I don't know how tight you have to watch your inquiries, really. I have 16 cards that I can think of, and 6 of those were in the last year. I only get cards that have a really good deal, but I still got 6. My credit score is sill very high. Inquiries and new account aren't that big a part of your score,, it looks like, more important is utilization and payment history. And from my experience, per-card utilization isn't really that big a deal. I had creditexpert free for a year because of buying Microsoft Money Deluxe, and I showed a 12 point hit when I had too high utilization on individual cards. Not 12 points per card, either, 12 points total. So yeah, be selective, but there are plenty of good cards out there. I'll tell you another reason to be selective. I got a Hilton Amex in February, and got 10,000 bonus points, plus 2500 per stay for the first 4 stays, and I've stayed once so far. Thought I was doing good. Well, the other day, I got an email saying, sign up for the Hilton Amex and get up to 50,000 points - 10,000 on first purchase, 2500 points per stay up to 4 stays, and 30,000 points for making $1500 in purchases by August 15. Well, I couldn't get the card because I already had it, so I had my wife get one. But if I hadn't jumped the gun, she and I could both have gotten one!