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

Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

09Lexie — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:07:02 GMT

Summer has come and gone and as we pack away the bbqs, the water wings and sunblock its time to water our seedlings.

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. Sepember means the official end of summer and we say hello to the change of seasons. So let's grab a snack and watch a football game or two. Pretzels, hot dogs 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 - September 2014

LearningMoreAboutCredit — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:08:36 GMT

Haven't quite put the BBQ grill away (always love a BBQ year round) but going steady. Nothing I want or need...particularly no app envy. Staying strong. Happy gardening to all!!!!

Re: Garden Club - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:10:17 GMT

I'm all in for another month and garden strong

Welcome all

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Irisa — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:13:50 GMT

Checking in for September. Still garden strong, though I am considering an app after I get my Gold spade later this month..we'll see.

Happy gardening everyone!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:16:16 GMT

@Irisa wrote:
Checking in for September. Still garden strong, though I am considering an app after I get my Gold spade later this month..we'll see.

Happy gardening everyone!

Need a day pass? You got it...Lol

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Irisa — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:25:35 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
@Irisa wrote:
Checking in for September. Still garden strong, though I am considering an app after I get my Gold spade later this month..we'll see.

Happy gardening everyone!
Need a day pass? You got it...Lol

Thanks boss. I haven't quite decided if I want to app or not, but I'll let you know when I do.

Btw, it's good to see you. I hope you're doing well.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:27:48 GMT

@Irisa wrote:
@myjourney wrote:
@Irisa wrote:
Checking in for September. Still garden strong, though I am considering an app after I get my Gold spade later this month..we'll see.

Happy gardening everyone!
Need a day pass? You got it...Lol
Thanks boss. I haven't quite decided if I want to app or not, but I'll let you know when I do.

Btw, it's good to see you. I hope you're doing well.

I'm fine and all is well ...Had a big smile on my face when I saw your post....Tells me all is well with you...right?

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

_sidhe_ — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:34:26 GMT

I'm officially in the garden for two years...or longer. No apps since the first of August and no desire to app.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Irisa — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:38:47 GMT

@_sidhe_ wrote:
I'm officially in the garden for two years...or longer. No apps since the first of August and no desire to app.

Welcome to the garden! Since your last app was a month ago, you get to start with a bronze spade.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:39:22 GMT

@_sidhe_ wrote:
I'm officially in the garden for two years...or longer. No apps since the first of August and no desire to app.

Welcome to the garden glad to have you join us.

Pull up a chair and make some new friends

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Irisa — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:39:49 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
I'm fine and all is well ...Had a big smile on my face when I saw your post....Tells me all is well with you...right?

Yup, all is well here.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

One7 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:40:07 GMT

Here I am. Had a crazy year and a half full of applications and INQs. Got my scores up and now it's time to watch them climb and garden the next year or more. Checking in.

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:41:49 GMT

@Irisa wrote:
@myjourney wrote:
I'm fine and all is well ...Had a big smile on my face when I saw your post....Tells me all is well with you...right?
Yup, all is well here.

That's great....Well calling it a night

See ya Angel

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

myjourney — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:42:29 GMT

@One7 wrote:
Here I am. Had a crazy year and a half full of applications and INQs. Got my scores up and now it's time to watch them climb and garden the next year or more. Checking in.

You're off to a great start Bravo

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:47:10 GMT

It's been a good year so far. I have been spreading my apps throughout the year, spreading myself a little thin. It's time garden these guys for 24 months.

How does my garden grow?

1 part soil

2 parts water

3 parts wishful thinking

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

_sidhe_ — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 06:56:07 GMT

@Irisa wrote:
@_sidhe_ wrote:
I'm officially in the garden for two years...or longer. No apps since the first of August and no desire to app.

Welcome to the garden! Since your last app was a month ago, you get to start with a bronze spade.

I'm officially not smart enough to use copy and paste on my phone. O.o I think I fixed that but lost something else.

ETA: I fixed it. Not sure how adding a bronze spade messed me up. I need to sleeeeeep!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Loques — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:28:33 GMT

Still in the garden! A couple of weeks and I will be at 3 months! Woohoo!

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Closingracer99 — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:32:09 GMT

I might be checking in and checking out soon depending on if I want to move to Sprint which i would figure take a HP on my report. Hopefully not EX

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

Blodreina — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:42:12 GMT

@Closingracer99 wrote:
I might be checking in and checking out soon depending on if I want to move to Sprint which i would figure take a HP on my report. Hopefully not EX

I thought HPs for stuff like that were acceptable?

EDIT: From the OP - ". . . 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."

Re: Garden Club Meeting - September 2014

09Lexie — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:40:41 GMT

@Simba501 wrote:
@Closingracer99 wrote:
I might be checking in and checking out soon depending on if I want to move to Sprint which i would figure take a HP on my report. Hopefully not EX
I thought HPs for stuff like that were acceptable?

EDIT: From the OP - "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."

Absolutely correct; hps for banking are fine.