I'm no expert but the rates are highly unlikely to shoot up in the near future so I'd stay connected to base rate if you can.

Worst case is probably a base rate of 3% in 18 months time.

The Lifetime Tracker mortgage I took out three years ago
at base rate plus 0.49% (Currently paying a 0.99% Interest rate) still looks like the bargain of a lifetime.

And to think some people at the time told me I was mad for not choosing a fixed rate that was around 0.5% less at the time.

Another month, another vote, another hold at 0.5%

(also, one of the guys who was voting for a rise will be leaving the panel soon, was announced the other day)

Will be interesting to see the minutes.

How many voted for a rise?

Minutes published 23.3

hope it was that one who has voted for it every month!! although his argument about why he votes for an increase makes a lot of sense

ill see if i can google it and link to it

Yes, Andrew Sentence leaves after May's vote - coincidentally when the markets are pricing in the first hike, to be timed with the Inflation Report's publication. Sentence has been voting for hikes for at least a year and last month raised his stance to a 50bps hike.

If Mervyn King can get through May without hiking, then see Sentence leave, it could see the timing of a hike pushed back some months in my view. Either that or there is a real chance King gets outvoted and rates are hiked against the Governor's wishes.

It's an impossible situation. Research shows that the longer rates stay at zero (effectively), the harder it is to engender the conditions for raising rates. Policy should be normalised asap. But (and this is a problem also facing the US & Japan) government debt is so high that higher rates forces the interest burden up, meaning a significant share of GDP going solely on debt repayments. Not to mention the carnage it will wreak on the property market. I understand Sentence's logic, but this feels like a deflationary inflation surge. I expect most people, given the current employment situation, public sector cuts etc. might anticipate personal wealth stagnating or worsening. With energy, food, clothing costs all going up, the consumer will expect to be getting poorer and therefore hoard savings and won't feel able to demand major pay rises from employers.

Basically, major nations are still in cloud-cuckoo land and there is no palatable option.

" but this feels like a deflationary inflation surge."

My thoughts exactly...

Voting revealed as still split 6-3 with an acknowledgement that things are a lot more uncertain than they were with the Middle East, add to that Japan's woes and I would think they will not be moving rates for a while - I will stick with August as a best guess.

Inflation keeps shooting up though. Is it 4.4% now? Rare for it to be so far from the base rate although any rise could only push it up more!

Lets see what whatsisface says in the budget...

I just got a mortgage for a new house purchase - 5 year fixed offset job.

Difficult for anyone to predict future interest rates at the moment with so much negative data around. CPI at 4.4% and likely to rise to 5%+ next month due to oil price surging in particular makes me think that it CAN'T be long until they pull the trigger. Some commentators are forecasting 0.25% per quarter rises starting in summer - I'm sure this would already have started had it not been for the poor growth figures for Q4 2010.

One thing's for sure though, rates aren't going down. With inflation becoming a complete embarrassment for Mervyn King I can see a steady rates increase to the 2-3% mark by end of 2012 happening sooner rather than later.

I thought Interest rates are raised to lower inflation!

On hold again although Eurozone rates increased to 1.25%, perhaps a taste of things to come ?

Inflation unexpectedly down to 4% (a reduction of 0.4%).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13045775

Will reduce interest rate pressure - albeit slightly.

Apparently market has now pushed the first hike out to October from August if I read a comment earlier today correctly. Might have to do the lotto soon as I wrote a piece to clients in January suggesting the ECB would move first. Even now, some commentators have completely missed the ECB's argument.

The scariest decision of all is in the US. I read an eye-watering piece by a US fund manager with an excellent track record which suggested that, in order to offset the inflationary impact of the increased monetary base, a first hike of 25bps would have to be matched with the simultaneous withdrawal of the whole $600bn of QE2. Chances of the economy and the markets receiving that favourably.......?

Another month, another stick at 0.5% (and Andrew Sentence's last vote)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13293991

28 straight months now that interest rates have stayed unchanged at 0.5%.

Who would have guesed that 2 and a 1/3rd years ago....

Euro Interest rates now cut again to 1% - what chance UK rates being cut to 0.25%!

The banks will still want their 18.9% to lend,while no doubt cutting the rate to savers even further,though it's now so small that savers will hardly notice.

When this was posted 3 years ago, who would have thought we'd today be getting the same rate this far into the future



Held again at 0.5% marking 3 year anniversary

At this rate (literally) I'll be down to a 5 figure mortgage by September.

thinly veiled brag in there

Looks like my bank are deciding our mortgage rate is too low and although I've not had the letter yet am expecting it anytime...

I'm on a fixed tracker (smug not bragging ) - others have better rates than me (I have base +1, super-smug others as low as base + 0.25) but I'm happy enough

Base rate plus 0.4% lifetime tracker - smug and relieved

Base + 0.28%.

Your rate is 15% more expensive than mine all in - bad deal

I'm pleased for you

Is yours a term long deal (in my case 14 years) with over payments, underpayments and no tie ins at all?

Yip - but at 0.78% all in it's not hard to find a better use for the money than making repayments.

A lot of the mortgage rates have just gone up half of percent for no apparent reason

Doesn't hit me but feel sorry for first time buyers.

Unsurprisingly, the change has not been recipricated for savings accounts

It is about time savers got a break. Banks have been getting stick on poor savings rates, so I still hope their intention is to eventually pass on better savings rates from higher loan rates. If they don't do that, they should be hit over the head with a pumpkin. Hard.

Indeed, at the moment, but we can save while rates are low and then pay in a big lump when rates exceed savings rates

IMF suggest we should cut our rates to below 0.5%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18158226