BoatUS: Saved money on Insurance

[Oldslowandugly]

My marina requires boat insurance so I use BoatUS. I was going over my next year policy and I spotted a redundancy. They were charging me for towing and emergencies coverage. I already have the Gold Unlimited towing coverage with my BoatUS memberhip which includes trailer towing. I called them and asked what this new towing coverage was and could I drop it. The nice lady informed me that the towing was now available on the policy and it would cost me $15 for up to a $250 incident. That is a laughable amount in my area and I said I wanted to drop it since I had the Gold membership plan. Then she said that if I upped the coverage to full then I would get the same unlimited towing and trailer assist as the membership plan. The cost for this would be $43. Then she said that some people want towing but not insurance so that is why they offer it with the BoatUS membership. She said if I upped the coverage on the insurance policy it would be the same as the Gold Unlimited but that then I could drop that towing plan from my membership and save that money. I checked and this year it would cost $175 for that plan. So I would save $132 for the same coverage. My BoatUS membership would now cost $10. That works for me. If you have BoatUS insurance check it out.

[ruest]

Not mentioned above but there is one difference in coverage between the BoatUS on-the-water towing membership and BoatUS Insurance Policy Towing Endorsement which is important to understand:

The higher priced BoatUS on-the-water towing membership covers you for any boat you are on.
The lower priced BoatUS Insurance Policy Towing Endorsement only covers the insured boat.

[jimh]

I am also a member of BoatUS, and I also have the GEICO/BoatUS insurance.

The advice given above was useful for me. On my BoatUS membership renewal form there were options to add to the membership two insurance packages, one for on-water towing of the boat and one for on-road trailer assistance.

In my GEICO/BoatUS insurance policy, I already had coverage for both on-water towing and on-highway trailer assistance. For me, adding additional coverage to my membership would have created duplicate coverage.

The cost to increase towing coverage in the GEICO/BoatUS insurance policy to the highest level ($3000, unlimited occurrences) was only $31. The cost of adding that same coverage to only the membership was much higher. Adding the on-water towing coverage to the insurance policy on the boat was a much better option.

I don't see a mandate for buying towing insurance for any other boat, as I only own one boat.