Close Brothers 'Decision in Principle' has been developed to indicate whether a consumer could be approved by completing a soft credit search before a quote and proposal to the lender. It's most suited for consumers looking to get a finance first approval before finding a suitable vehicle.
This functionality is not available for all AutoConvert users integrated with Close Brothers. Please talk to Close Brothers directly to see if you're eligible.
If your company has the 'Decision in Principle' integration;
- All intended Hire Purchase/Conditional Sale business for a private individual must have a completed decision in principle before a proposal
- You can't propose an application if the decision in principle has returned a declined status
- A decision in principle is not required to submit a proposal for PCP business or HP/CS for business or joint applications.
How to get a pre-approval decision manually
Select 'Send to lender' in the top right corner of an application.
- It's only possible to obtain a decision in principle/pre-approval once any outstanding criteria have been met.
- If a quote can't be shown because it needs more information, a collapsible section will appear next to the name of the lender in the 'Lenders' section of the application
- Selecting the text or the plus symbol on the right-hand side will open a list of links to the missing information
- When you select a link, a window will appear where you can fill in the missing information
- Once the missing information has been filled in, the link will disappear from the list
Getting a pre-approval
Once an application meets the lender's criteria, you can send it
The 'Get pre-approval' button will appear on the left-hand side of the 'Lenders' section, next to the lender's name. A loading symbol will show whilst a decision is being made.
The decision can be seen by selecting the (i) icon next to the lender's name.
The decision in principle information will show:
- Decision in principle status:
- Accepted in Principle
- Unable to Decision
- Declined
- Date of decision
- Maximum monthly payment amount
- Proposed term of agreement
- Risk band
- Decision expiry date
Quoting
Accepted In Principle
If the decision in principle is accepted, you can get a quote on the intended financial figures before submitting a full proposal.
To obtain a quote, select the 'Get Quote' button.
The quote is displayed against the tier selected.
If the quoted payments are higher than the maximum indicative monthly repayment provided in the decision in principle, a warning triangle will show next to 'Send'.
You can see details of the warning message by selecting the warning triangle.
You'll need to change the quotation figures to fit the parameters set by the decision in principle before submitting for a full proposal.
Unable to decision
If the lender can't decide, the 'Unable to decision' status will show.
This status can be caused by trace around the customer. Users should check the information submitted and if any changes are made, then re-select 'Get Pre-Approval' for a new search.
Decline
If the customer is declined for a decision in principle, they're not eligible for a quote or full proposal to be sent. The buttons in the 'Send to lender' section won't be selectable.
The declined decision will apply across all finance types, so switching finance types and sending again will result in the same outcome but with a hard credit search incurred.
If a new decision in principle is requested and the details are still the same, the decision will remain the same.
Good to know: A change of details could still result in the same decision.
The lender will reject multiple attempts to get a decision for the same customer details in a short period of time.
Sending a proposal
Once a quote is within the criteria and you're happy, you can submit for a full proposal by selecting the 'Send' button.
Once you select 'Send', the button will change to 'Sent', and you can navigate to the application activity feed to wait for a response.
- In the Activity feed section of the application overview page, the sent status will display as 'pending verification' until a decision is made. The decision is not instant and may take a few moments to come through.
- The finance application will return with approval, decline, filter or error
Learn more about using the Close Brothers Motor Finance integration
If you need any more help, please raise a ticket on the AutoConvert system or email: support@autoconvert.co.uk