Why magic links are more secure than shared passwords for applicants

Credit applicants typically apply once — or at most a handful of times — with a given supplier. Asking them to create and remember a password for each supplier's portal creates unnecessary friction and introduces credential risk.

Magic links solve this: a one-time, time-limited URL is emailed to the applicant. Clicking it authenticates them for that session only. There is no password to phish, stuff, or forget.

The main risk with magic links is email account compromise — if an attacker controls the applicant's inbox, they can intercept the link. This is the same risk as a password reset email, and it is mitigated the same way: secure email practices and, for sensitive use cases, an additional verification step.

For B2B credit applications, where applicants are identifiable businesses and the submission itself is a verifiable act, magic links strike an appropriate balance between security and usability.