Mortgage Agreement in Principle

If you want to apply for a mortgage with us online, then yes, you need to request an AIP first. Once you have your AIP, you can continue to a full mortgage application online whenever you need to.

However, if you'd like support, you can apply for a mortgage through one of our branches, or over the phone, without having an Agreement in Principle.

If you've had money problems before it doesn't necessarily mean you can't get an AIP. Once you've provided some information to us about your circumstances, we'll be able to give you an indication of whether we may be able to lend to you, and how much you might be able to borrow. 

• If you do choose to move your Agreement in Principle forward and apply for a mortgage with us, we will run a full credit check, and use this information to help inform our decision to lend.
• Therefore, it is a good idea to consider potential factors that may impact or improve your credit score, before you are in the position of applying for a mortgage.

Find out more about your credit score when applying for a mortgage.

A mortgage Agreement in Principle isn't legally binding and does not guarantee the mortgage will be offered, even when applying with the same lender. 

It could take less than five minutes to complete an Agreement in Principle.

It could be handy to have some details to hand when starting an AIP, such as property details, your income and expenditure or any credit or loans you may have.

As part of the application, we will ask for personal information about you and your circumstances. We use this to help personalise the indication of how much you may be able to borrow.

• We won't use your contact details to contact you about anything other than your AIP unless you explicitly opt-in to get more communications from us.
• As part of the application, we may provide your details to certain third parties, such as credit reference agencies, to help validate the information you give us and prevent fraud. We will not run a full credit check, and your credit score will not be impacted.
• For more information about how we may use your personal information, and your rights in relation to personal information, please see our Privacy Policy.

Before you find a property you can get an Agreement in Principle, however, your lender won't make a formal mortgage offer until you've submitted an application.

Additionally, no formal offer will be made until a valuation has been carried out on the property you wish to buy or remortgage, and you have satisfied their lending criteria and affordability checks.

If you would like to discuss further please contact our Mortgage Team via online chat on our Manage Your Mortgage page, who will be happy to help you.

Providing you with an Agreement in Principle (AIP) allows NatWest to give you an indication of how much we may be able to lend to you based on your personal and financial circumstances.

At this point you do not need to have a specific property in mind to obtain the AIP, but having a reasonable idea of the Property Value/Purchase Price and the amount of deposit you will have will be sufficient.