Timing: Should I apply before my mortgage reports?

[700orbust]

We recently got a FHA 203K loan for a total of $292,000, first mortgage. Did this with 52% DTI, and had about $17000 in reserves, closed on 1/19. Now that everything is over with, I've joined NFCU, and paid about $6500 of $8900 on revolving balances. I'm waiting for statements to close and reports to update.

My best card is a WF Platinum card with a CL of $5000 and APR of 10.99% fixed. Util <5% after statement closes today - Have never requested a CLI in 3.5 years. I was at about 80% util until this month. Should I request a CLI as soon as this posts?

I really want to get established with NFCU as well. I deposited 1k into their savings so it looked good. 

I would like to get in the Amex family, and get another great prime card.

So I'm considering 

Amex charge

Amex Blue Cash

NFCU CashRewards or Platinum

Discover??

I want to hold my cash and pay the charge every month, rather than operate out of my bank account so much (I have a lot of transactions b/t home and business each month).

I also plan on flying a lot this summer, so some kind of card that might help me save money or get free upgrades on flights would be nice. (typically fly delta)

I recently sent off some GW letters for student loans that I forgot about one month, and have 5 30 day lates from my two student loan payments (these are 4 years old). Also, I have DV'd a junk CO that is reporting as 120+ late on EQ and a CO on TU/EX. It will fall off between april and july of this year, but I want to get rid of it while I'm at a good place to carry low util. 

It would be great to either wait for the CO to fall off, or have it deleted. That is probably the MAJOR pain on my scores. FICO simulator shows a 20-50 point increase just by paying my bills on time for 1 month, so I must be on the brink of the 30 day lates softening their impact again.

1 INQ on EQ

2 INQ of TU (NFCU hit this one when I applied?)

6 INQ on EX (most are over 1 year old, from my biz CC processing apps)

My first mortgage payment is March 1st. 

Do I need to apply during the month of February, regardless of my CO status? I understand my mortgage will probably drop my scores a little at first, and some creditors don't like to see a fresh mortgage. 

Or is my best bet to wait it out as long as I can to see the CO removed and/or lates? 

I know I've asked a lot of questions, so thanks for hanging in there :-)