Shopping around and getting multiple quotes for a mortgage or mortgage refinance is an easy way to save hundreds of dollars each month and thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a loan.

The Los Angeles Times  reports more than half of all people stop at one lender when they're getting quotes. Bad idea. In one example, the difference between the cheapest loan and the most expensive one for a customer was $75,000 over the life of the loan.

People find the process of shopping for a mortgage or refi to be more of a hassle than just about anything else you do today.

Part of the problem is that big banks control the mortgage market. Wells Fargo now issues one out of every three mortgages in the U.S. That's not normally a bad thing in any industry, except that they admit marking up the mortgages because of the demand coming in their doors.

Do you like to throw money away? Don't listen to what I'm about to say.

The best way to approach getting a mortgage or refi is to shop with small local banks, credit unions, online lenders, and mortgage brokers. We're talking about you saving hundreds of dollars a month. It's your money.

The requirements to qualify are high, it's true. But you'll go through the misery of hoop jumping wherever you go, so you might as well do it where you save the money.

And yes, it's worth the misery to save the money every month!