change the expiration date of credits in your acct or in a reservation.

Also in regard to what VacationHopeful posted, the prevailing wisdom is to do over the phone OR to do it very early in the day to avoid any hiccups. So you can have VPC intervene if something gets hungup.

Also to touch upon one question that was asked, in WM you cannot deposit an existing reservation with RCI or II. You request a deposit to be made, and the exchange desk choses what week/resort is deposited for you based on the number of credits / unit size / season you request they deposit.

Some of the smaller companies apparently can get a reservation transferred to them, but with the new guest certificate fee that might change.


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