I recently cam across an article on the US version of yahoo finance talking about "universal default clause", this basically says that if you default on any of your credit commitments (utility bills, mobile phone bill, loans, overdrafts etc.) then your credit card company can increase your interest rate. They do this by monitoring your credit file.

Apparently in the US when you sign for a credit card there is sometimes the "universal default clause" in the T&C's

Does this exist in the UK and if not, could the credit card companies introduce this?

link to the article

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/millionaire/26303