Base Interest rates remained stable back in April. This was the third month in a row that the Bank of England has voted to hold the base rate of interest at 5.25%, but the underlying messgae was that further rises were on the horizon. Checks with our city contacts suggested that we were not out of the woods yet as far a further rate rises are concerned and we were proved to be correct.

Earlier in March we had reported that several of the ultra-low rate loan deals had disappeared now and had been replaced by higher interest rate loans. We had seen some loan offers jump by as much as 1 percentage point, which is more than all of the recent quarter point rises combined. Our guidance was that consumers should make sure they were getting a fair deal on any personal loan by requesting a cross-market review using a "Loan comparison" web service.

With mortgage rates climbing in line with base rates, many of the attractive fixed rate deals were disappearing, but there were still some about. First time buyers were faced with higher rates on top of the already inflated house price market meant that many people just couldn't afford to get on the property ladder. The solution by some lenders was to offer longer term mortgage terms of 30 and 35 years. Fine in principle but pushing the boundaries we think and given the upset caused by the collapsing of the sub-prime lending market in the US, caution needs to be exercised.

Offset Mortgages popular - 10th July 2007

Record Mortgage Lending in July - 18th August 2006

First time Buyers not Protected - 22nd August 2006