I agree with the suggestion to cancel the cards as you pay them off. Better to have an emergency savings account for, well… emergencies, rather than go back to the cards. Dave Ramsey, whose solution we follow, suggests first creating a $1,000 emergency fund, and then going after the debt with the smallest balance, as you’re doing. Then, take the money you were paying on that smallest debt and add it to the payments you’re making on the next smallest one, paying only the minimums on the rest. As you go along, you’ll pay more and more to each subsequent debt with the money you were paying to the ones you’ve paid off, and the “debt snowball” will start rolling quickly.

Then, you can save (again, using the money you were paying on the debts) 3-6 months of expenses (not income) and you’ll never need to go into debt again, so you can safely cancel all of those cards.

We’re out of debt completely (except the house) next month, so I can tell you it definitely works.

Trust me — when I say I’m in debt, I mean it. :)

I understand that it’s tough to release the “accomplishment” of saving money, but if you were running up the CC’s while “saving” you were lying to yourself. Lie to your parents, lie to your boss, but never, ever lie to yourself.

And really, my credit score is pretty much irrelevant at the moment. I’m not trying to get more, or do anything that involves credit, so… *shrug* Having open cards doesn’t affect me one way or the other. I’d like to make sure everything is paid up to date, of course, but beyond that it doesn’t really affect me.

You may want to consider going to your branch and asking them about a consolidation loan. Besides being simpler to administer (one automatic withdrawal a month) you’ll do much better on the interest rate.

Got a shock last year when getting a mortgage they said my credit score was fantastic…except. Stupid Sears card. Did you know that each credit card you open that you don’t use, counts against your credit? Yeah. Sears can suck it.