With the holidays quickly approaching, your mind is probably focused on gift lists, decorations, travel plans, and family events. But the end of the year is also the perfect time to review your loans.

While loans typically make up members’ largest monthly expenses — from mortgages and car loans to student loans and credit cards — they also provide some of the most significant saving opportunities. Taking time to review your existing loans and looking for opportunities to save could put you in a much better financial position as a new year rolls around.

Loans You Should Review

While you should take time to review all your financial obligations, the following loans often provide significant savings through refinancing and are relatively easy to complete.

Auto Loans

While you may love your car, you might not feel the same way about the monthly payments. Good news for you, lowering your car payment is easier to accomplish than you may think. By refinancing your auto loan, you are simply switching your current loan over to the credit union or another lender.

Refinancing provides several benefits:

• Lower Interest Rates: If rates dropped or if your credit score increased from when you first purchased your car, you can take advantage of lower rates and lower your monthly payment.
• More Flexible Terms: Extending your loan term out can also help lower your monthly payments. Or you can shorten your term and save interest over the life of your loan by paying off your vehicle sooner.

While the process of refinancing may sound complicated, it’s actually quite easy with a car loan.

Credit Cards

Credit card companies are famous for luring in consumers with extravagant promotional offers – from rewards to low-introductory interest rates. Stores do the same thing by offering sizeable discounts if you enroll in their credit card. The problem is that most of these cards come with significantly high interest rates. If you’re unable to pay your balance in full each month, you will likely end up paying much more in interest than those rewards were ever worth.

One of the easiest ways to regain control of credit card debt is to consolidate your balances. By transferring your outstanding balances to a lower-rate credit card, you’ll instantly start saving on interest payments. Plus, instead of multiple credit cards and payment dates to keep track of, you’ll only have one – making it much easier to manage your debt.

If you have several high-interest credit cards in your wallet, consider consolidating these balances before the end of the year. Then you’ll be in a much better position to get a handle on your credit card debt in the new year.

Home Loans

If you’re a homeowner, your mortgage payment is likely your largest monthly expense. However, the greater the expense, the more opportunities to save. Home loans are a bit more involved when it comes to refinancing, but the savings are also more significant.

With rates remaining near record-lows, dropping your home loan rate by even one percent could translate into saving thousands, or even tens of thousands, of dollars in interest over the life of your loan.

There are many opportunities to save when refinancing your mortgage, including lower interest rates, altering your term, or even changing your loan type. It’s encouraged you speak with a mortgage specialist at the credit union to find out what options, and potential savings, will work best for you.

We’re Here to Help!

If your New Year’s resolutions usually include saving more money, your loans may be the perfect ticket to accomplishing that feat without much work on your part. We’re ready to work with you to identify areas you could save on your existing loans. Click the link below to schedule a one-on-one session with one of our bankers and see how we can save you money.