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Step 1
First, stop carrying them. Place them in an envelope in your home or office and keep them there. Rely on your ATM card to get cash out when you need it.
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Step 2
Go through your last credit card bill to see which bills you paid with your credit card. Then contact all of those places and set up automatic ACH debits. This will take the money directly from your bank account and you won't run up your credit card.
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Step 3
Once you've made some progress with the first two steps, get out the scissors and cut up all but one card. It's ok to keep one card around in case you need it, to say buy an online plane ticket. But otherwise there is no reason to keep a credit card, especially with Paypal-type services to pay for online purchases.
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Step 4
Try to pay-off as many balances as you can or to transfer them all to the one card you haven't cut up. The fewer balances you have the less likely you will be to re-use the credit card.
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Step 5
Once you've paid off balances, call the credit card companies and cancel the card.














