What this site answers

A base rate decision reaches your mortgage or savings account through several routes, and each one moves at its own pace. We set out those routes one at a time: what changes on decision day, what waits until a fixed deal ends, and how long the change usually takes to reach a payment or a savings statement.

How we build an explanation

Every rate, spread or lag we name carries the decision it follows and the date it was true, because a number without a source isn't something you can check for yourself. Figures come from the Bank of England, the Office for National Statistics, the Financial Conduct Authority and MoneyHelper, named next to the figure they support.

Where economists or lenders read a change differently, for instance over how much of a base rate rise reaches savings rates, we name the different readings.

Where the explanations stop

The mechanism is covered as far as the household: what a decision does to a mortgage, a savings account or a personal loan. Business finance, treasury management and academic monetary economics sit outside that boundary. Questions about where the base rate might go next belong to a companion site, rateforecast.co.uk, which is linked from the pages where that question comes up.

Who reads it

People arrive here after hearing that the base rate has moved or held, wanting to know what that means for their own money. Others are checking when a fixed deal ends, deciding when to move a savings bond, or need the transmission mechanism explained once, properly, for study or reporting. The explanations follow the same pattern either way: the inputs stated, the working shown, the source named.

The current rate and its history are kept on the base rate reference page. Questions about a specific explanation can be sent through the contact page.