Alex Sitaras, Head of Savings and Partnerships
1 August 2025
Getting your money working hard for you is really important when it comes to reaching your financial goals.
But in the fast-moving world we live in, it can feel hard to know where you’re at with your money at any one time, and whether it’s in the best possible place for your needs – especially when we’ve had such uncertainty with inflation and interest rates.
After a few years of higher interest rates, things are starting to ease up. The Bank of England has made four interest rate cuts since July 2024, and many analysts expect it to make another two later on this year.
So with rate cuts well and truly in full swing, you might be wondering what this means for your money. Well, I have some good news for you: Skipton could help you figure this out with a free My Money Review. More on that later – let’s get started by taking a look at what lower interest rates could mean for your savings and your mortgage, including what you can do to try and get the most from falling rates.
What do lower rates mean for your savings?
In 2023, interest rates on savings accounts rose rapidly, providing savers with some great opportunities. But how could interest rate cuts affect what’s on offer?
The good news: savings rates are still much better than they were a few years ago. And even though rates are starting to dip, you can still find decent interest rates - with some still outpacing inflation.
But here's the catch: with base rates coming down, saving rates are following. But just because this is the case, you shouldn't give up on getting your money working hard. There are still plenty of options available to you – we offer a wide range of savings accounts for different goals.
As a starting point, take a look at the interest rate you’re currently receiving on your savings to see if you could get a better deal. Moving your money to a new savings account is much easier than you might think. It’s nice and simple to apply for one of our accounts online.
Next, it’s worth thinking about whether you have room to save money that you don’t need immediate access to. If so, there may be some great opportunities to get this working harder for you.
For example, a Fixed Rate Bond could be a great way of locking in a guaranteed interest rate for a set period. At Skipton, we have a range of Fixed Rate Bonds for you to check out – with these you’ll keep the interest rate on the account for the fixed term (for example, five years), no matter what other interest rates are doing.
It’s worth me mentioning that you usually can’t make withdrawals from these types of account. We also always recommend you have six months’ worth of expenses in an easy-access savings account to cover for any unexpected emergencies.
Investing in your future goals
That’s your short and medium-term needs covered, but what about your long-term goals? This is when we get onto those life changing moments – like saving towards retirement or leaving a stronger legacy for your loved ones.
For these types of goals, investing could help you to achieve higher returns than what a savings account could offer over the long-term. And this could make a difference to your financial future and personal goals.
Investing does involve taking risk with your money, and you’ll need to be willing to commit a part of your savings for at least five years.
For these reasons, it could be worth meeting with one of our expert financial advisers to better understand your options. And the great thing about speaking to us about your long-term goals is that it costs absolutely nothing upfront to find out if we could help you or to hear our personalised recommendations. You’ll only be charged if you go ahead and act on our advice.
Financial advice is hard to find on the high street these days, unless you have over £100,000 to invest. We’re proud to be different. If you have at least £20,000 to invest – or £50,000 already in pensions and savings – we can provide expert advice. Our advice is also available if you can invest at least £500 a month.
Our recommendations are likely to include stock market-based investments. These aren't like building society savings accounts. The value of your investments and any income can go down or up and you may get back less than you invested
What do lower rates mean for your mortgage?
I also caught up with our mortgage expert, Umera Patel, who starred in episode one of our mini series, Make Your Move. Here's what Umera had to say about what lower rates could mean for your mortgage.
“In the summer of 2023, we watched mortgage rates surge to their highest level in 15 years. But the fact that interest rates have started to fall means we've seen an overall downwards trend in mortgage rates across the last year or so.
“However, it’s important to stress that we don’t expect them to fall back to the super low levels they were at in 2021 anytime soon – meaning if you haven’t remortgaged since rates rose, you should prepare for the likelihood of paying a higher rate than what you’re on now.
“To avoid any nasty shocks, the best thing you can do is to prepare well in advance. At Skipton, you can choose your next one in the few months before your current deal ends. And you’re not tied to it, meaning you can switch again ahead of your deal (if it hasn’t already been put in place) – for example, if rates were to fall in that time.
“If the idea of paying a higher mortgage rate is something which concerns you, it’s worth looking into things like your monthly expenses to check if there are any savings you could make to cover a potential rise in payments. You can also check out our monthly repayment calculator, which can help you to figure out how different interest rates might affect your monthly payments.
“And as always, if you’re wondering what’s best for you when it comes to remortgaging, a chat with one of our mortgage advisers could make all the difference.”
Free advice on your money
If you’re wanting more personalised advice on what lower rates could mean for your savings, a chat about your finances will help you to find out more about your options. And we can help you with this through a free My Money Review.
This is a relaxed conversation with one of our experienced colleagues to talk about your short, medium and long-term goals for your money. The chat takes around an hour and is very much led by you – at the end of it, we’ll provide you with a report with our recommendations on what we feel is best for you.
After the chat there’s no pressure for you to do anything and we’ll take everything at your pace. You can even book another appointment if you want to chat with us again. We could also arrange for you to speak to one of our financial advisers to discuss things like investing and saving into a pension.
