6 Boat Financing Hacks, Interest Free Marine Financing (2024)

6 Boat Financing Hacks, Interest Free Marine Financing (2024). Zero percent short term boat financing.

At Lake Fun we always look on the sunny side.  One area where we recently upgraded our life was by replacing an older model ski boat that we had used for 11+ years.  We had a 40 year old 1982 Bayliner Capri that just would not die.  So we finally had to retire it.  The great thing about it after all these years of service we had never had to take it to the boat mechanic.  Just a good spring cleaning every spring, new spark plugs, battery charge, and she was ready to go every summer.

We recently replaced this boat at the dealership.  I wanted to get my order in before the spring boat show season becuase I knew we are in a period of EVERYTHING shortages.  Leisure boats are no exception, the dealer told me that 6 months was the current lead time.  So instead of financing I am about to show you how to use the current marine dealers shortage to get 0% financing on any out of stock boat.

The first thing you need to do is that whenever a boat dealer gives you an outrageous lead time for a boat that you are certain you want is to give them them an opposite act.  I did luxury sales for many years even while growing LakeFun.com on the side.  As a salesman they say certain things to trigger you and move you in certain directions.  Boat sales are no different.  There is no doubt that the salesman motivation is to move inventory that is on the lot because they get their paycheck for the sale this Friday instead of 6 months from now.  Let’s be honest, during the Great Resignatation they may already be at another job 6 months from now.

Ok, back to the Opposite Act.  A salesman gives you news that is obviously negative and meant to steer you.  What you should do is give a positive response to the negative information.

Here is an example:

Boat Salesman:  We cannot deliver your new boat for 6 months.

Opposite Act Customer:  That sounds fantastic, Thank you so much!

Then just stare them right in the eyes until they make their next move.  If you are truly ready to order now is the time to talk down payment.  Try and get them to agree to take as much as possible on a credit card so that you can earn the 3-5% bonus points (as long as you can afford to pay it off before the high interest kicks in).  The dealer we bought our new boat at would only take $2000, but the salesperson actually agreed to $10000 before the sales manager ran down the stairs all huffy puffy and said I could only do $2000.  It was near Christmas so I let them off the hook, but a younger poorer me would have grilled them like a cheeseburger.

So how do you get interest free financing on any boat that is out of stock?  Simply but you want to divide the total cost of the boat by the amount of lead time.

For example:

The new boat I purchased costs $18000 and the lead time is 6 months.

What you want to do is divide the 18000 by 6 and this gives you 6 equal payments of $3000 each.

Put $3000 down on the credit card (if you can pay it off before the next cycle to collect bonus points)

Then each month leading up to delivery either mail or hand deliver another $3000 to the boat dealership.

After closing costs of a boat loan and interest charges this can save you $1500-$5000 off the total cost of your boat.

Even if you do get in a pinch and cannot make all the payments before the 6 months end you could still probably obtain financing for the remaining portion if needed with little to no shame.  However this is an article about purchasing a new boat interest free so I will not go into detail about that particular option.

Thanks for reading the Lake Fun Blog.  I included a pic of my now retired Bayliner as a tribute.  Good luck on any boat purchases you may make this Lake Season.