<prompt> Human: I just got my first credit card a few months ago and naturally, having no real credit history, I was given a very low credit line of only 1500. I would like to charge more than 45030 utilization a month. If Im spending money, I might as well get some cash back rewards for it.I know I should probably just open another line of credit and spread my balances out. I could also probably benefit from a different rewards card, but Id rather wait til my credit score goes up and I can get a better card Citi Doublecash. Like I said, I have only had my Chase Freedom card for a few months, so I dont think it would be wise to ask for an increase in my line of credit yet.I do not carry a balance from month to month; I pay my card off every month. I am wondering if it is an okay idea to just make multiple payments to keep my utilization under 30 for the month. How will this affect my credit score? Does it matter?Assistant: It sounds like you understand all the issues. You can prepay to bring the utilization ratio down, but this is only strictly relevant just before really needing a credit score. It sounds, though, like you have a second motivation for prepaying. Namely, you want to free up the line of credit again so that you can continue to rack up rewards by using the card when it is advantageous to do so. I think that sounds rational, as long as you can easily make the payments you need to in order to pull this off.The credit card issuer loves users like you, because they make a considerable amount of profit from the charges they impose on merchants with each transaction. Indeed, this is why they can afford to return some of that revenue to you in the form of the rewards.Human: Do you mind explaining why this is only relevant before an upcoming credit inquiry? I think I am now understanding that the 30 utilization rule only applies to balances carried from month to month. So as long as I pay off the card at the end of the month, the amount of utilization does not matter? If this is the case, why might I really only care about this before an inquiry? Do they look at your activity closer at that time?  <response>: Utilization isnt about balances carried month to month. Its just statement balance divided by credit limit. I am not absolutely certain the balance used is the one at time of statement generation. But I do know that the utilization info is not tracked within credit report; there is no history of what your past utilization was, even the previous months. So credit bureaus that create a score for you dont incorporate history of utilization into their score. They do incorporate history of on-time payments. So people are saying that you neednt obsess about your utilization until just before you are going to need a hard pull, because it will only be the most recent utilization value that will be visible.That said, there is no harm in your taking steps to keep your utilization low every month. But its not going to be significant to do so. 