AAoA, likely is not affected too much by closing the accounts, however...
You have some balances still, so if the Merrick doesn't have an AF, there's no reason to close that. You've got a basic charge flow going through there. They might close or CLD it, but why speed up the uncertainty? Let it ride. It may take them 3 years to get around to doing anything. Or never.
Good luck with the Best Buy change, to no AF. I don't have any experience with that, but it's something you might want to start the conversation earlier, try to PC to no AF. Keeping that account open, if you are earning rewards, keeps that oldest card active and earning. Worth the effort, if you ask me.
The 0% APR may be "hurting your score" but you are saving money. If it is in your cash flow to get it paid down, fine, but with several new accounts it is unlikely you should be looking at new cards, thus scores not matter. You do want to pay it off prior to the 0% expiration however.
The secured BofA is a good idea. My two BofA accounts are long time friends, even though they have lousy rewards. The AMEX has 7.9% APR and the MC has 11.24%, and both have 18+ month 0% BT offers monthly, so some of my busiest cards.
BB card, $59 AF, yeah no point keeping that around. Applaud your decision to simply ask for the AF to be removed or close the account as a course of action with Citi. Didn't work with my old Orchard to Cap 1 card with an identical AF but it's worth a shot and I have zero regrets for closing that account for the same rationale you're approaching this one.
Regarding the Merrick card though, not sold on that decision. If it doesn't have an AF, even if it's only a year older than some of your other accounts, I'd keep it. It pretty much serves the same function as the now graduated BOFA secured card in my own report: I'm going to keep that tradeline forever, though at least with BOFA they have some interesting PC targets or their 1-2-3 Cash Rewards card covers the miscellaneous grocery MCC that falls to default for me on both my Sallie and BCP so I'm not losing any money from rewards by keeping it active; however, I would suggest even without that calculus, keeping it with some small recurring charge isn't a bad idea. I'm doing the same with my Zync even with a $10/month recurring donation to the local NPR station, lots of ways to solve it incredibly cheaply these days.
Realistically my criteria regarding closing cards these days boils down to ~5 points:
- unjustifed AF, bye bye
- security deposit that I could better leverage elsewhere, bye
- Grossly consumer unfriendly reporting practices that irritate me, Synchrony cards as one obvious example
- If the lender does something to offend me, which is pretty hard to do given I have virtually no interaction with them other than using their product and making my payments. I'm not one to take offense over a CLD or similar either.
- Unused store cards, erg, well, YMMV. Lot of legit debate on that one, and I need to go test someone's data point assertion on store cards anyway.
For the rest, I'd suggest find a way to keep them, tradeline farms are pretty much zero maintenance these days with recurring charges and recurring bill payment services.
