Pre-approval

In lending, pre-approval has two meanings:

1. The first is that a lender, via public or propietary information, feels that a potential borrower is completely credit worthy enough for a certain credit product, and approaches the potential customer with a garuntee that should they want that product, they would be garunteed to get it. This rarely happens in the financial services industry, usually what happens is pre-qualification instead.

2. The second meaning has to do with mortgage lending. People interested in buying a house can often approach a lender, who will check their credit and verify their income, and then can garuntee they would be able to get a loan up to a certain amount. The people can then take a letter of pre approval from the lender, and when shopping for a home can have possbly an advantage over others because they can show the seller that they are garunteed to be able to buy the house.