Financing a new car purchase soon, should I consolidate my remaining credit card debt?

[JonIrenicus]

Hello,

I am about to finance a new car purchase by the end of next month, and I need some advice.  I have about 4600 dollars left on a couple of credit cards, my total utilization is about 63% of my total credit available on the cards. (average card interest = 20%)

Would it be a good idea to get a loan to finance that debt at a lower interest rate for a 3 year loan term to drop my credit utilization to around 1% before I apply for a new car loan?

Negatives that I can think of:

-another hard credit check to register aside from the 1-2 that will register for the auto loan (not sure how many can occur before it places a mark on your score.

Positives I can think of:

+lowers credit utilization and close to credit limit penalties on my cards to almost zero (would keep at least 1% limit on the cards to avoid the total open credit penalty)

+current fico score is around 706, with that consolidation and the drop from 63% to 1% utilization, my score would likely increase, this could in turn lead to even better financing.

Any thoughts on whether this path is good or not?

[Dustink]

A new loan will raise your DTI. As long as your income is high, then it won't be a problem for the auto loan.

Though, my recommendation would be to pay off the cards and not get a loan to pay them off. If you can't afford to pay off your credit cards each month. You can't afford to get a new vehicle. Get the cards paid off, then get in the cycle of paying in full each month. Once you are in that cycle and you have built up a good downpayment. Then go out and get a car you need.