Barclays pledges base rate help to savers and borrowers

Following the announcement today from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee that the base rate will be reduced by 0.5 percentage points to a new historic low of 0.5 per cent, Barclays announces that it will be protecting all of its savings customers by holding their rates unchanged, whilst the vast majority of its mortgage and Local Business customers will benefit from the reduction.

From April 1st, all customers on Woolwich tracker mortgages will benefit as the Barclays Bank Base Rate reduces by 0.5 percentage point to 0.5 per cent, in line with the Bank of England rate. New tracker customers will see the revised rates from tomorrow, Friday, March 6th.

The majority of Barclays mortgages, all offered under the Woolwich name, track the base rate for the entire life of the loan, and proportionately more Barclays mortgage customers have seen the full benefit of the base rate reduction than those of any other mortgage lender. All fixed rate Woolwich mortgages revert to a lifetime tracker at the end of the specified fixed term.

All Barclays Local Business overdraft rates and the majority of Local Business loans have also moved in line with today's base rate reduction.

Mark Parsons, Managing Director of Mortgages, Current Accounts and Savings at Barclays said: "This month, as well as cutting the cost of borrowing for all mortgage and local business customers on tracker rates, we will protect our savings customers from the additional cut and maintain their rates at the current level. We recognise the difficult position many households are in at this time of financial uncertainty - whilst mortgage holders are thrilled to see a historically-low base rate, savers are suffering - and it is important that the needs of both groups are balanced.

"Next week will see the launch of Barclays new savings range which will include a new very competitive cash ISA and our best buy Monthly Savings account is still available paying a fantastic 6 per cent AER."