The ?skip-payment? option is quickly becoming a marketing tool for credit card lenders. It was often available to cardholders who called the credit card company to express concern over making a payment; but now it's become something that's literally offered to cardholders by the credit card lenders themselves.

You may start noticing offers in your mailbox, or even receive a phone call from your credit card company, asking you if you'd like to skip a monthly payment.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Having a break from one of your financial obligations? What the credit card company doesn't voluntarily tell you when giving you the option to skip a payment is how much it's going to end up costing you to skip it. If you are at all tempted to take them up on the offer, make sure you ask questions to find out exactly how much skipping the payment will cost you- both immediately and over the long term.

Basically, the skip payment offers are giving you the opportunity to accrue more interest, and sometimes- a fee. If you took advantage of the offer and decided to skip a payment, when you got your statement the following month your balance will be higher- even if you didn't charge anything that month.

Here is what the Skip-payment offer really does for you:

Possible service fee of $25 or $35 (sort of like what you'd be charged if you were late with a payment!) Then, accrued interest is added to your balance. Extra interest may cause the number of months required to pay off your balance to be increased.

If your credit card has a current balance of about $5,000, has a 12% interest rate, and you are paying $100 to the account each month- you can expect to pay $199 to skip your $100 payment. You would be extending the time it takes to pay off the account and your interest costs are increased. If the card company requires a service fee to skip the monthly payment, you'd have to add that to the total cost of skipping the payment, as well.

Still think it sounds good to skip a payment?

The only instance that it would make sense to even consider the skip a payment option would be if you are in a financially dire situation. If you have lost your job, had unexpected medical, vehicle, or necessary expenses of any kind- and if the amount you are paying to skip the payment is less than what your minimum payment would be. You'd also avoid having a hit to your credit report if you weren't able to make the payment (without using the skip-payment offer).

If you do take the credit company up on their offer to skip a payment, make sure that you are serious afterwards about paying more than your minimum amount due. Doing this will help you get caught back up and eliminate some of the fees you'd pay over the long term.