Know your rate: how to find it and what it means

If you're not sure what interest rate your savings or mortgage is on, you're in good company — a lot of people couldn't say off the top of their head. There's no shame in it: rates change quietly, and nobody sends a reminder. This is simply how to find yours.

What a rate actually is

A savings rate (shown as AER) is what your money earns over a year. On £1,000, a 4% account earns about £40 a year; a 2% account earns about £20 — same money, double the interest, just from the rate. A mortgage rate is the flip side: what your borrowing costs. For borrowing you'll often see APR, which folds in standard fees as well as interest; AER is the savings equivalent.

Where yours is hiding

For savings, it's in your banking app next to the account, or on your statement, usually labelled "AER" or "interest rate". For a mortgage, it's on your annual mortgage statement or your original offer letter. One catch: an old account's rate may have quietly changed since you opened it, so the number you remember might not be the number today.

The quiet traps

A few things catch people out. A bonus rate can expire after 12 months, dropping you to a much lower rate. A closed-book account (one that's no longer sold to new customers) can be left to wither on a poor rate. And on a mortgage, when a fixed deal ends you usually roll onto the lender's SVR — the Standard Variable Rate — which is typically higher. Each of these is worth a quick check.

If you can't find it

If you genuinely can't track it down, Blooom can estimate it for you — from the interest you've seen land in a savings account, or from your mortgage balance and monthly payment. An estimate is always labelled as an estimate, never presented as the real figure, and it points you back to your statement to confirm.