What To Know When Purchasing Boat Insurance
If you are purchasing a boat, you'll likely be getting boat insurance to go with it. It's a little bit different from the home and auto insurance that you may have purchased in the past, so you need to know the following things about it.
Know About Salvage Coverage
If your boat is involved in an incident where it needs to be salvaged, such as a boating accident, then it is on you to pay for the salvage cost as the owner. However, it is possible to have salvage insurance coverage, which means the insurance company will pay specifically for those salvage-related costs. Know that this is different from the hull value coverage for your boat.
Much like any insurance policy, you need to have enough coverage to pay for the entire salvage cost. If you are basing your salvage coverage on a percentage of your hull value coverage, you could end up in a situation where you have to pick up the remainder of the bill that your insurance company will not cover.
Know How It Works to Use Boat Insurance
It's important to understand how your boat insurance works when you actually need to make a claim. Will the insurance company simply write you a check and let you do all of the work, or will they handle other parts of the process? For example, there may be costs of getting your boat out of the water with a crane company, and tracking down a repair facility that can perform the necessary repairs
If you've never had a boat repaired before, you likely don't even know where to start when it comes to tracking down all the help you need. That's why you want to know what kind of assistance you'll get if you need to make an insurance claim.
Know About Consequential Damage Coverage
While you likely want insurance to cover you in extreme situations like if the boat catches on fire, there are other problems that can come up as well that are not so extreme. This is known as consequential damage, which is when the boat is damaged by things such as a rusted hull or wear and tear.
You may want to purchase consequential damage coverage to make sure that you are covered for all potential situations that can cause damage to your boat. If that hull forms a leak from rust and the entire boat sinks, then you will have all the protection you need.