Wondering why you haven’t received any quotes yet? Your surety bond application might have gone into manual review.

All surety bond applications must go through a review process before they can be approved. Manual review means that when your information was put into the AUS (Automated Underwriting System) the computer wanted a second opinion to make an approval. The second opinion is a human, the manual underwriter. 

Why Your Application Went Into Manual Review

#1: Your Credit Score

In the surety bond industry, ‘bad credit’ or ‘non-standard’ is considered to be a FICO score of below 650. FICO scores range from 300 to 850 and are classified as follows:

• 750 or above: excellent
• 700-749: above average
• 675-699: good
• 650-674: fair
• 550-649: subprime
• 549 or lower: poor

If your credit score is 650 or lower, your surety bond application might have gone into manual review. This doesn’t mean you won’t be approved. It just means the surety needs to do some extra shopping to find you the best rate for your bond.

You can learn more about bad credit surety bonds.

#2: You Answered Yes to an Underwriting Question

When filling out your surety bond application, you were asked the following questions:

• Has any prior surety company ever cancelled, refused renewal, or denied an application for you?
• Have you ever filed bankruptcy?
• Have you ever had a license suspended, revoked, denied, or had any legal or administrative actions?
• Have you had a prior surety pay a bond claim?
• Have you ever failed in business?
• Do you have any pending or open lawsuits, judgements, liens, or past due child support?
• Have you ever been convicted of fraud or a felony?

Worried about a previous bankruptcy? Check out this post “Can I be bonded after bankruptcy?”

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your surety bond application probably went into manual review. Answering yes doesn’t mean you won’t get approved. It just means the surety needs to do some extra research to make sure they can bond you.

If your credit score is over 650 and you answered no to all the above underwriting questions, there could be one more reason your surety bond application went into manual review:

#3: Your Bond Type Doesn’t Have Automatic Underwriting

Certain bond types do not have automatic underwriting that goes along with them. For example, obscure bonds often go into manual review because they are less popular and need a human to approve/deny them.

Popular bonds can go into manual review, though, too. It just depends if the bond has automatic underwriting associated with it. Motor Vehicle Dealer Bonds often require an underwriter to manually underwrite them, so they go into manual review almost 100% of the time.

Manual Review Does Not Mean You Won’t Be Approved

Manual review simply means that when your information was put into the AUS (Automated Underwriting System) our computer wanted a second opinion to make an approval. The second opinion is a human, the manual underwriter.

Manual underwriting is very common and should not cause concern. What you may find is that since there is a human element, there will be different tolerances for approval. A human underwriter can look at your history and say “Ah, I see why that happened.”

Turnaround time for manual review can vary, but you should get a quote within 1-3 days after submission.

Have a question about your surety bond application? Looking for a new surety bond quote? Contact Surety Solutions.

Contact Surety Solutions, A Gallagher Company

Related Links:

How Much Does A Surety Bond Cost If I Have Bad Credit?

Do You Offer Surety Bond Payment Plans?