Is there a "best" strategy that one should follow to get the signups, without impairing credit too badly?

First, I have terrific credit, and i would like to keep it that way. I have paid off all my balances every single month in full for over 18 years. I have no plans to take out any loans in the next 2 years. I have applied for 4 cards in my name in the past 6 months and was approved for all. ^ (Wife has done the same).

Is there a rule you guys follow? As in, only 2 cards every 90 days, or 6 cards every 6 months? Trying to keep a fine balance between keeping a great credit score and getting miles.

I've done 3 on the same day twice (about 2.5 months apart). Always been approved.

I have this problem as well. In august of 2009 i had 7 inquiries and 1 more in november of 2009. Now i am afraid of getting denied after I was denied in NOV for the BAchase card. How long should one wait?

I've heard it helps your credit score in the longer term if you cluster applications together, does anyone know if that is true? Something about them being treated as one after time.

That's partly why I did 3 on the same day. That and if you do them close together they likely don't affect the others on the same day --- so there's a better chance to get approved on all three on the same day than one each week for three weeks.

I don't know if this is accurate, but i am of the belief that every hardinquiry lowers your score b/t 2-7 points. The negative point drop reverts back positive after 90 days to your credit score (I don't know if this is 90 days after cancelling the card, or 90 days after the inquiry even if you keep the card).

However, the inquiry still shows up as having a credit card for 2 years, before that credit card disappears from your credit report after it is cancelled. I think. I can't remember.

Even still, i'm sure if you apply too many times, say 12x every 6 months, that that can't be good for your credit.

Where should you draw the line?

If you have any upcoming financing transactions in which your credit score is important (house / car), then stay away from apps for awhile. But if you're in the clear for a few years, I think the line is when you start getting denied.

Personally, my wife & I both have great credit: >750 on Experian's Plus as of about 2 months ago (my wife still wonders how I get that high because I've churned about a dozen cards in the past 12-18 months).

She was denied by Discover and Chase recently for "insufficient credit history" even though she's never missed a payment and has had 2 cards open for over 8 years. More recently (past 2 weeks), I was denied by Chase twice for "insufficient credit history" and "too many credit inquiries." I've had tons of credit for up to 15 years, so I think they're BSing. Personally, I think Chase just cut us off because we've gone through the BA card, Priority Club and UA cards in the past year and I still have about 35k in available credit from them that I'm barely using now that the coins are done.

However, AmEx approved me for credit today. So in short... I'd say where you draw the line isn't clear. Just don't over do it with any one company in a short period.

I was initially denied for the BA Chase card offer also. I got on the phone with a CSR, and it turned out that I had a previous Chase application (which I knew nothing about, so it was quite strange). Long story short, he saw that I had a $2,000 limit on some other long-unused Chase card and offered to simply move that limit over to the BA card. Voila. So if you're denied and have a credit limit on another card at the same bank, it's at least worth asking.

I measure my credit using credit Karma (free) and I have yet to see a significant (any) drop due to credit applications - I have about 5 in the past 4 months. Where I did take a hit is with the AA cards, which do not report the credit line and thus show high credit utilization as you are doing your required spend, luckily the SP Amex does report the credit line so things are looking better. I'm also getting hit as my average age of open lines decreases.

FrugalTravelGuy.com suggests opening 2 credit lines every 90 days per credit agency (EQ, EXP, TU).

Is there a list out there of whch cc companies use which credit agency?

That information would definitely be helpful - hopefully someone here has the answer!

I'm quite conservative in my applications - I do only 2 every 6 mos or so.

Yes, that would help sort out the confusion. I've gotten 5 new cards in past 6 months but only show 2 inquiries on my CreditKarma (i think they use Trans Union) and that's what I had before the 5 cards. (2 were Citi (1 bus), 2 were AmEx (1 bus), and one was Chase). My score is above 750 and I have long histories with these 3.

I generally try to stay within Citi, Chase, AmEx but there's some appealing offers from others lately. But i assume they'd more likely require "hard" hits.

I did get turned down for a 4th Citi recently as I had gotten two new ones in past couple months already. Reason was I "already had an Aadvantage card", which didn't stop me from getting the 2nd & 3rd ones or the 30K bonuses for them. Evidently a 3rd AA within 3 months is a no-no.

Creditboards.com/forums has a specific forum for which credit bureau is "hit" by which company. The forum is called the "CreditPulls Database". All you need to do is register (free) with CreditBoards.com to get access. I have not looked at it in a while, but I believe which credit bureau is used depends on where you live in the country oftentimes. I may be mistaken on that though. Hope that helps...