Paying off credit cards

[Anonymous]

I came into some money due to the death of of my family members and I have been paying my debts down because that is what she would want me to do.  I am trying to get my credit score up (currently 623 EQ) so I can refinance my house (balloon payment due in Nov 2010).  Should I close the accounts that I am paying off or should I leave them open?  I don't want to close them if it would hurt my score because I am doing my darndest to get my score in the 700 range as soon as possible.  I was in a huge amount of debt ($54,000) and now I am down to $25,000 which is still huge but much better than where I was and if all works the way I am hoping I will get a good chunk of that out of the way before Nov. 2010 because I will use the money that I currently have paid off on the remaining bills.  Any insight on what I should do would be helpful.  Thanks. 

[marty56]

Closing the cards unless the are costing you an anual fee can harm your score.  The best way to get out of debt and help your FICO score is to use the Debt Snowball method by making minimum payments on all but the card with the smallest balance and on that one, through all your extra money at it until it is PIF.  Then attack the next one in turn.