In a few short weeks, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet once more to discuss the possibility of changing the current base interest rate for the November meeting. It will be one of the final two times the MPC will meet for the year of 2015. Experts believe that the year will close out with the standard rate still steady at 0.5%, but they certainly don’t believe that the same period next year will find the rate having been left the same.

In fact, once the rate does change it is expected to do so several times at small levels. In the October meeting there was one member that voted for a rate change in the amount of 0.25%. It is that amount that most expect will be the first rate hike since March 2009. The MPC member, Ian McCafferty, that voted for the rate change has done so for three months in a row.

Though the majority voted to hold the rate steady, more members are expected to begin voting on the side of Mr. McCafferty for a rate hike is expected to come sooner rather than later due to continued factors coming into alignment to signal a need for higher interest rates.

For borrowers, especially mortgage and remortgage borrowers, that small hike in the Bank’s rate will signal a loss of what has been very cheap interest rates for one of the most expensive borrowing ventures of most people. Even a small rate change can amount to a substantial loss of savings due to the high amounts borrowed with mortgages and remortgages.

In November and December, even if more MPC members vote for a rate change it is not expected the majority will do so and the rate therefore should remain unchanged. Yet, it will draw borrowers closer to the moment when the rate will change which is expected to be sometime in the beginning of 2016. Lenders may not wait that long and could start pulling their cheapest rates earlier.

With the process for obtaining an approval on a mortgage or remortgage longer than it was in the past, holiday season ahead of us, and inclement weather causing delays, the business days on the calendar for a borrower to shop around for a cheap deal, make a decision, apply, and complete the process are few. It might be a good time to get an attractive mortgage or remortgage but unfortunately with it being the end of the year and an upward push of the interest rate on the horizon, time is not on the side of the borrower.