Homeowners face rising mortgages as Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates within days

The Bank of England is expected to raise its base interest rate from 3% to 3.5% at a meeting on Thursday, which would affect owners with variable mortgages Millions of families face even higher mortgage burdens (

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Homeowners should be hit by higher mortgage charges as the Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates again in a few days.

Bank bosses will meet on Thursday to decide whether to raise the cost of borrowing further.

Financial experts expect the Bank's base interest rate to drop from 3% to 3.5%, which would be a 14-year high.

This will be the ninth time in a row that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - which decides on the base rate - has increased it. Less than a year ago, the rate was 0.1%.

A 0.5 percentage point increase would be slightly lower than last month when the Bank opted for a 0.75 percentage point hike. This is the largest increase since 1989.

Interest rates are already at a 14-year high (

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The base rate is important because it determines how much banks charge borrowers: when interest rates are higher, borrowing becomes more expensive.

Millions of homeowners will see their mortgages increase due to rising interest rates. Savings rates are also expected to rise, although most banks have been slow to pass on the increases.

A rate hike is bad news for the two million people who have variable rate mortgages.

Trailer mortgage rates will increase as these offers scale with the base rate.

Those with a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage will likely see their rates increase as well, although it is up to lenders to decide whether or not to pass on the increase.

The number of people on SVR mortgages is believed to have increased in recent months as borrowers reached the end of their fixed rate agreements and decided to let them switch to default rates while they waited for fixed rates go down.

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