This coming week the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be coming together for their August Meeting and it could be the first meeting in a long while in which there is NOT an unanimous vote to keep the standard base interest rate set.  The rate has long been sitting at 0.5% with no change since March 2009.  However, the growth of the economy and other factors are aligning together to push the need for an interest rate hike. 

The interest rate is not expected to be changed this month but there is the expectation that one or more MPC members will vote to hike the rate upward.  The exact tone and vote of the meeting will not be known until the minutes are released later in the month.  At that time more will be known of what the members talked and how close the committee came to changing the low rate from its historical level. 

Once the rate does change it is expected that it will rise slowly and steadily over the next few years to reach ever closer to the pre-crisis level. 

When the warnings come more strongly from economists then demand for cheap interest rates on remortgage and mortgage deals will grow.  Time will be of the essence and with new criteria for borrowing, time will be in short supply to complete a deal.  Therefore, if a cheap rate is important then borrowers may want to start shopping around now for the best deal.  Meanwhile, keep an eye on the MPC meetings over the next few months and be quick to react to grab a good fixed deal for the rate will increase.  It is a matter of “when not if” at this time and those ready will earn the best interest rate.