The Price of Money

in money •  7 years ago 

Price of the beast

The Bank of England has increased it's base rate by 0.25% which is only the second rise in the last decade but the Governor says we can expect more to come. I haven't looked yet to see the exact effect on our mortgage, but it won't kill us. However, for lots of younger people who are used to rates being low and staying the same, it might e a shock (especially if they've borrowed more than they can afford, as young people are wont to!)

It got me thinking about my last thirty years of being an on-off mortgage borrower. I know that the first principal on our flat was about £80k, but I can't remember what rate we had. I do remember when, a few years later it zoomed up to 15% (some silliness over the Euro and the "exchange rate mechanism" - Brexit isn't the first bit of nonsense we've endured) and it stayed there for a while. By then I think we'd borrowed some more against the rising value of the flat, so in early 1991 we had a period of negative equity, which nicely co-incided with me being made redundant and the news that we were to become parents :).

But I'm still here. And it's amazing to see that now a 0.25% rise in the base rate is big news.

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I came later to having a mortgage and so have benefited from pretty low rates. We've been over-paying to bring it down.

Smart :)

I haven't looked yet to see the exact effect on our mortgage

Me neither @lloyddavis. I'm hoping it will have a positive effect on our savings account though. But I'm not holding my breath.

a few years later it zoomed up to 15%

ah. Them were the days! 😂

We're all redundant and necessary, and that's one of the wonderful paradoxes of being human. Oh, rising interest rates.

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