Credit limits aren’t meant to be reached. In fact, you should avoid maxing out your card at all costs, because doing so can bring serious consequences, from a marred credit score to penalty interest rates. Your credit score will drop. Maxing out your credit card results in a high credit utilization ratio, which, in turn, can hurt your credit score. Your credit utilization ratio is the amount of credit you’re using on your cards to the amount of credit you have available (both on individual cards and overall).