topic Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014 in Credit Cards

Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

09Lexie — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:56:57 GMT

August! Wow, the end of July caught me by surprise.

Let me be the first to welcome all new GCers, returning GCers and old timers to our little place in the sun. Here we socialize, commiserate and support each other while waiting for baddies to fall off, new accounts and/or inq's age or just because your are satifised with your current credit card line up.

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 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. There is a snack table set up. July is a wonderful month - summer is just starting and it's a perfect month for enjoying great food. I can smell the bar-b-que, there is fresh, there's a bobbing station set-up for crisp red apples, corn on the cob, baked beans, pasta salad, hot dogs, hamburgers and funnel cake! And as always, we have mini-quiches (enjoy, Relevate!). There's also a nice selection of cold beers and my new favorite, Lemon Drop Martini's. 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 club features 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. I'd also like to give thanks to Lexie09 for providing hospitality and help to members both old and new. You'll always find comraderie available here as you work towards your gardening goals.

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. We even have and Emergency Response Team (ERT) available to step in and help keep you on track!

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: 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.

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

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" 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">

Palladium:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5761iE36E284CEECEA414" 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" />

Ruby:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5625i09098E9833D7A4B2" border="0" width="40" height="40" align="right">

Emerald:

Sapphire:
<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5627iA714E0C3C98AD3FD" border="0" width="40" height="40" 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 2014

RushXTC — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:57:14 GMT

Checking in for the month of August!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

coldnmn — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:58:22 GMT

Checking in for August!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

keithbward — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:03:27 GMT

made it through my first month

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

09Lexie — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:06:31 GMT

Sorry for the delay posting the new month. Thanks to Kenny for the gentle reminder

Hmmm, whats new on CC front.... I got a SW alert because I let my Freedom card post $150 balance ( previousy it had been 0 bal). Lost 2 points but thats ok, I am not apping for anything and it will be paid off before the statement ends.

On another thread, we talked about Amex backdating. So, I calculated I will be back over 7 years..albeit briefly when those 2 mortgages fall off I be back to 6.50 years. So appreciative that Amex has that perk.

Again, my apologies for the late posting...it wont happen again.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

hizzaah — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:08:28 GMT

Checking in! Here for the long haul!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:16:58 GMT

@hizzaah wrote:
Checking in! Here for the long haul!

hows everybody doing today? Noting really new on credit front, having an slight itch for arrival+ card, but i think it will pass in due time :-) I got my sw alert today and nothing new to report, stil stuck at 807.

BTW lexie no worries on being an bit tarde :-)

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

tattooedhusker — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:18:26 GMT

Good afternoon all! Checking in for august, and to pick up my Palladium spade. Happy gardening!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:30:22 GMT

Hi~! I'm new to the Garden. Just chilling and waiting for the one baddie and the inquiries to fall off my report. Don't want to apply for anything new until this time next year when I may trade my car in on a newer one. Glad to be here and looking forward to my score going up~!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

kalani91 — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:25:28 GMT

Checking in! Currently seedling since two weeks ago

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

MrFlower — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:26:11 GMT

Stoping by and getting a drink but not sure if i'm haning out...

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

_jb_ — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:28:06 GMT

Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:28:18 GMT

@MrFlower wrote:
Stoping by and getting a drink but not sure if i'm haning out...

hello your spade is sooo shiny :-)

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:29:39 GMT

@_jb_ wrote:
Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.

I know its an major ymmv situation . but when my last baddie fell off in april/may of this year, my scores went up nearly 95-100 points depending on credit bureau. So hopefully you see similar results good luck !!!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

_jb_ — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:44:57 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.
I know its an major ymmv situation . but when my last baddie fell off in april/may of this year, my scores went up nearly 95-100 points depending on credit bureau. So hopefully you see similar results good luck !!!

That would make my day! I seem to have hit a plateau since I hit the low 700's. I do have one more that will fall off 04/2015. Luckily I have no plans to apply for/use credit between now and then, and then hopefully it will be a bit longer after that before I do.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:46:36 GMT

Checking in for the month of August. Just joined the GC yesterday! I've got 4 new seedlings in the form of Chase Freedom, Discover IT, USAA Mastercard and Amazon Store Card to nurture. Happy to be here and thanks for having me!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:48:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Checking in for the month of August. Just joined the GC yesterday! I've got 4 new seedlings in the form of Chase Freedom, Discover IT, USAA Mastercard and Amazon Store Card to nurture. Happy to be here and thanks for having me!

welcome to GC , if you have any questions about GC ask away:-)

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:50:07 GMT

@_jb_ wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.
I know its an major ymmv situation . but when my last baddie fell off in april/may of this year, my scores went up nearly 95-100 points depending on credit bureau. So hopefully you see similar results good luck !!!

That would make my day! I seem to have hit a plateau since I hit the low 700's. I do have one more that will fall off 04/2015. Luckily I have no plans to apply for/use credit between now and then, and then hopefully it will be a bit longer after that before I do.

yeah i think i have hit plateau with my scores they don't seem to want to budge at all . I think its the lack of installment loan on my credit report thats hurting me atm. I am waiting for the new tesla to come out and maybe i will get an small loan for that car haha.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

_jb_ — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:01:43 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.
I know its an major ymmv situation . but when my last baddie fell off in april/may of this year, my scores went up nearly 95-100 points depending on credit bureau. So hopefully you see similar results good luck !!!

That would make my day! I seem to have hit a plateau since I hit the low 700's. I do have one more that will fall off 04/2015. Luckily I have no plans to apply for/use credit between now and then, and then hopefully it will be a bit longer after that before I do.
yeah i think i have hit plateau with my scores they don't seem to want to budge at all . I think its the lack of installment loan on my credit report thats hurting me atm. I am waiting for the new tesla to come out and maybe i will get an small loan for that car haha.

I'd be happy to plateau with scores around 800 haha. I don't have an open installment loan on my report either, which I think is what is holding me back at the moment. I have no needs to borrow right now either, so I guess I am stuck.

More than likely a vehicle loan will be my next trade line as well, but I am hoping that is at least two years away.. ha.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - August 2014

mongstradamus — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:09:04 GMT

@_jb_ wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@_jb_ wrote:
Good to see you all.

Checking in for August. One of my last two baddies should fall off any day now, but it will also lower my AAoA. I'm hoping that I will get a couple points for it anyways.

And I just realized I'll be picking up an Emerald on the 19th.
I know its an major ymmv situation . but when my last baddie fell off in april/may of this year, my scores went up nearly 95-100 points depending on credit bureau. So hopefully you see similar results good luck !!!

That would make my day! I seem to have hit a plateau since I hit the low 700's. I do have one more that will fall off 04/2015. Luckily I have no plans to apply for/use credit between now and then, and then hopefully it will be a bit longer after that before I do.
yeah i think i have hit plateau with my scores they don't seem to want to budge at all . I think its the lack of installment loan on my credit report thats hurting me atm. I am waiting for the new tesla to come out and maybe i will get an small loan for that car haha.
I'd be happy to plateau with scores around 800 haha. I don't have an open installment loan on my report either, which I think is what is holding me back at the moment. I have no needs to borrow right now either, so I guess I am stuck.

More than likely a vehicle loan will be my next trade line as well, but I am hoping that is at least two years away.. ha.

Yeah i am probably not going to be thinking about adding installment loan anytime soon. The tesla i was looking at it wont be out till 2017 at the earliest lol , i have plenty of time. I think since my cr is relatively clean and my scores are decent i shouldn't have an lot of problems apping for cards that i need. Hopefully my assumption is correct :-)