Yes. USDA loans have a normal rate stack, so you can pay discount points to buy the rate down or take a lender credit at a higher rate. Whether you should is the better question, and we lean against points. One USDA-specific wrinkle: financing points into the loan is restricted. Rolling discount points into the loan amount is permitted only for low-income applicants, only to reduce the effective rate, and capped at two points on certain refinances. Paying points out of pocket carries no special restriction. Our stance: the zero-point quote is the honest baseline. Points are prepaid interest, and we lean against spending your own cash on a buydown as a default move. A side-by-side of two or three rate-and-point combinations is something some people want to see, and we will run that comparison for you in the free Roadmap conversation, so the decision comes from your real numbers rather than a rule of thumb.