My wife's boss sold her a Polaris jet ski a few weeks back for CHEAP for my Daughter. Well, I am just now getting around to getting liability put on it and called Boat US to add to my current policy. Well, after 15 minutes of total bull chit questions, the guy asks me "what was the purchase price" and I told him no note on it so that is immaterial. He said, well, I have to have a purchase price. I then told him it was really none of his business what I paid for it. He paused, then said "sir, I have to put a purchase price on here or it will not let me issue policy". I commenced to saying a few choice words and told him "I paid a dollar for it just to put it on the BOS to transfer the tag". He just could not understand........................... Anyhow, why do they need to know what I paid for it if all I have on it is liability or there is no note? He could not answer that question. Only reason I did not hang up is I have two other boats with them and they have a good rider for bass boat accessories.

Rant over.

You shouldn't get rattled. You should have given him the price of a new one.

Um, "technically" it's not relevant for liability only policies, but I figure that's a mandatory question in their policy system and it won't proceed to issuance without something in that blank. What he should've done is just plug in "$10.00" and move along (that's what I do). I suppose you could come back and change to full coverage, so they're just getting all the info upfront.

The question is really pointed at helping to avoid insurance fraud, and is usually in regards to house insurance. It's far-fetched I know, but you pay $20,000 for a junky ol' house and we insure it for $80,000, that could encourage the house to burn down if you know what I mean. Most insurance has similar underwriting guidelines, "insured value cannot (should not) exceed X% of the purchase price" etc etc. Also on some policies, usually auto policies for RVs and ATVS and stuff like that, it will ask the "cost price new" (MSRP) because that's how the pricing is figured. A 26' camper could be $15,000 or $45,000 and we don't want to charge the same for both of 'em. That's really common in commercial insurance...."Clothing Retail Store" could be tiny private storefront in downtown Gadsden, or Dillards at the mall, so we ask for annual sales / receipts to determine the price.

I actually think our Alfa policies no longer ask purchase price, but I insure most of my expensive boats these days with Progressive, or Foremost, or American Modern, and they still ask.

And I do my best not to talk crap about another insurance company (it's bad form and only comes across as "well of course you'd say that"), but just be careful with Boat U.S..... They are a division of GEICO, and dangit I'm just telling you, if there's any company out there I simply would not have insurance with (again) it's GEICO. When you file a claim with Boat U.S. you are dealing with a Geico adjuster, actually you're not even dealing with an adjuster, you get a claims specialist from somewhere far off.

I had my boat insured with them when I first bought it. I was hit by a drunk driver one day and it damaged my trailer really bad...didn't touch the boat or my truck at all, just basically skidded underneath my boat and blew my trailer up big time. Of course he had no insurance.

So I file it on my own Boat U.S. policy, which I had a $50 deductible for my trailer. 2016 Tandem Axle Ranger trailer with Road Armor coating, fiberglass fenders, LED lights, hydraulic brakes on both axles. So a 20-something sounding child named "Sarah" called me and said she was my claims specialist, in Orlando, and "great news!" they had my check in the mail. $1,895. WHAT. THE. EVERLOVING. @$#@!!!??? $1,895????? Airport Marine in B'ham had already told me my trailer was totaled and the estimate for the new one was $10,300 (this included freight and assembly). I knew I had an ACV policy, but I also knew there was no depreciation within 2 calendar years, which we were. She was getting my trailer value from NADA, to which I called her stupid and explained there literally is no such thing. Turns out there is! NADA has generic trailer values based on length, so she found out my trailer was 24' long and that's where the value came from. Nevermind that could be a handmade trailer in my yard, and I'm talking about a factory Ranger Trail with all this equipment on it, and she had the dealer estimate showing $10,300. She did not even know what "tandem" meant. "What do you mean by tandem?" I said, Sarah, please tell me you're joking??

Let me shortcut the story... 88 days later, after getting someone literally from Ranger's home office in Arkansas involved, I took a check for $7,700 and cut my losses. I can't say this is the same experience you'd have with them, but it's the story I see EVERY DAY with Geico's car insurance.

A lesson I learned also... if you have a boat insured, I'll bet you don't have enough coverage on the trailer. If you don't have $10,000 you probably are in trouble!!! My good friend's 2018 Skeeter FX21 got destroyed in a car wreck, his trailer was nearly identical to mine in price.

Ikllbux. What can you do to make sure your protected properly. My boat is almost 20 years old but in Good to Excellent Condition. I could never replace it for what insurance would give me. I have Country Financial and like most fisherman have a lot in equipment and rods and tackle ect. Is insurance going to cover Tm, Batteries, Battery Charger. In the end it all adds up. What is best to add to cover all that? Even before this post I felt like I was under insured.

In my liabilty policy we have an "agreed upon" value of the boat and trailer.

Like I said in my first post Jeff, I went with BoatUS because of the $5K equipment rider. That would not touch tackle, TM, DFs, etc all together but it would be a start. The jet ski is 2003 and is not worth $2k so only liability on it for me. If I had a higher end boat, I would be with my current auto/home insurance company.

Your questions are the primary reason I use those outside carriers for many of my boats today, especially fishing boats with lots of gadgets and equipment. Now, things permanently attached to the hull are considered part of the hull (trolling motor, for example), but you may or may not get sufficient coverage for high-dollar electronics, and you wouldn't have ANY coverage for fishing gear/life jackets/etc from the boat policy---you'd have to file them against your home insurance (usually with a BIG deductible). However, these companies like Progressive, Boat U.S., Foremost, American Modern all offer lots of neat options to get "fishing gear" and "electronics" coverages, usually with $50/$100 deductibles. Many of you know I work for Alfa, and our boat policy is great, but it's "basic" and doesn't cover the extras like that....and just being honest, when you start getting into $50,000 bass boats it isn't competitively priced.

They'll pay you the "NADA retail value" of your boat in a claim, but you need to make sure you're carrying that much coverage.

Thanks Illkillbux. And Drake I missed the part part in your post about the rider policy for add on accessories. That's what I'm going to look into.