topic Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!! in Credit Cards

Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

dk2003 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 04:09:29 GMT

About a year and 4 months ago I started my journey and Oh what a journey it was. I had never had a credit card, in fact I never saw the purpose of them up until that point. I'm not sure why, but I applied for Capital One and was approved for 300 (my score right at 600). A few months later I decided to apply for a second one and was approved for 500. Both were in the credit steps program! I read what now seems like thousands of artiles on credit and so on! My wife then applied for a Card, also C1 and approved for 300. and a second one for 300 as well. She was an AU on my cards and I was on hers! A guy that I work with and I started a discussion about credit cards and well I applied for another, this time Barclay. I was declined. After I read articles here I reconed and was still declined. I reconed a second time and still declined. I wrote an email and reconed again and was then accepted with a 1k limit That was extreme, considering the fact that my credit score was only then in the very low 600's I later received auto luv and its at 2.7k. I kept my balances low by the close date even though I carried high balances throughout the month (something I read here as well). So for about a year of reading articles and doing things to boost my credit, I went on an ap spree.

Citi 1000

Discover 500

Target 300

Venture 10k

(i called the first 3 to req higher limits and they declined but Ok)

I requested higher limits on my first two C1 cards both increased to 1.5k

I applied for BOA but was declined and received a counter for the 99/500 and took it

Then for

JCP 1.5k

WM 800

This was on a friday, I called that Monday to request CLI on both and they both went to 5k respectively.

Of course with the recent app spree, my score dropped a little (albeit temporarily) but I went from being declined for everything I applied for to now having 10 cards with nearly 30k available credit. The same has been the case with my wife but she has 4 cards, we're waiting for all of the auto loan stuff to fall of in the next 2 months and we'll get her some cards. We've done our very best to be responsible. Everything is automated. Just be patient and you can build creditworthiness! It doesn't happen overnight.

There have been some really good forums here and so many of them benefited me (I would not have applied for Venture or accepted BOA counter if I had not read info here)

Now I shall garden for at least two years OR indefinitely!!!!

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 04:11:27 GMT

Awesome good job on your success! I love to read people's stories on establishing credit, or rebuilding altogether like I'm doing now since October 2014

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 04:12:03 GMT

Very good job indeed!!! Keep up the nice work and congrats.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

joedtx — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 06:03:17 GMT

Congrats on both your successess and patience, and you have been rewarded. Keep it going!

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 06:15:43 GMT

Good work. Hang in there.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

Kostya1992 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 06:33:42 GMT

Gardening indefinitely does not work. Aim for bronze for a start and go from there.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

_jb_ — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 10:43:15 GMT

@Kostya1992 wrote:
Gardening indefinitely does not work. Aim for bronze for a start and go from there.

Congratulations to the OP for your progress so far.

I agree with the above sentiment for the most part. Come up with a plan for what you want to get out of your credit (be it a certain score, certain cards or loans that you want to obtain, etc.), and then take action based on that (see my recent post on the last page of the Garden Thread).

Join the Garden, but don't limit yourself to a certain amount of time or call it indefinitely. Join the Garden because you have all of the tools you need right now, and stay until you find another tool (be it a CC, an auto loan, etc.) that you can benefit from.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

EdMan63 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 11:26:39 GMT

Congrats! So true what above poster stated. Set a goal/plan.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

dk2003 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:13:42 GMT

@_jb_ wrote:
@Kostya1992 wrote:
Gardening indefinitely does not work. Aim for bronze for a start and go from there.
Congratulations to the OP for your progress so far.

I agree with the above sentiment for the most part. Come up with a plan for what you want to get out of your credit (be it a certain score, certain cards or loans that you want to obtain, etc.), and then take action based on that (see my recent post on the last page of the Garden Thread).

Join the Garden, but don't limit yourself to a certain amount of time or call it indefinitely. Join the Garden because you have all of the tools you need right now, and stay until you find another tool (be it a CC, an auto loan, etc.) that you can benefit from.

You've been in the garden over 2 years though. Of course I want my scores to increase, to be somewhere in the 700's (TU was there but not now with the ap spree). My Aaoc is low now for sure. I want it to age some. Experian has been my lowest score so far. I've got one derog that I just can't bring myself to pay. I've written a letter to try to PFD but I've yet to send it (and it's on all 3 cr). There are two other medical derogs that I can handle in the next few weeks. In the future, to be clear, there are only two cards that I feel like I have to have CSP and an AMEX (not sure which just yet) and I think that will complete my hunt for cards. I've got student loans that are currently in deferrment as I have only 4 months of school left (two bachelors degrees). I'm thinking that I want to return for a Masters but I'm unsure (I guess I have 4 months to think about it). I'm really not wanting to get another 20, 30k added to what I already have 43k. I wish it were easier to figure this out. Of course I want to get those paid at some point and I currently rent but I want to hopefully purchase and perhaps a few investment properties. I wish it was something written in stone that said "this is how you do it" and I just follow it step by step. At this point, I've read so much that everything is a jumble. So those are my goals

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

_jb_ — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:06:54 GMT

@dk2003 wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
@Kostya1992 wrote:
Gardening indefinitely does not work. Aim for bronze for a start and go from there.
Congratulations to the OP for your progress so far.

I agree with the above sentiment for the most part. Come up with a plan for what you want to get out of your credit (be it a certain score, certain cards or loans that you want to obtain, etc.), and then take action based on that (see my recent post on the last page of the Garden Thread).

Join the Garden, but don't limit yourself to a certain amount of time or call it indefinitely. Join the Garden because you have all of the tools you need right now, and stay until you find another tool (be it a CC, an auto loan, etc.) that you can benefit from.

You've been in the garden over 2 years though. Of course I want my scores to increase, to be somewhere in the 700's (TU was there but not now with the ap spree). My Aaoc is low now for sure. I want it to age some. Experian has been my lowest score so far. I've got one derog that I just can't bring myself to pay. I've written a letter to try to PFD but I've yet to send it (and it's on all 3 cr). There are two other medical derogs that I can handle in the next few weeks. In the future, to be clear, there are only two cards that I feel like I have to have CSP and an AMEX (not sure which just yet) and I think that will complete my hunt for cards. I've got student loans that are currently in deferrment as I have only 4 months of school left (two bachelors degrees). I'm thinking that I want to return for a Masters but I'm unsure (I guess I have 4 months to think about it). I'm really not wanting to get another 20, 30k added to what I already have 43k. I wish it were easier to figure this out. Of course I want to get those paid at some point and I currently rent but I want to hopefully purchase and perhaps a few investment properties. I wish it was something written in stone that said "this is how you do it" and I just follow it step by step. At this point, I've read so much that everything is a jumble. So those are my goals

Right, I have been in the Garden for over two years, but not because I set an arbitrary date of "2 years in the Garden." I stayed in the Garden this long because: a). I had no need to pursue other credit, and b). because I figured out that my last couple of negative items on my report would age off of my credit reports, greatly increasing my scores (I hoped, and they did) and lowering interest rates for potential future purposes. I could have (and thought about) buying a vehicle and adding an auto loan, taking out student loans or personal loans even though I didn't necessarily need them because I thought they might increase my scores a couple of points due to "mix of credit" and other scoring factors. I also thought about picking up other credit cards for backdating purposes, to add more tradelines, chase sign up bonuses, etc. There is nothing wrong with any of that. It just isn't necessary in order to increase your scores if that is the goal.

The point I was trying to make is that the default should be "not apping because I have no need at the moment." Instead, people make a point of saying "I won't app for this long, but then I will reward myself with these 5 apps" thinking that it is the way to higher scores. We give 'not apping' a fancy name as a way to encourage each other to not go app crazy.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 23:28:03 GMT

how/where did you email them for recon?

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

FocusedAndDetermined — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 23:47:56 GMT

Great journey - congrats on all your successes!

Gardening is definitely the right move.

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

TheGardner — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 01:09:27 GMT

This is doing it right. We should direct people here and let SCT thread die silently lol

Congratulations OP!

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

pa850 — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 01:13:47 GMT

This is an incredible journey. Congratulations. All of your hard work has paid off!

Re: Gardening INDEFINITELY :) My story!!!

jsucool76 — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 01:31:00 GMT

@TheGardner wrote:
This is doing it right. We should direct people here and let SCT thread die silently lol

Congratulations OP!

The SCT is the downfall of many =/

I sat in the garden for about 2 years, stopped coming to myfico, stopped looking for offers, just kept the cards I had and let them age. then I came back and you all ruined me again. With the 70k marriott, the 140k ritz, the 50k US Airways, the 50k citi prestige, and I got a PRG, a ring, a doublecash, ....

I need to get in the garden ASAP.