Campaign group Save our Savers today revealed the cost to savers of the Bank of England’s decision to hold the base rate at 0.5% for the 33rd successive month. The group estimates that the low interest rate combined with a retail price index at 5.6 per cent, its highest level for 20 years, and a [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has opted to keep the base rate at 0.5% in August, as widely expected. The rate has remained at its historic low for well over two years and earlier predictions of a rise this autumn lost credibility once UK economic growth slowed to 0.2%, in the second [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted to maintain the base rate at 0.5% in May, as widely expected. The Bank’s quantitative easing (asset purchase) programme will also be maintained at its current level of £200 billion. The base rate has remained unchanged since March 2009, despite inflation running at 4%, double the [...]
Low interest rates look set to continue, with the Governor of the Bank of England having warned that “massive” economic challenges faced by high levels of debt would only be worsened by rate hikes. Addressing the European Parliament’s Systemic Risk Board yesterday, Mr King said: “The economic consequences of high-level indebtedness now would become more [...]
The Bank of England has announced that the base rate will remain on hold at 0.5% in January. Low interest rates are to continue despite the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation increasing to 3.3% in November, well above the Bank’s 2% target, and likely to increase further with today’s rising commodity prices and January’s [...]
Mortgage borrowers will be pleased to hear that interest rates could be “pinned to the floor” until 2014. The prediction comes in the latest report by respected economic forecaster, Ernst & Young Item Club, which at the same time acknowledges that high energy prices and the VAT rise due in January will keep inflation above [...]
Britain’s economy is on the road to recovery, Santander has claimed. Barry Naisbitt, chief economist at Santander UK, pointed out that economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2009 has been revised from 0.1% to 0.4%. He added that the economy has continued growing during 2010. “Some recent indicators, particularly survey indicators of output, are [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has published the minutes of its April rate-setting meeting which reveal that the decision to keep the base rate at its historic low of 0.5% was unanimous. The minutes state: “All members agreed that the events of the past month had not been significant enough to substantially alter [...]
The UK’s official rate of inflation rose to 3.4% in March, up from 3% in February and again exceeding the Government’s target of 2%. The rate, which is based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and therefore excludes housing costs, was on the wrong side of expectations as it nudged towards the 14-month high of [...]
The collapse of the remortage market as borrowers coming to the end of fixed-rate deals opt to remain on reversion rates, is prompting lenders to raise their standard variable rates (SRVs). According to Moneyfacts.co.uk some borrowers on SVRs have benefited from the record low 0.5% base rate but others have not been so lucky. The [...]
Interest rates on personal loans are finally starting to fall. The average interest rate on the top ten loan deals has fallen to 8.35%, the lowest level since the Bank of England reduced the base rate to 0.5% last March. When the Bank of England first lowered the base rate, mortgage and current account providers [...]
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has kept the base rate at 0.5% in November, as widely expected. The historically low rate has been extended for the eighth successive month, in efforts to keep borrowing as cheap as possible as the UK struggles on in recession. In addition, the Bank has announced that it [...]
Consumers have seen very little benefit from the Bank of England holding its base rate at a record low of 0.5% for six months, a consumer advice site pointed out this week. Interest rates on savings accounts have dropped, while rates on mortgages, credit cards, and personal loans have continued to rise, said Moneyfacts.co.uk. Research [...]
Barnsley Building Society has launched a range of new Online Bonds paying interest at a fixed rate of up to 5.4%. The three, four, and five year bonds pay a gross/AER rate of 5%, 5.15%, and 5.4% respectively. Minimum balance to open the bonds is £100, and maximum is £500,000. Sarah Lawrence, Barnsley’s senior product [...]
Consumers taking out a personal loan are “paying through the nose” due to soaring interest rates. Banks are now charging an average APR of 10.32% on personal loans even though the Bank of England’s base rate has been held at a record low of 0.5%. This compares to an average personal loan APR of 8.71% [...]
Homeowners will be forced to “scramble around” for good value fixed-rate mortgages in the future as interest rates “fly up”, an industry expert has warned. Jacqueline Thornton, financial planner at Re-Financial Planning, said householders that are currently happy to benefit from currently low-priced standard variable rate mortgages will struggle to find a reasonably priced fixed-rate [...]
Homeowners increasingly prefer to stick with a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage rather than taking out a fixed-rate deal. Research by Unbiased.co.uk found 27% of homeowners are now on an SVR mortgage, compared with 23% earlier this year. A quarter of those on an SVR mortgage said they have no immediate plans to switch to [...]
Banks are pocketing extra cash rather than passing on lower interest rates to mortgage customers, a Daily Mail investigation revealed this week. Homeowners are paying an average of £1,788 per year more than they should be as banks use the historically low base rate of 0.5% to shore up their ailing coffers. Twelve months ago [...]
HSBC-owned first direct has launched a new offset tracker mortgage with an interest rate at 2.48% above the Bank of England’s base rate. With the Bank of England’s base rate at 0.5%, this gives first direct’s mortgage a headline rate of 2.98%, or 3.2% APR. Unlike any other tracker mortgage currently available, first direct’s product [...]
The tracker versus fixed-rate dilemma that currently faces homeowners has been investigated by moneysupermarket.com, with the odds laid out as follows: Mortgage borrowers on tracker rates saw their monthly repayments fall substantially, as the base rate plummeted to 0.5%. However, further falls in the base rate are unlikely whereas a rise is inevitable, probably by [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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