How credit card companies capitalize on your FICO freefall

Back in the day, you got a credit card with a certain interest rate, and unless you failed to pay your bill on time, that was that. There was sometimes a clause in your credit card agreement that gave the credit card company the right to adjust your rate at certain intervals. But that was often negotiable, and the people who most often had their rates changed were those who failed to pay their bills on time.

Over the years, the credit card agreements became more restrictive. The companies say this is because bad credit card holders were costing them money, and they were only recovering those costs with higher rates and fees.