Should I close an account before opening a new one

AceCobra1

Hi guys, just wondering, I am a reasonably frequent flyer and looking to collect some airmiles and also perhaps a cheeky voucher as well when I spend enough. I currently have 2 barclay card accounts and 1 virgin money account which I have had for around 8 - 10 years. I am looking to open this british airways AMEX card. Should I close these accounts before opening another one or what? From what I read, if I did close one of these old accounts and open a new one, my credit score would get affected negatively since I am bringing my average age of my credit accounts less?

grumbler

I don't think that the average age is of great (if any) importance. Maybe the longest, not average.

More important criteria to think of are two ratios, both believed to be worth keeping under 50% ideally:
(used)/(available)
(available)/(income)