topic Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013 in Credit Cards

Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 18:13:04 GMT

Greetings, fellow credit gardeners! The new month is ready to begin, and so that I don't have to try to post this before I've had a chance to imbibe my morning coffee, I'm starting the thread the evening before the 1st. I hereby convene the July meeting of the myFICO Garden Club.

For those who are new to the concept of gardening, 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 TLs to grow and mature, waiting for inqs to age or fall off, and possibly waiting for "baddies" to be removed or age off. During this time, one tends to one's current accounts and watches their AAoA grow and the new credit ding fade.

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. As always, there is a snack table set up. Summer is upon us, and we're going to continue with firing up the grill --so burgers, hot dogs, and kebobs are available for your dining pleasure! This month, we’re also adding some fresh corn on the cob! There's iced tea, lemonade and sodas, and if you like, a variety of ice cold beers. With the summer heat upon us, we have a supply of frozen ice cream treats and gelatos, as well as slices of cold, fresh watermelon. And as always, we have a selection of mini-quiches, as Relevate really likes them (we aim to please!). Once again, please feel free to bring and add anything that 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, Benedryl, 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!

Our newest feature is a Friday night social. This will be hosted by myjourney, who has done such a wonderful job with managing the buffet and bar. He will present a mouthwatering dinner menu (with graphics!) and announce a discussion topic. Everyone is welcome to hang out and either discuss the topic or anything else that comes to mind. Feel free to let kick up your heels for the evening! The goal of the Friday night social is to enjoy getting to know each other and share in some fun.

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 on another thread. While we are happy with members’ success stories, we really do want to keep this thread’s focus and tone to be consistent with gardening efforts. You are certainly welcome to celebrate soft CLIs on this thread, though, as they do not involve inqs 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 backdated Amex 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: Employment Applications, Apartment Rentals, Utilities and other such services. These are not considered to be applications for credit per se.

You will be able to add the following to your siggy if you have abided 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

12 months - platinum 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/" border="0" width="50" height="67" align="right">

Bronze:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LEYWe.png" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">

SIlver:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Gfc4B.png" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">

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

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

Diamond:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/40nIa.png" border="0" alt="" title="" 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!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:15:26 GMT

Please count me in attendance! Our club is flourishing with new members everyday! I might step out to pick up an Explorer CC this month when I receive the Walmart/Discover upgrade. Then again, I might not but if I do I'll be right back. No sprees for me.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

HiLine — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:16:45 GMT

Hello Garden!!!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:20:18 GMT

in on first page!, just applied and approved for CSP($5000), waiting on decision for Discover IT

I have

Chase Freedom Visa ($6000)

Chase Ink Business (on a seperate report? doesn't show up on my report)($2000)

Capital One (my first card) ($750)

AMEX Blue Cash ($6000)

Score is at 719 right now, I'm 21 years old and have 1 (30 days) on my capital one for not paying the $2 interest that sneaked up after i paid full balance and sock drawer it.

Going to avoid any Hard Pull for 2 years

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:20:24 GMT

yeah! my sister is gardening for the next 4 months! Making it 6 months total!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

kilj0y — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:20:55 GMT

This will be my first full month of gardening, no apps whatsoever for me this month.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:24:59 GMT

Garden strong this month! I promise!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:25:34 GMT

I received a SW alert today. I was expecting it -- the card that my daughter uses as an AU posted a $5 balance this month, as opposed to a $0 balance last month. This means that I have two cards reporting a balance, with the others all $0, and it triggered the FICO algorithm to drop my EQ score by 5 points. It's not a big deal, as my scores are still reasonably good. But after working so hard to improve my scores, it I hate to see my scores drop at all, for emotional rather than practical reasons. Ah well... life goes on.

All in all, things are going very well in the garden. No app itches, and I'm quite happy with what I have. I'm keeping my eyes focused on picking up my gold spade in a couple of months.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:25:39 GMT

@aupperk24

Welcome to the GC! No HPs for 2 years means you'll be around for a long time.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:26:25 GMT

@kli0y

One day at a time. If you need anti-itch cream, just let us know

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:27:27 GMT

@hutchj

Holding you to it!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:28:14 GMT

@BearsAndTurtles

Good for DS!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:28:45 GMT

@HiLine

Thanks for checking in!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Simply827 — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:29:10 GMT

These are my last few days in the garden as I'll be going on an app spree in a few days. I'll be back right afterward, only to leave again in August or September for a car loan.

Too bad I missed the party Friday nite to go out with a bang.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:29:37 GMT

@09Lexie wrote:
@Anonymous

Welcome to the GC! No HPs for 2 years means you'll be around for a long time.

I have 9 Inquiries on my report right now

I might get another hard pull for my school loan, not sure if they do hard pull for federal subsidized loan for U

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:29:50 GMT

@09Lexie wrote:
@Anonymous

Holding you to it!

lol, good. I promise I do know how to garden. After I did my app spree in Sept 2012, I didn't put in a new app until May 2013. June was just a weird month for me, lol.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

GatorGuy — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:36:42 GMT

Checking into the Garden for July. Haven't decided how long it'll be but probably around a year. Not looking forward to seeing my score drop when my 2 new car loans hit and 3 new CC's considering my AAoA has always been the weakest part of my CR.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:41:37 GMT

@Simply827

Good luck to you on your planned app. We'll tend to your spot while you are gone.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

Kutuzov — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:42:37 GMT

I'm gardening my two cc approved back in march.

Barclay Rewards Card approved for 1300

Amazon GE Store Card approved 600 auto CLI to 900

Total 2300

Also letting age some old baddies (5 charge offs now sold to collections or settled)

2 Collections from the charge offs (I sued 2 debt collectors so that's why I got 2 less than it should be )

Working on Crap1 to report a settled account done in february, still reports as CO with balance as the difference between the settlement and what they said I owed. Will need to invite them to court if they persist on these.

Working on cleaning my Garage first garage sale last saturday, will keep going for 1-2 more weeks, after that all junk is beeing donated or tossed.

My Goal after all my inquires go away, and my brand new accounts age, aply for Discover and/or Chase cc. Hope to get them in 2015.

Needing group support to stay away from good offers that might show up in the mail ...

Re: Garden Club Meeting - July 2013

09Lexie — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:42:39 GMT

@GatorGuy

Thanks for checking in!