topic Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016 in Credit Cards

Garden Club Thread - November 2016

gdale6 — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:00:37 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 Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:02:12 GMT

I'm checking in for November! Happy November everyone!!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:03:35 GMT

Still working the good earth for now, while contemplating what I ought to do next.

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

pizza1 — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:07:17 GMT

@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
I'm checking in for November! Happy November everyone!!

Dangit!! BBP...you beat me!! LOL..Checking in for November... I will be here for a very long time...

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:05:11 GMT

Checking in and it's my garden birthday ☺️

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

darwin_wins — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:06:08 GMT

Going to be in here for some time to come!!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:06:09 GMT

Checking in as we begin my birthday month! Green thumbing for a looonnng time.

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:08:30 GMT

In for all of November! With my student loans and car refinanced and a house on the not-so-distant horizon (we hope), it's time to hunker down again.

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

iheartwings — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:25:24 GMT

Ooo...ooo...did I make it to the first page?

Yay!

Love the turkey pic on the intro...that is just too cute.

Checking in for the month. Despite the holidays coming, it'll be a boring month (one of many in the next year or two) for me.

I have frozen my CRs for the forseeable future, and I have no real plans to request CLIs on any of my existing accounts as of the remainder of the year. The nice thing about freezing is that it is kind of a pain to get everything unfrozen (and I hate paying the fee), which forces me to really think about the benefits/risks of leaving the garden. I did this the last time I was in the garden for a while, and it worked for me.

Look forward to hearing everyone's stories and progress during the month.

Garden strong!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:27:24 GMT

Hey Garden Family! Checking in for November! I've been sharing my score progress at the beginning of each GC thread, so I'm going to keep doing it. Maybe someone on the fence about gardening will be encouraged to stay the course for a while.

Score progress:

On 7/27/16, the date of my last app: EQ 657, TU 603, EX 665

After one month in the garden: EQ 668, TU 624, EX 674

After 2 months in the garden: EQ 668, TU 638, EX 675

Today, after 3 months in the garden: EQ 689, TU 653, EX 687

Get to a place where you can get the cards you want, not just the cards you can get now! Or the mortgage, or the auto loan, or ??? Here's to a fruitful November!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Discover2016 — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:44:24 GMT

Can't believe it's November already! Still gardening and I earned my Palladium spade! Scores keep rising, now up to 730's and 740's and my app spree from last year is a distant memory

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:47:34 GMT

@Discover2016 wrote:
Can't believe it's November already! Still gardening and I earned my Palladium spade! Scores keep rising, now up to 730's and 740's and my app spree from last year is a distant memory

Congratulations, Discover2016!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Vegas4Play — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:52:31 GMT

Hello all checking in for my extended stay. Happy November all. Earned my new shiney spade yayyyy!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

driftless — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 04:53:34 GMT

What the heck time zone does the monthly GC get posted in? It is 10 minutes to midnight Central Time and I am at the bottom of the second page already.

I hope that everyone has a great November!

Garden Strong,

Driftless

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 05:49:10 GMT

@pizza1 wrote:
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
I'm checking in for November! Happy November everyone!!

Dangit!! BBP...you beat me!! LOL..Checking in for November... I will be here for a very long time...

It was luck pizza! It's nice being first especially since I've never made the first page. No intentions of leaving the garden either. We will be here together.

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 05:50:27 GMT

@Discover2016 wrote:
Can't believe it's November already! Still gardening and I earned my Palladium spade! Scores keep rising, now up to 730's and 740's and my app spree from last year is a distant memory

Good job!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

EdMan63 — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 13:18:12 GMT

Checking in myself. Month number 5 of gardening. Suppose to close on our new house next week. Things are a bit crazy right now as the bank just now showed me the initial appraisal which was done back in Aug and of course its low. Shame on you Fifth Third for such poor communication. We still need a final appraisal so hopefully it will improve somewhat as the first was done when the house was no where near completed. Fingers crossed. This really puts a damper on my joy at this point.

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

coldnmn — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 08:16:14 GMT

Checking in for November! Still gardening strong, with all baddies off my credit reports finally!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 09:07:32 GMT

Checking in for November. One day shy of 3 months in the garden!

Re: Garden Club Thread - November 2016

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 11:40:53 GMT

Hello All!

I would really like to join the garden. Normally, I am a brown thumb and anything I touch plant-related dies a horrible death. But, it is my intent that this does not carry over to my gardening here.

So, here I am. I have a BK7 that discharged 7/2014. I did not start rebuilding credit until September 1, 2016, when I applied for and received my first CC after bankruptcy - Cap1 QS1. I added two more cards at the beginning of October - Discover It and NFCU Cash Rewards. I thought adding the new accounts would drop my score. But, it didn't. My scores actually increased a little. In these two months, I moved from "Fair" credit to good credit across all three bureaus.

Fico 8: September 2016 TU 643, EX 653, EQ 667

Fico 8: October 2016 TU 667, EX 690, EQ 703

Fico 8: November 2016 TU 678, EX 692, EQ 704

Short Term Goal (6-12 months): Above 700s across all three bureaus. No apps until May 2017 at the earliest (and only if I cannot get my Cap 1 QS1 to PC to regular QS).

Thank you all for the wonderful information you provide. I could not have done this without all of you.

ETA: Removed bronze spade because just discovered. I did not app for NFCU Cash Rewards on Oct 1. It was Oct. 4. Therefore, my 1 month is not official until Nov. 4.