During the initial application we will only run a soft credit search (also known as a quotation search).
A soft credit search does not impact your credit score and can't be seen by other lenders, as such it won't affect your chances if you choose to apply with another home finance provider
It will leave a soft 'footprint' that only you will be able to see if you look up your own report, but no one else can.
Once you've got a Decision in Principle, secured a property, had a product recommended to you and proceed with making a formal application, then we will run a hard credit search.
A hard credit search creates a record that you submitted an application and we checked your credit report.
Other banks / providers will be able to see this and if you make many applications, is likely to affect your credit score.