Mortgage application question

welshwizard1927

My fianc! and I have found a house that we really like and are now in a position that we need to apply for a mortgage.

We have two appointments on Saturday with two building societies - both of whom are offering competing interest rates.

I apologise of this sounds like a daft question (we're FTB - please bear with us!) but how does the initial mortgage appointment work? Subject to everything being ok on the face of things, am I right in saying that we would get an agreement in principle but it is not binding until the full application is submitted when the credit checks take place?

Clearly I want to avoid duplicate and unnecessary credit checks taking place.

Many thanks for your help.

kingstreet

Yes. However, a credit search will be carried out for the AIP. Normally, this is a hard search which will show up ion your credit file. There are very few lenders conducting soft searches and these can result in an unreliable answer.

I'd decide which lender you want to use before putting pen to paper, then proceed to full application immediately, unless you have an issue you may think relevant and a potential problem. Most lenders application systems use their AIP as the foundation for a full application, so if you are declined for credit reasons, that will happen before you commit to paying fees etc.