Wow thanks for the great tips. I signed up for the United but also had some hard pulls from a mortgage and some other things a few months back. I got denied the Citi/AA in the beginning of August because of too many inquiries so I wanted to make sure I wasn't off to too a bad start. (Also heard that this Citi card promo is a bit more selective).

So sounds like a rule of thumb is ~1 a month for someone with a good score? Anyone actually track their score over time to see how it varied as they churned?