topic Re: Garden Club - June 2016 in Credit Cards

Garden Club - June 2016

UncleB — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 08:29:35 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 pulls 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 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 inq's age or 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 Ala 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 inq's 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 account, 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 CRs 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 spade
18 months - emerald spade
21 months - sapphire 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.

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="http://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="http://i.imgur.com/LEYWe.png" border="0" title="Bronze Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

SIlver:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Gfc4B.png" border="0" title="Silver Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Gold:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/24xvV.png" border="0" title="Gold Garden Club Member" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Palladium:

<img src="http://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="http://i.imgur.com/vVRv5.png" border="0" alt="" title="Platinum Garden Club Member" width="120" height="80" align="right" />

Ruby:

<img src="http://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="http://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="http://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="http://i.imgur.com/40nIa.png" border="0" alt="" 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 your seedling to your profile. Send any mod a PM and we'll add it for you You can also use the "Report Inappropriate Content" function on the post to notify a Moderator, but indicate that you need __________ spade. (seedling, bronze, etc.)

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

UncleB — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 08:31:15 GMT

Happy June everybody!

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:45:58 GMT

Hooray!! First page for once! Happy June GC!!!

I will be here for 10 mos and plan on enjoying every minute of it! I am donating my sign for use on the gate.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 08:58:51 GMT

I plan on gardening until Nov 2016, than I can Refiance my interest car, My wife's car is at 19.84%APR so in Nov I am going to jump on the loan to drop the percent plus her credit is better now so a few more months than will see the APR drop when going with through USAA for the loan

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

SunriseEarth — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:05:57 GMT

Looks like someone beat me to the punch in making the June thread! With my May app success, it's time to plant myself and let those roots take! Since it's my first post of the month, I like to post my Garden plans....so here goes:

1. Improve UTIL. I will actually be able to do something about this, finally! Toward the end of the month, I will do a BT from my Discover to my BBR. Since my CL is higher on the BBR, UTIL will improve. I'm also hoping that my internal score with Discover will raise and they'll give me a decent CLI in 90 days or so.

2. SP CLIs? Probably not. However, now that QS WMC is getting use, I'll try there later in the month. Discover just gave me a small CLI, so I won't try them until September. I'd love US Bank to send a CLI offer, but I'm not holding my breath.

3. Prune. I feel like I have a lot of open credit, so I'd like to make some cuts. Care Credit is most likely to be on the chopping block. Gold Violin might be, but I may just SD it for a while; it's one of my "older" open CCs, so it might be spared.

4. SD. I've got quite a few CCs in the SD...Sony Card, Macy's AMEX, Target, BCE, Citi DC, and CU Visa. Amazon will be SDed once the promo balance is paid later this month. I may also SD my Discover for Q3, since I already get 5% CB at Amazon with Sallie Mae and I don't usually shop at Home Improvement stores.

5. Bronze Spade! I'll get that back on the 10th. Yay!

And that's it, so far...

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

UncleB — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:20:05 GMT

@SunriseEarth wrote:
Looks like someone beat me to the punch in making the June thread! With my May app success, it's time to plant myself and let those roots take! Since it's my first post of the month, I like to post my Garden plans....so here goes:

1. Improve UTIL. I will actually be able to do something about this, finally! Toward the end of the month, I will do a BT from my Discover to my BBR. Since my CL is higher on the BBR, UTIL will improve. I'm also hoping that my internal score with Discover will raise and they'll give me a decent CLI in 90 days or so.
2. SP CLIs? Probably not. However, now that QS WMC is getting use, I'll try there later in the month. Discover just gave me a small CLI, so I won't try them until September. I'd love US Bank to send a CLI offer, but I'm not holding my breath.
3. Prune. I feel like I have a lot of open credit, so I'd like to make some cuts. Care Credit is most likely to be on the chopping block. Gold Violin might be, but I may just SD it for a while; it's one of my "older" open CCs, so it might be spared.
4. SD. I've got quite a few CCs in the SD...Sony Card, Macy's AMEX, Target, BCE, Citi DC, and CU Visa. Amazon will be SDed once the promo balance is paid later this month. I may also SD my Discover for Q3, since I already get 5% CB at Amazon with Sallie Mae and I don't usually shop at Home Improvement stores.
5. Bronze Spade! I'll get that back on the 10th. Yay!

And that's it, so far...

Hey SE!

Great minds think alike... I did a BT from Discover over to my new BBR just last night.

I was actually calling in to activate my card; I had problems establishing my online access and I called in for the card activation. For some reason the system routed me over to a CSR... which it appears was a blessing. The CSR I got was fantastic - I'm now a fan of BoA - and he was able to offer me a balance transfer deal of 0% for 15 months instead of the advertised 12 if I allowed him to process it over the phone. I was planning on waiting another month or so, but with the extension there was no reason to wait.

Like you I'm hoping for some SP CLI love from Discover soon... fingers are crossed!

Side note: after talking with the CSR I fumbled around with the BoA site a little more, and finally figured out the problem was my VPN. Once I deactivated it I was able to login with no problem. It appears that like the Papa John's site, BoA doens't like VPNs, or at least mine.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:52:17 GMT

Checking in for Jube! Have a great day everyone!

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

CatOfSpades — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:56:13 GMT

I'm also looking forward to getting my Bronze Spade this month! At the end of the month, but still! And I'm also pruning cards. I applied for five cards last month, but two of them I didn't even want! I got a "little" app happy after my Freedom card gave me a CLI. I've already cut the Amex. Sad, but I still have the card to look at if I miss it. Haha. Next on the chopping block is the Chase Freedom Unlimited. I'm hoping to get that out by the end of the month. I don't want Chase to look at me too hard for turning the card over so fast. This is the problem with submitting multiple applications at the same time.

Looking forward to relaxing in the garden this month and aging the three new cards I'm keeping.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:11:40 GMT

Happy June GC! Interestingly, I logged into CCT as I do every day at 12:00 AM to see if there are any changes...lol. And **bleep**? My EX increased by 12 pts, no reason listed. I guess I will take it?..lol.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

irunfromcredit — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:17:34 GMT

Hi all! Checking in. I want to get that bronze spade this month. May was more active than I thought. I went on a bit of a spree (picked up 7 new cards). I need to bury myself in the garden for a while. Happy June!!!

***hey! I'm on the first page too!!***

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:26:26 GMT

Left the garden after nearly a year to get a 0% interest car loan...two pulls...new rental...3 pulls...no new cards since last June...may try to refi my home equity loan to get a lower payment but the interest is low...for now...

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:52:59 GMT

It's June! Gardening is going well for me. There really is nothing I want or need. Feels weird, but in a good way.

Have a good one!

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

MyLoFICO — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:05:08 GMT

Mornin' folks. It's June and I am here for another short term goal of 30 days. Hope you are all enjoying the garden. It's raining like crazy here. I thought I was going to have to take the submarine to work.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Loquat — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:13:54 GMT

Howdy all! So this is my first time here in the garden and I'm not quite sure how this works...I'll be the dude over in the corner watching from a distance until I get use to the new scenery.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

MyLoFICO — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:15:50 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
Howdy all! So this is my first time here in the garden and I'm not quite sure how this works...I'll be the dude over in the corner watching from a distance until I get use to the new scenery.

Whatever you do, read the rules. lol. Then just kinda hang around and enjoy the conversation.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:17:14 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
Howdy all! So this is my first time here in the garden and I'm not quite sure how this works...I'll be the dude over in the corner watching from a distance until I get use to the new scenery.

New guys bring donuts...

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

MyLoFICO — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:19:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Loquat wrote:
Howdy all! So this is my first time here in the garden and I'm not quite sure how this works...I'll be the dude over in the corner watching from a distance until I get use to the new scenery.
New guys bring donuts...

Yeah... that's right! I forgot! We're gonna need about 50 dozen since its a new month. You can set them over there by the Benedryl and Chloroform cloths.

Dang, now I want donuts.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

tcbofade — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:22:03 GMT

Good morning boys and girls. I don't have any donuts, but I DO have Cheerios!

...its a brand new month, and DW and I intend to spend it app free.

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:27:08 GMT

I'll get them today...

Re: Garden Club - June 2016

MyLoFICO — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:25:54 GMT

I half expected to see my scores change today, but they didn't. Atleast not yet, might be too early.