Trying to improve FICO score. Does it discriminate against credit card debt?

I want to buy a house next year so for the time being, I am trying to pay down debts and improve my FICO score. Right now it is at 714. I have $10,000 in credit card debt that carries a 5.99% interest rate on it. I also have recently bought a car and we owe $35,000 on it at a interest rate of 9%. I have $2000 a month left over to pay down debt after paying all bills and putting a little on the side for savings. Common sense tells me that the smartest thing to do would be to add the extra money towards my principal of my car payment since the interest rate is higher than the credit card rate. My goal though to to improve my FICO score as much as possible. In the FICO score calculation, does credit card debts vs. car loan debt matter at all? Will I improve my score more by paying down credit cards or vise versa? Please, no life lessons on debt or other strategies. Just need this answered. Thanks a lot for some of these answers. It is mentioned that anything over 30% hurts your score. Is that 30% figure on a per card basis or overall total credit figures for all cards combined? I have used $10,000 of my $52,724 total credit available for use. SO still pay the credit card first if I am under 30%?

Public Comments

1. Supposedly your actual-to-available debt ratio plays a big part in the score. I'm not sure how an auto loan is viewed in that context, but I would wipe out the credit card debt first (leave the cards open with zero balances), then pay as much of the auto loan as possible.
2. Pay down the credit card debt. A big part of your score is based on the debt to available credit limits ratio. Anything over 30% of your limit hurts your score. Pay off the credit cards, and you'll see a big jump in your score. You won't see much improvement paying off the car loan -- even if logic says paying off the 9% is smarter than paying the 6%.
3. Your FICO score is considered good right now. Whatever you do, don't miss any payments, they can hit your score hard when you start to miss payments. Your debt to income ratio is also considered by a lender. That is how much debt you are using, how much of your monthly income it uses up and how much is left over for a mortgage, insur, tax, payment. You didn't share how much of the credit card available credit is remaining. If that account is above 50% (that would mean your credit card has a max avail credit of over $20,000) then you should pay down that credit card before messing with the automobile principal payments. More considerations and credit score factors are listed here
4. You actually have a pretty decent credit score. The car loan won't do much to your credit unless you miss payments or make late payments. Not knowing what your credit limit is on your credit card(s) the best way to improve your score is to reduce the balance so it is roughly 1/3 the available credit.
5. Use the $2000 to pay down the credit cards. While you already are using less than 30% of your available credit, a second factor is debt-to-income, and unsecured debt hits harder than a car note. With car payments, FICO wants to see that you're making your payments on time. No more, no less. With credit cards, they want to see if you're running up credit or paying them down. EDIT: On second thought, you'll get a lower interest rate if you have the 20% down payment for the house.
6. There is already some pretty good answers, I just wanted to add a few things. FICO looks at utilization in two different ways. It looks at overall utilization and it also looks at individual card utilization. FICO's scoring system for credit card utilization goes by increments of 10%. 0%-10% will give you better scores than 11%-20% (and so on) Every 10% increment could mean a point, or more, lower in credit scores which could mean a point or more higher in interest on new credit. FICO also likes to see usage. If a person has, for example, 7 credit cards then FICO would prefer to see small balances spread over 2 or 3 cards rather than - All cards at a zero balance, all cards having balances, having large balances on some or all cards, having a large balance on one card with a zero balance on the other cards. I'm not saying someone should run out and make large purchases. Simply making a small purchase (i.e. a hamburger from McDonalds $1 menu) and paying after the statement cuts is more than enough to keep FICO happy. Like the others said, keeping your utilization (overall and individual) at 30% or less is great for an average day. But when you start house hunting it would be in your best interests to keep your credit card utilization at 10% or less. It would also be in your best interest to not apply for any type of credit at least 6 months before you begin house hunting.