After my spree, 6 apps in 5 months between November and April, I had the six cards in my siggy (with one decline, plus one card from earlier, in August), and my score bottomed out just under 700, I think it was 698, down about 20 points. Been in the garden since April and it has climbed back up to 733. Part of that is utilization, I moved my spend too the PRG, which doesn't get counted in util, so my utilization reports as crazy low. Like 1%.
But a good chunk was stuff aging, I got about 15 of those points from gardening. The biggest jump when my oldest account hit one year.
Next couple of months I should start seeing this strategy pay off. In October my newest accounts and INQ's will all be older than six months. Then in November four of my INQ's age to one year. In December AAoA hits one year. Another pair of INQ's go in January. Then in April everything is over a year.
I probably won't garden that long. In November or December when those INQ's go I will likely buy a car, and take out a small car loan. Likely will app a PLOC at same time, hoping I can do this both with one HP from my CU, but we will see what financing the dealer has to offer at that time.
