# Changing or withdrawing an application

Why a sent application cannot be edited, what to do when something was wrong or has changed, and how to call it off.

Updated: 2026-09-12

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## Before you send it

Everything is editable. Go back to any step from the rail on the left — or, in the app, by
reopening the application — change it, and it saves itself. Nothing is final until you press
**Submit application**.

## After you send it

A sent application is fixed. There is no editing it, not even the step you were standing on when
you sent it, and that is on purpose: what we decide on has to be what you sent us. An application
that can change under an underwriter who has already read it is one nobody can stand behind.

So if something was wrong, or something has changed:

- **[Call us](/support).** With the reference — SPK-XXXXXX, at the top of the application — we can put the
  correction on the file where the person reading it will see it.
- **Do not start a second application** for the same business to correct the first. Two live
  files for one business do not double your chances; they split the attention of the person
  reading them.

## Withdrawing

You can call an application off while it is still live — that is, anything except funded,
declined or already withdrawn. On the application page, under the tracker: **Withdraw this
application**. Once a file is funded or declined the link is not there, because there is nothing
left to call off.

<Shot src="application-needs-you" alt="An application page. Under the four-stage tracker, a line reading changed your mind, you can call this off at any point before it's funded, with a Withdraw this application link." />

It closes the file and stops the work on it. Nothing else happens — no fee, no mark against you,
and you can start a new application whenever you like. A withdrawn application stays on your list
marked **Withdrawn**, because it is part of your history with us.

## If a draft expired

An unfinished application closes to editing 45 days after you started it, because the statements
underneath it have gone stale. Start a new one: everything you typed comes across, the documents
do not. See [applying again](/help/applying-again).

## In the app

The same **Withdraw this application** under the tracker, and the same rule about editing. The
app asks first — a confirmation sheet titled *Withdraw this application?* with a red **Withdraw
it** — because it is not something to do by mis-tap.

If you open an application that can no longer be changed, the app says why rather than showing
you a form that will refuse to save.

Documents you sent stay with the withdrawn file. They are not deleted, and they are not moved
onto anything new — see [applying again](/help/applying-again).