oinkus

regarding your mpg, when I read your first post, I knew right away you were calculating your mpg incorrectly.

22.5 gal is max capacity of your fuel tank. your gas light comes on early to warn you so you wont run out of gas when you drive. there's a reserve.

so next time you pump gas, reset your trip odometer to zero. drive until your gaslight is on. pump gas. record how much gas you just put in. take mileage from trip odometer and divide by how many gallons you just put in.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

glad to hear that before you even think of purchasing anything else!

there's nothing amazing about interest, or 'no penalty apr' - you're getting screwed either way if you pay interest. think of it this way - imagine you got a 20% sales tax added to everything. how's that feel? that's what you're doing (even worse right now).

i say you plan on living with NO balances on your card(s) for 6 months, and start saving!

Raralith

Not sure what your method is called, but I hope you are just paying the most you can on your highest interest rate and minimums on those that aren't. You'll eventually pay off the highest and than you'll have a new highest to focus on.

Don't cancel your credit cards as this is going to hurt your credit even more. Firstly, 15% of your credit score is based on the longevity of your credit history. I have a credit card that my mother got me in my name, but under her account (so she was liable if I missed payments) simply so I could start having a record. I bought her gas with it and nothing else, she would call the credit card company annually, and get my maximum raised.

The maximums lead to the second point, your total available limit (adding all your credit card limits together) and the total used is 30% of your credit score. Let's just assume that you have 5 credit cards with $5k limits on each - your total credit limit is $25k (5 credit cards * $5k limit each). Let's say you owe $4k on each credit card so your total debt is $20k with a debt to credit ratio of 80%. If you paid off 2 cards, and cancelled 2 cards, you would have a limit of $15k (3 credit cards * $5k limit), have debt of $12k (3 credit cards * $4k owed), and your final debt to credit ratio is still a crazy high 80%. In this situation, the best thing to do is to pay off the 2 cards, and keep all 5 so now you still have a total credit limit of $25k, your debt is now 12k, and your new debt to credit ratio is now 48%. This is also why you should ask for your credit card to raise your maximums, and from my experience, I've never hard a hard pull on my credit from Bank of America or Chase because they use internal records since I've got quite a history with them. In a very basic sense (skipping the complications), this ratio is what will make or break you assuming you pay your credit card on time and with at least the minimums (35% of your score).

Lastly, don't get another credit card if your purpose is to improve your credit. Another credit card hurts your score because you are getting a hard pull on credit history (10% of credit score), you'll worsen your average card history (15% of credit score), and honstly, your credit score is so ****ty that they will either deny you or give you an absolutely terrible credit limit. This also means that while you can theortically get a better interest rate (if they even give you a card), your limit would be hiliariously low that you would hit the limit in a few months.

ArmyofOne

I say sell the LS for 3-4k, buy a 95 Honda Civic with the money and get another lexus in a few years...if you are worried about gas right now, this is the only thing that makes sense.