Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 23:57:12 GMT

Greetings, fellow credit gardeners! The new month is ready to begin, and as I am not at my best before my morning coffee, I tend to start the thread the evening before the 1st. I hereby convene the August 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! We continue our summer menu with fresh corn on the cob, and we're adding a mixed seafood platter -- steamed little neck clams, steamed crab legs, a chilled shrimp ring with cocktail sauce, and mini crab cakes and conch fritters with remoulade sauce for dipping! There's iced tea, lemonade and sodas, and if you like, a variety of ice cold beers. We'll continue chilling out this summer with a variety 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 - August 2013

sghosh5 — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:04:43 GMT

Checking in. 21 days in garden.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:07:52 GMT

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:11:58 GMT

Checking in )) Got my gold spade last month!!!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

hot4u — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:19:15 GMT

Gonna be a good month .. Throw more dirt on me...

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:19:28 GMT

I am gardening since last week. Have 10 cards and 7 of those in the last 2 months. It is so hard not to app, I have been strong and overcome the urge so far. 14 inquiries, I must! I went a little overboard

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

hot4u — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:22:35 GMT

Take a Break... Let them grow... then in future can go for higher Cli's on your collection

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

DrJim — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:28:51 GMT

No inquiries showing on TU or EX. Eq, however, has some from Nov 2012 for a car purchase and March 2013 for a NFCU CLI to $30K. Couldn't resist. First card over $30K.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

FocusedAndDetermined — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:31:53 GMT

I'm here!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:34:45 GMT

@sghosh5
@Focused
@hot4u
@newportguy
@DrJim
@eviLution

Thanks for checking in!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:32:52 GMT

@clevercsndle

Welcome to the GC! Grab a watering can for your new seedlings!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:37:57 GMT

August? Already!? Well GCers its going to be a great month. I am looking forward to a nice CS bump. Paying off my debt, inq's/new accts are aging gracefully.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:45:21 GMT

Checking in again. Still gardening. So what if it's only day 2 of being in the garden?

I think I shall have some ice cream and sit a while before digging a little.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

CarbonCard — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:46:23 GMT

Just got my Bronze today!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Stonemanmv — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:52:21 GMT

Hi everyone!! Just stopping by to say hi. Hope everybody's behaving. Happy hump day

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:53:29 GMT

@Scrounger888

Enjoy your ice cream!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:53:48 GMT

@enxinas

Yay! Looking good

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

09Lexie — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:54:09 GMT

@Stonemanmv

So far so good.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:55:37 GMT

Checking in. Back to first day in the garden

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

SimonP — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 01:02:09 GMT

Checking in ... I just got Gold Spade! Six months passed since my last card: Cash+.

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Garden Club Meeting - August 2013

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