Hey all, I mentioned in this thread http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Extreme-Rebucketing-Effects-757-to-690-on... a while back that since I'm reaching 4 years of account history, I would keep tabs on my accounts and score from EQ like the OP to see what happens.
Just wanted to show the score boost I got, even with an inq on file. Yes, yes, so I broke the scientific method and added a inquiry and soon to be new account while performing my experiment :X shame on me, but i was on a success high that day and had a good offer for the IT so I had to jump 
Not to mention at least now i'll have a TU score as well to compare with.
Score was pulled today, inq was fresh out of the oven on the 21st. Although my ratio of cards reporting $0 balances is much lower, I never saw much of a score jump like this before when I played the util game; i was always stuck in the 720s or 730s. Even my CK FAKO jumped today, although take that with a grain of salt. I noticed this jump because my AAoA reached 2 years 6 months. Newest account is 7 months old.
Will keep updating and post again once I hit the 4 year mark to see if it causes a rebucket...it would be doubly interesting since a new account is going to be added during that timeframe too. Hoping to stay above 720 land for a new car toward the end of June.
| Month | AAoA | Oldest Acct (years) | Ratio of Rep:Total # Cards | Overall Util on Cards | Inquiry #1 Age | Inquiry #2 Age | Inquiry #3 Age | Loan Amount, Deferred | Overall Debt to Credit Ratio | Card #1 Util | Card #2 Util | Card #3 Util | Card #4 Util | Card #5 Util | Card #6 Util | Card #7 Util | FICO |
| February | 2 years 4 months | 3 years 8 months | 5:7 | 5.67075038284839% | 1 year 1 month | 11 months | $25,770 | 32.310989010989% | 8.396% | 5.6% | 0% | 2.71% | 9.68% | 5.875% | 0% | 738 | |
| March | 2 years 5 months | 3 years 9 months | 5:7 | 4.736600306279% | 1 year 2 months | 1 year | $25,744 | 31.6736962347876% | 7.592% | 1.59% | 0% | 4.97% | 6.56% | 5.875% | 0% | 742 | |
| April | 2 years 6 months | 3 years 10 months | 2:7 | 4.20367534456355% | 1 year 3 months | 1 year 1 month | <1 month | $23,511 | 29.5639053720823% | 8.888% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 6.9733% | 0% | 0% | 751 |
I kinda doubt think the 4 years history on the oldest tradeline made much difference, certainly not to the extent you saw.
1) You're likely higher FICO than you ever have been previously, and moving out of a utilization tier is rather a big deal: higher score, bigger swings for dings
2) Your percentage of cards reporting a balance did change: 5 is more than half, that's a non-trivial negative at your score range too.
See about letting something north of 30% report again on your cards, see how it reacts to try to isolate that variable, then if you want to get really cute, go back to 29% but put the cards reporting at 5. That'll provide a little more validity in terms of what's what.
Thank you for being willing to test this sort of thing 
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