put my money toward credit cards and increase my credit rating or put my money toward a high interest car loan?

To boost your score and get in a better position to buy a home you should pay off the credit cards first no doubt.

By lowering your debt to credit ratio which makes up a full 30% of your score you will be in a much better position to qualify for a home loan, the closer you can get your balances to $0 the better but at the very least get your balances below 30% of your total credit limit.

Everyone has to have a vehicle and the payment history on that loan will help you also.

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An installment loan may improve your credit score. Installments have a finite end when with credit cards you are only limited by the amount of credit you have available.On the other hand late payments on installment loans are the worse, because you already know you have that debt so you can't say you forget to pay or didn't realize it was due.The amount you owe on all accounts is 30% in the calculation of your credit score. Pay off your credit cards first, the big consideration with ccs as far as your credit score, is your payment history and how long you've had the cards. Before you decide to pay ahead on your car loan, make sure your lender will allow principal payments only in addition to your normal payments only. Making prinicpal means less of your payment is going to interest. If you just pay ahead you are not saving any money.

The rule of thumb is usually to pay off debt if the interest rate on that debt is less than the interest rate you could expect to receive by investing the money. Since interest rates are very low right now, I would say it is probably best to pay down the debt with the highest interest rates. However, with the way the economy is now and with you expecting a child, there is a certain premium associated with having some cash available. If you already have some cash saved up for a rainy day (about 3 - 6 months of living expenses worth) then I would say to go ahead and pay down debt, otherwise, it might be a better idea to save taht money in case something unexpected happens. Hope this helps.

car notes are expected and legitimate credit. If I was you I would pay down the credit cards first. Start with your highest interest card first. Apply everything extra to that card first, then go on to the next highest interest card until that's paid off, so on and so forth then tackle the car note. Even though you have such a high rate it won't drag your score down as much as credit card debt.

If you need to buy a new house soon, you need to pay off your credit cards to 0 anyway.

Any amount of revolving credit will directly reduce the amount of monthly mortgage payments you will qualify for.

Car loans are installment loans - not as bad on your report.

Do not close any old credit cards before buying your house, this will reduce your available credit overall.

Do not open any new credit cards 6 months before applying for mortgages.

This is considered new credit.

If you need a car - you need a car, not much you can do about that.

I bought a new Nissan Versa for 9,900 - they are giving them away.

If you can, consider buying your car, after you buy the house.

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If you already have the car, your best bet is to pay the higher interest item. Also control your spending of your CC also. This way even if your just making the minimum payments the balance will go down. After the minimum payment for both, I would spend whatever extra dollars you have 80/20. 80% towards the car (assuming that's the higher interest rate) and 20% towards the CC.