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Interest rate rise Q&A - 11 May 2007

With interest rates now at 5.5%, many home owners will be facing higher mortgage repayments, while credit card debts may also cost more...

The BBC has produced a Q and A about the potential impact of the latest rate rise.

How will my mortgage be affected?

The quarter of a percentage point rise may not sound much, but with four rate rises since last summer, you may now be feeling the pinch.

Each quarter of a percentage point rise raises the cost of a £100,000 repayment mortgage by between £15 and £20.

Factor in four interest rate rises and this can really add up. In recent years, more Britons have chosen mortgages where the interest rate is fixed for several years instead of variable rate deals, which are very susceptible to Bank of England base rate moves.

Thousands of these fixed-rate deals are now coming to an end.

As a result, large numbers of people with expiring fixed-rate deals could be in for a nasty shock, as they suddenly find that the amount of money they have to repay shoots up.

I am a saver. How will I benefit?

Well, the rate that you receive on your savings is likely to rise. However, it is unclear when that will happen - and by how much.

Banks and other lenders tend to wait a while before passing on the benefit of higher interest rates to their customers.

Last year, research by BBC News and the financial information group Moneyfacts showed many lenders had not been passing on the benefits in full, either.

In some cases, banks do not pass on rate rises at all. The ING group caused an uproar last year when it said that it would keep savings rates on hold, because customers appreciated "consistency" over rates.

The advice from money experts is to watch your savings account provider like a hawk.

If they fail to pass on the whole rate rise, shop around for a better deal or an account which promises to track moves in the BoE base rate.

I want to sell my house. Will this reduce my chances of finding a buyer?

Possibly. The property market in the UK has gone through an unprecedented boom in house prices.

On average, house prices have doubled since the middle of 2001 and recently, growth has once more accelerated into double figures.

But most market-watchers expect price inflation to cool as the year progresses. A big factor in the relentless rise of house prices has been speculation - the belief that prices will continue rising, no matter what.

Should that view change, spreading fears that the market is about to slow and prices drop, then potential buyers might hold back and the predictions of a slowdown could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Will more people be driven into insolvency due to the rate rise?

For some, the rate rise may tip their finances over the edge. UK consumers have indulged in an unprecedented credit binge in recent years.

What is more, some borrowers, who took up second mortgages for home improvements or to pay off other borrowing, are facing double jeopardy as the rate rise will hit both their first and second mortgage.

However, of late, official figures show that the rate of increase in insolvency is now slowing. It seems that people are reining in their borrowing, as the message gets through that the cost of loans and mortgages is on the rise.

But it will take much more than a few months of caution to get many people's personal finances back on an even keel.

Is this the last rate rise or is there more pain ahead for mortgage holders?

No-one can say for certain whether or not there are further rate rises on the way. However, many economists predict that rates will rise at least once more during 2007.

The Bank of England's main objective in raising rates is the control of inflation.

Recently, inflation has been above the threshold at which Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, has to write to the chancellor and explain what the BoE is doing to reduce it.

What about me? I have several credit cards - all near their spending limit.

Credit card interest rates are often high, but are less sensitive to Bank of England base rate movements than mortgages.

The rate rise may not feed through to credit card borrowers at all, particularly as the marketplace is competitive.

However, as interest rates rise, lenders tend to get twitchy about whether borrowers can afford to repay debts in the future.

In the early 1990s, the banks were accused of making an economic recession and a house price crash far worse by pulling the rug from under borrowers.

Many people found their credit card debt was called in at short notice and, as a result, got into financial hot water.

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