Hey all !!! So last week, a very old, distant great aunt passed away back East -- and it turns out I was bequeathed (as were all of her nieces/nephews) $15,000 ! She was 94, and lived a beautiful life, very wealthy and always very generous - there are over 20 of us all. Now, I have been wanting to own my car free and clear for a year now, just to "not have an auto loan" and own my car outright. I have the loan with PenFed and $10,500 remaining on the car -- 2011 model car is worth about 18-$20k according to KBB Real time. Initial loan was for $28k, back in 2013 with SANTANDER the interest killers (went from 19% interest to 2% with PENFED!) I usually make double payments each month as it is on the auto loan.
Now, I am carrying some balances on CC, most if not all BT 0% Promos -- about $10,000 now after a recent $5k paydown and some refurbs expenditures. So, do I throw most of this cash at the CC debt, or pay off my auto loan and put the remaining in savings or pay down CCs. My overall UTIL now is 23% according to myFico, and scores all hovering high 600s-low 700s. I know that paying off my CC will help scores go up even more whereas paying my auto loan in FULL may or may not ?? (I will still have MANY installment loans, as I have a lot of student loans) so it should not overly affect my Installment loan scoring if i Pay it off.
Is it best to simply pay off the car since I have the extra cash to do so? The idea of owning my car outright is bliss, but then so is less CC debt .... I can not decide !! I need some FRIENDLY Expert opinions 
Promise you will be in a good mood and not get emotional when opinions start trickling in
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That being said, since you have some 0% offers now, ride those out and pay down the car loan to a small amount. The reason being you still want a loan reporting for credit maximization purposes. Unless you don't care about it and want to own the car outright, then pay of the car and save the rest of the money.
Once the 0% offers expire, pay the credit cards off...
How long until the CC 0% wears off?
Yes-its-me lol!!!
Im in a good mood, I always am !! as mentioned, I have many open installment loans -- student loans from nursing school. dont those count the same as auto loan in terms of installment loan weight? ?
The 0% promos mainly just started becasue I BT most of my business over to PenFed, many many cards have $0 balances -- good until next March I believe.
I am definitely tempted to pay off the auto loan in full and get that TITLE But i do not want to take a FICO hit for it either.... hmmmmmmm
Not sure of your CC promo's. If you didn't have the CC debt. I'd say take that $15k with an additional $5k I know you probably have laying around. Lol
Open a Rewards Checking account with Consumers Credit Union or something similar. Draw $76 a month from using the account. Continue to make your car payments as usual.
You'll earn nearly $1000 a year using the checking account. Which offsets the $9 a month you pay in interest on your car loan.
Now considering $10k in CC debt. I'd probably just pay that off and be done with it.
Open a Rewards Checking account with Consumers Credit Union or something similar. Draw $76 a month from using the account. Continue to make your car payments as usual.
You'll earn nearly $1000 a year using the checking account. Which offsets the $9 a month you pay in interest on your car loan.
Now considering $10k in CC debt. I'd probably just pay that off and be done with it.
@Anonymous wrote:Yes-its-me lol!!!
Im in a good mood, I always am !! as mentioned, I have many open installment loans -- student loans from nursing school. dont those count the same as auto loan in terms of installment loan weight? ?
The 0% promos mainly just started becasue I BT most of my business over to PenFed, many many cards have $0 balances -- good until next March I believe.
I am definitely tempted to pay off the auto loan in full and get that TITLE
If you have other loans then no need to worry as those offsets it.