Historic mortgage interest rates

50Twuncle

Does anyone know of a website that shows the interest rates payable by Woolwich mortgage customers in years gone by ?
I recall paying close to 20% on my mortgage in the late 80's ....

Thrugelmir

If you look at BOE base rate and add 2% on that'll be fairly close to rates at the time.

kingstreet

1989 building societies were charging 15.4% which was lower than the BoE base rate as they were absorbing some of the costs of Nigel Lawson's "blunt instrument" treatment of the inflation he created eighteen months or more earlier.

Other lenders without the retail deposit base charged more...

My financial services memory doesn't really start until about 1986 when I was 20, working for Sun Alliance.

Thrugelmir

kingstreet wrote: »

1989 building societies were charging 15.4% which was lower than the BoE base rate

Highest base rate reached in 1989 was 13.75%.

Historically Building Societies used to track close to BOE base +2% when setting SVR. All changed when building societies demutualised and became banks. Changing their models to relying on wholesale rather than retail funding to expand their lending books.

Fizzy11

These youngsters moan about 3.5% they haven't a clue what we put up with. Seemed like the rate went up month after month after month. Mortgage or food? Definitely mortgage & 1000 ways with mince.

50Twuncle

kingstreet wrote: »

1989 building societies were charging 15.4% which was lower than the BoE base rate as they were absorbing some of the costs of Nigel Lawson's "blunt instrument" treatment of the inflation he created eighteen months or more earlier.

Other lenders without the retail deposit base charged more...

My financial services memory doesn't really start until about 1986 when I was 20, working for Sun Alliance.

My endowment was with Sun Alliance - they sold themselves out to Phoenix who did appalling things with MY money !!

kingstreet

FWIW Phoenix Assurance was taken over by Sun Alliance in 1985 and the group became Sun Alliance & Phoenix.

The firm which set itself up to "manage" old with-profit funds and legacy policies of firms no longer writing life business purchased the back book from by then Royal & Sun Alliance and decided to name it Phoenix, presumably as it somehow matched what it thought it was doing and because it had purchased the rights to use the name.

BTW I was a broker consultant who dealt only through intermediaries and I left in January 1989.

getmore4less

You can't use base + 2%.

Most lenders were doing base+<1% for quite some time, some even went base -0.x%

getmore4less

Fizzy11 wrote: »

These youngsters moan about 3.5% they haven't a clue what we put up with. Seemed like the rate went up month after month after month. Mortgage or food? Definitely mortgage & 1000 ways with mince.

We were getting 3-4 wage increases a year in the times of high inflation, came out the other side with inflation reduced debt.

kingstreet

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Highest base rate reached in 1989 was 13.75%.

Historically Building Societies used to track close to BOE base +2% when setting SVR. All changed when building societies demutualised and became banks. Changing their models to relying on wholesale rather than retail funding to expand their lending books.

I've just been having a gander. It made 14.875% in October 1989.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/iadb/repo.asp

I think the BS movement absorbed some of the increase by only charging 15.4% mortgage rate when others couldn't do that and mortgage rates would normally have been higher.

50Twuncle

kingstreet wrote: »

I've just been having a gander. It made 14.875% in October 1989.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/iadb/repo.asp

I think the BS movement absorbed some of the increase by only charging 15.4% mortgage rate when others couldn't do that and mortgage rates would normally have been higher.

That makes interesting reading
They haven't even bothered updating it since 2009 !
I am sure that I was paying 17.5% on a fixed rate around 1988 though !!
(I will have to check back through my records)
!