**13 Easy Ways Our Team Will Save Over $12K This Year!
New year, new goals, so we’ve rounded up the best ways to save money this year.
We save money for a living!
Our team is dedicated to serving you with the best deals to save you the most money, and we’re just as committed to helping you keep more money in your wallet. Check out the best ways to save money right from our very own Hip2Save team members, and see how much you can save in a year’s time!
1. Krystal found a great hack to think before she buys, and it saved her around $4,800.
Ever want to know how much you really want something? Browse around, fill up your online shopping cart, and give it 24 hours. If you still need it, then purchase it! That’s what my team member Krystal shared with us which is the perfect way to avoid impulse buying.
“I add things in the virtual shopping cart I want and wait a day. If the next day I still want or need the items, I buy them. If not, I remove them from the cart. Whatever I remove from the cart, I never add back in. This trick has saved me hundreds, especially when it comes to makeup!” – Krystal
2. Stacy’s gift closet saves her $700 on presents year-round.
Stacy has an awesome hack that saves her tons of money for Christmas and birthday gifts! She buys things as they’re on sale throughout the year, creates a gift closet, and lets her kiddos pick out what they want on their special day. What a great way to save money and grab tons of gifts the kiddos will love. Score!!!
3. Chelsey paid off her 30-year mortgage in under 10 years and saved $4,000 in interest!
Your home is likely the biggest investment you’ll make in your lifetime. That said, making additional payments, no matter the size can have huge beneficial impacts on paying off your home early. Our Hip teammate Chelsey did this, and she’s now living debt-free!
“We paid off our 30-year mortgage in just under 9 years! We always put extra money that wasn’t budgeted elsewhere towards principle, whether it was $10 or $100, we’d pay as much as we could. Our lender didn’t charge for early payoff and we could make multiple principal payments each month which allowed us to pay it off early and saved us thousands of dollars in interest! – Chelsey
Another idea is to look into refinancing your loan for a lower rate. Then, by changing your mortgage term from 30 years to 15 years, you can save thousands on interest and pay your mortgage off quicker.
“We refinanced after about 2-years in our home to a 15-year mortgage. It ended up being about the same monthly, but we’ll pay it off much faster.” – Stacy
Curious how this could work for your home situation?
On average, the US home market is $272,500 figure at a 10% downpayment, leaving a loan of $245,250, so at a 30-year fixed, you could save roughly $46.2K just by paying an extra $200 on your mortgage and have your home paid off approximately 7.2 years sooner.
If you made bi-weekly payments without that extra $200, you’d save about $26.4K and would pay off your home 4 years earlier. Additionally, you could save $62.7K if you switch to bi-weekly payments in addition to that extra $200 and have your home paid off 10 years sooner. 🤯
Calculate the savings for your specific home scenario using this Mortgage Calculator.
4. I saved $225 on my prescriptions by using PrimeRx.
Thanks to a post we wrote about PrimeRx, I was introduced to the PrimeRx Prescription Card, and now I can’t go back! PrimeRx has rates that are better than other similar services such as GoodRx. I saved $45 on my medication with the same dosage and at the same location!
You can grab a prescription card for free; as long as you’re an Amazon Prime member or part of a Prime household, it’s included in your membership! You can check out more regarding the PrimeRx prescription card savings here!
*Note that select Prime accounts are not eligible for this offer.
Not an Amazon Prime member? Here’s how you can get a 30-day FREE trial, which will include access to your very own PrimeRx card! This is the best way for non-Prime members to see if the PrimeRx card is right for them.
5. Save $100 by growing your own veggies instead of buying them.
Vegetables can be a hassle to buy due to unnecessary markups and quick expiration dates. One team member found a hack and decided to stick veggie scraps from the supermarket in the dirt and grow them herself! This way, she’s able to get an unlimited supply of what she wants and needs at the best price while having easy access to super fresh ingredients!
6. Readers have suggested calling any service provider to ask about the best rates possible.
Readers have been mentioning a straightforward yet effective tip; for ANY provider, including insurance, cable, phone, etc., give them a call and simply ask if you’re getting the best rate,
“I took a class on dealing with confrontation and one thing they suggested was calling your insurance company and saying, ‘Am I getting the best rate?’ They said the worst that happens is you lose 15 minutes, the best is that they can work at a better rate for you, making it a pretty harmless confrontation, but helps people deal with more difficult situations (practice makes perfect and all).
I didn’t save much, but one lady saved over $700 with this homework assignment. She was THRILLED!! So maybe instead of changing insurance, you could ask if you are getting the best rate.” – Cassie
If you’re wondering which streaming services have the best rate, we have a price comparison sheet!
7. Emily saved $150 by using this Amazon Rebate Site.
Emily owes all her savings to Rebaid, which is a site that offers rebates on tons of products and is free to join. Their offers apply to sites including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy. Sometimes, they offer 100% FREE rebates, meaning you basically get your items for free; this is exactly how Emily scored her free items!
For more info on how you can get these rebate checks direct deposit, check out Emily’s full review of her Rebaid experience!
8. I got free gift cards and saved $100 just by snapping pics of my receipts.
Thanks to Fetch Rewards, I was able to grab some gift cards and save big on my purchases just by snapping pics of my recipes from the grocery store and other participating retailers! At first, I thought it was going to take a while to do, but in just a matter of weeks, I was able to rack up thousands of points.
Even better, invite your friends to join the app and you’ll both get thousands of points! It’s well worth the extra thirty seconds to document your savings on this app; they even accept email receipts. Here are some other reasons to try out Fetch Rewards this year.
9. Save up to $660 on your phone bill with a discount carrier.
Phone bills can be one of the biggest financial vacuums we have. As one option, you should check out Visible Wireless! It’s part of Verizon’s network, and it includes unlimited talk, text, and data for as low as $25/month, with the max at just $40/month if you don’t opt for the Party Pay plan.
“I used to use Verizon, and while I loved the coverage, I was paying $80+ per month and wasn’t even getting unlimited data. I switched to Visible and now use their Party Pay feature to get unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot for $25 per month–and that’s it. No hidden fees, taxes, or anything. I’m super happy with the service & saving over $50 per month so I have no plans on going back!” – Visible customer
10. Chelsey has earned some extra cash and items for surveys!
A few of our team members partake in the Pinecone Research side hustle, and we couldn’t recommend it more! The sign-up process is extremely easy, and although you only make $3 per survey, it’s too easy not to sign up for. You may even get some free products, too!
“The surveys come sporadically so you’re not making a ton of money on them but they are super easy to do and generally they take less than 5 minutes. Plus, every survey pays out $3 and some of them will send you free products to test out!
A few months ago, I was able to test out diapers, and I received a HUGE box of diapers to test which was awesome, plus I made $3 for taking the survey.” – Chelsey
11. A few Hip team members downloaded a gas savings app and saved $100.
Thanks to the BPme app, we took advantage of getting $0.05 off per gallon of gas for our cars! Upon signing up, the app will give you an immediate promo code to save big on top of showing you which gas stations in your area are the cheapest. With rising gas prices, this is one of the easiest ways to save money this year!
12. Emily saved $300 by bundling her home and car insurance… and then $1,200 bundling anywhere else possible!
One of the best ways to save money is bundling! Bundling can save you so much more than buying it individually. Not to sound like a commercial, but Emily bundled her car and home insurance with Geico and saved around $300 for the year — I guess that gecko really doesn’t lie in the commercials! 😂 Since then, she’s taken this experience and applied it to pretty much anything she can bundle.
As a result, she’s saving TONS on her internet, cable, and cell phone, too!
“I heavily got into bundling all the things! After saving on my insurance, I took to my home services. My boyfriend wanted to add cable to our internet plan, which was Verizon Fios at the time, but we realized Verizon didn’t offer the channels we specifically wanted. The only streaming service that offered them was DirecTV Stream, and I was not looking to spend $85+ each month!
Instead, I called Spectrum (the biggest competitor to Verizon Fios in our area), found out they had just what we wanted, and bundled our internet, cable, and both of our cell phones — our bill is now $100 LESS PER MONTH than what we would have been paying for all services separately through different providers. That’s a savings of $1,200 per year! 🤯” – Emily
13. I capitalized on credit card rewards programs to save $500.
While credit cards helped me score loads of rewards and cashback, it’s imperative to avoid spending beyond your means. We realize credit cards are not a feasible option for all, especially those trying to stay ahead of debt, but wanted to share this experience if it’s helpful to anyone exploring Amazon Prime Credit or Disney Credit options.
While being on top of my payments, I was grateful for these benefits, especially during the holidays. Every time I paid off one of my credit cards, I was able to get tons of points on Amazon and grab a bunch of my gifts for free!
I also have a Disney Visa, and every time I use it, I get a certain percentage back on a Disney Rewards Card that I can use for any Disney purchase, whether it’s at the store, in the parks, or even Broadway plays! They also give you a $300 credit upon signing up if you spent $1,000 in the first three months.
What clever tactics are you using to save this year?
We bought our home at the height of the housing market back in 2005. Talk about poor timing! After paying and paying our regular mortgage payment for about 8 years, we saw that we had barely even touched the principal (but the lender had earned 100k!). We decided to make extra payments towards the house that day. Extra money always went towards the house, even if it was just a few hundred dollars (and I would bring it to the bank the day that I got it to save as much as possible on the interest – every day counts!). We are now living mortgage-free! My husband lost his job for a while in 2018 and it was very comforting to know that no one would take the house.
So we saved all the interest that the bank would have “earned”….!
Same! We paid off our 30-year mortgage in 8 years and saved $120k in interest. It definitely pays to buy a house that’s cheaper than your affordability limit.
That’s amazing! Good for y’all, I always loving hearing about real people paying off their mortgage. It gives me hope to start making those extra payments. Thanks for sharing!
A Star Hip2Saver is a recognized member of our Hip2Save community hand selected by our team for demonstrating a long history of engagement with helpful & friendly comments across Hip2Save.com and our social channels. Our Star Hip2Saver badge acts as a verification for readers who know the ins and outs of all Hip2Save sets out to accomplish — assisting our community to live extraordinary lives on ordinary budgets. Readers cannot pay or provide any sort of exchange in order to earn this badge. Rather, they are invited to participate by a member of the Hip2Save team and opt to have the Star Hip2Saver badge added to their profile & comments.
US bank will accept as little as $25 extra a month towards the principal. Even small amounts add up. Other banks might as well.
Yes!! It’s SO worth doing, even if just a small amount. We really buckled down the past few years and fingers crossed, if it continues as planned, I’ll be 38 years old with my house paid off!!
Make any extra payment you can! It really does add up. My husband and I have paid off 2 houses (moved a few years after paying off 1st house) by making extra payments as low as $20. We had online banking and they allowed any extra payment, regardless of amount (via online transfer). We would pay all of our bills, each get $60 in cash for 2 weeks and any extra $, even if just $20, would be transferred to our mortgage. We also applied any unexpected $ towards our mortgage. Once I had a friend that owed me about $2000 from years back; honestly I had written it off as lost $. They got back on their feet and were finally able to pay me back. It was completely out of the blue. We were thrilled to put that towards the mortgage! Tax returns, Christmas $, Ebates checks, etc. all on the mortgage. A lot of people gave us grief because we did not go on big vacations and we lived quite frugally for about 5 years but we paid off our house in that time. When we moved a few years later, we had to take out a small mortgage but paid that off the same way in just over a year. It feels so good not having a mortgage and knowing that your house is truly YOURS. Keep going everyone; it’s SO worth it!
Best move ever. We have started taking our tax return and just rolling it right into the principal payment. Basically money we never saw come in. Right from direct deposit into our mortgage principal. Our 20 year mortgage will be cut in half.
Once you get 20% equity in your home, they can stop charging you PMI (mortgage insurance). If the value of your home has gone up since you purchased it, such that your loan balance is less than 80% of the value, you may be able to get your mortgage to drop it earlier than expected. We were able to use our county tax value as proof on our home. Once the PMI is no longer being charged, you can put that amount toward principle payments.
So glad you mentioned this I was going to come back and add this in addition to what I said earlier.
Avoid the PMI altogether and put the 20% down in the beggining.
Ha, I live in LA. I wish the housing market allowed for that. For me, the math worked out in my favor to put down 10% and pay the PMI until I had 20% instead of continuing to rent. It’s not always best to wait until you have 20%.
Yes! I put 10% down on my condo, and threw every extra dollar I had at the payments until I had 20% equity. Then I refinanced from a 30 year mortgage to a 15. I can’t wait to have it paid off!!
is there an advantage in refinancing from 30 year mortgage to a 15 vs making extra payments on principal?
I want to know too. What’s the benefit?
Most of the time there is not if you’re disciplined enough to make the extra payments. You usually get a slight discount in interest rate by going to a 15 vs a 30, but there are cost to doing a refinance. Unless rates have dropped overall since you got your 30, you will usually be better to just make extra payments and turn it into a 15 yourself. Plus, I think there is a little comfort in having a lower payment in case you get in trouble with job loss, illness, whatever….I think it all boils down to your own personal motivation and discipline.
This is a fantastic answer.
Not always true. I called recently because my equity is over 20% and I was still being charged PMI. I refinanced 5 years ago. When I did that the fine print stated that I would have to pay PMI for 11 years regardless of the 20% equity. This wasn’t pointed out to me when I refinanced and of course I didn’t read all that jargon. Needless to say, 6 more years of PMI for us.
You can also call your local county treasurer’s office and see if you qualify for any property tax breaks. We saved almost $300 last year (and every year going forward!) because we were eligible for a property tax credit that we hadn’t known about!
Woohoo!! We bought our house last summer and have a plan to pay it off in 5 grueling years. But then we are setting ourselves and our kids up for financial freedom!!
I wonder how much $$ Hip2Save has saved all of their followers!
I recently began looking at our services and re-evaluated our car insurance. I was paying $163 with a company I had been with since I was a teen. Did some research and am now getting the same coverage from Flo for $118 a month. It’s only a $45 savings a month but with a kid in college I’ll take it! Now, looking into what other things I can cut or adjust. Thanks for the great tips and keep them coming H2S team!
You’re very welcome! That’s SO awesome, Mimi! Thanks for taking the time to share with us!
You can also refinance your mortgage if there is a significant difference in the rates. We saved over $400 a month doing that when it looked like I may not be able to work after having our third child.
Just did this last night and we’re going to save $500 a month for $8000 upfront! Awesome.
Thanks for the helpful tip! Good to know how much you have been able to save each month!
I don’t owe any credit card debt, so I love paying for everything I can with my credit card and paying it right off. 2%-5% back doesn’t sound like much, but I literally run EVERYTHING I can, that will earn me cash back, through my credit card. It adds up to hundreds of $$$ a year. It’s a great feeling when your credit cards actually pay you!
Same!! We do this every month. Last Christmas we had almost $800 in rewards earned throughout the year. We bought gift cards through our credit card at a discounted price, and used the rest to pay off our balance from Christmas.
Yes! I love free money from credit card companies. We use that cash to splurge on plane tickets every year.
Same here, our Disney plane tickets come from the bonus cash we earn
What card do you use please?
We have never paid a cent in interest in credit cards in 21 years of marriage but put everything we can on cards BUT pay it off each month (we know what our budget is and don’t go over) We use the Costco Citi Visa – get cash back, no annual fee, just pay for the Costco membership which we would anyway
We have the citi double cash card (2% back on everything, no fees). We put every possible expense on it (including hospital bills and utilities when there’s no fee to do so) and pay it off in full every month. It’s been about $4000 in free money over the course of the 5 years we have had it. If you’re going to utilize credit cards for rewards, you have to be absolutely sure that you will always pay off every cent every month or else you’ll quickly be in the hole. It takes attention and discipline to do it.
We use Chase sapphire and literally charge everything we possibly can. We pay it off every month and by years end, we have anywhere from $1 to 2k in bonus cash accumulated.
SWEET! Such a great way to earn some savings! Thanks for commenting, Tracy!
We do the same. We average around 2K a year in rewards. I convert the points to cash every few months and put it in a savings account. We save them up so every other year our annual cruise fair is essentially free…not really free but not cash coming out of my paycheck. I then use the money from the points to buy carnival gift cards at 10% off and bam…every other year we end up with around $4k – 4,500 in gift cards to book an an 8 day in a suite for the four of us. I usually end up getting discounted SW gift cards for the airfare and my annual rebates from rakutan, top cash back, saving star and ibotta usually cover the airfare out of pocket costs. All vacations are awesome but one that you didn’t pay for out of your paycheck or savings is even sweeter!
Same here. We usually get about $1000 per year. Free money is awesome!
I have set it up to pay my mortgage biweekly instead on once a month. By doing so I’m making an additional mortgage payment a year!
I need to look into doing that! Do you make double payments, or just split up your monthly payment into two installments?
Monthly into two payments for us. Every other Monday half a mortgage payment comes out. Love that it is an easy savings!!
that is super smart. i need to start doing this
If I’m not mistaken, your way gets you an extra mortgage payment at the end of the year. Interest accrues daily. Divide that extra mortgage payment by 12 & send it in monthly to your principal balance. My mortgage co doesn’t allow partial payments. It would’ve sat there until the full payment came in. So, I send regular monthly payments & extra principal payments, monthly. Interest is accrued daily. So the sooner you hit the principal balance the less time there will be for interest to accrue.
yes, that’s exactly what I have been doing for the same reasons like you.
That is what I do. I put some money towards the payment and some towards the principal. I was told by several people to try to pay off the principal.
If you have a Florida prepaid account – be sure to log in to see if you have a refund. There was an announcement last week that refunds are being sent out – the cost of college isn’t increasing at the rate it was expected to. You have to request the refund online.
Lucinda11, Thanks so much for this information. I had no idea and we have an account for our daughter. Will look into this today.
Does anyone know if I can pay my mortgage with a Credit Card?
We have Chase and we cannot. We asked because it would be nice to rack up the points.
No. You cannot pay off “good” debt (mortgage) with riskier debt (credit card). Would be nice, though, for those of us who make bank on the credit card rewards. We also can’t use our credit card for our property taxes, either. (We pay them directly since our mortgage is paid off.)
Oh man, that would be the dream!
You may want to double check the taxes. I couldn’t do it at my old place but in my new home I can pay for my taxes on a credit card they just charge a 1% processing fee…but I get 2.5% cash back on all purchases so it paid for me to use our credit card…and when my taxes are 12K a year it’s totally worth it!
I’m able to pay with my cc! Every county is different so check your county’s website.
My hubs and I use Shopkicks all the time. We have literally acquired thousands of dollars in free money just from scanning the products that come on the shop kick app. We usually go out for dinner on Friday night and call it our date night and go to Walmart and shop kick. It’s fun to do together and it’s so much fun when you actually get to collect those gift cards.
Never underestimate the value of couponing! We don’t spend a lot of time doing it, but I stock up on basics when they are free or cheap. I easily save $100+ a week- thousands a year. I haven’t paid for toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, razors, deodorant, soap, body wash, makeup, etc for years. Not only that we donate about $5000 in personal care items to a local shelter each year and it costs basically nothing but a little time.
I live in the mountains in Ca. and last November my homeowners policy was up. Because of all the fires and then the floods…which washed out 2 of our main roads to get up here, my insurance company after 16 yrs and no claims dropped us. It was actually an epidemic up here with insurance companies dropping polices or for instances one person said their policy went from $2000 a year to $6000 year. Thats’s crazy! You had 2 options, get CalFair plan which only covers the house, Nothing inside. Or do your due diligence and start Googling. I did the later only to be denied, until I went yo the last insurance company website. I knew it was a long shot because we tried to get renters insurance with this company 20 years ago and it was a no.
To my surprise they insured us. My policy is exactly the same as my old policy but I now have coverage for our septic. My deductible went down $1500 and my yearly policy went down $500.
It’s amazing how one company can differ from another with the same policy.
It’s all about the numbers… and odds,.. and if most or many companies are pulling out of insuring ppl in your state, other companies can get majority shares of home insurance (in the past maybe they had 10%, now they have 60%… big difference especially in a population dense state like CA… SO having more ppl pay in, means they can offer lower rates)…. but also be careful with low rate insurance, there’s always something they will get you with… I have to laugh every time rental places try to push the rental insurance on me (I get automatic coverage from my credit card)… if you look at the fine print on the coverage, it’s horrid- they will run it through your personal insurance first (or the other driver if there’s another driver at fault), minus the deductible… and then if there’s anything left they’ll cover it to a certain amount (which is usually nothing after it has run through everything else)… there are so many horror stories out there about various cut rate forms of insurance
So you’re suggesting to ditch cable, but everyone wants access to safe internet. Cable companies usually bundle services with wifi, I’d suggest evaluate your options depending on your location. It might not be worth it for some people.
The same with subscriptions: you encourage everyone to ditch subscriptions while praising Amazon’s one. Do you really need to promote Amazon’s subscriptions that much? I understand you’re getting getting ‘small commission’ for doing it. Buyer beware!
Agree, I almost ditched cable but the bundle package was only $10 more for tv and internet than internet alone. It was a no brainers to keep it
We tried to ditch our tv bill with ATT, but they would charge for data on internet if we didn’t have a tv package and we have a good internet deal with them that wasn’t worth losing. What we did was go with basic channels to keep data unlimited. Still saving ourselves $110 a month.
Hip2Save has helped me save thousands of money since I found you. Unlimited blessings to you and your employees. I am so grateful for your ideas. I wake up and I thank the Lord for another day. Next, I take my dogs for a walk. Third, I check Hip2Save. I am on a Keto diet. I lost 43 lbs since June 1, 2019 plus I am a stroke survivor. I live on a fixed income. I pay all the bills by myself. My daughter is graduating from college this year. Gracias again. I know is a LONG “rant”. But you ROCK. I got rid of my stupid Direct lol since 2017.
Yay! You’re SO very welcome, Alicia! BIG thanks to YOU for the super sweet comment and for being a longtime reader! We’re so glad to have you here with us each day. 🥰 We sure think YOU ROCK!
18 k in credit cards paid off in 2019. 6 k left to go and then debt free except our homes. i wish we never put ourselves into that situation but feels really good to be getting out of it. we are also purchasing a new car with cash this year, no car payments. then we plan to tackle our second mortgage by making extra principal payments. there is a light at the end of my debt tunnel!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing your success with us! Way to go! 🙌
Hi Hip2Save team.
Thank you for your hard work on putting all these together. I’ve switched from Griffin to Nationwide insurance , and got great deal of $102 for two cars years ago, after your advise.
I also highly recommend refinancing. After paying our for 2 year mortgage, I was a little disappointed seeing very little money towards the principal and twice more amount towards interest, so two months ago we decided to refinance our loan.
Instead of paying $264k (4%) on interest for 30 years, we will be paying $76k (3.1%) on interest in 15 years.
So happy!
Refinancing so worth it.
*** From geico to nationwide
SWEET! Thanks for sharing with us and thanks for the recommendation! SO glad you could score such great savings!
I wish we could save on auto insurance, but my husband is an idiot driver that gets tickets all the time. He’s been driving for 40 years and still has not learned. I have safe driving record, but he runs it for us and since we bundle with home, it’s pointless to even look elsewhere. Unless you, your spouse and kids are good drivers, be wary of changing insurance companies.
I took a class on dealing with confrontation and one thing they suggested was calling your insurance company and saying “am I getting the best rate?”. They said the worst that happens is you lose 15 minutes, the best is that they can work in a better rate for you. Making it pretty harmless confrontation, but helps people deal with more difficult situations (practice makes perfect and all). I didn’t save much, but one lady saved over $700 with this homework assignment. She was THRILLED!! So maybe instead of changing insurance you could ask if you are getting the best rate.
After seeing the post I moved t geico from StateFarm which is saving of 640$ per year . Omg I stayed with statefarm for 7 yers could have saved easy 4K
Amazing
Wow! Happy you could switch to save more! 🎉
Consider an Insurance Broker. I have used one for the past 25 years. I call them every 6 months to run my car insurance rates and every year to run my homeowners insurance rates. A couple of qeeks ago it was time for my car insurance call to my broken they ended up saving me $400 by switching companies. I have tried it myself multiple times over the years and can NEVER get the rates they get me. We are in the Salt Lake City area and we use Curtis Vernon Insurance
The prescription card is not available for all Amazon prime members.
Thanks so much for mentioning that.💞 I do see that select accounts may not qualify.
Can you send that money tree to my mother in-law? She things we own one and asks us for money often. My money tree has died!
The survey link to Pinecone Research side is not working? Thanks
Hi, Ana! It looks like they’ve temporarily stopped taking sign-ups at this time. I would keep checking back.😁
I fill my cart all the time. Then I wait till the next day and go back over it and most of it I don’t need.
These are some really good ideas. Thank you
You’re so welcome! ❤️
We just refinanced a few weeks ago. Knocked 2 yrs off our mortgage, eliminated our PMI insurance payment and saving about $25,000…our monthly payment stayed the same, so definitely a no brainer.