I would also investigate a lopan from your local credit union. They
often have "arrangements" with boat dealers to buy at reduced prices.

Capt. Frank

The credit union may be an OK place to borrow money, but the "discount" angle
is bogus. Doesn't do much good when there is only a single dealer for most boat
brands in most regions. Doesn't apply at all to brokerage boats, either. Some
consignor is going to sell his boat cheaper because the buyer is borrowing the
money from a credit union instead of a bank?

Credit unions are probably a better source for new mass-pro trailer boats than
for used boats or larger vessels. Many of them don't know boats at all, and
rely soley on NADA values for lending decisions. NADA values are probably fine
for trailer boats under 20-feet, but can be
so far belong actual market on larger boats that many deals get "undone" when
an already wary consumer gets informed by the credit union they are being
"overcharged" for the boat.

I "made arrangements" with credit unions for years in the auto biz. What a
scam. It's a complete industry.

The local credit union will approach every dealer in the area with the same
pitch. "For a truly outrageous sum of money paid to the credit union by your
dealership, you can be the approved dealer for Brand X autos in this area. For
an additionally outrageous sum of money, you can participate in our quarterly
"credit union sale" and we'll direct our members interested in buying a Brand X
to your door.All we ask is that you don't charge our members full sticker, and
that some portion of the discount is identified as "credit union" related."

What started off as a small deal in the early 1980's, grew to be a giant
enterprise within about 10 years. Some of the credit unions had full-time
employees doing nothing but setting up the "credit union dealers". There were
at least two outside consulting firms making a living by contracting with
credit unions to strike up these sweetheart deals with dealers.

There were so many credit unions approaching the dealership, all wanting money
to recommend us to their members, that to go along with all of them would have
cost about $10k a month. This was back when you could do a decent advertising
job for about $50k a month, and it didn't seem fair to ask the credit union
members to pay *more* for cars since their credit unions were increasing our
costs of doing business with them.

At one point, the outside companies were putting together "parking lot sales"
for credit union members. The particiapting dealers were expected to pay what
amounted to about $500 per parking space for the weekend, plus the cost of
transporting the cars from the dealership to the parking lot. It pushed
overhead way out of sight, and anything sold at such an event needed to go for
a less-than-bottom-dollar price because it cost so darn much to do business
there.

I finally got semi-smart and threw them all out. Everybody though I was nuts,
at first.
No loss at all. Some nearby dealerships
were really big-time into the credit union sale scam, and with all the credit
unions they were paying off, they had a "credit union" sale about every second
or third weekend. I had a huge banner made up that read "WELCOME, CREDIT UNION
MEMBERS!" Whenever there was a credit union sale down the block, we'd string it
up over the front line. It drew a lot of CU shoppers.

A neighboring dealer and one of the credit unions complained about the banner
to the state attorney general, and we got a letter of complaint. My reply was
that the sign didn't state we were participating in the official credit union
sale, but simply that credit union members were welcome to shop at our
dealership. That was the lasst we heard of the issue. (There was nothing the AG
could do, it isn't illegal or unethical to encourage people to shop at your
place of business).

For my two cents, borrow money from the credit union if they're the best deal,
but don't really expect the dealer to sell you a boat for less because you
belong. And, if you're shopping used, bear in mind that if
15 other lenders in the area will make the deal and only the credit union
insists you're being "overcharged" for the boat, it may not be the other 15
lenders who are out of step. :-)