<prompt> Human: For context, Im 23 and just finished my Masters degree and in March my credit score was 780. Ive always paid off my credit card balance on time and in full I have never paid a cent of interest.About 6 months ago I opened a new credit card, which was only my second credit card account, and the first in the past 2 years. My thinking was that outside of simply having a better rewards program and increasing my overall available credit, Id easily and instantly qualify for the 150 bonus cash back for spending enough in the first 3 months when I made my planned 4,500 payment for summer tuition I utilized no student loans for my final semester. I had plenty of funds in the bank to cover the payment in full when it became due, and figured that while I might take a short-term hit on my credit report due to high credit utilization, that itd go back up almost instantly when I paid it off in full, without interest, the following month. This was based on my own understanding and affirmed by articles like this from NerdWallet along with others I read before doing this that stated that prior high balances are unimportant.In reality, while my credit card did expectedly fall sharply initially to 670 immediately after paying that 4,500, it has only come back up to the 710-720 range after I made the payment and has basically been stuck for the past 4-5 months now and Im not sure why. Ive continued making on-time full balance due payment on both of my cards and have also even already started making student loan payments 5 months ahead of schedule. I havent changed the amount that I use my credit cards in general and feel that if anything, the extra credit thats now available to me would be lowering my utilization. I know that opening a new accounthaving inquiries does have some effect on the credit score, but Ive only seen them listed as less important factors and I only have 1 of each in the past 2 years.So essentially what Im wondering is if Im simply mistaken and misunderstood how the credit utilization andor inquiriesnew account factor effect score or if theres actually something potentially wrong here. Any feedback would be helpful and Id be happy to answer any questions. Thanks.  <response>: You are right. Credit utilization has no memory. The issue here is that you lowered your average age and you have a hard inquiry. Eventually your credit will go back to 780 or so again. From personal experience I noticed that FICO scores are less sensitive than what you get on CreditKarma. Your FICO may be 760 while your vantagescore gives a higher weight on the new account damage. 