Quick background on me - got into points accumulation very recently. Nothing too drastic yet (three credit cards for me, two for wife, but we may want to get at least three more each this year). We rent and may be looking for a home in under a year, or maybe a year, or maybe two years or longer; it just depends on if we find something that we like. We are in no rush there.

My concern - These credit cards that we are thinking of getting (not the ones we already have) will take a HUGE toll on our mortgage payment. Is this true? If so, by how much? Can 3 FICO points translate to what in terms of a mortgage payment? Very little? A lot? Our credit scores are excellent and we have a great lender at Merrill Lynch, but I don't know if that makes a difference in the analysis of the credit score.

Bottom line - we can wait on some of these cards if we're going to end up paying a lot more a month on a mortgage just because of that Marriott free night I needed, or that Grand Slam US Airways hit and the 40,000 sign up points.