"I was in pretty deep and paid a lot of interest."
I feel for you, I was there myself up until about six years ago, at which point I did cut them all up, except for one, with zero balance. The way things are going with insider jobs, though, I'm not in the clear anymore than anybody else is, as far as ID theft and fraud. Makes me want to turn into my grandfather and shove all my savings under a mattress, in cash, LOL.
I cut up the credit cards about 3 years ago. Didn't even deal with bank for a about the same time. I decided to open an account for convenience not too long ago, and I have to tell you, I worried far less about my money when I was keeping it all in cash. Now I'm nervous every time I go to check my account balance, fearing that someone will have hacked in and cleaned me out. Used to be I pretty much trusted that the money that was in the bank was secure. Now, I don't trust it at all.