thank you guys for the advice. i think the best course of action for me is to keep them open another year and then close it. i can transfer the amazon line to my freedom, so no utilization issues there. as far as my cap1, im hoping i get 4k in CLI's on my AMEX or barclays (both SP i hope). the AMEX would be my 2nd 3x request and im hoping barclays will auto CLI me at the 6th statement as some have reported. if either one or both are successful, i will close the cap1 accordingly so no utilization is hurt. furthermore, my aaoa wont take as big a hit due to my open accounts being a year older!
lets hope it pans out...
As has been mentioned, your AAoA won't take a hit anytime soon. It will be affected in about 10 years from the closing date, but probably won't make much of a difference in 10 years anyway if you are picking up new accounts along those 10 years.
EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777i don't really plan to open many other accounts. My ultimate goal as of right now is to have 4 or 5 cards and 100k in credit. Then I'd probably garden and only step out for installment loans or mortgages.. of course, along the way there will be opening new cards and moving of credit lines to cards that better suit me until i reach that..