okrogius, are you saying that atheist0069 needs to stay in the super-high range if getting a mortgage? If that's true, that's a good point. Most of the time, though, I haven't seen that there's any real need to stay that high. I get new cards only when there's an irresistable deal, and my wife and I have gotten 11 cards in the last year, with her getting 5 and me getting 6, and my EQ score is 749 and hers is 723. It doesn't look to me like you get 1 hit per inquiry; as near as I have been able to figure out, you get 1 hit of 10-12 points for "too many" inquiries, which stays on until some of them age off to where the number isn't "too many" anymore. If you have different or better information, I'd be interested in hearing it, because this has always been something of a mystery to me. I think I have about 20% total utilization, with almost 75% utilization on one account and 50% on 3 others. With super high scores, there's no need to get new cards just to decrease utilization, and I agree that the hit from inquiries, if there is one, can exceed any gain from making a very low utilization even lower. BUT, a lot of the cards have value in themselves, and except in the case you cite, where someone is getting a mortgage soon, getting really good cards is real cash in the bank, and worth more than the somewhat esoteric exercise of pushing one's score toward or beyond 800.