I had an interesting experience today at Macy's. I was buying an expensive travel bag and the clerk offered a 15% discount if I opened a charge card. So I said ok. They tried to run it but their bank rejected me! That was a real surprise because my FICO is over 800. So I told the clerk I didn't want to buy the bag if there was no discount. She tried to find out why my credit application was rejected but they wouldn't tell her.
So the upshot is that she gave me the discount anyway! I guess haggling over price at dept stores is now part of the American shopping experience.
Then at home I checked my credit report with Equifax. FICO is still over 800. But now they figure your debt to credit ratio by including your mortgage balance. Is that a new twist? Now my ratio is 91% and that apparently is not looking good to Macy's.
Both my bank credit cards recently lowered my available credit lines by 50% so that has definitely affected the ratio.
But I just refinanced my mortgage in April and my bank obviously thought my credit was good. But apparently Macy's thinks I'm a deadbeat even though I pay all my bills on time, never carry a balance, and have never had a late payment on ANYTHING. 
The only thing I can think of that might be another factor is if the Macy's bank is Citibank. I recently closed a J.jill card from Citi because they kept charging me little fees for no reason. I also sent them a "scr*w you" message along with the cut-up charge card. So they probably don't like me anymore 
Suze Orman gave some advice recently to up your FICO score by getting another bank credit card. But if the banks are looking at the debt to credit ratio and that includes your mortgage there's nothing I can do about that.
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