Debt Free (for the 2nd time - and that’s the rub)

londoner2019

One thing I do is use my Amex for pretty much everything, but I have a separate savings pot in my current account app where I transfer money to. So at any given time of the month, my Amex balance is the same as the amount I have in my savings pot. I then pay it off at the end of the month with that money and then start again.

It means I know how much spending money I have left for the month because I take money from my disposable income to cover any Amex spends.

But figure out what's best for you and move on from there. 

ManyWays

 my plan is to close them one by one over a period of a year
I cant see the point of closing them slowly. I would suggest closing all apart from one immediately, your credit score will recover from this faster than the smaller hit of closing one every 3 months. 
Do you have any recurring payments such as a streaming subscription you can pay by card? Setting up a couple of these to be paid on the remaining card and for the card to be paid in full each month by direct debit will keep the card alive and help your score.. You can also remove the card from your pohone and give it to your wife to keep. 

leicesterfarthing

Thank you all so much for the advice, and yes, it’s best that I get rid of the cards bar one (the oldest one) and ignore the impact on my “score”. I am planning to save for the car, (company car driver) but I was scratching my head to think of a reason to be bothered about the credit score stuff -  but the more I read here, the more I realise that it isn’t something to worry about. Thanks again!! 

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Did you take the plunge and close the cards? Have you established sinking funds for those annual bills?