topic Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011 in Credit Cards

Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

tinuviel — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:58:33 GMT

Hello, fellow credit gardeners! It's a new month, so it's time for a new thread. If you're currently holding off from apping and are sitting back and letting your current accounts age, then this is the thread for you. Please feel free to come here and share with everyone where you're at in your gardening efforts.

I'm pleased to say that I got a bit of a score boost last month due to aging and inqs hitting the one year mark -- a 12 point boost on EQ and a 15 point poost on TU. I should have another pair of inqs hitting the one year mark on EQ and TU later this month, so it will be interesting to see if I get another boost later this month.

Util is currently at $0 revolving. I have my Amex statement balance showing, but that's it. Interestingly, I did not receive a score ding for the $0 revolving balance. I may decide to allow a small balance to report on something later this month just to see what happens.

I intended to drop First Premier last month, but realized that my AF doesn't come up again until this month. I paid last years AF up front, so I want to squeeze every drop of reporting out of them. So, it will be bye-bye for them this month.

There's a BoA card that I really, really want to add to my portfolio. I've decided to wait until November to apply. By then, an inq from last year will no longer factor into my EX score and I'll have just a little more aging on my current accounts. So, I'm sitting tight until then.

DH just got approved for a Discover card this morning, so I got to satifsy my app itch vicariously, LOL!!! I'm very happy for him. :)

So, how's everyone else doing? Please share!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

Credit_repair — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:10:06 GMT

Hi Tinuviel,

I have been reading the boards for a long time - 4+ years, and rarely post... but here's my gardening story:

I cannot control my itch. The end.

Well, I HAVE been good for a month and half... I added a chase freedom last month - I had to give in to that because they sent me a preapproved offer with $300 cash back on first purchase. It was worth it - kinda-sorta... I really wasnt too happy with the credit limit they gave me ($3600) - by far on the lower end of my other Credit limits... although, putting this into perspective, my lowest limit is my Capital one rebuilder which is stuck at $750

Hoping I can control the itch when I get lucrative pre-approved offers such as the one I got for chase! Too many new accounts in the last 6 months...

garden, garden, garden... need my AAOA to go up!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

Walt_K — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:55:35 GMT

I've been tempted lately. My work travel has started to increase so I think it would be worthwhile to have an Amex Platinum. However, I want to apply for a new mortgage in March so I am telling myself not to apply for the Amex until then. I almost applied last night and had to remind myself that the mortgage is way more important.

I currently have 0 inquiries on TU. 1 inquiry on EQ from 11/2010. I have three on EX, one from 10/2010, one from 4/2011 and one from 6/2011. If I were to add the Amex Plat, it would be backdated to 1998 so it wouldn't show as a new account. But it's probably still best not to have an additional inquiry. I can just apply after we buy our new house around March.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

stanggt03 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:20:54 GMT

It's hard to watch that itchy app finger. It's been since August 5th since my last app. To pass the time so far I came up with a credit pulls database of my own, color-coded of couse. That way I can see who I app'd with, who they pulled, and why they denied me or how much I was approved for. Sadly, there's a lot of red on there! I decided to do that once inquiries suddenly started disappearing :smileyhappy:, that way I'd have a record so I know who to hit up for my next app, when I get there.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

LTomBerry — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:45:43 GMT

I will be gardening this month. The only itch I'm trying to decide whether to scratch is the BofA Signature Cash Rewards. I just got approved for AmEx BCP $19300 CL and want to wait until it reports so BofA can see the CL and whatever bump it gives my FICO. It's backdated to 2002 so BofA won't see it as new credit, right? Should I wait another 6 months just to be safe (and perhaps get a CLI in the meantime?) After that I should be in perma-garden with 4 cards.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

drkaje — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:29:02 GMT

I'm still app-free!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

SevenNEW — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:04:11 GMT

I was recently approved for an Amex Blue Cash Preferred and Chase Freedom, so I am back to the garden for a while! (I have a relatively short CS, so it will take a while before I get back to where I was.) The only temptation is to look into refinancing my home mortgage -- sure enough, the lender called me the day after I had been approved for the CCs, I still have to call him back...

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

FloridaState12 — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:42:57 GMT

The plan is to continue gardening all through September.

Collections should be deleted this month, so hopefully that will indeed go through. CA was supposed to "update" their records, marking my account for deletion, on Sept 1, so I have to wait for the CRA's to update. Also wanting to let my cards age a bit since I'm new to credit and all of my cards (3) are less than a year old, plus my Cap1 should be getting a CLI via the "credit steps" sometime this month.

At the end of September I will evaluate my CR and scores and see where I'm at. If the baddie is gone and I have decent scores, I'm going to try and go for Discover Student or Citi Forward for college students. If it doesn't look that great, I will continue gardening through October....at least, that's the plan!

Definitely hard to suppress the urge. I'm so impatient!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

Guava — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:08:08 GMT

Still sitting in my garden ever since I couldn't resist the walmart free TU FICO in early August. Unless someone is going offer free FICO from the other 2 bureaus I'm determined to stay till at least December this year.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

dookdig — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:50:54 GMT

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

bbloomen — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:46:58 GMT

2 days into september and still in the garden. Curious to see what my September scores are with the Walmart TU FiCO... Still itching to pull the trigger on the Amex card, but I have failed in the past a few times.... :(

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

castlefox — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:52:10 GMT

After getting my alliant card up 2,000 I'll be gardening until Janurary. When I Janurary hits I will have two active cards that are over a year old and only one inqurery in the past year.

Im thinking of actually signing up for that free trial to see what my FICO score is.

I really want the AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card but I dont think ill have a long enough credit file for it. I'll continue to search for the right for me until then.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

emptypockets — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:07:31 GMT

I am going to TRY to garden, we will see if this works. I received Hilton Honors AMEX in July (couldn't pass up all those emails about the possible 62500 pts). Plan was to wait until January to app for AMEX Blue Cash (to take more advantage of backdating), and get rid of toy cards (Orchard, RZMC). I should have cancelled these earlier, but figured I would wait until the AF is due in December. I apped for the Nordstrom Signature Visa last week (bad influesnce on these boards) and got a 7-10 day notice, and a letter requesting a copy of my Driver's License and a Utility bill for ID verification. I SWEAR I am not apping for anything else this year!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

drkaje — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:13:03 GMT

Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

stanggt03 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:28:42 GMT

drkaje wrote:
Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)

Not exactly, but soft pulls can lead to hard pulls if you're not careful. It's like flirting.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:02:00 GMT

stanggt03 wrote:
drkaje wrote:
Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)
Not exactly, but soft pulls can lead to hard pulls if you're not careful. It's like flirting.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

drkaje — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:09:31 GMT

stanggt03 wrote:
drkaje wrote:
Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)
Not exactly, but soft pulls can lead to hard pulls if you're not careful. It's like flirting.

I'd be practicing safe-credit, LOL!

Just looking at how a CLI would affect utilization. My long term commitment to a $0, on all cards, is intact.

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

SevenNEW — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:32:14 GMT

drkaje wrote:
stanggt03 wrote:
drkaje wrote:
Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)
Not exactly, but soft pulls can lead to hard pulls if you're not careful. It's like flirting.

I'd be practicing safe-credit, LOL!

Just looking at how a CLI would affect utilization. My long term commitment to a $0, on all cards, is intact.

I think CLIs are OK, they are the aromatic herbs in the garden!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

laboi_22 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:11:00 GMT

I will attempt to garden for the first time this year. Hoping to get to 6 mths of steady gardening!!

Re: Garden Club Meeting for September 2011

ptr2593 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:15:26 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:
stanggt03 wrote:
drkaje wrote:
Do soft pulls = falling off the gardening wagon?

Just trying to figure out what level out what level of discipline is required. :)
Not exactly, but soft pulls can lead to hard pulls if you're not careful. It's like flirting.
:D

soft pull = flirting

hard pull = unexpected/unwanted pregnancy?

I guess it can happen that fast... :)

I'm actually not having too bad of a time with gardening lately. It's getting easier as time goes by!