Interest rate?

FrankR

Do any of you remember what the interest rates were like before the financial crises of 2008?
How much interest would I have got for £40,000 back then?

System

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp

spadoosh

Between 4-6% from your typical high street banks.

xylophone

You can look at base rate here.

https://www.houseweb.co.uk/house/market/irfig.html

See also

http://www.swanlowpark.co.uk/savings-interest-annual

talexuser

Ah! the glory days of 5% interest on your savings, and inflation, and actual economic growth.

FrankR

Why have interest rates dropped so low?

Do you think they will go back up to 5% in our lifetime?

Albermarle

After the crash ,and before QE, the banks & building societies needed savers money even more .
If I remember correctly I had a 7% fix with Northern Rock ( by then owned by the government)

Albermarle

Why have interest rates dropped so low?

Following the global financial crash, economies shrunk a lot . One way to help stimulate growth is with very low interest rates.

Do you think they will go back up to 5% in our lifetime?

Probably not for the next 5 years but after that can only be crystal ball gazing.

Prism

FrankR wrote: »

Why have interest rates dropped so low?

Do you think they will go back up to 5% in our lifetime?

Probably but I hope not soon. I have a mortgage to pay and most of my wealth is in equities not cash

talexuser

FrankR wrote: »

Do you think they will go back up to 5% in our lifetime?

Depends how old you are. Every time central banks try to increase rates they chicken out as soon as slowdown markers are apparent. Nobody predicted after the credit crunch they would stay so low for so long. There are no levers left for the next crash, and it might be nasty.

darkidoe

I think we are all in for a looong wait.