@pizza1 wrote:
ugh..apparently Im starting over in the garden with my two latest approvals...
BUT...we shall start the gardening process again, and this time I HAVE to stay focused....
Merry Christmas to everyone!!!
Yes, stay focused! Do I need to contact mj and have him send in the ERTs?
@FocusedAndDetermined wrote:
@pizza1 wrote:
ugh..apparently Im starting over in the garden with my two latest approvals...
BUT...we shall start the gardening process again, and this time I HAVE to stay focused....
Merry Christmas to everyone!!!Yes, stay focused! Do I need to contact mj and have him send in the ERTs?
MJ gave up on me like 2 yrs ago, LOL...Hes not around much now, but I know he lurks from time to time, and see's me and just shakes his head,
@azguy13 wrote:
@Saleen099 wrote:Good Morning Everyone!!!!!
That looks like my neck of the woods here in Phoenix
Me landing in Phoenix Arizona.
Saleen099 is this a picture to make us jealous or is it due to the fact the plane is still in the air and not on fire 
@Anonymous wrote:Just earned the silver spade and updated my signature! Very happy with where I'm at.. and don't see any reason not to be able to continue my goal to diamond. Thank you MyFico community!
Congrats on your hard work. It sure feels good
Checking in for the first time. Wow, what a year 2016 has been. Quick intro: I have not had the same types of credit issues as many here have (zero baddies in 24 years of credit history), but I am digging myself out of nearly a decade of strugging against the domino effect of balance chasing due to high utilization and rate jacking that made it harder to pay down those balances which just ended up getting chased anyway. Wash, rinse, repeat. I discovered this forum around December when I was Googling just who this NASA FCU was that was sending me a 7.9% fixed BT for life offer, and I am immensely grateful for the people here and the wealth of shared knowledge.
Since December of last year, I have opened (in chronological order): Merrick Bank ($1250 doubled to $2500, no AF, 19.7% - just needed it to give me a UTIL boost at the time) which I will close soon, NASA Visa (just paid/transfered to 0% what was left of the $14k+ BT), NASA Personal Loan, Citizens Bank student loan refi (rolled 3 into 1 new loan, kept payments the same and still cut 10 years off the end of repayment), Prosper loan ($20k BOA balance that had been at like 21%, 3 year loan payments same as my former minimum payment that was making no dent in balance), VA Mortgage refi (solicited by my lender, and made sense to throw that money on revolving balances instead), PenFed Defender Visa Sig, Discover it, PenFed auto loan refi (had 3 years left on wife's at 6.9%, now 1.9%), BJ's Elite Perks WMC, Lowe's, BOA BankAmericard, and Citi Diamond Preferred WMC.
Thanks to all of the help I read here, I also combined 4 CapOne cards (3 were acquired by CO years after I opened them) and did a PC to VentureOne WMC, combined my Chase Slate into my Freedom (both of these were originally other cards when opened) for a much better CL at the lowest published APR, PC my BOA Platinum (was FIA) into Travel Rewards Visa Sig, PC my AmEx Gold to PRG, and PC my AmEx Green Rewards to Platinum. Also used the knowledge here to call credit solutions to bump my Amazon up from $4k (they have been giving me a few hundred bucks here and there over the years) to $12k, and to bump up my Lowe's to $17k immediately after applying (while my Home Depot card was stuck at $1250 for 6 years). All in, I closed 6 credit cards and will likely be getting rid of at least 5 or 6 more over the next year or so.
My FICO 8 scores have bumped up a bit (from 710ish a year ago to 735 average today - FAKO scores have hovered 610-660 which I would never take seriously), but should raise substantially as soon as the CRs are reporting under 30% (they keep hovering around 31-33% due to reporting dates) and I let the 14 new accounts opened this year and corresponding hard pulls age a bit. Goal is to garden until January 2018 and grab a Navy FCU card, hoping that I should be able to cut at least another 25-35k from my revolving balances and hit 780+ FICO 8s. I have to say it's a great feeling going from getting nowhere with a mountain of 20%+ debt to having almost all of it under 5% and actually making a dent in it each month!
Hi all!
Still in the garden; not much has changed...still not ready to give up my diamond!
