? about raising or lowering your credit score

The thing that will affect you most is staying at the max line for a long period of time. Now that you've paid them off, as said, dump the ones that have annual fees, keep the ones that have low interest rates, and play within the "rules."

Keep them active, even if it means making a $10 purchase once a month and paying it off even before the bill arrives. (Online statements are usually ahead of the paper bill.)

Some cards want a balance. It goes against the grain of everything we've been taught about credit cards, but sometimes you can have too good a score. I know of a gentleman right now who made six digits a year, never carried a balance, overpaid each month on his mortgage to pay it down quicker and save himself the interest money. His "score" was almost close to perfect. He was denied a credit card simply because of the fact that none of the rest of his cards carried a balance.

Since that's the case, it doesn't hurt to have a card with a balance on it. Charge $50, pay $35 a month. Pay over the minimum to keep the interest charges low, but never carry a balance big enough that you can't pay it outright if you have to. Only do this with one remaining card and make it a "name" card, like Discover or Visa.