One month on, what the base rate cut means for you

It’s a month since the Bank of England cut the base rate to 0.25 per cent, the lowest level in more than 300 years. As expected, this has dealt a severe blow to savers while the mortgage market continues to thrive. Savings The Bank of England’s decision to drop the base rate has officially fuelled the fire of rate cuts across the savings market, resulting in August becoming the worst month of the year for reductions. There were a devastating 354 cuts made, compared to just three rate rises. This means that for every rate rise during the month there were 118 cuts. Worse still, some providers’ reductions were over five times as much as the 0.25 per cent base rate cut, and 53 of the cuts made were over 0.25 per cent. This has sent average savings rates plummeting to new lows, with the majority of average rates paying half what they did five years ago.