How much is too much?
 

My credit score is 800, my wife's is about 725. Just bought a house that we will be in for a long time, and we won't be buying a car for a long time.

How often can I jump on some of these miles deals if I am not worried about my credit score being negatively affected? Give me some insight from the pros!

FWIW, I solely fly United and prefer to earn miles for them. But I would be interested in earning on a couple hotels and for more everyday things like gift certificates as well.

Thanks!

Too much is never enough.

Probably no more than 6 hard pulls per bureau per six-month period. All you need to figure out is which bureaus they'll pull. Simple. ;)

Sign up for a monitoring service and watch your score as you move along. Only you can decide what amount of change you're comfortable with.

Thanks for the replies. I assume the 6 cards per month would be [I]per person[I] and maybe even per business (I run my own from home)?

So that would be 18 cards per 6 months which would be plenty to keep me busy for a while :)

The business cards will still pull your credit report, so a total of 12 cards between you and your wife every six months. Although multiple pulls in a single day (e.g. the two Citi AA Personal cards) may only count as one pull, depending. Just watch which bureau they pull.

I typically try for 6-9 cards every 90 days applying for all the cards on the same day so the inquiries are not evident to thie competition

Makes sense, thanks! Suggestions on which service to use to monitor credit?

One of the best investments you can make if you're serious about accumulating travel rewards is to buy ingy's book on Amazon. Search for thefrugaltravelguy, and you'll find it. You'll learn tons, and it will save you lots of time in deciphering a lot of the concepts here on FT. Plus, profits go to a very worthy cause. Highly recommended.

Buying a house, there may be 2 or 3 pulls from each bureau. (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) (or alot more pulls if one uses sites such as Lendingtree, etc).

One pull (each bureau) from the mortgage broker. (if used)
One pull (each bureau)from the lender.
Possibly a final pull either from the lender or PMI mortgage.

I always had 2 pulls when I got mortgages on my rental properties. (2006 & 2008).