<prompt> Human: I have a 500 credit limit card and I maxed it out for my computer. I had enough cash to spend 500, I just like using credit because then I can get two more paychecks before I pay it off.Well my credit score is dropping because I keep maxing the card, even though I pay it back in full at the end of the month. Why is that bad? What if I maxed it out, but payed it off 2 weeks before the balance was due?Does that have the same effect?  <response>: If you want to reduce your credit impact, you want to pay a significant part of the outstanding charges before the day the statement is generated. It can be just one day before. That way you will have had up to several weeks of cash float, but wont show as using your available credit, since the status is typically reported when the statement is generated. 