Hey all,

I'm a recent college grad who currently has two personal CCs: a no annual fee BankAmericard with a $3,000 limit (since 06/09) and a $60/year Chase United Signature Visa with a $3,000 limit (since 07/10). My CreditKarma FICO is 738, and I currently have a ~$30K/year income, which will expire at the end of June when my job ends and I transition to a NYC-based med school. Right now the average age of my CCs is 1 year and 4 months, and I've been using my United Visa as my primary source of mileage earning (30k sign-up bonus + 21.5k spend to-date).

In terms of travel, most of my flying consists of JFK-HKG-PVG twice a year via CX/KA, and occasional North America side trips for pleasure, though this year I earned almost enough for a WN round-trip award through travel for med school interviews. I've been accumulating UA miles because the rest of my family is UA 1P/2P, so it's convenient for award tickets or upgrades when travelling with them. I'm interested in building a history with Amex because of the Starpoint flexibility/value when it comes to airline mile transfers, plus I've heard it's a great all-around consumer travel card.

I was wondering whether it would be wise to sign up for an SPG Amex at this stage in my life, as I'm still trying to build credit and worry that holding onto 3 relatively new CCs would damage my credit in the near future. As a foreign national studying in the US, it's hard to find sponsors, so I must rely on my own credit background for any major financial decisions. I'm also planning to apply for a credit limit increase on my United Visa by July 1st, hopefully to the $4k range in case I ever need to book a flight to Asia last-minute.

Given my situation,

1) Would applying for the credit limit increase and SPG Amex be too many hard pulls within a short period of time?

2) Would you even recommend obtaining the SPG Amex now or wait until I am no longer a student and have a more permanent source of income? I love the benefits, but don't know if I want to be paying annual fees on 2 CCs.

Sorry about the long post, but any insights you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated!