Bank Rates API

Access the Bank of England Official Bank Rate - the UK's key interest rate that influences borrowing and saving rates

REST API

JSON Responses

API Key Authentication

Daily Updates

Overview

The Bank Rates API provides access to the Bank of England Official Bank Rate (also known as the Base Rate), sourced directly from the Bank of England Statistical Interactive Database (IADB). This is the single most important interest rate in the UK economy.

This API provides:

Current Bank of England Official Bank Rate
Complete rate change history back to 1975
Each record shows the date a rate change took effect
Daily automated updates from official BoE sources

What is the Bank Rate?

The Bank Rate is set by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). It influences all other interest rates in the economy, including mortgage rates, savings rates, and loan rates. When the Bank Rate changes, banks typically adjust their rates accordingly.

Key Features

Official Bank of England data source
Daily automated updates
Historical data back to 1975
Rate change filtering
Sub-second response times
1-hour response caching

This API is ideal for:

Financial applications and dashboards
Mortgage calculators
Economic analysis tools
Property investment platforms
Savings comparison services

Data Source Notice

All bank rate data is sourced from the Bank of England Statistical Interactive Database (Series Code: IUDBEDR). Data is updated daily when markets are open.

Authentication

All requests to the Bank Rates API require authentication using an API key. You can obtain your API key from your PropertyInsights dashboard after subscribing to an API plan.

Include your API key in the request header as follows:

X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Security Warning

Never expose your API key in client-side code. Always make API calls from your server-side application to protect your credentials.

Endpoints

Base URL

https://propertyinsights.co.uk/api/v1/

Get Bank Rates

GET

/bank-rates

Get current and historical Bank of England Official Bank Rate data. Returns the latest rate, metadata, and historical data with optional filtering.

Request Parameters

GET /bank-rates

Query parameters for filtering bank rate data.

Parameter	Required	Type	Description
startDate	Optional	String	Start date for historical data (YYYY-MM-DD format)
endDate	Optional	String	End date for historical data (YYYY-MM-DD format)
limit	Optional	Integer	Maximum records to return (default: 100, max: 500)

Billing details in the response

Successful chargeable JSON responses include a top-level billing object. The endpoint examples on this page focus on the endpoint-specific data, so this repeated block may not be shown in every example.

"billing": {
  "mode": "prepaid",
  "creditsCharged": 1,
  "creditsRemaining": 1999,
  "creditsRefreshAt": "2026-08-14T09:30:00.000Z"
}

Field or header	Meaning
billing.creditsCharged X-Credits-Charged	Credits charged by this call. Failed and non-chargeable calls return `0` in the header.
billing.creditsRemaining X-Credits-Remaining	The credit balance after the call.
billing.creditsRefreshAt X-Credits-Refresh-At	The next monthly credit refresh as an ISO 8601 timestamp. Trial and non-renewing balances return `null` and omit the header.

All authenticated API-key calls expose the billing headers, including validation errors and zero-credit status or management requests. Only successful chargeable JSON responses add the billing object to the response body.

Response Format

All API responses are returned in JSON format. The response includes the current rate and a list of rate changes. Each record represents a date when the rate changed to a new value - the rate remains in effect until the next change date.

{
  "success": true,
  "current": {
    "rate": 3.75,
    "effectiveFrom": "2025-12-18",
    "label": "Bank of England Official Bank Rate"
  },
  "rateChanges": [
    { "date": "2025-12-18", "rate": 3.75 },
    { "date": "2025-11-06", "rate": 4.0 },
    { "date": "2025-09-17", "rate": 4.25 },
    { "date": "2025-08-06", "rate": 4.5 }
  ]
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
current.rate	Number	Current bank rate as a percentage
current.effectiveFrom	String	Date the current rate took effect (YYYY-MM-DD)
rateChanges	Array	Rate change records - each shows when a new rate took effect

Examples

Example 1: Get Current Bank Rate

GET https://propertyinsights.co.uk/api/v1/bank-rates?limit=1
X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Returns the current bank rate with the date it took effect

Example 2: Get Recent Rate Changes

GET https://propertyinsights.co.uk/api/v1/bank-rates?limit=20
X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Returns the 20 most recent rate changes

Example 3: Rate Changes in Date Range

GET https://propertyinsights.co.uk/api/v1/bank-rates?startDate=2020-01-01&endDate=2023-12-31
X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Returns all bank rate changes between 2020 and 2023

Example 4: Full Rate History

GET https://propertyinsights.co.uk/api/v1/bank-rates?limit=500
X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Returns up to 500 rate changes (covers most of the history back to 1975)

Error Handling

The API uses standard HTTP response codes and returns detailed error information in JSON format. All errors follow a consistent structure to help you handle them appropriately in your application.

HTTP Code	Error Code	Description
400	INVALID_DATE_FORMAT	Date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format
400	INVALID_LIMIT	Limit must be between 1 and 500
404	NO_DATA_FOUND	No bank rate data found for the specified date range
401	AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED	Valid API key is required
402	INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS	Not enough API credits remaining to perform operation
500	DATABASE_ERROR	Error accessing database - please try again
500	INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR	An unexpected error occurred

Error Response Format

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "NO_DATA_FOUND",
    "message": "No bank rate data found for the specified date range"
  }
}

Need Help?

If you need assistance with implementation or have questions about the Bank Rates API, our support team is here to help.

Contact Support