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.

Despite the relative risk aversion most people associate with renting a house, the ever rising number of foreclosures has been hurting tenants, sometimes even harder than landlords. In most cases the tenants don't even know that the landlord has been failing to make payment until they receive the foreclosure or eviction notice on their front door. From there, the renter's rights vary from state to state with the protections generally being lackluster. To top off the need to quickly find a new place to stay as the bank takes ownership, many tenants are also out a month's rent and the security deposit.

One renter in Virginia lost $1,200 when her landlord was foreclosed on; a hardship which coupled with the loss of her roommate and access to transportation has left her 6 months pregnant living in a homeless shelter. Some states do provide protections which will allow the renters to pay the bank and live in the home until the new owner moves in but the extra time for tenants isn't usually long enough. In some other areas legal aides actually recommend living in the home rent free while the foreclosure process is completed in order to build up enough money for a new rental. No matter where you live the protections for renters from indiscriminate landlords are not good enough.

The House passed a measure last year which would afford more protection to renters in foreclosure cases but the measure hasn't yet been put into place. Congress needs to stop wasting time with credit card interchange fees and baseball steroid scandals and get on to passing something which I think we can all agree protects consumers. In these cases the foreclosures are especially sad because the displaced renters aren't the irresponsible ones; they have paid their rent and made the smart decision to not buy a home they cannot afford. Congress, quit carrying on about an energy plan for one day, leave your fly fishing trip early and get some protections passed. It'd be great if for once we could reward those individuals who made good decisions when it comes to housing.

Over the past weekend it was announced that IndyMac was being taken over by the FDIC after customers began a run on the bank, which had denied any solvency issues. Many customers had their life savings in the bank, whose accounts are protected by the FDIC, but not all of their funds were insured. In one instance a man had been told if he simply added the names of several relatives to his account the insurance amount would be increased to cover his deposits of over $300,000. Instead he found out that initially the FDIC will fully cover the insured funds but only cover uninsured deposits to the tune of 50%.

Hopefully things will work out for everyone -- even those whose accounts went over the insured limit. If you have over the insured amount in your current bank account I highly suggest you take the needed steps to make sure you are fully insured. This could be creating a joint account with your spouse to gain coverage up to $200,000 or it could be creating several trusts for your children in order to gain the protection they are entitled to as beneficiaries. If neither of these options work, spread out your money at other institutions. As my colleague Zac Bissonnette pointed out recently, most banks are offering the same services these days.

If you have enough money to be over the FDIC limit, you should really spend some time with someone who can provide an expert opinion on keeping your money safe as well as growing it. The FDIC provides an explanation of the protections afforded to different accounts as well as how your protection changes based on the beneficiaries of the accounts. If you are an IndyMac customer the FDIC has also set up a specific site to keep you up to date on the fate of your loans and deposits. While I'm not predicting a huge bank run in the near future, why not take a few minutes to make sure your savings are covered? The FDIC insurance is free so take advantage of it!