My first statement on Zync cut around the 11th and it reported to EQ around the 17th. I get a SW alert and my score went down about 20 points. The date opened on account is 9/1/93 and the balance was $1053. Nothing else changed with report. I thought utilization on charge cards wasnt factored?
Second question: Should I treat the charge card like my normal CC and just PIF the day before the statement cut date?
@Duncanrr wrote:My first statement on Zync cut around the 11th and it reported to EQ around the 17th. I get a SW alert and my score went down about 20 points. The date opened on account is 9/1/93 and the balance was $1053. Nothing else changed with report. I thought utilization on charge cards wasnt factored?
Second question: Should I treat the charge card like my normal CC and just PIF the day before the statement cut date?
With everything after '98 scoring models I believe it is, a balance on a charge card doesn't count into your util, so you don't really need to worry about it. I would just pay by the please pay by date 
Well this month I'll run about 7k-10k through the card (which will be 3x more than what I plan to run through normally). Ive already called AMEX and notified them of this irregular charging and the reason for it (relates to home repairs from storm damage and CSR gave me blessing to charge away 
I luv AMEX). This should setup a pretty high max balance so even if factored into score my normal charging will not be too bad compared to this high water point.
@Duncanrr wrote:Well this month I'll run about 7k-10k through the card (which will be 3x more than what I plan to run through normally). Ive already called AMEX and notified them of this irregular charging and the reason for it (relates to home repairs from storm damage and CSR gave me blessing to charge away
EQ Beacon 5.0 (found here and used for Scorewatch) doesn't care. This almost certainly wasn't the cause, even though the timing is coincidental. You do have a non-trivial number of recent successful apps, and all that implies, I personally experienced a drop when I did this of more than 20 points, so depending on what reported when (and where the inquiries landed) I suspect it was for reasons other than the charge card utilization.
I guess I'll see, I have a 2500 balance reporting soon on my baby Zync, if I get a marked drop from last month either the new account penalty was huge (and I won't have an AAoA drop and the inquiry didn't land on EQ) then it might support your theory as my report is pretty constant from last month to this month.
The only thing I can think of is that my AAoA may had gone from 10.1 to 9.9. Is there a special signficance, scorewise, to an AAoA over 10 years?
@Cdnewmanpac wrote:While it may not count towards utilization, it does count as a card reporting a balance. We all focus on utilization here, but utilization is only part of the "use of credit" and having more than one card reporting a balance can lower your score all by itself.
True. I think I may just pay it off like all my other CC's, i.e. 1 or 2 days before statement cut date. I can just put it in the rotation of which card I let report as balance. I pulled USAA today and can confirm my Utilization on EQ is 9.9 now 
Experian
Total Accounts: 30
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.2 Years
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.2 Years
Average Account Age: 10.7 Years
Equifax
Total Accounts: 30
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.1 Years
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.1 Years
Average Account Age: 9.9 Years
TransUnion
Total Accounts: 30
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.1 Years
Accounts Oldest Account Age: 19.1 Years
Average Account Age: 10.1 Years