Apply Links: Shareable Credit Application URLs

A credit application should be one tap away from any conversation your store is already having. Apply links make it exactly that.

An apply link is a branded URL that opens your dealership's online credit application. That is the whole idea, and the reason it matters is where the link can go: into a text message, an email, a landing page, a printed card on the sales desk, a QR code on the window sticker. Wherever a customer is when they decide they are serious, the application is one tap away instead of one visit away.

Apply links belong to SecureWebX, the secure credit application system inside the LeadLocate platform. Every store gets its own links, and each link is customizable from the dealer console. The application behind the link is the same five step form every time: personal, residence, employment, income, review, with co-applicant support, ITIN as well as SSN, income, down payment and a trade-in section. What changes per link is what you add on top of that standard form.

If you are comparing the category, the online credit application software page explains what a dealer should expect from any vendor. This page is the product side: what the link does, where it lives, and how a store actually uses it between opening and close.

Picture a Tuesday. A lead comes in from your website at 9:40 on a used crossover. The salesperson replies by text inside the CRM, answers two questions about mileage, and the customer says they would like to know what payment looks like before driving forty minutes. The salesperson drops the store's apply link into the same thread. The customer opens it on the phone they are already holding, works through the five screens at their own pace, signs, and submits. By the time the customer arrives at 4:30, the finance office has been holding a complete application for hours and the deal starts at the desk instead of at the clipboard.

Same day, different desk. A special finance manager takes a call from a buyer who was turned down somewhere else last week. Rather than asking the buyer to come in and fill out paper, the manager texts the special finance apply link, the one customized with a document upload for proof of income. The application arrives with the pay stub attached. The manager works it that afternoon.

Late in the day a walk-in wants to think about it overnight. They leave with the apply link printed on a card. Some of those customers apply from the couch that evening. The link made the decision easy to act on, which is the only thing a link can do; the customer still decides.

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Apply links are managed in the SecureWebX dealer console, which opens from the SecureWebX button in the LeadLocate CRM dock with one login. Inside the console, Apply links lists every link your store has, each with its public application URL, a Copy link action and an option to open the apply page in a new tab so you can see exactly what the customer sees. Customize application is where a link gets its extra sections, custom fields, document uploads and disclosures.

The customer never sees the console. They see a branded application page on their own phone or laptop, opened from the link you sent. The application is savable step by step, so a customer who is interrupted picks up where they left off rather than starting over.

On the CRM side, the link is sent from the conversation the customer is already in: the two way texting inbox, an email from the composer, or a landing page built in the CRM. When a completed application arrives, it appears in the SecureWebX credit application inbox with a status, an assignee and notes, ready for the finance office.

Yes, and this is the part most stores underuse at first. Each link can carry extra sections, custom fields, document uploads and its own disclosures. A section is a group of fields you add to a chosen step of the application, with a title such as trade-in details and a note under each field to guide the applicant. A custom field can be a text field, a dropdown with options you type in, or a document upload for the file you need on that path. Disclosures added to a link appear on that link's application, and you can require acknowledgment before the applicant continues.

The practical result is one application system that behaves like several. A store might run one link on the website that keeps the standard form clean, one link for the special finance desk that asks for proof of income and residence up front, and one link for a weekend sales event that adds a field for the event code. All three feed the same inbox, and each application shows which apply link it came from.

Customization is done in the console by the store itself, without a support ticket. If your store needs something the customizer does not already cover, it is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

It replaces the paper application, and everything that happens to a paper application after it is signed: the photo of it taken on a personal phone, the text of that photo to the finance office, the fax to a lender, the folder it lives in for years. It replaces the PDF application on the website that a customer prints, fills in by hand and brings in, which almost nobody does. It replaces the generic web form that captures a name and phone number and calls that a credit application.

It also replaces a line item. Stores that want a professional online application typically buy one from a separate vendor, with its own login, its own contract and its own invoice. Apply links are part of SecureWebX, and SecureWebX is part of every LeadLocate plan, so the store is not paying a second vendor to do what its platform already does. The plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

The dealership CRM with credit application page covers why keeping the application system and the CRM under one login matters for the people who work leads all day. The short version is that a salesperson should never leave the conversation to find the application.

Plenty of customers open an apply link, get through two screens and put the phone down. That is normal shopping behaviour, not a lost deal, and the system treats it that way. Abandoned applications feed back to the LeadLocate CRM for follow up, so a half finished form turns into a task for a salesperson rather than a mystery. The rep sees that this customer started applying, which is a strong signal of intent, and follows up with a person to person message rather than a blind check-in.

Because the application is savable step by step, the follow up is easy on the customer too: the link reopens where they stopped. The abandoned credit application follow up page walks through a follow up process that gets these applications completed without nagging. The apply link is what makes that process possible, because there is a record of the start, not only of the finish.

A link that opens a credit application is a public door, and SecureWebX treats it as one. Bot protection sits on the public form so the inbox holds applications from people, not scripts. Application data is encrypted at rest once submitted. The application ends with an e-signature and consent capture against versioned terms, so the exact version of the disclosures each customer agreed to is kept with the record, along with when they agreed. Disclosures you add to a link, including state specific disclosures, appear on that link's application.

On the console side, two factor authentication runs on every sign in, every upload is virus scanned, PDFs open in a watermarked viewer with print and download gated, and a full audit log records who viewed, edited, shared and exported each application. Records are archived, never deleted. None of this is a setting a store has to remember to turn on; it is how the system works.

One line of honesty that belongs on every page about credit: software supports a compliance program, it is not one. The disclosures on your apply links are yours to keep current, and the console gives you the editor to do it.

There is nothing to install. When a LeadLocate account is created, the SecureWebX company and its users are created with it, the SecureWebX button appears in the CRM dock, and the store's first apply link is ready to customize the same day. Open the console, open Apply links, copy the public URL, and send it to a customer. Customize it when you want to; the standard five step application is complete without any changes.

Users are invited into the console with roles, so salespeople can send links and finance managers can work the applications. Because SecureWebX runs as its own system, an interruption on the CRM side does not stop apply links from working: customers still open them, still complete applications, and the console still works them; abandoned applications flow back to the CRM once it is reachable again.

If you would rather see it before you sign up, the pre-recorded live demo shows an apply link going out by text and coming back as a worked application.

Pair apply links with the CRM's texting so the link goes out in the conversation where the buying decision is being made. Pair them with a landing page so a paid or organic visitor can apply without calling first. Pair them with the online credit application form page if you want to see exactly what the customer walks through, step by step.

Inside SecureWebX, an application that arrived by apply link picks up everything the console offers: Send to Lender, stipulations with upload to fulfill, adverse action notices, worksheets with a deal recap PDF, and export to your lender or DMS in the format it expects. The link is the front door. The rest of the house is on the all features page.

What is an apply link in SecureWebX?

A branded URL that opens your dealership's five step online credit application. Every store gets its own apply links, each customizable with extra sections, custom fields, document uploads and disclosures, and each one feeds the same application inbox.

Can I send an apply link by text?

Yes. Copy the link from the SecureWebX console and send it in the CRM text conversation, an email or a landing page. The customer opens it on their phone, completes the application at their own pace and signs.

Can I have more than one apply link?

Yes. Stores commonly run one link for the website, one for special finance with a document upload, and one for an event. Each link is customized separately, and each application shows which link it came from.

What if the customer does not finish the application?

Abandoned applications feed back to the LeadLocate CRM for follow up. The salesperson sees that the customer started applying and follows up, and the link reopens where the customer stopped because the application saves step by step.

Is the apply link secure?

Bot protection sits on the public form, application data is encrypted at rest, consent is captured against versioned terms, uploads are virus scanned and a full audit log records who touched each application. Records are archived, never deleted.

Is there an extra charge for apply links?

No. Apply links are part of SecureWebX, and SecureWebX is part of every LeadLocate plan. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

Apply links are part of SecureWebX and every LeadLocate plan, month to month. See a link go out by text and come back as a complete, signed application.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.