Do you look at prices before you buy something?

27/05/2019

Of course you do. But if we’re thinking about a banking product or service, where do we look?

Banks can apply interest rates freely. As with any other product, the price of a bank product or service will depend on its features and conditions. To get an idea, we can check the advertising or inform ourselves at the bank itself.

But you should also know that the Banco de España publishes certain interest rates that might be “of interest” to you.

On the one hand, it publishes a series of official interest rates:

• Mortgage market reference rates (Euribor and others)

• Statutory interest rate

• Interest for late paymentAbre en ventana nueva

• European Central Bank interest rates.Abre en ventana nueva

On the other, it publishes the rates applied by banks to loans and deposits. These are the interest rates which banks charge when they lend money and pay when they receive it. They are set on the basis of the information which banks are required to submit monthly to the Banco de España as a member of the European System of Central Banks, and they are prepared for statistical purposes. 

Check the Banco de España’s Statistical Bulletin (Chapter 19)Abre en ventana nueva for more information on these rates.