topic Re: Garden Club - November 2018 in Personal Finance

Garden Club - November 2018

UncleB — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:00:09 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 threads 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.

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 (this includes any backdated accounts, as they are STILL new "seedlings").
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/2760iB9166C1A493A3CBC" 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/5761iE36E284CEECEA414" 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/5625i09098E9833D7A4B2" 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/5623i698C4BF1F9D77284" 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/5627iA714E0C3C98AD3FD" 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 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 - November 2018

simplynoir — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:00:56 GMT

Happy November everyone! Ended the last month right with some card closures and need to update the sig as well. Also, where I need to start excerising more because these next two months are food-heaven for our family and it's not good for my health if I don't monitor it.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

K-in-Boston — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:06:21 GMT

Happy November, everyone! I get my bronze spade back next Saturday. No plans to leave for the time being. Scores are taking big hits all around due to some BT reshuffling and oddly due to a lack of a mortgage, which I can isolate as a cause due to reporting dates. Since my mortgage was transferred to another lender, reported as paid and closed across all three, and it has not reappeared with the new lender yet, it’s actually costing me double-digit points!

Stay strong everyone; I know Amex can be a pushy one and they’re doing their best to tempt me.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:01:13 GMT

October brought better scores, better limits, better cards, and less plastic. November, what do you have in store?!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

simplynoir — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:01:14 GMT

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

shoegal — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:01:15 GMT

Happy November 🦃

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Meanmchine — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:01:16 GMT

Halloween is now officially over and now starts the countdown to Black Friday. Im looking to grab a new tablet and laptop for myself. Im hoping Amazon will repeat their Amazon Prime Day prices on their Fire tablets.

Noverber will hopefully be a good month for me mainly due to favorable account aging. Also some CLI requests are on the calander for this month.

Good luck everyone

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

UncleB — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:02:46 GMT

Happy November, everybody!!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

RicHowe — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:01:41 GMT

Schneeshee!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:02:10 GMT

Hoping for bettter cash flow in November. Oct was terrible all out very little in

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Remedios — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:02:32 GMT

My name is Remedios and I still don't have an Amex.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:04:32 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Why do I love this man? For the rest of you lovelies I hope you had a productive October that will carry over for this month as well. Almost at the finish line this year so keep those guards up! Garden strong!

Also, who do I have to poke to get a custom avatar around here?

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

iheartwings — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:05:21 GMT

Happy turkeys, MFers.

Nothing much to report in the garden. Upgraded on Marriott card to get 50k extra points is it. Otherwise, been boring as ever, which is fine.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving if I don't make it back (can't keep up with this thread) again this month.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:06:51 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Hi
My name is Remedios and I still don't have an Amex.

We can take you to the e store and stare through the window of the nice shiney Amex cards. If you ask nicely they may let hold one.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:06:24 GMT

@RicHowe wrote:
Schneeshee!

Gesundheit!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Meanmchine — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:07:37 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Hi
My name is Remedios and I still don't have an Amex.

When I thought I was on Amex's BL, I went out and got a Serve card. Hey, it was an Amex card. (Turns out I was never on BL )

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:12:57 GMT

November! And I just got back into the 700 club on all 3 CRAs. Whoot Whoot!

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

UncleB — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:10:21 GMT

@Meanmchine wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
Hi
My name is Remedios and I still don't have an Amex.
When I thought I was on Amex's BL, I went out and got a Serve card. Hey, it was an Amex card. (Turns out I was never on BL )

I did that as well; it was better than nothing. (Although the 'real thing' is much, much better...)

ETA: I still have it.

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:10:00 GMT

Missed it again

Re: Garden Club - November 2018

K-in-Boston — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 04:10:45 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
Hi
My name is Remedios and I still don't have an Amex.

eAUs count! It's still considered a new tradeline, so don't try to pull the wool over our eyes with that forthcoming platinum spade. You sold your soul for lounge access and unlimited* buying power!

* No pre-set spending limit does not mean unlimited spending. Purchasing power adjusts with K-in-Boston's use of the Card, his payment history, credit record and financial resources known to American Express, and other factors. Still, you're probably good to buy whatever it is.