New Boat Question....

I am looking to get a new Boat but wondering if it is even possible! My current boat is killing me... There is always something wrong! I have put so much money in the boat this summer just to fix it! It's kind of been that way since I bought it! So I figured after 3 years of dealing with it... I better get something better or more reliable!

My problem is and the reason I have been putting so much money in my current boat is because I don't think is possible to get a loan due to my credit and the economy. I have a really good job and I can easily afford a boat... But didnt know if getting financed was possible? I got a loan this year for 15,000 for a new car but had to put a good amount down! Anyways just curious on your thoughts! Thanks!

We looked at loans when buying our boat this year - we had enough cash and then some to buy outright, but looked just in case we didn't want to tie up our funds.

My wife works for Chase (with very good credit and debt/income ratio), and they still wouldn't loan out for a boat. Loan officer said they no longer do boat, motorcycle, ATV, etc. loans, due to being too high of a risk. Only smaller banks and credit unions do them, usually with awful interest rates. Searching online, I found this to be true.

With poor credit, you are very likely SOL.

Originally Posted by nitrousbird

We looked at loans when buying our boat this year - we had enough cash and then some to buy outright, but looked just in case we didn't want to tie up our funds.

My wife works for Chase (with very good credit and debt/income ratio), and they still wouldn't loan out for a boat. Loan officer said they no longer do boat, motorcycle, ATV, etc. loans, due to being too high of a risk. Only smaller banks and credit unions do them, usually with awful interest rates. Searching online, I found this to be true.

With poor credit, you are very likely SOL.

Was this for a new boat loan or used? I was always under the impression that used boat loans were ten times harder to get a loan for

Even with the best credit you can expect to put 15-20% down on a boat loan. If you don't have good credit and a long employment history you may have a difficult time obtaining one in the first place.

i don't think used boat loans are harder than new boat loans. try Bank of the West and see what they can do. they were doing 10% downpayments around 6% a couple of years ago. not sure about today.

keep looking. go to a credit union. At the dealership that i work at, 75% of the boats we sell are through a local credit union. they are doin 0 to 10 % down at a 4.74 interest rate.

Originally Posted by lsukuntryboy

keep looking. go to a credit union. At the dealership that i work at, 75% of the boats we sell are through a local credit union. they are doin 0 to 10 % down at a 4.74 interest rate.

Those are incredible terms, I'd be all over that if it's not to good to be true and you know what they say about that. I would say that is definitely not the norm.

You need a solid 700 FICO to get a reasonable rate and anything below 660 - you might as well hang it up. Also lots of notes on rates here - rates are primarily driven by term as it relates to boat loans.

Try Resource One Credit Union (www.r1cu.org). That is who I use for my boat loans and they always have great rates. 4.5% on my last one. They have branches in Houston as well.

Originally Posted by durty_curt

Was this for a new boat loan or used? I was always under the impression that used boat loans were ten times harder to get a loan for

Used.

Originally Posted by tro

i don't think used boat loans are harder than new boat loans. try Bank of the West and see what they can do. they were doing 10% downpayments around 6% a couple of years ago. not sure about today.

A couple of years ago is a far different market than it is today. Not even slightly comparable...they banks have been burned - badly.

Originally Posted by nitrousbird

A couple of years ago is a far different market than it is today. Not even slightly comparable...they banks have been burned - badly.

The banks didn't get burned, the big banks did this to themselves because they were way over leveraged and GREEDY. Anyway, good luck getting a boat loan if you don't have really good credit, like others have said, it's way different now.

We just refinanced our boat.... dropped the interest rate from 5.9% to 3.5%.... amounted to almost $200 / mo.
I couldn't believe how easy it was. Our local Credit Union called us & asked us if we wanted to make it happen. We sent them some paycheck stubs & signed the paperwork a few days later.
We decided that the additional term could easily be made up with some $200 principal payments.

yah, interests rates are great if you have great credit, if not you could be paying way over 10% in interest, the game has changed.

We looked at doing a loan, and you actually got a better rate if you financed for a longer period of time. We were going to do a 10 yr loan, but the rates changed if we did a 15 or 20 year loan. The rates went down the longer the term. We thought we were doing a 10 year, but they quoted a 20yr rate, then were going to have to re apply. We ended up just paying for it out right vs. The banks crap