Garden Club Meeting for October 2011

[Anonymous]

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@jla84 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

With EQ 774, why even bother start with zync? You could easily get approved for their revolving product. How long ago was 30-day-late?

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My EQ is the only one with the late removed, thus the high score. TU and EX still show the late and hover around 700-720 (I've only checked FAKOs). I made the mistake in July of applying for Chase Amtrak Rewards (Excellent Credit card) and was denied HARD lol, so I changed strategies and am apping for easier to get cards until TU and EX remove the late (if they do at all?). Now that I have the Zync I'll probably hold off on any more apps until the late is removed from all CRs or, failing that, until it's aged a little more. 

30 day late is 10 months old.

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Penfed is the way to go. They have great products to choose from and pull EQ exclusively. They might do small financial review (paystub,tax return) to give you appropriate limit.

[cd2004]

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@cd2004 wrote:

I am new to the forum side of myfico. I definitely will be gardening for about 12 months. I had quite a bit on inquiries from March 2011 and September 2011 due to me car shopping and I decided not to go through with it. The only CC apps I did was capital one(approved) and Walmart (declined). I have about 15 hard inquiries from past 6 months. I was surprised when I got a score watch alert 3 days ago stating I increased 3pts instead of dropping after the inquiries.

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I forgot to list my CC's in my initial post

Capital One platinum- $0 bal/300 CL

Household-$121bal/400 CL

Orchard-$122bal/400 CL

Tribute-$741bal/1000 CL- this card was closed by grantor 2009 but still is in my utili ratio

Capital One- $17bal/750 CL- authorized user

Target-$469bal/500 CL- authorized user- I am trying to get this one removed because I did not know my mom added me. but payment history is 4yrs no lates

[cd2004]

I got a score watch alert that my EQ went from 576 to 590.. my utlization is still pretty high I can't wait what it does once I pay down to zero

[NikJ4]

I need to garden a little and let time help plus pay down my utl so I will be hanging out with my fertilizer and shovel trying to see what I can make happen. I am officially taking all of the credit cards out of my wallet that I currently have. I have also had to start punishing myself for hitting the apply button. I thnk I have become frustrated with not being able to get anything with all the progress I have made. I will continue to chip away and let the aging process(never thought I say this, thank God its regarding credit and not my skin this time) take its effects. I will have more items paid back down in a few months. I should be in better shape and hopefully close if not in the 600's with all my stuff. I am also going to go with a NACA attorney to help me with this judgement. I am limited on time and it is one that seems to very hard to get to go away.  I know there are things I can do my self but I also know when to ask for help and this is the time.

[jla84]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Penfed is the way to go. They have great products to choose from and pull EQ exclusively. They might do small financial review (paystub,tax return) to give you appropriate limit.

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Thanks for the tip! Just called and set up membership along with apped for their Travel Rewards card with AmEx. Might be a bit of a stretch for me, but I figured if they only pull EQ, the hit won't be so bad (only have 1 inq on EQ). 

ETA: Wasn't an instant approval, but I did call at 11pm (I assume the loan dept is closed right now), and the very nice CSR told me that was "completely normal" and I should have a decision within 24-48 hours. Eek!

Guess I'm officially out of Garden mode for now. lol

[CraveMazda]

Guess I'll join the Garden Club until next year Oct 2012. Help me all!!!   

Last month I successfully got a CLI on my NavyFed MC 

Amex denied me 

This month USAA AMex  - approved! 

So I'm going into garden mode until next year since I have baddies that will fall off by then. I wish I could do something more to increase my scores faster but my utli is under 10%, I have two CO accts I've tried to GW in the past but no go and in fact one reaged which dropped my score by 20 pts 2 years ago. It seems that paying on time and letting this fall off are the only things that will help increase my score. I'm stock in the high 600s. I just wanna be a member of the 700 club 

[srharris22]

Still hanging around the garden myself. My wife and I are starting the process for possible refinancing vs selling/buying a home. We also have a town home that is now a rental and considering paying off 2nd mortgage before refinancing (can only refi for 80% value) to make it + cash flow. My EQ did bump up 22 points after reading these forums and paying most of our credit card before the cycle ended. Next month I will have us at just 1-3% utilization. I have 6 baddies on my credit report from 2005, will my score jump in 2012? 4 were 30 day lates, 1 was 60 days and the other was sent to collections and paid off(all in May 2005, rough month). Otherwise we have one 30 day late from April this year and trying to get it off. Obviously no new credit apps in our future!!!

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this is the forum I need but if it's not, you guys will probably tell me where I should be posing these questions.

My FICOs are all just a little over 700. I have nothing negative on my reports. But the problem is I started a small business 11 years ago and since I had no financing, I used my AMEX card which had an open line of credit up to $92,000. I don't miss payments and I've paid it down to just under $60,000. But the problem is it is a personal card and it is tied to my social security number. I only recently found out that REAL business credit cards are tied to the tax number of the business. I talked to my bank. They said, something to the effect of "of course stupid, why didn't you ask." They told me I'd have a good bank reference. So I applied for a real business credit card.

I was turned down and the reason was that my salary to debt ratio is off the scales (something like a ratio of 1,000 to 1 or something) because it is being viewed as my personal card. That's the point! I want this debt on a business card so when the business makes the payment (as it does every month, sometimes with a lump sum of $5,000 a shot to cut down the principal) the business will be credited (and I personally won't be seen as carrying an enormous amount of debt.)

Has anyone encountered this problem? If so, can you give me some direction to go? As this was my only financing tool for the business, I'm actually paying it down but using it at the same time to handle about $5,000 worth of expenses per month, paying off those expenses plus taking something off the principal.

Thanks in advance.

[tcbofade]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 But the problem is I started a small business 11 years ago and since I had no financing, I used my AMEX card ...

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If your business has an 11 year history and is profitable, how about an SBA loan to pay off your Amex?

[Anonymous]

That is an excellent idea. Thanks. Are those hard to get? One of my issues is that I run a b2b media company and we don't have assets like a printing plant to secure a loan. I have print magazines, a website, brand equity, etc. I didn't think I could collateralize it with anything tangible -- like a building that they can take in a default.

Essentially, I do market entry consulting for oil and gas service companies and equipment manufacturers in the US and Europe that are trying to enter former Soviet oil and gas projects. I've had the magazine and site for 11 years and am now shifting from print to digital b2b information products as well as building the consulting side. But as I said, I always used the AMEX to cover holes and when we hit $1 million in revenue in 2008 started retiring that debt. Then the crisis hit, my advertisers started sitting on their cash and the way forward was to invest in digital products that require investment. Events are another thing we're launching next year. At the same time AMEX went off on anyone with high balances and with me holding it all on a personal card ... well ...

I'll look into that. Half of our business is out of the US but the company is a US company and I have an office in Houston (as well as Moscow.) You've jogged my mind about a similar source -- some branch of the world bank that offers loans to small companies (U.S. and European) that work in developing areas. Thanks