Applying for a credit card DOES negatively impact your score slightly, and that sort-of makes sense because it prevents you from applying for (and getting) 100 cards with an aggregate available credit line that you have not proven you can manage. After the 4th or 5th inquiry in a close time span, your rating will probably be impacted enough that you won't get approved for any more cards, or the credit line/APR you get will be so bad that it's not worth the application process anymore.
If this is the only card you've applied for in a while, then it will probably have a marginal impact on your actual score, if any.
The good news is: after a while of proving you can manage that credit card, your score should improve overall because you have more available credit to your name and therefore a lower debt/credit ratio.
They (the card company) are, of course, hoping and assuming that you will fuck up and leave a balance on the card, and that's when the fleecing begins.
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