Rommie2k6

Wanted to post my AoR experience today. It totally sucked at 2 out of 4.

Discover - Approved, it's my first card
Chase Business - Approved after closing 1 personal card and transferring credit limit to new business card
AMEX Business - Declined, and I couldn't get to a reasonable recon CSR
Barclays - Fugh em...

I'm thinking of applying for a Citi Business mail offer I received later today... but 2 out of 4 has been my worst AoR ever!!!

A major complaint is that I have too many open cards, even though I have a perfect payment history and less than 5% utilization every month... so it seems that at this "advanced" level, some of the usual advice like having many cards does not apply.

In particular, having too many open cards (e.g. 15 for my case) is being seen as bad. In light of this, I am thinking of canceling some of my older cards, and closing cards at the 9mth mark as opposed to waiting for the full 12mth.

From now to the end of the year, I'm planning on cancelling 1 from Barclays that has an AF (hitting Apr 2014), 1 from CapOne which is a toy card from the beginning, 1 from AMEX that has an AF (hitting Mar 2014), 1 from Citi that has an AF (hitting Mar 2014) I know this will result in a lower AoA of open cards and lower overall credit limit, but it seems that I have no choice.

Has anyone had to intentionally cancel cards before the next app, so that you have less number of accounts open?