NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I refinanced my mortgage about four months ago, but my loan officer called to suggest that I refinance again. She says she can lower my mortgage rate from 5.5 percent for a 15-year loan to 5.25 percent and cut my payment by $32 a month. She also says this is a no-points, no-cost loan. We plan to stay in the house at least another five years. What do you think -- should I do it?

-- Frank Nguyen, McLean, Virginia

If the terms of this loan are really what your loan officer says they are -- a lower interest rate, no points and no other costs -- then I can't see a problem with refinancing again. Your only cost will be whatever time and effort you have to put into gathering documents for the loan officer and for the closing. And if you can save $32 a month over five years, then you've kept $1,920 that would have gone to your current lender. (These are pre-tax figures; your after-tax savings will be smaller).

But I'd be very surprised if you can actually come away with this thing without paying any costs. Are you sure there isn't an application fee? A document preparation fee? Bank attorney fee? Credit-check fee? How about fees for an appraisal, title search or flood certification?

There are all sorts of "junk" fees that lenders charge that may go by any sort of name: processing fees, funding fees. Perhaps there are fees that you'll have to pay that your loan officer sees as part of the closing, but not directly tied to the loan.

Before I signed, I would ask the loan officer for a complete list of all the fees I'll be charged by the lender and at the closing. After all, if you have to incur costs to complete this transaction, does it matter to you whether you shell out the money to the lender or to a credit agency or title search firm or some other entity? No.

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What really matters is whether you've got to put up cash now to pay costs in any way associated with a new loan (or have those costs added to the new loan's balance). If you do have to incur costs, then the question becomes how long it takes to recoup these costs given your $32-a-month savings in the payment.

One final note: Don't assume that your loan officer is offering the best deal on 15-year mortgages. I just did a quick search in our Rate Watch section and found quite a few lenders offering a lower rate than 5.25 percent and no points to boot. (You'll want to check for other fees, of course.)

So at the very least you may want to check out a few other institutions. And if turns out your loan officer is offering a competitive deal, don't be afraid to negotiate for a better deal. Though they may not want to admit it, many lenders and loan officers realize that mortgage rates aren't likely to decline much from here. So the gravy train of mortgage refis that's been supporting them the past few years may be coming to an end.

To me that means a loan officer may be willing to shave a little off the loan rate to salvage a deal, even if it means the concession comes out of her own pocket. Besides, it never hurts to ask for a better deal. The worse that can happen is you get a No and you end up with what you would have had anyway.

Walter Updegrave is a senior editor at MONEY Magazine and is the author of "Investing for the Financially Challenged." He can be seen regularly Monday mornings at 7:40 am on CNNfn.