Low interest rates 'will be here for a while', Bank suggests

Low interest rates could be here to stay for some time yet, the Bank of England's deputy governor Paul Tucker has stated.

In comments unlikely to be welcomed by those Britons looking to make use of savings accounts to improve their bad credit history, the bank's financial stability chief explained that low rates could be a key tool in helping to offset the strains seen at the top of the UK banking system.

As such, consumers should get used to rates as low as 0.5 per cent as the Bank attempts to encourage the big lenders to part with their money and get the national economy moving again.

Mr Tucker explained: "The Bank's policy rate might on average conceivably be lower in future than during the [Monetary Policy] Committee's first decade. We shall have to wait and see."

However, the low interest rate environment could offer a good opportunity for people to address their credit card debt problems.

The chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk recently noted that low rates might encourage people to start tackling their problems, with now "a better time than ever" to attempt to get personal finances and a bad credit history sorted.

Posted by Gemma Walker.