Pay off Car first or 0% Interested Credit Card?

[bodine1231]

Over the past 6 months I've managed to pay off all my credit card debt ($10,000+) except one credit card and my car loan. I owe $3000 on my cc,however it is at 0% interest for the next 11 months and $20,000 on my car at 4.5%.  After budgeting I have $1000 to throw at paying these off. 

Would it be best to take advantage of the 0% and pay $300 for the next 10 months and the extra $700 at the car? Or pay the card off in three months then focus on the car or vica versa?  

[StillKicking]

 If it were me, I'd stick with the plan and pay the card off. Then if you plan to keep the car, you can pay that $1000 towards the car and pay it off early.

Just my 2 cents.

[RSX]

^ agreed

then the CC is available for use if needed. Plus it is the smaller amount, so it will be fully gone in only 3 months. 

Use the money in Dec to pay cash for all Xmas stuff.  

Then start adding the extra to the car in Jan

[RobertEG]

The auto loan is an installment account, and does not factor into your % util scoring.

Paying down the credit card will improve (lower) your % util, and thus have more scoring impact.

If immediate score improvement is a primary consideration, such as you are likely to be apping for new credit in the near future, then paying down the credit card would likely make more immediate sense.

Keeping the installment loan open may also improve your mix of credit scoring, depending upon what other installment loans you have.

The side issue is the unknown issue or whether or not you are likely to pay off the credit card debt withing the next 11 months remaining in the 0% APR period.  If you do, then you will pay no interest.  The credit card company is betting that you dont, and when the zero interest period expires, then the interest rate reverts to the full, regular account APR, which is much higher than the 4.5% rate on the auto loan.