At one point I had $18,000 in credit card debt. My boyfriend, now fiance, showed me how much money I was losing to interest over the course of a year and I was shocked. That shock made me more responsible with my credit card. I'm not credit card debt free but still use my credit card regularly...I just make sure I can pay it off within a month or two. And yes, the five year process to get rid of the debt did include closing out quite a few credit cards, mostly store cards.

I have never ever carried a balance on a credit card in my 10 years of having them. I think it is super important to live within your means and understand how much you have to spend by carefully delineating the difference between "want" and "need." To be honest, I find that I spend more when I use cash than credit because I lose the paper trail of where my money is going. Also, it is important to know that having good credit is essential to making large future purchases like on a car or house. It always surprises me that actually having more lines of credit open (and paying them off!) helps in really increasing one's credit score.

This post completely ignores one very important element to your credit score- credit history. Your credit score isn't just based on how much debt you have, but also on how long you have been using credit. It seems odd that that would affect your score, but it does. You are much better off paying off your debt, but keeping the accounts open. If you truly can't be responsible with your cards, put them in a drawer, keep them out of site, or if you really need to, cut them up. Then you won't be able to use the cards, but the account will still technically be active and helping to build up your credit score.