Things that can lower your credit score?

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.) Department store card applications? yes/no

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applications, yes. Cards, debatable.

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2.) Credit score inquiries? yes/no

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Depends on the number in the last 2 years. Too many will hurt your score, just no one knows how many

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3.) Too many credit cards? If so, what is the threshold?

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No concrete number. The better issue is the amount of available credit on those cards.

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4.) Others?

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The older the credit line the better

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4.) Other

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Balance to limit ratio's. Card's that have balances with 50% or more of the limit used really hurt your score. Keeping them below 50%, usually around 30%, reflects positively and boosts your score.

Also, the length of time you have had credit. Paying off an older card and closing out the account or having the creditor close out the account reflects negatively.

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Getting a divorce used to lower a person's credit score but I don't know if that is still the case.

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This is the case if its a joint account or someone is an authorized user on the others card and they decide to stop making payments and/or max out the card.

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Getting a divorce used to lower a person's credit score but I don't know if that is still the case.

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My ex-wife's went down and mine went up. She was holding a shitload of credit card debt.

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1.) Department store card applications? yes/no
2.) Credit score inquiries? yes/no

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These are related since applying for the cards is a hard pull which is what hurts your score if you have too many. Pulling your own score has ZERO effect on your score though since its a soft pull. Hard Pulls will stay on your report for 2 years. If you have further questions I recommend looking at the forums on myfico.com

Thanks to all...good info.