Searching for Boat Financing

[C&L]

Anyone have any advice on financing? Go thru a dealer?(could have incentives) or do I search for my own?

[dirtysparks]

Always search for your own, hit the credit unions. Get pre approved. Here's how dealers work:

Agree on a price, talk to the finance guy at the dealership
Surprise your financed, your rate is 9.9%
Finance guy just made a commission because the bank offered the rate to him at 6.5%
You may have saved a little money on incentives by going through the dealer but in the long run you'll pay way more than that in interest.

It also gives you more leverage when negotiating price if you're already pre-approved.

[C&L]

anyone else have good luck with a particular lender?