Halifax has apologised after accidently emailing customers to say that the Bank of England has raised interest rates.
Some mortgage customers received a message on Tuesday saying "the Bank of England base rate has changed today".
But the decision by the central bank on whether or not to raise interest rates is not due until Thursday lunchtime.
The lender followed up with a second email later, apologising to customers for "any confusion" caused.
It said that the email had been prepared in advance of Thursday's vote by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) "so that in the event of a rise we could quickly advise customers and help them understand how that might affect their mortgage".
"We are emailing customers today to apologise and confirm that there are no changes to their mortgage or rates," they added.
It's understood that some Lloyds customers, which also fall under the Lloyds Banking Group, received the message by mistake too.
Halifax told customers on a fixed-rate mortgage that their repayments will not be affected by an increase.
UK inflation was at 7 per cent in March - the highest level since 1992, but this was before April’s 54 per cent hike in Ofgem’s energy price cap is included in calculations.
Inflation is likely to be higher now - forecast at around 8 per cent in April - and this will put yet more pressure on the Bank of England to act again.
In March, interest rates went up from 0.5% to 0.75% - their highest level since March 2020 as the Bank of England sought to cool rising inflation.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has also warned of more successive increases in the coming months.
The next announcement from the nine UK economists who make up the MPC is due on Thursday at 12:00.
Investec economist Philip Shaw said: "Of course, it should be recognised that raising interest rates will do very little to moderate inflation over the next six months and that the aim of tightening policy now is to prevent inflation from remaining above 2% over the medium-term and to protect the central bank's credibility."
If the rate rises to 1%, millions of mortgage holders would be affected.
Martijn van der Heijden, at online broker Habito, said: “For the quarter of UK homeowners who are on a variable, tracker, or standard variable rate, any vote to rise the base rate will mean they see their repayments go up; on tracker mortgages the change will be immediate and certain, but on a variable rate, it’s up to the lender.
“For homeowners with mortgage deals expiring in the next six months, it’s the ideal time to look at whether fixing their mortgage costs is the right course of action. Some lenders allow you to lock in a deal six months early. If you’ve got a mortgage offer, your lender will typically honour the rate that they’ve offered you."
