Car insurance in Switzerland: what you need and what it costs

If you own a car in Switzerland, third-party liability insurance is compulsory. Partial and full casco protect your own car and are optional, although leasing companies usually require full casco. If you rent, the rental company insures the car and your risk is limited to the excess.

Third-party liability: the cover every car needs

The Swiss Road Traffic Act (SVG) is clear: no motor vehicle may be used on public roads until liability insurance is in place (Art. 63). The key rules, as of 2026:

• What it covers: injury and damage you cause to other people and their property. It covers the vehicle’s holder and the people the holder is responsible for, so the cover stays with the car, whoever drives it.
• Minimum cover: CHF 5 million per accident for personal injury and property damage together (Traffic Insurance Ordinance, VVV Art. 3). Vehicles with 10 or more seats need more.
• Direct claims: an injured person can claim directly from your insurer (SVG Art. 65).
• Driving uninsured: driving a car when you know, or should know, that it has no liability insurance can lead to up to three years’ imprisonment or a monetary penalty (SVG Art. 96).

Liability insurance does not pay for damage to your own car. That is what casco is for.

Partial casco or full casco?

Casco (Kasko in German) covers your own car. Partial casco (Teilkasko) pays for damage you did not cause yourself. Full casco (Vollkasko) adds collision cover, so it also pays when you damage the car yourself. Casco is sold on top of the mandatory liability insurance. Typical cover, according to comparis:

Damage	Liability only	With partial casco	With full casco
Injury and damage you cause to others	Yes	Yes	Yes
Theft and fire	No	Yes	Yes
Glass breakage	No	Yes	Yes
Natural hazards such as hail or floods	No	Yes	Yes
Collision with wild animals	No	Yes	Yes
Martens and rodents	No	Yes	Yes
Vandalism	No	Yes, except scratching	Yes
Damage to your own car in an accident you cause	No	No	Yes

Policies differ in detail, so check the exclusions and the excess (the part of a claim you pay yourself).

When each one makes sense

• Full casco: for a new or expensive car, and usually required if you lease. Comparis also recommends it if you could not pay for collision damage or a replacement car from your savings. As a rule of thumb, full casco pays off for cars up to about six years old.
• Partial casco: the usual choice once the car is a few years older. Comparis puts the useful limit at around seven to eight years.
• Liability only: for an older car with a low value, where you could pay for repairs or a replacement yourself.

How much is car insurance in Switzerland?

Comparis publishes example premiums from its insurance calculator. These are the annual figures as at 6 October 2026, from the cheapest to the most expensive insurer:

Cover per year	Small car (Toyota Yaris)	Mid-size car (Škoda Octavia Combi)
Liability	CHF 242.50–534.60	CHF 250.70–599.70
Partial casco incl. liability	CHF 420.70–800.80	CHF 458.10–899.10
Full casco incl. liability, CHF 1,000 excess	CHF 611.50–1,335.80	CHF 696.90–1,605

The example driver was born in 1970, is Swiss, lives in Zürich, has held a licence since 1988, had no claims in five years and drives 12,000 km a year. Spread over twelve months, full casco for the mid-size car comes to roughly CHF 58 to 134. With a different profile, your quotes can look very different. Compare several insurers, or let an independent broker such as Expat Savvy compare them for you.

What sets your premium

Swiss insurers price every policy individually. The main factors named by comparis:

• Age and experience: new drivers pay significantly more, and often have a higher excess.
• Other personal characteristics: besides age, insurers use gender and nationality as pricing factors, based on accident and claims statistics for different groups. How much weight each insurer gives them varies.
• Where you live: cities with heavy traffic and a higher theft risk usually cost more than rural areas.
• The car: expensive, powerful and newer cars cost more to insure.
• Kilometres: the fewer kilometres you drive per year, the lower the premium.
• Claims history: most insurers use premium levels. Claim-free years move you down, while a claim moves you up and can take several years to recover. Some insurers have no levels at all.
• Excess and add-ons: a higher excess lowers the premium. Add-ons such as parking damage cover, gross negligence cover or bonus protection raise it.

Bringing your no-claims history from abroad

If you just moved to Switzerland, your claim-free years from another country can still count. Each Swiss insurer uses its own premium-level system and decides how it rates your history, so a written record from your previous insurer is what you need.

1. Ask your previous insurer for a claims history statement (sometimes called a no-claims certificate) before you cancel the policy. Within the EU, insurers must issue one covering the last five years within 15 days of your request. EU rules also oblige a new insurer in another EU country to take it into account. Switzerland is not in the EU, so here it depends on the insurer.
2. Check the document: it should name you as the policyholder or main driver and show the period covered and any claims.
3. Send it with every quote request and ask each insurer how many claim-free years it accepts and at which premium level you would start.
4. Declare earlier claims honestly. A new insurer checks your claims history, and you have to disclose previous damage.

Tip: Request the claims history statement while your old policy is still running, and keep it with your other moving documents.

The electronic insurance certificate for registration

To register a car in your name, the cantonal road traffic office (Strassenverkehrsamt) needs proof of liability insurance. Under the VVV, insurance certificates must be issued electronically, so there is no paper card to bring:

1. Choose an insurer and agree the policy for the specific car.
2. Ask the insurer for the insurance certificate (Versicherungsnachweis). The insurer sends it electronically to the federal vehicle registration system, where the road traffic office can see it (VVV Art. 4).
3. Hand in the other documents at the road traffic office. In the canton of Zürich, for example, that is the original vehicle registration document, or the test report form 13.20 A for a brand-new car.
4. You receive the registration document and number plates. If your cover is later suspended or ends, the insurer reports it to the office (SVG Art. 68).

The full process is in our guide to buying a car in Switzerland. Still deciding? Compare car subscription, leasing and rental.

How insurance works when you rent

When you rent, the car is insured on the rental company’s policy. You need no car insurance, insurance certificate or registration of your own. Comparis notes that full casco is common for rental cars in Switzerland, but the figure that matters to you is the excess: what you pay yourself if the car is damaged.

Before you sign a rental contract, check:

• which damage the insurance covers, and what is excluded;
• how high the excess is;
• whether a travel insurance, a credit card or an add-on to your personal liability insurance already covers rental cars, so you do not pay twice.

With Kario, insurance is included in the monthly price, together with the motorway vignette, servicing and unlimited kilometres. The excess and any delivery costs are listed in your offer, and the rental contract is with the local rental company. You need a valid driving licence and a passport or ID, but no Swiss residence permit and no Swiss credit history. A foreign licence is valid for 12 months after you move, so plan the licence exchange in time. Details and example prices are on the page about monthly car rental in Zürich.

Renting for the first weeks or months gives you time to collect your claims history statement and compare quotes calmly before you commit to your own car.

Compare car insurance with independent advice

When you buy or lease your own car, the quickest way to a good policy is to compare several quotes with the same cover and the same excess. Kario’s partner Expat Savvy, an independent, FINMA-registered insurance broker, compares car insurance from several Swiss insurers for you, in English, German or French, and helps you bring in your claims history from abroad.

Expat Savvy and insurance-guide.ch can also look at the rest of your cover: personal liability insurance, for example, can include cover for occasionally driving other people’s cars.