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This was a previous link posted by another poster. The link will take you to a simulator that can help estimate impact of removing history. The aging of accounts does have plateaus (alledgedly) and one of importance is the 15 and 20 year length of credit history. I canceled an account 10 years ago that turns out to be my oldest. It dropped off of TU recently and I lost 20 points. I had a hard time figuring it out at first, but that was the only difference between the three reports. The other two will recognize it in the next few months and I will probably loose those points too. The card would have had 22 years on it if I had not canceled. My next oldest is 18 years, so I should get it back in time. Kind of a stiff penalty for cleaning things up.
Having said all that, FICO appears to look at oldest and average ageof credit. It could hit either way. You may want to give Belks a call and see if you can transfer at your original date. As Hauling suggested, there may be a tie-in there. Can't hurt to ask if it is helping you. I have closed several cards lately but only by consolidating the CL and keeping the oldest card the active one. Cleans up the open accounts and helps the average age and does not damage util. This, obviously, only works with multiple cards from the same vendor.