Garden Club Meeting - February 2014

[tinuviel]

Greetings, fellow credit gardeners! The following monrth just flew by, and a new one is upon us. So, I convene the January 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. There is a snack table set up. This month I've set out an assortment of tailgaiting foods, including hot buffalo wings, sweet sesame wings, several pizza pies with various toppings, a large club sandwich ring, and a variety of chips/salsa/dips. And as always, we have mini-quiches (enjoy, Relevate!). There's also a nice selection of cold beers. 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: 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:

<img src="http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/5623i698C4BF1F9D77284" border="0" width="40"  height="40" align="right">

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!

[coldnmn]

Checking in for February!  Have a good day and stay strong!

[diebadcredit6504]

Checking in. In two week will mark a month for me without applying for any CC. Have a great weekend.

[tinuviel]

Checking in for the month. No app plans; I'm happy with what I have. My plans do include making the last payment on the dental work that I've been floating on my Citi card. I'll be paying it off this coming week and I'm really excited about having that all behind me.

[Kenny]

No app plans this month and I'm happy about that! New bronze spade in my signature now! Yay!

Plans are to pay down debt and really question myself when I make purchases and not which card should I put this on, but do I really need to purchase this?

[_jb_]

Checking in for February on page one! That's a first.

No big plans this month, but I do have my last 2 inquiries aging over a year on the 8th and 19th, which means I'm picking up a Platinum spade! Trying to decide if I should buy a report/check my score at that point. Might just wait until August when 2 of my 3 baddies will have fallen off. I'll check back in on the 19th and let you all know!

[asphaltcowboy]

Checking in for Feb, garden strong everyone!!

[_jb_]

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@asphaltcowboy wrote:

Checking in for Feb, garden strong everyone!!

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Welcome. You know there is a 9 month spade now, right?

[ronstar7]

Hello My Fico family!!! 

Checking in for the month, planning to stay in for the year! Waiting on tax refund in 19 days and then all credi card debt will be 0! Well i'll leave 9% on one per the golden rule 😀

stay focused all!!!

[titanofold]

Good morning. My name is titanofold and it has been 112 days since my last application. (Hi, titanofold.)

I've been poking at the fence here and there dreaming of the day that I can escape. Oh, the cards. Oh, the lines of credits. Oh, the rewards!

I must stop playing with the shopping cart trick and the pre-approval checks for the prime cards. It's only making things worse.

My score has been steadily increasing over the past few months, and now I'm looking at eliminating my IRS tax lien. Maybe sometime in March. Just in time for my mortgage in April.

I will be a homeowner. HOMEOWNEEEEEERRRRR!