Understand a loan agreement before the money moves
A loan agreement hides its real cost and risk in defined terms and cross-references: how interest is calculated, when repayments fall due, what the borrower promises to keep doing, and what lets the lender demand everything back early. Upload the agreement and its schedules, whether signed PDFs, scans or Word drafts, ask about one of those points at a time, and open the cited excerpt to read the wording the lender will rely on.
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Last updated October 2026
How to read a loan agreement with Search+
- Upload the agreement with its schedules and security documents
Add the facility or loan agreement together with the repayment schedule, any security agreement, guaranty and fee letter, up to 10 files at a time. Key numbers often live in a schedule rather than the main body.
- Set your role in Workspace Context
Write something like "I am the borrower; point out anything that restricts how we run the business or could trigger early repayment." Search+ keeps that instruction in view for every question in the workspace.
- Ask about one mechanism and open the source
Ask how interest is calculated, then ask about repayment, prepayment and default separately. Each answer has inline citations; open them to see the clause and its section number when the document provides one.
Questions borrowers and their advisers ask
What is the repayment schedule, and is there a large final payment at maturity?
Can the loan be repaid early, and is a prepayment fee or make-whole amount payable?
What must be delivered before the first drawdown can happen?
Which assets secure this loan, and is anyone giving a personal or parent guaranty?
Which fees are mentioned in the agreement or in the fee letter, and when are they paid?
How does the agreement define the financial terms used in its covenants?
What a loan agreement asks of its reader
Terms such as the margin, the interest period and the financial measures in the covenants are usually set in a long definitions section. Reading an operative clause without them gives an incomplete picture.
Repayment tables, conditions precedent and fees are often in schedules or a separate fee letter. Keeping them in the same workspace lets one question reach all of them.
Positive and negative covenants can limit new debt, asset sales, dividends and acquisitions for the life of the loan. They are where the agreement touches day-to-day decisions.
Events of default, cure periods and acceleration rights describe what happens when something goes wrong. Read them before signing, not after a missed payment.
Search+ answers from the documents in your workspace and cites the excerpt behind each point, with a page or section reference when available. It does not invent locations the document lacks.
Executed loan documents often arrive as scanned PDFs, which Search+ reads with OCR, while negotiation drafts are usually Word files. Check figures from faint scanned pages against the original.
Sections of a typical loan agreement
| Section | What it usually covers | A question to ask Search+ |
|---|---|---|
| Definitions and interpretation | Defined terms used everywhere else | How is the interest margin defined? |
| The facility | Amount, purpose, availability period | What may the loan proceeds be used for? |
| Conditions precedent | Documents needed before drawing | What do we need to deliver before the first drawdown? |
| Repayment and prepayment | Schedule, voluntary and mandatory prepayment | When must the loan be repaid early without our choosing to? |
| Interest and fees | Rate, periods, default interest, fees | How is default interest calculated? |
| Representations and covenants | Statements and ongoing promises | Which covenants restrict paying dividends? |
| Events of default | Triggers and lender remedies | Which events of default have a grace period? |
| Boilerplate | Assignment, governing law, notices | Can the lender transfer the loan without our consent? |
What is a loan agreement?
A loan agreement is a contract in which a lender agrees to advance money to a borrower, and the borrower agrees to repay it with interest on stated terms, usually subject to conditions, promises and default provisions.
Loan agreement questions
Can Search+ explain the repayment terms of my loan agreement?
Will it read the fee letter along with the main agreement?
Can it find every restriction on taking new debt?
Does it understand defined terms like the margin?
Is this legal or financial advice?
Can I keep coming back to the same loan file?
Read the loan before you sign for it
Start a workspace, upload the loan agreement and its schedules, and ask about the terms that cost you.
Start a workspace