If you've had a credit card for more than three months you've likely been solicited to sign up for a payment protection plan. The benefits of these plans vary among card issuers, but in most cases, if you experience a qualifying event such as a job loss, the issuer will make your minimum payments and suspend any finance charges. I've always seen these plans as a rip-off but given the recent layoffs and down-sizings, I began to wonder if they make sense in certain situations.

Specifically, is it worth it to sign up for payment protection services if you know there is a strong likelihood that you will lose your job in the next few months? After looking into the protection programs from several of the most popular card issuers I came to a surprising conclusion: Based on the low cost of subscribing to these protection services on a short term basis, it is likely worth signing up if you believe your job will be gone somewhere between 30 and 90 days from now.