You did some real damage to yourself with all the apps and I agree time is the only thing that will really help here. The closing accounts months within opening them isn't going to look good. I don't know if its a situation where you went for a bonus and then cancelled as soon as it posted in an effort to get an AF back. If the card was AF free for the first year then my recommendation would be to keep new cards open for at least ten months and then evaluate if you want to renew/downgrade/cancel. Nothing wrong with going for bonuses, but I have seen people who make a habit of opening cards, getting the bonus and then closing right away in order to try to get a refund on the non-waived AF and I feel those people are just asking to be flagged by lenders. Even if they don't get flagged its going to look really lousy if they have a manual review with someone on a recon.
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@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@red259 wrote:You did some real damage to yourself with all the apps and I agree time is the only thing that will really help here. The closing accounts months within opening them isn't going to look good. I don't know if its a situation where you went for a bonus and then cancelled as soon as it posted in an effort to get an AF back. If the card was AF free for the first year then my recommendation would be to keep new cards open for at least ten months and then evaluate if you want to renew/downgrade/cancel. Nothing wrong with going for bonuses, but I have seen people who make a habit of opening cards, getting the bonus and then closing right away in order to try to get a refund on the non-waived AF and I feel those people are just asking to be flagged by lenders. Even if they don't get flagged its going to look really lousy if they have a manual review with someone on a recon.
Can you get a bonus, and have the AF waived by closing?
I've seen it done with Citi AA exec cards when they had 100k offers people were just going to town with that stuff. I would assume you can do it with other lenders or at least get back most of your AF by doing that. It's definitely not something I have ever been willing to do, although some people do it.
A word of wisdom, underwriters cannot stand accounts that are opened then closed in a short period of time (6 months or less) a year or better is best before closing a card.
@icyhot wrote:
I never opened an account for the sake of combining, but after evaluating my spend pattern I deemed it best to cut some loose, but still keep the CL
Just reiterating what kdm and takeshi said...this evaluation is best done before you apply for cards, not after, if you want to keep your credit profile in good shape
@icyhot wrote:
a lot of people have CLs that exceeded their income so long as their profile supported. My Delta AF is due in April, so if I have to eat that cost for the sake of a stronger profile so be it. Every other account isn't killing me to keep open
Even though this works for other people, it doesn't mean it will necessarily work for you 
Is there any particular reason you need this much credit and are setting goals for CL's? Just getting credit for the sake of higher CL's doesn't seem like it's in your best interest currently.
I think I would garden at least for a year in your situation to let those inquiries age off your credit score. If you really want to increase your chances at CLI's then it might be best to wait until they age off your credit report entirely, which would be 2 years. Not a great situation, yes, but at least now you know what not to do in the future 
@gdale6 wrote:A word of wisdom, underwriters cannot stand accounts that are opened then closed in a short period of time (6 months or less) a year or better is best before closing a card.
I am not disputing this, but what solid evidence do we have to support this? The forum so frequently tosses things around as common knowledge and fact.
