Cost of living in Greece vs. the world 2008

July 25, 2008 at 19:48 · Filed under News

Is Greece expensive?

Athens is the 25th most expensive city in the world, according to the Mercer 2008 Cost of Living Survey of 143 cities. The Greek capital is getting more expensive, moving up four places from last year, while notoriously expensive cities such as London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, New York and Geneva saw the cost of living go down.

Amsterdam and Athens are now tied in cost of living, though the Netherlands fares better than Greece in quality of living (#12 vs. #77) and offers double the minimum salary (1301€ vs. 668€).

Mercer performs this comprehensive cost analysis of more than 200 factors that include housing, transportation, food, clothing, entertainment and common household products in 250 locations. Semi-annual surveys are conducted by professional researchers simultaneously, and vendors are carefully chosen where goods and services of international quality are offered to maintain equality and fairness.

Some claim this survey is inaccurate in calculating costs, however local residents and expatriates patronize the same stores, eat the same food and use the same hospitals, utilities and public/private services.

In Greece, prices can actually be more expensive in rural locations and islands in comparison to Athens due to transportation, fuel costs and lack of competition; locally grown produce is also not guaranteed to be lower than imports. Thus, the cost of living can actually be higher and salaries often lower than for those residing in a metropolis.

See “Cost of Living in Greece vs. the world 2009” to see the latest.

Top 50 Most Expensive Cities 2008

1. Moscow, Russia
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. London, UK
4. Oslo, Norway
5. Seoul, Korea
6. Hong Kong, China
7. Copenhagen, Denmark
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Zurich, Switzerland
10. Milan, Italy
11. Osaka, Japan
12. Paris, France
13. Singapore
14. Tel Aviv, Israel
15. Sydney, Australia
16. Dublin, Ireland (tie)
16. Rome, Italy (tie)
18. St. Petersburg, Russia
19. Vienna, Austria
20. Beijing, China
21. Helsinki, Finland
22. New York City, USA
23. Istanbul, Turkey
24. Shanghai, China
25. Amsterdam, Netherlands (tie)
25. Athens, Greece (tie)
25. Sao Paulo, Brazil (tie)
28. Madrid, Spain
29. Prague, Czech Republic
30. Lagos, Nigeria
31. Barcelona, Spain (tie)
31. Rio de Janiero, Brazil (tie)
31. Stockholm, Sweden (tie)
34. Douala, Cameroon
35. Warsaw, Poland
36. Melbourne, Australia
37. Munich, Germany
38. Berlin, Germany
39. Brussels, Belgium
40. Frankfurt, Germany
41. Dakar, Senegal
42. Kiev, Ukraine
43. Luxembourg
44. Almaty, Kazakhstan
45. Bratislava, Slovakia
46. Dusseldorf, Germany (tie)
46. Riga, Latvia (tie)
48. Mumbai, India
49. Zagreb, Croatia
50. Hamburg, Germany

To see 2008 vs. 2007 rankings of these Top 50 cities, click here.

* If you do not see your Australian, African, Asian, Middle Eastern or North American city on this list, see CNN Money’s ranking of all 143 cities by clicking here.

In the News

“Profit margins in Greece are unheard of in other EU countries”
“Greek families struggling to make ends meet”
“Cost of Living in Greece, highest in EU, particularly basics such as food”
“Greeks worried about finances more than last year”
“78 percent of Greeks believe prices are set to rise; majority pessimistic about future”
“Greece: Second highest prices for liquid gas/petrol in the EU”
“Rise in cost of living has Greece battling for tourists” – BBC

(All published after my article on the same topic was plagiarized by a different newspaper on May 6th)

Related posts

“Athens, Greece: Quality of Living ranking 2008”
“Athens, Greece: 29th Most Expensive City in the World 2007”
“Consumers pay double for basics in Greece vs. other EU countries”

* Article updated January 10, 2009

Photo from worldstockphotos.com

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Conversations with my cell phone service provider

July 21, 2008 at 07:01 · Filed under Personal

A simple woman’s dream of paying her cell phone bill in Greece.

Via Phone

Kat (K): Hello, can you tell me where I can pay my bill? I live in ____ , and I’d like to find somewhere open past 18:00.

Service provider (SP): You can go to ______ .

K: No, that’s only open until 17:00.

SP: It says in our database that it’s open until 20:00.

K: Well, it’s not. I went there.

SP: How about ____ ?

K: No, they’re closed for vacation.

SP: You can pay at the post office.

K: The three post offices in my area close at 14:30.

SP: Why can’t your husband pay it for you?

K: Because I don’t have one, and my boyfriend works longer hours than I do.

SP: Your mother can pay it for you.

K: No she can’t because she’s dead. And when she was alive, she lived in a different country.

SP: What about your father?

K: My father is dead too. I haven’t lived with my parents since I was 17.

SP: What about a brother or sister? Or a friend?

K: For the record, my friends work and so does my brother. I appreciate what you’re doing, but let’s just say I’m responsible for myself, so please don’t give me options that involve other people.

SP: You can pay it at a bank, get a bank check or have it set up to automatically pay it monthly.

K: I work longer hours than the banks in my area, which close at 13:30, and I do not have a car to drive to a bank that is open late.

SP: You can pay at an ATM.

K: Actually, I can’t because you do not cooperate with the bank I use. Listen, I’m not an idiot. I already went to your website and looked at your ‘How to Pay Your Bill’ options, and they do not fit me, so if you could just get back to my original question and tell me a place open past 18:00, that’d be great.

SP: Why can you use our pay online service?

K: Because your online system does not recognize my phone number! Can you just give me the answer to my original question, please?

SP: Why doesn’t it recognize it?

K: You’re asking me? How would I know? I’m calling you from that number right now, so obviously it exists.

SP: I don’t understand.

K: I don’t either, I just accept that it doesn’t work and I move on since I’ve already asked you to fix it twice, and you’ve done nothing. Now can you give me the answer to my original question?

SP: Just that store I told you already.

K: Yes, but I told you it’s not open past 17:00.

SP: Well then, I don’t have any information for you.

K: There are no other stores?

SP: No. By the way, your bill is overdue by 2 days.

K: Yes, I know that. I’ve been trying to pay it for the past week!

SP: If you don’t pay it, we’ll disconnect your service.

K: Oh, how nice. (*sigh*)

At the store

I got permission from my boss to leave 2 hours early to pay my phone bill. He laughed at me and thought I was lying.

K: Hello, I’d like to pay my bill.

SP: You must go to the other counter.

K: Thank you. (Stand in line at the other counter)

…10 minutes later

K: Hello, I’d like to pay my bill.

SP: You need to go to the other counter.

K: I was at the other counter, and he told me to come here, so I waited 10 minutes and now I have to go back?

SP: Yes.

K: I don’t accept that because if I leave this counter and go back to the other, he’s going to tell me to come back here. If neither of you want to help me, just say so instead of passing me back and forth.

SP: Fine, I’ll help you. Wait here.

…5 minutes later

SP: Here’s your receipt. Is there something else?

K: Yes, I’d like to change my address.

SP: Sure, can I see your identification?

K: Here you go.

SP: Wait, while I make a call to verify.

…minutes later

SP: This is not the same passport on file.

K: Yes, I know. The one you have on file is my passport from 10 years ago when I first signed up with you. Of course that one is expired, and this is my new one.

SP: Well, the new one is not on file.

K: I’m obviously the same person. It’s the same AFM, and I can provide other proof as well. Here’s my driver’s license, my ATM card, my bus pass.

SP: Show me your expired passport.

K: What? Why?

SP: You don’t have it?

K: No, it expired 7 years ago. It’s at home in storage.

SP: So you don’t have it with you?

K: Why would I carry around a passport that expired 7 years ago? It’s not even a valid form of ID.

SP: Do you know the number?

K: Do you even understand what you’re asking me?

SP: So you don’t know the number?

K: Do you know the number of your tautotita in your wallet right now or your AFM by heart? Notice that I didn’t ask you something from 7 years ago; I’m asking you something you’ve had almost all your life.

SP: Point taken.

Related posts

“Conversations from a day in my life, as a “non-blonde lesbian, liar, thief, uneducated American that no speak good English”
“Just another day in Hellas”
“Greek Ombudsman: Registering a complaint about Greece“

Comments (3)

Summer and winter sales in Greece

July 18, 2008 at 18:54 · Filed under Shopping in Greece

Photo from kalimera.gr

There are two official sales per year in Greece. In summer, they start July 15 and run until August 31. In winter, sales typically start on January 15 and end on February 28. However, with annual sales lagging up to 40 percent from 2009, many retailers offer ongoing discounts, gift vouchers, interest-free payment programs and VAT-free purchases.*

By law, an establishment must display two signs: One showing the original price and another showing the sale price. Retailers not displaying both signs are subject to fines ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 euros, and repeat offenses are calculated as a percentage of total sales or an amount determined by the secretary general, plus imprisonment.

Sale prices are valid until closing time of the last day, according to law 3769/2009.

If you are a regular customer at a store and are going to pay cash, you can normally secure a discount year round simply by asking politely.

*Value-added tax (VAT) was raised to 23 percent on July 1, 2010.

ΦΕΥΓΟΥΜΕ means “We’re leaving” aka, It’s a closeout sale.

Buyer beware

Some stores raise their prices artificially during this period to fool a consumer into thinking they are getting a bargain when they’re not. For example, the original price of an air conditioner on July 10 was 400 euros, but raised to 599 euros on July 15. The shop then displays the ‘original price’ as 599 euros and the sale price as 400 euros (the true original price), thus advertising a 33 percent discount.

Do people really do that? In a word, ‘yes.’

My friend Eva was the first person to tell me about this practice, citing a large retailer she visited some days before a sale. She had her eye on a certain jacket, noted the price and then went back a few days later to get it on sale. To her surprise, the price had been changed, and the sale price was only 1 euro below the price she originally noted, not the 40 percent discount the store was claiming.

The clothing store I walk past each day on the way to work did the same thing. All of the shirts in the window are tagged 25 euros. But on July 15, the original price jumped to 50 euros, had a red slash through it, and the “new” sale price is now 25 euros.

So if you’re not sure if it’s truly a bargain, it’s best to pass.

Photo credit: Yiannis Panagopoulos/Eurokinissi

Where to file complaints

If you know for a fact that a store is artificially inflating prices or engaging in other dishonest business practices during a sale period, the Development Ministry encourages consumers to call, ‘1520.’

Complaints regarding defective merchandise or low quality products can also be filed with the Consumer Protection Agency of Greece (KEPKA or ΚΕ.Π.ΚΑ), where 99.6% of cases recover compensation for the buyer. See, www.kepka.org.

Related posts

“10 tips for saving money on food”
“English language bookstores in Greece”
“VAT rates in Greece”

http://bit.ly/GRsales

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