topic Re: Garden Club - October 2022 in Personal Finance

Garden Club - October 2022

UncleB — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:00:16 GMT

Welcome

Garden Club Members!

Welcome all new GCers, returning GCers and

old timers to our little island of

"No Credit Applications"!

What is gardening? Quite simply, it involves refraining from applying for new credit or seeking CLIs that require hard pulls. Soft pull CLIs, however, are not only acceptable, but are encouraged. The idea is to allow one's current trade lines to grow and mature, waiting for inquiries to age or fall off, and possibly waiting for "baddies" to be removed/age off. During this time, one tends to one's current accounts and watches their AAoA (average age of accounts) grow and the new credit ding fade. Here we socialize, commiserate and support each other while waiting for baddies to fall off, new accounts and/or inquiries to age or if we just want a place to hang out to get away from the hustle and bustle of credit card talk.

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. You'll always find camaraderie available here as you work towards your gardening goals.

Help yourself to our drinks and appetizers. Flat-breads, sliders, pizza, buffalo wings, grilled zucchini, kale salads, pecan and apple pie à la mode. There's also a nice selection of cold beers. Once again, please feel free to bring anything 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, Benadryl, 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!

So 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 and the discussion of which credit card to app for 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 SP CLIs in this thread, as they do not involve inquiries or apps for new credit.

To maintain the 'spirit' of the Garden Club, any discussion regarding credit apps and/or approvals (including approval announcements) is subject to be removed from Garden Club posts by a moderator and/or your post may be moved to a new thread on the appropriate board. Thanks for understanding!

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:

No new tradelines of any type on one's accounts
No HPs for anything that would allow for the possibility of a new tradeline being issued or increasing the CL of an existing tradeline

*The Garden Club community recognizes that certain inquiries are necessary for factors beyond those listed above. Therefore, Hard Pulls/Inquiries for the following bona fide reasons are exempt but not limited to: Opening checking/savings accounts (so long as no line of credit is being opened in addition to these accounts), employment applications, apartment rentals, utilities and other such services. These are not considered to be applications for credit per se.

Also, for those who are seeking a new mortgage or refinancing an existing one, we understand that your lender will pull your credit reports multiple times before closing. For those GC'ers, the first HP will set your clock, not the subsequent pulls. However, if you are simply rate shopping, then the normal HP rules apply.

You will be able to add the following to your siggy if you have been abiding 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
9 months - palladium spade
12 months - platinum spade
15 months - ruby
18 months - emerald
21 months - sapphire
24 months or more - diamond

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.

To add the code, click 'My Settings', then 'Personal Information', then paste the code into the 'Signature' box. When you're finished, be sure to click 'Save' at the bottom of the page!

*New forum members may be unable to add/edit HTML; see note below.

To ensure that your graphic comes out properly on your siggy, please be certain that it has been added as the very first line of code.

Seedling:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/62749iA47C118690AE79C4/" title="Seedling Garden Club Member" border="0" width="50" height="67" align="right">

Bronze:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33673iA9327A27227FE439/" border="0" title="Bronze Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Silver:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33675i85072060A7E9ED9F/" border="0" title="Silver Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Gold:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33674i6D97EA62D60FAA1E/" border="0" title="Gold Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Palladium:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/62750i80525A8D0134733C/" title="Palladium Garden Club Member" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Platinum:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33676i7D22867F5B8C8548/" border="0" title="Platinum Garden Club Member" width="120" height="80" align="right">

Ruby:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/62751i19C20BE73EF51FCD/" border="0" title="Ruby Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Emerald:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/62752i0CF46A0DE3001FC9/" border="0" width="40" title="Emerald Garden Club Member" height="40" align="right">

Sapphire:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/62753i2F12F03322059E19/" border="0" width="40" title="Sapphire Garden Club Member" height="40" align="right">

Diamond:

<img src="https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33677iDA1FD49740EB050B/" border="0" title="Diamond Garden Club Member" 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!

*Just a reminder, if you are new to the forum you may not be able to add a seedling or spade to your profile yourself; a rank of "Member" is required to add HTML to your signature. In this case send any moderator a PM (or tag in a post) and we'll add it for you.

You can also use the "Report Inappropriate Content" option on any post to notify a moderator; be sure to indicate that you need _____ spade. (seedling, bronze, etc.)

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

UncleB — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:01:16 GMT

Happy October, everybody!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:06:09 GMT

Yay, October!!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

expatCanuck — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:13:14 GMT

Good evening/morning, Garden.

And hello, October.

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:25:27 GMT

I saw this and thought of @Remedios

Positive Prime!!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

PapaTunde — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:36:41 GMT

Happy October !

Only 86 more days til Christmas

Ill post my Amazon wish list shortly

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

bizarrocreditworld — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 05:20:56 GMT

Hello everyone, checking in for October.

The good news is that I'm getting a lot of interviews with 4 first round today and 4 more on Monday. I'm a finalist on three and one of the interviews on Monday is for an organization that was instrumental in my returning to the work force in 2014, which means I might end up working for a bank I worked for in the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, I've decided to keep my routine as close to normal as possible, even if it means searching for work with my morning coffee. The rules have changed a lot in the last few years, since now all you need for most jobs is to submit your resume, correct some of the auto-fill errors and submit or use your LinkedIn profile. I can get 15 in as little as a half-hour. Any more and I lose track of the applications when I get contacted for the interviews (it's happened a couple of times already).

Fort Wayne was interesting, but I could do without all of the group participation activities. I will be working with my team, the faculty and the Office of Disability Services to make the weekend more neurodivergent friendly.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm doing fine and am building momentum towards my next job.

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 05:51:02 GMT

@bizarrocreditworld wrote:
Hello everyone, checking in for October.

The good news is that I'm getting a lot of interviews with 4 first round today and 4 more on Monday. I'm a finalist on three and one of the interviews on Monday is for an organization that was instrumental in my returning to the work force in 2014, which means I might end up working for a bank I worked for in the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, I've decided to keep my routine as close to normal as possible, even if it means searching for work with my morning coffee. The rules have changed a lot in the last few years, since now all you need for most jobs is to submit your resume, correct some of the auto-fill errors and submit or use your LinkedIn profile. I can get 15 in as little as a half-hour. Any more and I lose track of the applications when I get contacted for the interviews (it's happened a couple of times already).

Fort Wayne was interesting, but I could do without all of the group participation activities. I will be working with my team, the faculty and the Office of Disability Services to make the weekend more neurodivergent friendly.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm doing fine and am building momentum towards my next job.

That's great to read, @bizarrocreditworld!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

babygirl1256 — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:22:31 GMT

Happy October . . . gosh . . . 2022 is almost over!!!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

M_Smart007 — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:28:31 GMT

Happy January

Did I get 1st in GC?

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

M_Smart007 — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:29:49 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
Happy October, everybody!

Happy October @UncleB!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:45:44 GMT

@expatCanuck wrote:
Good evening/morning, Garden.
And hello, October.

@expatCanuck WOW! The new walkway and drainage looks great. Do understand about serving as a causeway for surrounding properties.

As @Adkins said your "Gargoyle" (my name) adds a special touch!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:57:39 GMT

Morning, @Anonymous!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 08:01:16 GMT

@Adkins wrote:
Morning, @Anonymous!

Good Morning @Adkins

Good to see you are around! Sure gets quiet in the Forum on weekends!

Say, you take care of yourself! Due to pending surgery and chronic infections/virus (?) you need to stay well and keep those little ones moving.

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 08:34:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Adkins wrote:
Morning, @Anonymous!
Good Morning @Adkins

Good to see you are around! Sure gets quiet in the Forum on weekends!

Say, you take care of yourself! Due to pending surgery and chronic infections/virus (?) you need to stay well and keep those little ones moving.

Indeed, thanks!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

tcbofade — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 09:22:46 GMT

Good morning boys and girls. Happy Saturday!

Happy October!

Cat is needy this morning. Coffee is brewing.

Not too much on our list today... grocery shopping will be challenging, but we deliberately overshopped last weekend so it shouldn't be too awful much.

Hope that you're all off to a good start!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

expatCanuck — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 09:32:30 GMT

Not sleeping. And still have an almost full thermos of coffee from yesterday.

My bean place of choice doesn't open 'til nine.

I could do an early TJ's run.

Enjoy the day.

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

Adkins — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 11:06:50 GMT

@tcbofade wrote:
Good morning boys and girls. Happy Saturday!

Happy October!

Cat is needy this morning. Coffee is brewing.

Not too much on our list today... grocery shopping will be challenging, but we deliberately overshopped last weekend so it shouldn't be too awful much.

Hope that you're all off to a good start!

☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

M_Smart007 — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 13:10:33 GMT

Happy Weekend! ..YAY!!

Re: Garden Club - October 2022

coldfusion — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 13:33:46 GMT

Good morning everybody