Is this 33 point jump normal?

[VinnyVee]

So I have 3 store cards and 1 credit card with Capital One. Last month I had a $25 balance report on one of my store cards, and a $1 balance report on my Capital One. With  $1400 in revolving credit ($2k on equifax). $26 out of at least $1400 on each bureau is roughly 2% utilization. This month only my Capital One is reporting a balance of $2, with my other cards reporting a balance of 0. Granted, I know that utilization factors in about 30% of your score... but I was completely surprised when my score on Score Watch jumped from from 639 to 672. Does small reporting on various cards really make THAT much of a difference?

Needless to say I'm not complaining too much. All in all that puts me at roughly 130 points in the positive since I started rebuilding in October 2013.

[fused]

Congrats!

Many of us gain some points from going from multiple CC's reporting a balance to one CC reporting a balance (1-9% util). I think a 33 point gain in your situation is a bit high. Many have reported gains of 5 to maybe 15 points with a change similar to yours. A few might even get a 20 point gain, but that's a bit unusual. Are you sure there weren't any other positive changes on your EQ reports? An old late fall off of your report? Baddie(s) aging?

[VinnyVee]

Well looking at my Equifax, it looks like an inquiry hit the year mark on July 31st, but I thought inquires just kinda diminish over time. Other than that I've had no late or missed payments. Just one last collection that aged another month, but that's not due to fall off for another year and a half.

[fused]

In the past, I used to lose about 8 points for one hard inq. After one year, I would get the 8 points back. So, for example, even if you got 8 points back  from the inq going away, that still leaves 25 points. 25 points is a lot for having one CC reporting a small balance instead of two. As you can see FICO Scoring has a TON of moving parts. Now that we're working with FICO 08, it's almost like we're all new to FICO Scoring. I have a pretty darn good understanding of how the FICO 98 and 04 formulas work, but I have quite a ways to go with the FICO 08 formula.