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Bank of England Base Rate held for another month.

The Bank of England today held interest rates at 0.5 per cent for another month - but announced that its £200bn quantitative easing programme was being halted.

Interest rates have now been held for 11 months. It is no surprise that rates have been held for another month with Savills Private Finance expecting rates to stay at 0.5 per cent for the remainder of the year.

However, with a number of lenders, such as Skipton and Marsden building societies, raising their standard variable rates (SVRs) recently, borrowers need to remain vigilant. There is no guarantee that other lenders won't follow suit so it is worth talking to your broker about what you should do next if you are sitting on your lender's SVR.

A number of lenders, such as Santander - which includes Abbey and Alliance & Leicester - has cut its fixed rates this week so it may be time to opt for the guarantee of knowing what your monthly mortgage payments will be. Alternatively, there are a number of competitively-priced base-rate trackers to choose from.

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