Not much, and not for long. A full mortgage application puts one hard search on your credit report, other lenders can see it for roughly a year, and your score may drop by a few points before it climbs back. What really causes trouble is a bunch of searches landing close together, or fresh borrowing arriving at the worst possible moment.
What follows covers what gets checked and when, how long the marks hang around, why sending full applications to several lenders backfires in the UK, and what is worth sorting out in the months before you apply.
Soft Searches and Hard Searches
There are two kinds of check, and only one of them is visible to anyone but you. A soft search is private. You trigger one when you look at your own report, use an eligibility checker or ask for a quote, and it leaves your score alone and has no bearing on any lender’s decision.
A hard search is the public kind. A formal application for credit sets one off, so every full mortgage application comes with one, and other lenders can see it on your file. Because it tells them you have applied for credit, it can knock your score down for a time. If your credit history is thin, the knock is larger, since there is little else on the file to soften it.
Where the Checks Fall During a Mortgage
Talking through your income, deposit and outgoings with a broker costs your file nothing. The first search only happens when a lender is approached, so ask which sort that lender runs before anyone submits anything.
The decision in principle comes first, and lenders split on how they handle it. Some run a soft search, others go straight to a hard one, so the same step can leave a mark with one lender and none with the next. Remember too that a decision in principle is not an offer. Cases do get declined after an agreement in principle once underwriting starts.
At the full application stage the hard search is standard. After that come the checks on pay, bank statements and the property, none of which touch your credit file. A few lenders look at your file again shortly before completion, so keep your hands off new credit until you have the keys.
How Long the Marks Last
Other lenders can usually see a hard search for about 12 months, and some agencies keep the record for as long as two years. Your score tends to recover long before the entry drops off.
What an underwriter reacts to is volume. A couple of searches across a year looks like ordinary life. Five in a month looks like somebody being turned down again and again. If an application is declined the search stays behind, but other lenders see that you applied and generally not how it ended.
Why Four Applications Do More Harm Than One
One considered application looks very different from four in a month
Many people assume that several mortgage searches made close together will be treated as one. On a UK credit file they are not. Each hard search is logged separately, so four full applications leave four marks however close together they were.
Picture two buyers on the same income with the same deposit. Buyer one wants the best rate, so over three weeks she sends full applications to four lenders. Her file ends up with four hard searches, and anyone reading it sees someone applying all over the place.
Buyer two compares lenders with soft searches and a decision in principle that leaves no mark, chooses one, and makes a single application.
One search on her file. Same money, same deposit, very different look on paper. Both buyers are made up for illustration.
After a decline, hold off on trying the next lender the same afternoon. Find out what went wrong, fix it if you can and leave about three months before you apply again.
What Lenders Weigh Up Beyond the Search
The search is a small piece of what a lender sees. The whole file gets read: payment history, any defaults or county court judgments, how close your cards run to the limit, recent applications, and whether you are on the electoral roll at your current address. Lenders mostly feed that into their own scorecards, so the numbers Experian, Equifax and TransUnion show you are a rough guide and not the verdict.
That is how two people with the same score end up with different answers. A late payment from years ago barely registers with most lenders, while a recent default, or cards sitting at the limit, counts for far more. Our guide to how your credit score affects your mortgage application goes into that side.
Getting Your File in Shape Before You Apply
Start three to six months before you plan to apply, if you can. Request your report from all three agencies, since each keeps its own file and the entries do not always match.
Reading your own report is a soft search and statutory copies are free.
Hunt for accounts you do not recognise, old addresses and payments marked late that were not, and ask the agency to correct anything wrong while you still have time.
Make sure you are on the electoral roll at your current address, because lenders lean on it to confirm who you are and where you live.
Then keep every payment on time, and put regular bills on direct debit so nothing slips by accident.
Credit cards are worth a look. Paying balances down helps, and many people try to stay below about 30 percent of each limit, though nothing in UK lending sets 30 percent as a hard rule. Closing an old account to tidy up can shorten your history, so leave long-standing ones alone unless you have a reason.
Between now and completion, steer clear of anything that involves a credit application. No new cards, no finance on a car or a sofa, no balance transfer to tidy up debt. Every one of those is a hard search in its own right, and new borrowing adds to your monthly commitments, which a lender then subtracts from what it will offer.
When Your File Is Not Clean
Missed payments, defaults and county court judgments usually stay on a file for six years. None of them closes the door on a mortgage, but a recent or serious one cuts the number of lenders who will listen and tends to push rates up. Timing, size, whether it has been settled and how you have behaved since all carry weight.
Specialist bad credit mortgages exist for exactly these cases. Tell your broker upfront and the application goes to lenders whose rules suit your file, so you do not waste a search on one that was always going to say no. Our adverse credit remortgage case study shows a client with missed payments placed with a specialist lender.
Using a Broker When Credit Is on Your Mind
A broker cannot rewrite what is on your file, but can stop you adding to it. A whole-of-market mortgage broker can read your reports the way an underwriter would, ask each lender which sort of search it runs, compare options with soft searches where lenders offer them and put forward one full application to the lender best matched to your file. Approval cannot be promised, but fewer wasted searches leaves you better placed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will a mortgage application lower my credit score?
It can, by a small amount.
One full application adds one hard search, and for most borrowers the dip is slight and clears as the search ages and payments stay on time. Larger swings usually come from what surrounds the application, such as several applications close together or new borrowing taken out while the mortgage is in progress.
Does a decision in principle leave a mark on my credit file?
That varies by lender.
Plenty use a soft search at this stage, which only you can see and which does not touch your score, whereas others run a hard search straight away. Ask the lender which one applies before you agree, especially if you are comparing several.
How long does a hard search stay on my credit file?
Lenders can usually see it for about 12 months, and some agencies hold the record for up to two years, although it matters to your score for far less time.
What underwriters notice is volume: a couple of searches in a year is unremarkable, whereas several inside a few weeks can look like applications failing elsewhere.
Do several mortgage searches made close together count as one?
No.
On a UK credit file each hard search is logged separately, however close together the applications are, so four full applications leave four marks. Comparing lenders with soft searches, or with a decision in principle that is soft, and then applying to one lender is the safer route.
Is there a minimum credit score for a mortgage?
No single figure applies across lenders.
Each one feeds your file into its own scorecard, so the numbers displayed by Experian, Equifax or TransUnion work as a guide and not the decision. A recent default or missed payments tend to weigh more than a score that is merely average.
Can one missed payment stop me getting a mortgage?
Not on its own.
How recent it is, how serious it was and what type of account it sat on all matter. A late credit card payment from a couple of years back is often manageable, whereas missed mortgage or rent payments in the last year get a much harder look, so say what is on your file early and the case can be steered to a lender whose criteria suit it.
Is a mortgage possible with bad credit?
Often, though the choice of lenders shrinks and rates are usually higher.
Specialist bad credit mortgages look at what happened, how long ago, whether it has been settled and how your credit has been handled since. Our page on specialist bad credit mortgages sets out the options in more detail.
Does looking at my own credit report affect my score?
It does not.
Checking your own report is a soft search that only you can see, so your score and any mortgage application are unaffected. Look at all three agencies before you apply, since their records for you may differ.
Speak to a credit and mortgage application specialist
Speak to a Credit and Mortgage Application Specialist
If you are worried about what an application will do to your credit file, or what your file will do to the application, talk to us before anything is submitted. We can read your reports the way an underwriter will, tell you which lenders suit your file and plan the searches so you do not spend more than you need to.
UK Mortgage Broker is a whole-of-market broker helping clients throughout the UK and globally to secure funding on UK property. We are directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Call: +44 1628 969 500 Email: info@uk-mortgagebroker.co.uk
Related Pages
- Residential Mortgages – our core service for purchases and remortgages, across the whole of the market.
- Mortgage Affordability UK Explained – how lenders assess income, commitments and stress rates when deciding what to lend.
- How Much Can I Borrow? – income multiples, commitments and the affordability rules that set your ceiling.
- How Lenders Actually Check Your Income – what underwriters look at on your payslips and bank statements alongside the credit file.
- The Residential Mortgage Process – the stages from decision in principle to completion, and when each check happens.