Agreement in Principle Helpcentre

If an Agreement in Principle outcome is 'Refer' please contact your Business Development Manager to discuss the case in more detail

Yes. In these cases the Agreement in Principle tool is unable to retrieve enough information on the customer from the soft search to provide an Agreement in Principle result. When we go through the full application, this is based on the customer’s full credit history and will enable a result to be obtained. In these cases please contact your Business Development Manager to discuss the case in more detail or submit a full application.

If the Agreement in Principle is declined please check the accuracy of the information input. If the information is accurate and you’d like to discuss in more detail, please refer to your BDM.

No, there is no change to the application process.

If you are on the Outcomes screen, you can make amendments using the Recalculate button. Alternatively, if you have navigated away from this screen, a new Agreement in Principle can be submitted.

Some Estate Agents like to see an Agreement In Principle before accepting an offer on a property to give a level of comfort that the buyer has the ability to obtain a mortgage and are less likely to pull out of the deal further down the line. Customers should note that the Agreement in Principle is not a guarantee that a lender will lend a specific figure, or lend at all.

Yes, if you take longer than 20 minutes to the complete the form you will be timed out. If more than 20 minutes have passed you will receive an alert when you click to obtain the Agreement in Principle.

The Agreement in Principle tool is not suitable for customers who are contractors. Please contact your Business Development Manager to discuss the case in more detail.

As an Agreement in Principle is an indication of potential lend, it is valid on the day it is completed. However, as general guidance, a customer would not need to complete a new Agreement in Principle unless either their circumstances or the bank’s lending criteria changed.

Any Agreement in Principle completed on the same day, where the name, address and date of birth are the same (even if in a different quote) would not leave a second soft search. If a new quote is completed on a different day then this would leave a second soft footprint however this would in no way effect a client’s credit score.

The Agreement in principle is not a guarantee that we will lend to a customer. As part of the lending decision process, we must still complete a full credit check as well as ensuring that the property to be mortgaged is suitable for mortgage purposes as part of the customer’s mortgage application process. The bank also reserve the right to amend their lending criteria at any time prior to a formal offer to lend being issued.

Yes, each Agreement in Principle result generates a unique reference number which you can quote should you have any queries.

No, for a joint application where the customers have dependants, these should be input under one of the applicants only as entering them under both will result in a double-counting.

A soft credit search looks at key pieces of information to check a potential borrower’s credit worthiness so that lenders can assess whether a full application is likely to be successful before carrying out the full examination of a customer’s credit report. A hard credit search will be recorded on a customer’s credit report and be visible for any future lenders to see. Please be aware that numerous hard credit searches may negatively impact on a customer’s ability to obtain credit.

Customers who are looking to do the following are suitable for an Agreement in Principle:

• Buy their first home
• Move to another home
• Move their mortgage from another provider

Interest Only and Buy-to-Let mortgages are not covered in the Agreement in Principle tool.

The Agreement in Principle tool carries out a ‘Soft Search’ on a customer based on the information provided. This ensures that their credit history or score is not impacted. The tool we use to obtain the Agreement in Principle uses a soft credit search only and this will not leave any visible footprint on the credit history or effect any credit score. This looks at key pieces of information about a potential borrower and is a ‘lighter touch’ check than a full credit search used for a lending decision

Our Telephone BDM team are available on 0800 1412 104

The Buy-to-let and Interest only types have been excluded for now; however, this is something we are looking at and may introduce these in a later phase.