Application Pre-fill & Qualification

Once you’ve completed the Getting Started flow — creating an Entity, verifying James Rodriguez’s identity, and discovering his 6 liability accounts — the next step is to use that data for application pre-fill, real-time underwriting, and enforced debt paydown.

Application Pre-Fill

Reducing Friction with Verified Data

The Entity creation and SMS verification steps from the Getting Started guide already capture the applicant’s name, phone, email, date of birth, and address. This data, combined with the liabilities discovered through Connect, means James doesn’t need to manually list his debts on your application form. Instead of asking “List all outstanding debts with balances and monthly payments,” your application can present James with his verified liability picture and ask him to confirm it. This eliminates manual entry errors, reduces application abandonment, and gives your underwriting team data they can trust.

Pulling Real-Time Account Data

Connect gives you account identifiers and basic liability metadata (creditor name, account type, mask). To get current balances, interest rates, payment due dates, and credit limits, request an Update for each account. Request an update for the Chase Freedom Flex credit card:

curl https://production.methodfi.com/accounts/acc_WqNhMRNVZjbKg/updates \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2025-12-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc"

Once the update completes (delivered via webhook), you receive the full account details:

{
  "id": "upt_FKr8mV4hQzTpN",
  "status": "completed",
  "account_id": "acc_WqNhMRNVZjbKg",
  "source": "direct",
  "type": "credit_card",
  "credit_card": {
    "available_credit": 480000,
    "balance": 320000,
    "closed_at": null,
    "credit_limit": 800000,
    "interest_rate_percentage_max": 24.99,
    "interest_rate_percentage_min": 24.99,
    "interest_rate_type": "variable",
    "last_payment_amount": 15000,
    "last_payment_date": "2025-08-28",
    "next_payment_due_date": "2025-10-01",
    "next_payment_minimum_amount": 8900,
    "opened_at": "2021-06-15",
    "sub_type": "flexible_spending",
    "usage_pattern": "revolver"
  },
  "data_as_of": "2025-09-15T14:30:44.218Z",
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-09-15T14:30:44.218Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-09-15T14:30:44.502Z"
}

Request an update for the Toyota Motor Credit auto loan:

curl https://production.methodfi.com/accounts/acc_TmGPLxkz7Nrh6/updates \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2025-12-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc"

{
  "id": "upt_Bx7nPwR3kJmEL",
  "status": "completed",
  "account_id": "acc_TmGPLxkz7Nrh6",
  "source": "direct",
  "type": "auto_loan",
  "auto_loan": {
    "balance": 1845000,
    "closed_at": null,
    "expected_payoff_date": "2028-11-15",
    "interest_rate_percentage": 5.49,
    "interest_rate_source": "financial_institution",
    "interest_rate_type": "fixed",
    "last_payment_amount": 38500,
    "last_payment_date": "2025-09-01",
    "next_payment_due_date": "2025-10-01",
    "next_payment_minimum_amount": 38500,
    "opened_at": "2022-11-15",
    "original_loan_amount": 2800000,
    "sub_type": "loan",
    "term_length": 72
  },
  "data_as_of": "2025-09-15T14:31:02.874Z",
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-09-15T14:31:02.874Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-09-15T14:31:03.118Z"
}

All monetary values are in cents. The Chase card balance of 320000 is $3,200.00, and the auto loan balance of 1845000 is $18,450.00. The credit limit of 800000 is $8,000.00.

With real-time data from Updates, you can pre-populate your application with verified figures:

Account	Balance	Rate	Monthly Payment	Type
Chase Freedom Flex	$3,200	24.99% APR	$89 min	Credit Card
Toyota Motor Credit	$18,450	5.49% fixed	$385	Auto Loan

Repeat this process for the remaining accounts to build the complete picture for DTI calculations.

Assessing Risk with Attributes

Attributes provide structured credit health metrics without requiring you to parse raw credit report data. For lending qualification, request the attributes most relevant to credit risk:

curl https://production.methodfi.com/entities/ent_qKNBB68bfHGNA/attributes \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2025-12-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "attributes": [
      "credit_health_credit_card_usage",
      "credit_health_payment_history",
      "credit_health_entity_delinquent"
    ]
  }'

{
  "id": "attr_Tn4kJfR8mWxPv",
  "entity_id": "ent_qKNBB68bfHGNA",
  "status": "completed",
  "attributes": {
    "credit_health_credit_card_usage": {
      "value": 38,
      "rating": "fair"
    },
    "credit_health_payment_history": {
      "value": 97,
      "rating": "good"
    },
    "credit_health_entity_delinquent": {
      "value": false,
      "rating": "no_rating"
    }
  },
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-09-15T14:32:18.743Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-09-15T14:32:18.743Z"
}

These attributes feed directly into your underwriting logic:

Credit card usage at 38% (fair): James is using $5,000 of roughly $13,000 in total credit limits. This is above the ideal 30% threshold but not alarming.
Payment history at 97% (good): Strong on-time payment record. The 3% gap may reflect a single late payment in the past.
No active delinquencies (false): James is current on all obligations.

Additional attributes for deeper risk assessment

Beyond the three shown above, you can request credit_health_derogatory_marks, credit_health_hard_inquiries, credit_health_total_accounts, credit_health_credit_age, and credit_health_open_accounts. For a full list, see the Attributes API Reference.

Enforced Debt Paydown (EDP)

Many lenders require applicants to pay down or pay off specific debts as a condition of loan approval. This is common in consolidation loans, HELOCs, and cash-out refinances where the lender wants to ensure existing high-interest debt is eliminated. With Method, you can enforce this programmatically: once the loan is funded, initiate payments directly from your corporate funding account to the applicant’s existing creditors — before any funds reach the borrower.

Identifying Payable Liabilities

From the Connect results, James has several accounts eligible for paydown. For this example, your underwriting team requires James to pay off his Upstart personal loan ($12,000) as a condition of your consolidation loan.

Verifying Current Balance

First, confirm the current balance with a real-time update:

curl https://production.methodfi.com/accounts/acc_YXDrjADGjC76U/updates \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2025-12-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc"

{
  "id": "upt_QmW9nLxKfPvR3",
  "status": "completed",
  "account_id": "acc_YXDrjADGjC76U",
  "source": "direct",
  "type": "personal_loan",
  "personal_loan": {
    "available_credit": null,
    "balance": 1200000,
    "closed_at": null,
    "interest_rate_percentage": 12.49,
    "interest_rate_source": "financial_institution",
    "interest_rate_type": "fixed",
    "last_payment_amount": 28500,
    "last_payment_date": "2025-09-05",
    "next_payment_due_date": "2025-10-05",
    "next_payment_minimum_amount": 28500,
    "opened_at": "2024-01-15",
    "original_loan_amount": 1500000,
    "sub_type": "unsecured",
    "term_length": 36
  },
  "data_as_of": "2025-09-15T14:35:22.617Z",
  "error": null,
  "created_at": "2025-09-15T14:35:22.617Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-09-15T14:35:22.891Z"
}

Initiating the Enforced Paydown

Once the loan is funded and the balance is confirmed, create a payment from your corporate funding account directly to the Upstart personal loan:

curl https://production.methodfi.com/payments \
  -X POST \
  -H "Method-Version: 2025-12-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_WyZEWVfTcH7GqmPzUPk65Vjc" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 1200000,
    "source": "acc_hmap9mbgfLcf9",
    "destination": "acc_YXDrjADGjC76U",
    "description": "EDP Payoff"
  }'

{
  "id": "pmt_7RnGkTm4Xb",
  "source": "acc_hmap9mbgfLcf9",
  "destination": "acc_YXDrjADGjC76U",
  "amount": 1200000,
  "description": "EDP Payoff",
  "status": "pending",
  "estimated_completion_date": "2025-09-22",
  "source_trace_id": null,
  "source_settlement_date": "2025-09-16",
  "source_status": "pending",
  "destination_trace_id": null,
  "destination_settlement_date": "2025-09-22",
  "destination_payment_method": "electronic",
  "destination_status": "pending",
  "reversal_id": null,
  "error": null,
  "metadata": null,
  "created_at": "2025-09-15T14:38:55.204Z",
  "updated_at": "2025-09-15T14:38:55.204Z"
}

The $12,000 payment flows directly from your corporate funding account (acc_hmap9mbgfLcf9) to Upstart (acc_YXDrjADGjC76U). The borrower never touches these funds, which eliminates the risk of misuse and guarantees the debt is retired.

Payment descriptions are limited to 10 characters. Use short, descriptive labels like "EDP Payoff", "Paydown", or "Consolidat".

Getting Started

Entities

Identity Verification

Connect

Accounts

Updates

Payments

Additional Products

Use Cases: Commerce

Use Cases: Lending

Use Cases: PFM

Application Pre-fill & Qualification