Interest rate held at 0.5%

Graham_Devon

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

that is completely wrong.

Just for one example, the rate stayed unchanged at 2% from June 1932 to August 1939.

Was just reporting what the beeb said on the radio.

I actually thought I was being clever

Maybe they meant post war? But thats boring really.

neverdespairgirl

Tut tut, standards falling at Auntie!

I bet they just looked at the 1975 to date figures on the B of E's site, lazy so-and-sos

Sibley

Really fantastic news. I'm glad the banks are giving people a chance to get their finances together. In reality, anyone who was in over their head borrowing now has the chance to pay the debts down. No excuse for any homeowners to lose their house when rates do eventually go up. I think this 0.5% will be here for at least 2 more years. Personally, I have managed to pay a big chuck off my mortgage and clear my credit cards since rate cuts. Good on yer BOE.

chucknorris

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Interestingly, right after the last global financial crisis.

So whilst the current interest rate is indeed at a record low, rates staying at extraordinarily low levels for a very long time is far from unprecedented.

It is interesting that rates have on at least two occassions remained very low for a number of years, it is easy to jump to possibly incorrect conclusions and expectations about where rates will go based just on our own memories. I was hoping they would stay low for another two years but they could stay low well beyond that (by low I mean below or around 3% not necessarily stay at 0.5%).

It slipped my mind that the BOE was meeting yesterday, whereas two years ago I would have never forgot to check if rates had been changed.

Chris2685

Sibley wrote: »

Really fantastic news. I'm glad the banks are giving people a chance to get their finances together. In reality, anyone who was in over their head borrowing now has the chance to pay the debts down. No excuse for any homeowners to lose their house when rates do eventually go up. I think this 0.5% will be here for at least 2 more years. Personally, I have managed to pay a big chuck off my mortgage and clear my credit cards since rate cuts. Good on yer BOE.

Oh yeah, great news for the reckless. Meanwhile the pound in my pocket/bank account is worth less every day. Cheers!

Percy1983

Yes those who have been reckless and partially fuelled the house price boom get bailed out while those of us who have been froze out for years now get next to nothing on our savings.

Graham_Devon

chucknorris wrote: »

It slipped my mind that the BOE was meeting yesterday, whereas two years ago I would have never forgot to check if rates had been changed.

This is exactly what the bloke on the radio was going on about. Apathy setting in, even if we don't realise it.

chucknorris

Graham_Devon wrote: »

This is exactly what the bloke on the radio was going on about. Apathy setting in, even if we don't realise it.

I was quite suprised that a full day had passed, and even then I did not think about it and look it up. I merely stumbled upon it in Friday's newspaper. So at the moment (at least to me) it's barely newsworthy. I suppose that will change though when the voting slips down to 5:4 or 6:3 in favour of no change or some external influence causes commentators to consider the possibility of a change.

Generali

chucknorris wrote: »

I was quite suprised that a full day had passed, and even then I did not think about it and look it up. I merely stumbled upon it in Friday's newspaper. So at the moment (at least to me) it's barely newsworthy. I suppose that will change though when the voting slips down to 5:4 or 6:3 in favour of no change or some external influence causes commentators to consider the possibility of a change.

If the economy keeps growing at 1.1% a qtr then you can expect to see interest rates rise quickly.

I have my doubts that is going to happen as a normal increase for the UK would be of the order of 0.4-0.7% and normal seems to be as good as anyone seems able to hope for at the moment.

Heyman_2

I predict that everything will go nuts when the first rise comes, even if it's only 0.25%. The media will be frothing at the mouth, we'll have people on here telling us that this is the end for BTL and Ramping Scum etc etc etc...

In reality, no-one on a Tracker or SVR mortgage will fail to notice that there has been a rise and it really won't be the end of the world.