Credit Card Programs - How many CC is too much for limited credit history applicants?

I know lots of people here churn new cards every 3mths, but I never see lots of post about how long their credit history is. I always suspected that the regular application every 3mth is for those who have 10+ years of history or super high 6-figure income. Am I right?

I'm going on to my 3rd year of credit history next month, and I currently have 8 active cards - 2 Chase, 2 Citi, 1 CapOne, 1 AMEX, 1 Barclays, 1 FIA. My report has a total of 12 cards, including 4 closed ones. For those who started out the credit churning game from Day 1, or those who are in a similar situation as me, would applying for more cards be above the norm? I am personally thinking of opening a Chase Ink Bold, Chase Priority Rewards, 2 x Citi AA and AMEX Blue Cash... but I think Chase and AMEX will close all my cards if I do that for reasons like too many accounts relative to age...

For credit score strategies, I usually only let 2 cards report a balance and keep utilization of every card below 10%. My FICO is about 740, but for some reason I always get penalized for too short credit history or too many inquiries (based on my prior experience in CC apps).

This doesn't actually answer your question about too many cards, but as for your credit score, the bureaus are working as intended, as 2 years of credit history is not really that much at all, and it sounds like you've been pretty busy with apps during that time.

Well your history is much better than me. My oldest account is less than 2 years old, and I am a student with low income. I have 2 AMEX, 2 BOA, 1 Chase, 1 Citi, and a store card.
I don't think Chase and AMEX are the ones who may you close your CCs. But you may be more careful with Barclays. They are notorious for closing CCs and CLD. I was eager to apply for US Airways because of the sign up bonus on first use but I figured it is safer not to play with them yet.

I've not heard bad stuff about Barclays so far, but there are hundreds of stories where Chase just close all accounts without notice.

Barclays does close accounts and bait and switch for lower value cards. You have to dig a bit for past instances and the last time they pulled that on me was a few years back.

But would you expect less from a bank caught gaming Libor rates?

Ya just gotta give credit to bankers where credit is due. And let us also give credit to The Mint Slayer, Timmie Geithner. Since when is it the Fed's job to hide bank fraud, Timmie?:D

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came under fire Wednesday by Congress for not taking strong enough action in the scandal involving U.K. bank Barclays PLC and its attempted manipulation of the Libor overnight interest rate.

At issue is what the New York Fed did after a Barclays employee told the regional bank in April 2008 that the bank was submitting false reports to the Libor-setting panel in London to try to send a signal that it was healthy.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a Republican from Texas, said he thought the New York Fed had an obligation to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department once it learned that Barclays was committing fraud.

“It is a little puzzling to me” why such a referral was not made, Neugebauer told Geithner at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

I've not heard bad stuff about Barclays so far, but there are hundreds of stories where Chase just close all accounts without notice.