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Greetings, fellow credit gardeners! The new month begins tomorrow, but I usually like to start the night before the first of the month, as I'm not much of a morning person and as we recently learned on another thread, it's best not to do anything before coffee. And so, I hereby convene the March meeting of the myFICO Garden Club.
For those who are new to the concept of gardening, it involves refraining from applying for new credit or seeking CLIs that require hard pulls. Soft pulls CLIs, however, are not only acceptable, but are encouraged. The idea is to allow one's current TLs to grow and mature, waiting for inqs to age or fall off, and possibly waiting for "baddies" to be removed or age off. During this time, one tends to one's current accounts and watches their AAoA grow and the new credit ding fade.
So, if you're at the stage of your credit journey where you're ready to enter the garden, please come and join us. You may pick up your complimentary watering can and garden gloves by the front door -- you can even choose your favorite color! We're proud to offer a well appointed clubhouse. There is a snack table set up. This month we'll continue with the hot buffalo wings and sweet sesame wings. I'll be adding to that some cheese quesadillas, seven layer dip and chips, jalapeno poppers, hot meatballs and deviled eggs. And as always, we have mini-quiches (enjoy, Relevate!). There's also a nice selection of cold beers. Once again, please feel free to bring and add anything that you'd like to add to the festivities. And, in the corner diagonally across from the front door, there is a fully stocked bar, along with a wide selection of soft drinks. If needed, there are some anti-itch medications stocked in our supply cabinet near the door -- Lanacaine, Benedryl, etc. If you need to place your reports in the deep freeze, we also have a freezer, located next to the bar, so go ahead and throw your reports in!
Come on in and make yourself comfortable. Make a gardening plan and commit to sticking with it! Are you planning to wait six months before applying for additional credit? A year? Until the last of your baddies drop off? Whatever your goal, we're here to support you. If you feel the "app-itch" coming on, let us know and we'll try to help you through it.
Now, if you happen to leave the garden prematurely, that’s your decision and we respect that. You are always welcome to come back, pick up your gardening tools and start over again. But please, celebrate any approvals on another thread. While we are happy with members’ success stories, we really do want to keep this thread’s focus and tone to be consistent with gardening efforts. You are certainly welcome to celebrate soft CLIs on this thread, though, as they do not involve inqs or apps for new credit.
GARDEN CLUB CHALLENGE AND RECOGNITIONS:
Garden Club Challenge: Pick a firm date for staying in the garden and post it in your siggy!
Garden Club recognition levels: To qualify, your reports must contain:
You will be able to add the following to your siggy if you have abided by the above for the following time periods...
Less than 1 month - seedling
1 month - bronze spade
3 months - silver spade
6 months - gold spade
12 months - platinum spade
24 months or more - diamond spade
Please note: recognition levels reset once you add an account or incur a HP. We recognize that there may be very good reasons for "leaving the garden," and we respect whatever thoughtful decisions members make. As stated previously, members are always welcome to come back, grab their gloves and start gardening once more.
Seedling:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/2760iB9166C1A493A3CBC/" border="0" width="50" height="67" align="right">
Bronze:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LEYWe.png" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">
SIlver:
line to put at top of sig:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Gfc4B.png" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Gold:
line to put at top of sig:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/24xvV.png" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">
Platinum:
line to put at top of sig:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/vVRv5.png" border="0" alt="" title="" width="120" height="80" align="right" />
Diamond:
line to put at top of sig:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/40nIa.png" border="0" alt="" title="" width="40" height="40" align="right" />
So, please feel free to come on in and share your gardening progress. If you're new or returning, what are your goals? If you've been here for a while, how are things going? Let's all mingle, and support each other in our respective gardening efforts!
Still in it..
Hi Guys,
So I'm back in the garden again for this month. Got upgraded last sunday to a silver spade and planning to stay in gardening mode until the first week of June. Then buy my scores and if everything looks good, I am going to go for the BCE and Freedom like I have been posting for the last few months. If the BCE is not approved, then I'll go for the Gold Delta and ask them to PC it for me. I am also considering a Chevron card from GE, but I'm on the fence about that one right now. Other then that, you guys are amazing on this forum and keeping me from apping for cards I don't need. I am also planning to open an IRA one of these months and start funding it with small amounts. Other then a few more months in the garden and apping, I dont need anymore credit for now or until my income gets better. I gotta keep applying that anti-itch cream. And thank you for the snacks! I love dip...lol.
Me too, me too!
Hoping for a score increase tomorrow!
@bluesnowman wrote:Hi Guys,
So I'm back in the garden again for this month. Got upgraded last sunday to a silver spade and planning to stay in gardening mode until the first week of June. Then buy my scores and if everything looks good, I am going to go for the BCE and Freedom like I have been posting for the last few months. If the BCE is not approved, then I'll go for the Gold Delta and ask them to PC it for me. I am also considering a Chevron card from GE, but I'm on the fence about that one right now. Other then that, you guys are amazing on this forum and keeping me from apping for cards I don't need. I am also planning to open an IRA one of these months and start funding it with small amounts. Other then a few more months in the garden and apping, I dont need anymore credit for now or until my income gets better. I gotta keep applying that anti-itch cream. And thank you for the snacks! I love dip...lol.
Unfortunately, they will not PC the Gold to a BCE, I already tried.
On another note, in just a few short days it's the bronze spade for me.....
Aww man, I thought they allowed it, or at least I heard they allowed it. Can you apply for any card and then PC it to the BCE other then the Delta? for charge cards, I know if you wanted to downgrade or upgrade between charge cards they let you. But good to know, thank you!
I gained and then lost my gold spade this week, but it was the right decision for me. I picked up a Chase Freedom this week, and that finishes out my credit card portfolio. I would have apped for it last August, but I truly believed that there was a good chance that I was blacklisted due to an old Providian account that went bad. I finally got up the courage to try for it (courage, or was it the pain meds from my dental surgery?) and found out that I was mistaken! So, a new little seedling to tend! One of the things that I'm really happy about is that they gave me a 12.99% APR, after a 0% intro rate for 15 months. These are the best terms available on this card, and I've never been offered best terms before! A new milestone!!!
At one point I had been considering an Amex BCE, but it really doesn't have a place in my garden, aside from backdating. But my AAoA is respectable even without it, so there really is no need. Most of my grocery shopping is done at a Walmart Supercenter because of proximity and price, but Amex doesn't consider it to be a supermarket, so the 3% cashback wouldn't apply. I'm happy with my BoA for gas/groceries, so no need for a BCE. Thus with the addition of the Freedom, which is a good compliment to Discover for the rotating categories, my garden is complete.
Since I've pushed my new car shopping back until Fall, I'm planning on another 6 month stint in the garden. Time to sit back, partake of some refreshments and enjoy the view!
So this will be my first official stint in the garden. My discharge came through on 2/15 and I have obtained two starter cards (FP and Fingerhut). I plan to hang out about 3 months or so and then app with NFCU and/or Cap1. Looking forward to watching my scores grow. They will grow, right?
in 2 days ill be 3 months inquiry free. I racked up so many inqs from feb=april last year, so right now i am reaching the lowest number of 1yr inqs i've had since summer 2012.
This month ill be crossing the 1 year mark with 2 INQ on Experian, leaving me with 3 in the last 12 months. For equifax i'll lose 3, leaving with me with 4 in the last 12 months. And with Transunion ill be losing 2, leaving me with 5 in the last 12 months.
Also I guess since fico counts the first of the month for aging, my Discover turns 1 year tomorrow, so for the first time i will have more accounts over 1 year than under 1 year lol. My equifax calls my 10.55555 AAOA 11 months, so tomorrow i can kinda say i have a 1 year AAoA(11.55555) too. I'm still another 3 months away9(june) from any real changes though since that is when my youngest, US BANK, goes over 6 months.