At a glance

  • From the 2024 yearbook of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies, the average net premium of the compulsory cover for a passenger car works out at €147 a year: 7.55 claims per 100 cars, an average claim of €1,421 and a loss ratio of 73.23%1.
  • The compulsory cover (third-party liability) has a minimum limit of €1,300,000 per victim for bodily injury and €1,300,000 per accident for material damage, since 1 January 20222.
  • The comparison on this site shows that market average, adjusted to your area by the public claims of five zones: Attica 1.38, Thessaloniki 1.05, large cities 0.88, the rest of the mainland 0.70, the islands 0.693.
  • For the optional covers the same yearbook gives average net premiums of €131 for comprehensive cover, €40 for theft, €20 for glass and €10 for fire, for those who hold them1.
  • The law adds a 15% premium tax to the compulsory cover4, and a levy of 1.8% for the Auxiliary Fund (Επικουρικό Κεφάλαιο)5. Optional covers carry the premium tax but not the levy.

The point

Every car on a Greek road must carry insurance. The law obliges you to insure the damage you do to someone else (Presidential Decree 237/1986 art. 2)6. Everything else is your choice. This guide explains what you buy, what moves the price and what the public figures of the market say.

What you buy when you insure a car

In practice a car policy is a ladder with three rungs. Each company gives them its own names, and the content differs in the details.

The first rung is the compulsory cover. It pays for the damage you do to someone else: their car, their body, their property. It pays nothing for your own car. Companies tie a few small covers to it: accident care, cover against an uninsured vehicle, personal accident cover for the driver. Basic 1 from Interamerican, Essential from Hellas Direct, Value from Allianz, Pilote Eco from Groupama and ECO from Ydrogios are all this rung.

The second rung adds what can happen to a car standing still. Fire, theft, hail, flood, a broken windscreen. Extra from Interamerican, Silver from Hellas Direct and Complete from Allianz sit here.

The third rung is comprehensive cover. It also pays for the damage to your own car when you are at fault, less an amount that always stays with you (the excess). Total from Interamerican, Gold from Hellas Direct, Advanced from Allianz, Plus from Groupama, Premium Auto from Ydrogios.

What moves the price

Many things move the price a company gives you: the area, the car, your age and experience, your record and how you pay. Each company weighs them in its own way, because the law leaves prices free and asks no company to file them with any authority7. Only for the area is there a public figure.

The area

The area where the car is kept at night matters, because the risk differs. The Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies counts 8.69 third-party liability claims per 100 insured vehicles a year in Attica, 4.14 in Larissa and 2.75 in Samos1. Multiplied by the average cost of a claim, that is €124 of claims per vehicle a year in Attica and €52 in Larissa. How much of this gap a company passes into its price, it decides itself.

The comparison on this site follows the claims. It puts your postcode in one of five zones and multiplies the market average by the claims cost of the zone, divided by the average of the country3. The page on car insurance by region shows every prefecture.

Engine size

Taxable horsepower comes from the cubic capacity: cubic centimetres times 0.007, rounded to the nearest whole number8. Roughly, 0.7 taxable horsepower per 100 cc, so a 1,400 cc car has 10 and a 2,000 cc car 14. A company may ask for either figure. How much a bigger engine adds, no company publishes, and the yearbook of the association gives no figures by engine size1.

Your record

In a bonus-malus system, a year without an at-fault claim moves you to a better class, and an at-fault claim moves you to a worse one. Each company has its own scale, and there is no public figure for what a class is worth3.

Your age and experience

Your age and the years since you got your licence change the price a company gives you. There is no public figure for how much, so the market average on this site does not use them3.

How you pay

A company may offer a year, six months or a shorter period, paid at once or in instalments. Ask for the price of a full year in each form and compare the totals. A shorter period paid more often can cost more over the year.

Gross and net: why two quotes do not always compare

Every third-party liability price holds three parts. The net premium, which the company keeps. The 15% premium tax, which goes to the state4. And the levy for the Auxiliary Fund, which pays the victims of uninsured and unknown vehicles: the policyholder pays 1.8% of the liability premium for it5. Optional covers, such as fire and comprehensive, carry the premium tax but not the levy.

The association publishes net figures. The €147 average of the compulsory cover is before the tax and the levy1. The comparison on this site adds both and shows the final amount3. When you ask for a quote, always ask: “Is this the final amount I will pay?”. A net figure and a gross figure side by side compare apples with oranges.

How to read the policy in five minutes

Since 2018 every company must give you a two-page information document before you sign. It is called the IPID, and it always asks the same eight questions. What is insured. What is not insured. What restrictions apply. Where the cover applies. What your obligations are. When and how you pay. When it starts and when it ends. How you cancel.

The IPIDs we read show how much packages with the same name differ. Cover against an uninsured vehicle is €15,000 at Hellas Direct9 and €100,000 at Allianz10. The same word, almost seven times the cover. Personal accident cover for the driver is €15,000 at Hellas Direct9. Hellas Direct also prints the excess on comprehensive cover, from €500 to €2,0009. Where an IPID does not print the excess, ask for it in writing before you sign.

Look for three points first in the IPID. First, the word “breakdown” under roadside assistance. Second, the excess on every cover, not only on comprehensive. Hellas Direct sets €75 on partial theft and €300 on natural events, and prints both in its IPID9. Third, bonus protection: check whether the package includes it or sells it separately.

How to compare properly

Comparing only the final price is a mistake, because the final price hides different packages. A proper comparison takes five steps.

First, decide the rung. Compulsory, second rung or comprehensive. The rule of value: the cheaper the car, the less comprehensive cover gives back; the dearer the car, the more a total loss would hurt. In between, it depends on how much the loss would hurt you.

Second, write down the facts that move the price and give the same ones to everyone: cubic capacity, year of first registration, postcode, age and years of licence of the main driver, years without a claim, value of the car.

Third, ask for a gross price for one year. Not six months, not monthly.

Fourth, put the IPIDs side by side and look at the limits and the excesses. A quote €30 cheaper with a €1,000 excess instead of €500 is not cheaper. It is a different cover.

Fifth, ask what a claim costs you. Where you take the car, who pays the garage, in how many days. The cheap company that takes three months is not cheap.

Where to go from here

These are the basics. The articles below take up one question each: what third-party liability covers, what the average driver pays, why no insurer is cheapest for everyone, seven ways to lower the premium, quarterly or annual payment, vans and farm trucks, a crash with an uninsured driver, a foreign licence and the green card. If you are in a hurry, open the comparison: it shows the market average from public figures, and our own estimate for each company, from the cheapest. If you want to understand first what you pay for, start with whichever article concerns you today. If you want the number first, open the comparison for car insurance and see the market average for your area.

Frequently asked questions

How much does car insurance cost in Greece in 2026?

There is no published average price for 2026. From the 2024 yearbook of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies, the average net premium of the compulsory cover for a passenger car works out at €147 a year, before the 15% premium tax and the 1.8% levy for the Auxiliary Fund. Your own price depends on your area, your car and your record.

What is compulsory and what is not?

Only third-party liability is compulsory. Since 1 January 2022 its minimum limit is €1,300,000 per victim for bodily injury and €1,300,000 per accident for material damage, by an act of the Bank of Greece. Everything else, such as fire, theft, glass, comprehensive cover and roadside assistance, is optional. You choose it and pay for it separately.

When is comprehensive cover worth it?

When the car is worth enough that a total loss would hurt. The 2024 yearbook of the association gives 4.18 own damage claims per 100 cars, with an average claim of €2,217, which works out at an average net premium of €131 a year for those who hold the cover. On an old car of low value, the excess and the premium can eat most of what a claim would pay.

Why does Athens pay so much more than the provinces?

Because that is where most accidents per vehicle happen. The Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies counts 8.69 claims per 100 vehicles in Attica and 4.14 in Larissa in 2024. The comparison on this site turns these claims into factors by zone: Attica 1.38 and the rest of the mainland 0.70. How much of the gap a company charges, it decides itself.

How much more does a young driver pay?

There is no public figure. Every company sets its own loading for age and for a new licence, and none publishes it. The yearbook of the association gives no figures by age either. Ask for quotes with the real details of the main driver, and compare them.

What happens if I drive uninsured?

A fine, removal of the number plates and the licence, and above all full personal liability for any damage you cause. The Auxiliary Fund compensates the victim, but then turns to you to get the money back. Electronic checks regularly match number plates against the register of insured vehicles.

Do I pay the same through an agent and online?

Not always, and no public figure says which channel is cheaper. An agent costs a commission, but after a claim you have a person to chase the case. A direct insurer may price the same car in a different way. Compare both every year, not only the first time.

How often should I change company?

You should compare every year, but not necessarily switch. Ask your company what it gives you for the years you have been with it, and weigh that against the saving of a move. Compare final prices for the same covers, limits and excesses, not package names.

Sources

  1. ↑Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies, Statistical Yearbook of Motor Insurance 2024, tables 3A, 3B, 6 and 7A, November 2025
  2. ↑Bank of Greece, Executive Committee Act 195/3/29.11.2021 (Government Gazette B 5679/07.12.2021): the minimum amounts of compulsory motor liability cover from 1 January 2022, 29 November 2021
  3. ↑How the comparison works: where every number comes from, October 2026
  4. ↑Law 5177/2025 (Government Gazette A 21/14.02.2025), Code of Indirect Taxes, article 43: the premium tax, 2025
  5. ↑Presidential Decree 237/1986, article 20, as replaced by article 14 of Law 5113/2024 (Government Gazette A 96/21.06.2024): the levy for the Auxiliary Fund, 2024
  6. ↑Presidential Decree 237/1986, codification of the provisions of Law 489/1976 on compulsory insurance, 1986, as in force
  7. ↑Law 4364/2016, article 18: policy terms and premiums are free, with no prior approval, 2016
  8. ↑Ministry of Finance, circular Δ18Β 5054857 ΕΞ: cubic centimetres times 0.007 equals taxable horsepower, 28 December 2010
  9. ↑Hellas Direct, insurance product information document, Cars, March 2025
  10. ↑Allianz, IPID My Motor Value, January 2025