Will lenders run soft or hard credit checks, and when?

At quote stage, most UK SMB lenders run a soft credit search only. A soft search is invisible to other lenders, leaves no footprint on your credit file, and does not affect your score. At full application, when you accept terms and proceed to drawdown, the lender almost always runs a hard search which is visible to other lenders for 12 months.

Soft-search-at-quote is now the market standard for fintech lenders. iwoca, Funding Circle, Capify, 365 Business Finance, Liberis, YouLend, Tide and Fleximize all soft-search at the quote stage. The hard search comes later, only if you proceed.

Bank lenders behave differently. Allica Bank, OakNorth, Aldermore and Shawbrook typically hard-search at full application because their underwriting is human-reviewed and the deeper file pull is needed for committee approval. Some will accept a soft search at indicative-terms stage if a broker is involved.

Multiple soft searches in a short window are harmless. Multiple hard searches in a short window can drop your score noticeably and signal financial distress to other lenders. The practical rule: shop quotes freely, but only proceed to full application with the lender you actually intend to take.

See do lenders do soft or hard credit checks and when for the same question framed for sole traders, and will submitting a quick quote affect my credit score for the consumer-facing version.