Will submitting a quick quote affect my credit score?

No, submitting a quick quote on BestBusinessLoans does not affect your credit score. The quote stage uses a soft credit check only. Soft searches are invisible to other lenders, leave no footprint on your credit file, and do not change your score. You can submit multiple soft-search quotes and shop providers freely.

A hard search only happens later, if you accept indicative terms and proceed to full application with a chosen lender. A hard search is visible to other lenders for 12 months and can drop your score by 5 to 25 points temporarily. The drop reverses as the search ages off, typically within 3 to 6 months.

The lenders we route to almost all soft-search at quote: iwoca, Funding Circle, Capify, 365 Business Finance, Fleximize, Liberis, Tide, Bizcap, JPM Capital and most major UK SMB fintechs. A small number of bank lenders (Allica Bank, OakNorth) hard-search earlier in the journey. Where that is the case, we make it explicit before you proceed.

Three rules that protect your score. Multiple soft searches in 90 days are harmless. Multiple hard searches in 90 days are not (3+ in a window can drop your score by 30 to 50 points and signal financial distress). And once you accept terms and complete a successful loan, that becomes a positive trade line that helps your file going forward.

See will lenders run soft or hard credit checks and when and do lenders do soft or hard credit checks and when for the lender-by-lender detail.