topic Re: Garden Club - July 2016 in Credit Cards

Garden Club - July 2016

gdale6 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:04:43 GMT

Happy Birthday America!!

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 - July 2016

Saleen099 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:08:59 GMT

Second by second you lose the opportunity to become the person you want to be. Take charge of your life. Good night everyone!!!!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

darwin_wins — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:05:15 GMT

Welcome GCers.... Another month gone by!! I am going to get my 9 month spade!! I am excited as in another 3 months I will be app free for one whole year

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Kidcat — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:06:31 GMT

Its still the 30th in my time zone. Nevertheless, happy July GC!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

gdale6 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:11:15 GMT

@Kidcat wrote:
Its still the 30th in my time zone. Nevertheless, happy July GC!

Its past midnight in my time zone. As to the exact time it starts its typically done in the time zone where the mod lives who is starting the new thread.

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

darwin_wins — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 04:16:17 GMT

Did my thread get deleted? I think gdale started it within a min or so later than mine? Not that it matters but I was just happy that I could create this GC thread and then I was sad

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

baller4life — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:01:51 GMT

BAM!!! Made first page! Checking in for July fellow gardeners. Hope everyone has another great month! I'll pick up my silver spade on the 16th!!!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

wmweeza — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:02:52 GMT

In ONE month I get my Sapphire spade!!!!!!!!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:14:31 GMT

I think it's time I really give this gardening stuff a try. I'm all in, someone pass the spades.

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

wmweeza — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:25:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I think it's time I really give this gardening stuff a try. I'm all in, someone pass the spades.

It's much easier then you'd think. I'm shocked I made it this far, but I keep going because the benefits are racking up nicely! I'll leave the garden next year around July or August when we buy our next house, but for now this is a lovely garden

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

srloring13 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:28:12 GMT

I'm back in the garden. Did a last minute mortgage app and now waiting for my home to be built. I rate shopped/changed lenders based on the builder to take advantage of the lender incentive. Do I use the last inquiry date for the loan pre-approval as my garden since date? I dont count subsequent pulls for approvals/underwriting correct?

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

driftless — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 06:35:45 GMT

Greetings:

Checking in after a stressful trip to Atlanta for a family issue. Today ended well, we just returned from seeing Jackson Browne and James Taylor at Wrigley Field.

Credit wise: I am looking forward to our mortgage reporting in July. My wife combined an old Cap One Platinum Visa that Cap One would not give a CLI to in June, it was interesting to see her CK scores drop like a rock while her FICO 8 barely moved. I have to stop looking at CK. We now have the exact same cards except she has an Amex for biz.

I hope that everyone has an excellent month of gardening in July whether it is to get a good SL while rebuilding or to grow the scores and get CLI once you are settled in. At least to me, it is refreshing to see a number of ongoing threads about pruning and closing cards on the forum.

Best to all,

Driftless

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 07:18:18 GMT

As of 6/24 and my BofA approval, I'm firmly in the garden til Discover give me a firm prequal, which will probably be forever!

Now it's time to watch things grow and prune the wallet a little bit!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

coldnmn — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 07:55:12 GMT

Checking in for July!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

UncleB — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 07:56:18 GMT

Happy July everybody!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 08:27:00 GMT

Can you believe that we are half way through?
2016 that is....
For many of us the hard work is done:
1) Have many of the cards we want
2) Balances are coming down
So let us celebrate the 2nd half of 2016 by helping each other the best we can!
these 6 months have been educational and fun...
Thanks to you all!

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Guyatthebeach — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 08:32:34 GMT

Good Morning!

After joining Navy Federal and PENFED and netting 3 cards and a LOC, I'm in the garden for a long time.

Life's a beach!

Guyatthebeach

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 09:28:29 GMT

guyatthebeach,
I just dug up your
How to join NFCU thread..
sounds promising,
thanks

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

EdMan63 — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 09:53:31 GMT

Happy July GC members. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. The house hunt continues. The question is whether we will buy existing or build. My DW is so particular. Lol. We plan on this being the last one so we want it to be great. The good news is when we sat down with the bank there are no credit issues whatsoever. If we do build no new credit anything until that process is complete which could be a year. Oh well. It's worth it. Kind of forced gardening. But most of my inquiries will age off by then plus I'll be all good with 5/24 if I go that direction.

Re: Garden Club - July 2016

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 10:20:09 GMT

GM GC! Check in for July! Heading towards 3rd month of gardening.