How insurance works in Greece: the complete guide

At a glance

In 2024 people in Greece paid €1.23 billion for car insurance. The 24 companies of the yearbook, with 92.7% of the market, insured 6.38 million vehicles. That is about €179 per vehicle, before taxes, by our own division¹.
Of the third-party liability premium, the market paid back 71% in claims in 2025, up from 55% in 2022 (Bank of Greece, S.05.01)². The margin is narrowing.
The average price of transport insurance stood at 97.9 in December 2025, with 2015 at 100 (Eurostat, CP1254)³. Cheaper than ten years ago.
Law 2496/1997 gives you eight days to report a loss and four years to claim the compensation⁴.
Every company must have a solvency ratio above 100%. It publishes the ratio every year, and you can read it in five minutes.

The point

Insurance is a simple idea on complicated paper. Many people pay a little into a common fund, and the few who suffer a loss take a lot from it. Everything else, from the premium to the IPID and the solvency ratio, is a detail of this idea. Here we explain these details one by one, in the order you will meet them.

What insurance is, in plain words

Imagine a thousand car owners in one town. Each year, about seventy of them will cause damage to someone else: in 2024 the yearbook counted 6.87 third-party claims per 100 insured vehicles. Each claim cost €1,410 on average¹. Total: about €97,000 a year for the town. If the thousand owners each put €97 into a fund, the fund pays all the claims. Nobody is ruined, and nobody knows in advance whether they will be among the seventy.

That is all. The insurance company is the treasurer. It collects the €97, keeps the money in safe investments, pays the claims, and charges its costs and a profit for the work. The law says it in one sentence. Law 2496/1997 art. 1 says that under the insurance contract the company undertakes, in return for the premium, to pay a sum or provide a benefit if the event you agreed on happens.

Three words come up all the time. The premium (ασφάλιστρο) is what you pay. The insured benefit is what you receive when the loss happens. The risk is the event you fear: the crash, the fire, the hospital stay. The company does not insure your car. It insures your interest in the car not being damaged.

Why does the idea work? Because the treasurer does not know who will crash, but knows how many will. With a thousand customers the forecast is rough. With hundreds of thousands it is almost exact. That is why insurance needs large groups, and why the company looks so closely at statistics.

How your price is set

The premium starts from the cost of the claims of the group that resembles you. On top of that the company adds its costs and profit, and the taxes come on top of everything. In 2024 the loss ratio of third-party liability for private cars was 73.23%. In other words, the market charged about €1.37 for every euro of claims cost¹.

Then the factors begin: region, age, engine size, claims record. Each company weighs them its own way, and none publishes its weights. The public figures show why region matters. In 2024 there were 8.69 third-party claims per 100 insured vehicles in Attica and 4.01 in Trikala¹.

The covers for your own car work differently. Their price follows the value of the car and the excess. The yearbook gives the market averages for cars that have them, before tax: about €131 a year for own damage, €40 for theft and €10 for fire¹. The home works on the value too: the premium is so many per mille of the sum insured for the building and the contents.

These percentages explain why two neighbours with the same car pay different prices.

Gross and net

Your policy shows two amounts: the net premium and the gross premium (καθαρά and ολικά ασφάλιστρα). The net amount is what the company keeps. The gross amount is what you pay, with the premium tax of 15%⁵ and, on a car, the levy of 1.8% of the liability premium for the Auxiliary Fund⁶. The difference is about 17% of the net in motor third-party liability. When you compare offers, compare gross amounts. When you read market statistics, the amounts are almost always net.

What the paper you sign says

The insurance contract in Greece is governed by one law, Law 2496/1997. It has 34 articles and is among the most readable laws in the country. The first ten articles apply to every kind of insurance. The next ones deal with insurance against loss, such as car and home, and the last ones with insurance of persons, such as life and health.

Four articles will concern you in practice. Article 3 says you must answer the questions of the company correctly before you sign. If you hide something important, the company can reduce the compensation or terminate the policy. Article 7 says you report the loss within eight days of learning of it, and do what you can to stop it from growing. Article 8 governs the duration and the cancellation. Article 10 says your claim lapses after four years in insurance against loss and after five years in life insurance, counted from the end of the year in which it arose.

One more point matters. Article 33 says that most provisions of the law protect you, and the company cannot change them to your detriment through the terms of the policy. If a term gives you less than the law, the term does not apply. Read Law 2496/1997 before you sign anything large.

The IPID: the summary before you sign

Since 2018, every company must give you, before you sign, a document of one or two pages in a standard format. It is called the IPID, from the initials of its English name, the Insurance Product Information Document. Law 4583/2018 requires it. That law brought the European directive on insurance distribution into Greek law.

The IPID always has the same boxes, with the same icons: what is insured, what is not insured, restrictions, where the cover applies, your obligations, when and how you pay, when the cover starts and ends, how you cancel. Because all companies use the same format, you can put two IPIDs side by side and compare them. Read the box on restrictions closely. That is where the traps hide.

The excess: the amount you pay yourself

Almost every policy has an excess (απαλλαγή). It is the part of each loss that stays with you. With a €500 excess on comprehensive cover, a €2,000 loss brings you €1,500. A €400 loss brings you nothing. The excess keeps small losses out of the fund, and so it lowers the premium. In our own calculation, comprehensive cover with a €1,000 excess costs 16.4‰ instead of 20.2‰ with a €500 excess.

In health insurance the excess applies per hospital stay or per year, and the difference in premium is large. In earthquake cover it is usually a percentage of the sum insured, not a fixed amount, and this surprises many people when the time comes.

How a policy ends

A policy ends in three ways. It expires and is not renewed. You cancel it. The company terminates it.

For a car, most companies renew automatically if you pay, and the policy expires if you do not pay by the expiry date. There is no longer a grace period for compulsory insurance: the next day the car is uninsured. If you want to cancel earlier, you write to the company, and it refunds the premium for the time that did not run. In life policies with savings, cancellation is called surrender, and in the first years it returns much less than you paid in.

The company can terminate for reasons the law sets out: false statements, non-payment, or an increase in the risk that you did not declare. It must tell you in writing and respect a notice period.

Where to go from here

These points apply to every line of insurance. If something in an offer does not sit right with you, one of them usually explains why. And when you want figures, every comparison tool starts from car insurance, the policy that almost everyone has.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly do I buy when I pay a premium?

You buy a promise. The company commits to pay a sum if something specific happens, within a specific period, on the terms the policy sets out. Law 2496/1997 art. 1 says exactly this. You do not buy a service you will certainly use. If nothing happens, your premium went to the losses of others, and that is how it should be.

Where does the money I pay go?

In car third-party liability, of every €100 of gross premium about €14 is the 15% premium tax and the 1.8% levy for the Auxiliary Fund. Of the rest, the market paid back around 61% in claims in 2025, according to the figures of the Bank of Greece. The remainder is commissions, salaries, advertising, reinsurance and profit. Each company has a different split.

Is the IPID binding, or only the policy?

The policy with its general and special terms is binding. The IPID is a summary of one or two pages that Law 4583/2018 requires you to receive before you sign. It helps you compare. If the IPID and the terms say different things, a court decides, and it usually decides in favour of the consumer.

What do I do if the company is slow to pay?

First write to the complaints department of the company, and keep a copy. For damage to your car caused by someone else, Presidential Decree 237/1986 art. 6 gives three months for a reasoned offer or reply. If you get nothing, go to the Consumer Ombudsman (Συνήγορος του Καταναλωτή), free of charge, or to the Bank of Greece. A lawsuit is the last step.

Can a company refuse me when I ask for insurance?

For compulsory car insurance, in practice some company will accept you, perhaps at a higher price. For optional covers, such as health or comprehensive, the company chooses freely. It can refuse, add an exclusion or ask for an extra premium. But it must tell you what it decided and must not keep you waiting.

What does it mean that a company is solvent?

That it has enough capital of its own to pay claims even in a very bad year. Law 4364/2016 requires a solvency ratio of at least 100%. Each company publishes its own every spring, in its SFCR report. In their latest reports, Hellas Direct showed 127% for 2025 and Ydrogios 245.4% for 2025, ERGO 146.6% and Generali Hellas 184.9% for 2024. Below 100%, the Bank of Greece steps in.

Do I lose anything if I cancel before the policy expires?

Usually not the premium for the time that did not run. For a car, the company refunds the proportional part after the cancellation, once it gets back the insurance sticker or you declare the new insurance. In savings life policies you lose a lot in the first years, because the costs are charged up front. Ask for the surrender value before you sign.

Is a large foreign company safer than a Greek one?

Not necessarily. Both follow the same capital rules and are supervised by the authority of the country that licensed them. The number that counts is the solvency ratio of the specific company, not the name. Small Greek companies often show ratios equal to or higher than those of subsidiaries of large groups.

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