<prompt> Human: Long story short, I am starting medical school next week and am planning on using student loans to pay for living expenses. However, I have had to pay for a security deposit and two months rent without an income which burned through my emergency fund pretty quickly. I charged the latest payment of rent through a credit card and now my credit card is at roughly 180 utilization. I currently have enough money in my checking account read: emergency fund to bring this value down to about 110 overutilization before the closing date of my billing cycle. Should I pay this amount or should I hold onto the cash for emergencies since I will be overutilized anyways?Also, the closing date of the billing cycle is the same day that the student loans are supposed to be dispersed... should I request a new due date for my credit card? Or since credit scores have no memory of utilization, does it matter at all since I can pay the balance in full after my loans come through?Thanks so much for your advice.  <response>: Utilization is a part of credit score but nobody knows that formula to know if it calcs beyond 100. Or if it calcs 180 versus 110. Either way your score is being negatively impacted from the high utilization. Are you planning on applying for credit in the near future? If not, then it fluctuations really dont matter. Let your score be what it wants. It will come back up after you payoff in full. You should only worry about keeping your utilizing down and your score up just before applying for credit. 