A lot of people make this mistake. I made it too at one point. I was sick of paying the high interest rates, fed up of the fees, fed up of paying all those credit cards. So when I finally paid them off, I decided to CLOSE THE ACCOUNT. It felt great to call the customer service agent and tell them I didn’t need them anymore. BIG mistake!

One of the components of your credit score has to do with the length of time your accounts have been opened, and once you close an account, it stops counting towards that component.
So your best solution is to pay off the credit card and either cut it up, put it in a drawer, or otherwise dispose of it in such a way that you forget it ever existed.

That way, it will continue to count towards your credit score, but it won’t be detrimental to it!