No, you can relax a bit - Canceling a Card will NOT "mess up" your credit!!! If, for example, you had the Cap1 for 10 years & never had a late payment and this was your only card for, let's say, eight years and then you applied for two more cards & got approved and then afterwards you went and canceled the Cap1, yes, in this case you would have some substantial but not 'catastrophic' drop in scores due to the fact that the average age of your credit history, instead of being 4.5 years is now only 2 years old. But, in your case, for all intents & purposes, you don't yet have a meaningful score. So what are you worried about? Use the system to your advantage and don't worry about canceling in six months or 1 year. By that time, assuming you're going to be on time with your payments on Cap1 for six months & in the month #7 will apply & get approved for two additional accounts, you will do just fine.