I thought I'd heard it all when it comes to the
crafty ways that credit card companies try to stick
you with higher fees and interest rates. Now I've
just learned of yet another trap to beware of: The
"universal default" clause. Say you have a few
credit cards that you keep balances on, and you are
trying your best to pay as much as you can each
month. Then say you're on vacation and end up being
more than 30 days late in paying one of the credit
card bills, but you've been able to keep up with the
other ones. The interest rate on ALL of your credit
cards could spike up to more than 20 percent as a
result of being late on just one of the cards. This
could be a result of the "universal default" clause
written into the fine print of many credit card
agreements. The lesson: Don't be late on even one
credit card bill, or your credit score could be
ruined. Read about this and other credit card traps
to watch out for in these two articles on
www.bankrate.com:

www.bankrate.com/brm/news/creditmanagement/20040120a1.asp
and
www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20021106a.asp