Most cars on Lithuanian roads were not paid for in cash. The word you meet everywhere is lizingas, used loosely for three products that behave very differently at the end of the term: a finance lease, an operating lease, and a loan secured on the car. Which one you sign decides who owns the vehicle, who carries the risk that it is worth less than expected in five years, what insurance you must buy, and what it costs to walk away early.
Two rules set the outside of the box before any lender talks to you. Leasing to a private individual is consumer credit in Lithuanian law, so instalments across every lender may not exceed 40% of your sustainable income. And comprehensive insurance โ kasko โ is normally a condition of the lease contract, on top of the compulsory third-party cover the law already requires. That second one is the cost people leave out.
Table of Contents
Three Products, One Word
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Ask a Lithuanian how they bought their car and the answer is usually "lizingu" โ which covers all three of these, and the differences only show up at the end.
| Finance lease (lizingas) | Operating lease (veiklos nuoma) | Car loan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the car during the term | The lessor | The lessor | You |
| What happens at the end | It becomes yours | Return it, buy it at market price, or extend | Nothing โ you already own it |
| Who carries the residual value risk | You | The lessor | You |
| Deposit | Normally from 10% | Varies by contract | Often none |
| Kasko insurance | Required by the contract | Required by the contract | Depends on the lender |
| Who it is offered to here | Private and business | Predominantly business | Private and business |
The finance lease is the default. A deposit, then instalments of principal and interest, and when the last one clears the car transfers to you. The lessor owns it throughout, which is why the registration certificate names them and why they can dictate your insurance. Every bank on this page writes them.
The operating lease is a rental with a fixed term. The lessor keeps the car and the residual value risk, and often bundles maintenance and tyres into one invoice; at the end you hand it back, buy it at market price, or renew. Swedbank and Citadele both describe it as a business product โ a private individual who wants that shape of deal is more likely to end up in long-term rental from a mobility operator.
The car loan is the one foreigners under-use. You borrow, you buy, you own it from day one, and the car is pledged or not depending on the lender. No residual value, no lessor's insurance clause by default, no restriction on selling โ but the interest is usually higher, dramatically so when the loan is unsecured, as the examples below show.
A fourth product behaves like none of the three. Grฤฏลพtamasis lizingas โ sale and leaseback โ is offered to private customers by Artea among others: you sell a car you already own to the lessor and lease it back, converting an asset into cash plus a monthly payment. It is credit, with the same consumer credit rules attached, and it is the product most likely to be described to you as something else.
The Rules That Decide How Much You Get
Leasing to a consumer is regulated as consumer credit, and the Bank of Lithuania is explicit that hire purchase and leasing fall inside that regime. Three consequences follow, none negotiable with a dealership sales desk.
The 40% test. Your average monthly payment across every obligation to a financial institution โ this lease, another loan, a mortgage, a credit card limit โ may not exceed 40% of your sustainable income, under the Bank of Lithuania's responsible lending rules. A lender may go above it only on specific justified evidence that doing so is still responsible: an allowance for its file, not something to ask for.
The total cost of credit cannot exceed the amount borrowed. Interest, fees and every other charge together are capped at 100% of the credit โ nowhere near binding on a five-year bank lease, closer than you might think on a small unsecured loan.
You can change your mind. 14 calendar days from the agreement โ or from receiving the terms, if later โ to withdraw without giving a reason, then repay the credit plus accrued interest within 30 calendar days. The lender may recover nothing else except non-refundable charges already paid to a public body.
None of this turns on your nationality; it turns on evidence. A lender must assess sustainable income, and income paid abroad in another currency by an employer with no Lithuanian presence is harder to verify than a local salary in a local account. See asmens kodas for the personal code every Lithuanian credit process is keyed to.
The Lenders, and Their Own Examples
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Four banks and a handful of specialist lenders write car finance for private customers here. What follows is each one's own published representative example, transcribed exactly and not recalculated. That is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy: under the Law on Consumer Credit a cost-of-credit figure may not be stated without the lender's own example beside it, and we may not construct one.
These five examples describe five different deals
Each lender picks its own car price, deposit, term and assumed index value: Swedbank's runs on a โฌ32,000 car with a 20% deposit, Luminor's on a โฌ24,000 car with 10% down, and GF bankas's is not a car lease in the same sense but an unsecured consumer credit of โฌ7,500. Lining the APRs up and picking the smallest is not a comparison. Read each as that lender's cost structure, then get personal offers.
Swedbank
Largest leasing book, highest minimum
Key highlights
Key features
- Publishes a complete representative example
- Lower margin for zero-emission vehicles
- Widest dealer network of the four
Account details
- Minimum financed
- โฌ10,000
- Maximum term
- 7 years
- Contract fee
- 1%, min โฌ200
Summary
- Publishes a complete representative example
- Lower margin for zero-emission vehicles
- Widest dealer network of the four
- Nothing below โฌ10,000
- Percentage fee with a floor
Representative example (Swedbank) โ a car costing โฌ32,000.00 with an advance of โฌ6,400.00 (20%), an amount financed of โฌ25,600.00 over 60 months at 6-month EURIBOR (not less than 0) plus 2.29% โ 5.7% on the day the example was calculated โ with a โฌ320.00 contract fee, gives a monthly instalment of โฌ491.33 and a total amount payable of โฌ29,859.80 APR: 6.5%
As published by Swedbank โ swedbank.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
SEB
Full leasing page in English
Key highlights
Key features
- Full English product page
- Kasko sum insured at market price
- Flat instalments or deferred residual
Account details
- Residual value
- 0% or deferred
- Agreement fee
- โฌ300
- Maximum term
- 7 years
Summary
- Full English product page
- Kasko sum insured at market price
- Flat instalments or deferred residual
- Its example excludes insurance
- Flat fee, heavy on small deals
Representative example (SEB) โ a car worth โฌ30,000.00 with a down payment of โฌ6,000.00 from your own funds and the remaining โฌ24,000.00 leased for 5 years gives a total payable of โฌ26,984.54 and a monthly payment of โฌ443.74 APR: 4.91%
As published by SEB โ seb.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
Luminor
Published margins, new and used
Key highlights
Key features
- Separate new-car and used-car margins
- Example names the EURIBOR value
- Dealer sets residual by mileage
Account details
- New car margin
- 1.99% + EURIBOR
- Used car margin
- from 2.24% + EURIBOR
- Agreement fee
- 1%, min โฌ200
Summary
- Separate new-car and used-car margins
- Example names the EURIBOR value
- Dealer sets residual by mileage
- A margin is not a rate
- Kasko compulsory, outside the example
Representative example (Luminor) โ a car priced at โฌ24,000.00 on a 60-month finance lease with a down payment of โฌ2,400.00 (10%), a total credit of โฌ21,600.00, an administration fee of โฌ240.00 and a variable rate of 2.12% plus 3-month EURIBOR (1.95% on the calculation day), gives a total payable of โฌ24,172.20 and a monthly payment of โฌ398.87 APR: 4.66%
As published by Luminor โ luminor.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
Artea
Formerly SB lizingas, longest term
Key highlights
Key features
- Longest term here
- Example itemises interest and fee
- Publishes a vehicle age ceiling
Account details
- Maximum term
- 8 years
- Vehicle age at end
- max 15 years
- Old domain
- sblizingas.lt
Summary
- Longest term here
- Example itemises interest and fee
- Publishes a vehicle age ceiling
- Older results use the old name
- Age ceiling rules out older cars
Representative example (Artea) โ a car worth โฌ25,000.00 with a โฌ2,500.00 deposit paid from your own funds to the seller, giving a total consumer credit of โฌ22,500.00 over 60 months at a variable 4.89% (a 2.49% margin plus 6-month EURIBOR), with โฌ2,908.23 of interest and a โฌ250.00 administration fee, gives a total amount payable of โฌ28,158.23 and a monthly instalment of โฌ423.47 APR: 5.49%
As published by Artea โ artea.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
GF bankas
No kasko, a very different price
Key highlights
Key features
- Reaches cars the banks decline
- Instalment never moves with EURIBOR
- Publishes a representative example
Account details
- Amount
- โฌ150โโฌ35,000
- Term
- 3โ120 months
- Kasko
- Not required
Summary
- Reaches cars the banks decline
- Instalment never moves with EURIBOR
- Publishes a representative example
- Monthly admin fee dominates the APR
- No kasko means you carry write-offs
Representative example (GF bankas) โ a credit of โฌ7,500.00 over 60 months at an annual interest rate of 5.9%, with no transaction fee and a monthly administration fee of 0.5% of the total credit, gives a monthly payment of โฌ182.15 and a total amount payable of โฌ10,928.85 APR: 17.15%
As published by GF bankas โ gfbankas.lt. Retrieved August 2026; providers revise these annually.
Two more lenders, and why no rate appears for them
Citadele writes car leasing and a car loan for private customers and publishes a calculator, but no representative example โ so no APR, monthly payment or total payable for it appears here. Building one from a calculator's output is exactly what the Law on Consumer Credit forbids. It is a real option; go to them for the numbers.
mogo is a specialist lender rather than a bank, filling a different gap: โฌ500 to โฌ10,000 for up to 72 months, with no down payment required and kasko explicitly not a condition. It sets the rate individually and publishes no example, so there is no APR for it here either.
The Deposit and the Residual Value
Two numbers shape a lease more than the interest rate does, and they pull in opposite directions.
The deposit, at the front
- All four banks publish a floor of 10%
- Paid to the seller from your own funds, not borrowed
- A larger one cuts the amount financed, and so the interest
- What you are actually asked for depends on the car and your file
The residual value, at the back
- A slice of the price deferred to the final instalment
- SEB defers up to 20%; the plain structure is 0%
- Luminor has the dealer set it against planned mileage
- Interest accrues on it for the whole term, so the total rises
The residual value is where a monthly payment is engineered. Deferring part of the capital to a balloon at the end makes the monthly figure look lower than a comparable deal without one. It does not make the car cheaper: interest runs on the deferred slice for the whole term, and at the end you find the balloon in cash, refinance it, or hand the car back if the contract allows.
That last option is the dividing line. Under a finance lease the residual value is a debt you have contracted to pay, so if the car is worth less than the balloon, the gap is yours; under an operating lease the lessor set it and carries the risk of having got it wrong. The monthly figures can look similar. The exposure does not.
Artea's ceiling on vehicle age โ no more than 15 years old at the end of the contract โ is the constraint that catches people financing an older car. An eight-year term and a ten-year-old car do not fit together, whatever the monthly figure says.
What the Credit Actually Costs
A Lithuanian car lease rate is two components added together, and quoting one without the other is how people compare numbers that mean nothing.
| Component | Who sets it | Does it move? |
|---|---|---|
| EURIBOR โ 3-month or 6-month depending on the lender | The euro interbank market | Yes, and it resets your instalment |
| The lender's margin | The lender, from your file and the car | Fixed for the life of the contract, normally |
| The contract or administration fee | The lender's price list | One-off, at the start |
| Kasko premium | Your insurer, not your lender | Renews annually, outside every example above |
Fee structures differ in a way that matters on a cheap car. Swedbank and Luminor both charge a percentage of the vehicle's value with a floor โ 1% with a minimum of โฌ200 โ so on a car near the minimum financed amount you pay the floor rather than the percentage. SEB's is a flat โฌ300, and Artea's example carries a โฌ250.00 administration fee. On a โฌ25,000 car those are close together; on a โฌ35,000 one they are not.
GF bankas's example is instructive for a different reason: a stated annual interest rate of 5.9% against a representative APR of 17.15%. The gap is the monthly administration fee of 0.5% of the credit amount, charged every month for the whole term. The interest rate is not the price. The APR is, which is why the law makes lenders publish it.
No EURIBOR value appears anywhere on this page. It is republished every business day, so any figure typed here would be stale within days. That includes the values inside the bank examples above, each stating the rate on the day that lender calculated its example and reproduced as published. Take today's index from your lender or the Bank of Lithuania's statistics, and add the margin yourself.
Insurance: Two Policies, Not One
This is the cost most comparisons leave out, and it is not optional.
Compulsory motor third party liability cover is required by statute for every vehicle whose normal place of location is Lithuania, driven or not. On a finance lease or hire purchase the law puts the obligation on the person using it under that contract โ you โ not on the lessor who owns it. Minimum sums insured, the fines and the Motor Insurers' Bureau's recovery action are on car insurance in Lithuania.
Comprehensive cover โ kasko โ is required by the contract, and every bank on this page says so in the same terms: the whole term, at your expense, with an insurer the lessor accepts. It is not a legal requirement; it is the lessor protecting an asset it owns. SEB publishes what that means in practice: the sum insured may not be below the vehicle's market price, the theft deductible may not exceed 20% of the loss, and the unconditional deductible may not exceed โฌ868.86.
Kasko carries a tax the compulsory policy does not. From 1 January 2026 a 10% security contribution applies to non-life premiums. Compulsory motor cover on a car not used for business is carved out of the base; comprehensive cover is not, and neither is a business-use policy. The insurer pays it rather than adding a line to your bill, which is why it is invisible when you compare quotes โ it is already inside the price.
Two practical points follow. Kasko is renewed annually while the lease runs for years, so the premium is not fixed the way the margin is โ a claim in year two changes what year three costs. And a lender that does not require kasko, as GF bankas and mogo do not, has not done you a favour: it has moved the risk of a total loss onto you while you still owe the balance. That is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by omission.
Getting Out Early
Three exits exist, governed by three different things.
Withdrawal, within 14 days
The statutory right to change your mind, no reason required, running from the agreement or from receipt of the terms if later. Notify in writing on a durable medium and repay the credit plus accrued interest within 30 calendar days; the lender may keep nothing else except non-refundable charges already paid to a public body.Repaying early, at any point after that
You may always repay a consumer credit ahead of time. Compensation is capped at 1% of the amount repaid early where more than a year of the agreement remains, 0.5% where less remains. Ask what your lender actually charges โ the statute sets a ceiling, not a price.Terminating the contract and giving the car back
The one with no statutory tariff. Under a finance lease the lessor owns the car, sells it, and looks to you for the difference between what it fetched and what you owed โ a gap set by the market on the day, which is why a no-deposit lease on a fast-depreciating car can leave you owing money on a car you no longer have.
The middle route is nearly always cheaper than the third, and the gap is largest early in the term, when depreciation has run and repayment has not. Selling a leased car privately is not something you can simply do: the lessor is the owner on the register, the car is pledged, and a buyer who runs the check Regitra recommends will see it. Settling the finance is what makes a sale possible, not a tidy-up afterwards โ the same fact seen from the buyer's side on buying a car in Lithuania.
Why You Can Trust This Guide
All five representative examples are the lender's own published figures, copied rather than recalculated. Where a lender publishes no example, no cost figure appears for it and the absence is stated.
The 40% instalment cap, the 14-day withdrawal right and the early repayment ceiling come from the Law on Consumer Credit and the Bank of Lithuania's responsible lending rules, not from any lender's marketing.
The CO2 caps on deductible car cost and the 0.75% benefit-in-kind valuation are the State Tax Inspectorate's own guidance on the 2025 corporate tax amendments and on private use of a company vehicle.
We are not a credit provider or a credit intermediary, we take no applications and there is no form on this page. No lender here pays us, and the ordering is editorial.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between lizingas and a car loan in Lithuania?
Under a finance lease, lizingas, the lessor owns the car for the whole term and it transfers to you when the last instalment clears โ which is why it can require comprehensive insurance and why you cannot sell without settling the finance. Under a car loan you own the car from the day you buy it, pledged or not depending on the lender. The lease usually carries the lower rate; the loan the fewer restrictions.
Is an operating lease available to a private person in Lithuania?
The banks market operating lease, veiklos nuoma, as a business product: the lessor keeps the car and the residual value risk, maintenance is often bundled into the invoice, and at the end you return it, buy it at market price or extend. A private individual who wants that arrangement is more likely to find it as long-term rental from a mobility operator than as a bank product.
How much can I borrow for a car?
Your average monthly payment across every obligation to a financial institution may not exceed 40 percent of your sustainable income โ the Bank of Lithuania's responsible lending rule, which covers leasing explicitly, so an existing mortgage, another loan or a credit card limit all reduce what a lessor can offer. A lender may exceed it only on specific justified evidence that doing so remains responsible in your case.
How much deposit does a car lease need?
All four banks publish a floor of 10 percent of the vehicle's price, paid from your own funds to the seller rather than borrowed. What you are actually asked for depends on the car and on your credit assessment. Specialist lenders differ: mogo states that no down payment is required at all, which raises the amount financed and therefore the interest.
Do I have to buy kasko insurance if I lease a car?
Under a bank lease, yes: comprehensive cover for the whole term, at your expense, with an insurer the lessor accepts. It is not a legal requirement โ that is the compulsory third-party policy, which the law requires separately and which the person using a leased car is responsible for, not the lessor. Some specialist lenders, including GF bankas and mogo, do not require kasko, which moves the risk of a total loss onto you while the balance is outstanding.
What is a residual value and should I take one?
A slice of the price deferred to a single payment at the end, which lowers the monthly instalment and raises the total, because interest runs on the deferred amount for the whole contract. SEB defers up to 20 percent; Luminor has the dealer set the figure against planned mileage. Under a finance lease it is a debt you have contracted to pay, so if the car is worth less than the balloon the gap is yours; under an operating lease the lessor carries that risk.
Which lender has the cheapest car leasing?
No answer survives contact with your own file: the margin is set from your income, the deposit and the car. Five lenders publish a representative example and all five are reproduced here, but they describe five different deals over different terms with different deposits, so lining the APRs up and picking the smallest is not a comparison. Get personal offers from at least three.
Why is there no APR for Citadele or mogo on this page?
Because neither publishes one. Lithuanian consumer credit law does not allow a cost-of-credit figure to be stated without the lender's own representative example beside it, and constructing one from a calculator or a quoted margin is what that rule forbids. Both are real options โ Citadele writes car leasing and a car loan for private clients, mogo finances from 500 to 10,000 euros over up to 72 months with no down payment โ and both should be approached directly for their numbers.
Can I cancel a car lease after signing it?
You have 14 calendar days from the agreement, or from receiving the terms if later, to withdraw without giving a reason: notify the lender in writing on a durable medium and repay the credit plus accrued interest within 30 calendar days. It may recover nothing beyond non-refundable charges already paid to a public authority. After that window, ending the contract means repaying early or terminating โ two different things with two different costs.
What does it cost to repay a car lease early?
You may always repay a consumer credit ahead of schedule. The lender's compensation is capped by statute at 1 percent of the amount repaid early where more than a year of the agreement remains, and 0.5 percent where less than a year remains. That is a ceiling rather than a price โ lenders differ, and it is worth asking before you sign rather than when you want out.
What happens if I just hand the car back?
The lessor owns it, so it takes the car, sells it, and looks to you for the difference between what it fetched and what you owed. There is no statutory tariff for that shortfall โ it is set by the market on the day. That is why a lease taken with no deposit on a fast-depreciating car can leave you owing money on a vehicle you no longer have, and why repaying early is usually far cheaper than terminating.
Can I sell a car that is still on a lease?
Not while the finance is outstanding. The lessor is recorded as the owner and the vehicle is pledged, which any careful buyer will see when they run the check Regitra recommends before paying. Settling the finance is what makes the sale possible; it is not something to sort out afterwards.
Is it better to lease a car through my company?
It depends on the car and on how much of the use is genuinely business. VAT on the instalments is recoverable only to the extent of business use, and not at all on a margin-scheme car. The cost is deductible, but for vehicles acquired or leased from 1 January 2025 the deductible acquisition price is capped by CO2 emissions: โฌ75,000 at 0 g/km, โฌ50,000 up to 130 g/km, โฌ25,000 from 131 to 200 g/km and โฌ10,000 above that. For a leased car the deductible monthly cost is that limit divided by the 6-year normative period and then by twelve โ โฌ347 a month on the โฌ25,000 band, whatever the invoice says โ and rentals of 30 days or less in a tax period fall outside the cap, as do cars used exclusively for rental, driving instruction or transport services. Private use is taxable as income in kind: the tax authority's simplified method values it at 0.75% of market value a month, with 0.05% of market value carved out as the fuel element for VAT. And a business lease is not consumer credit, so the 40% cap, the 14-day withdrawal right and the early repayment ceiling do not apply.
Does a foreigner need a residence permit to lease a car in Lithuania?
Nothing in the consumer credit rules turns on nationality. A lender must assess sustainable income, and income earned abroad in another currency from an employer with no Lithuanian presence is harder to verify than a local salary paid into a local account. You will also need a Lithuanian personal code. A permit is not a legal condition of leasing, but it makes the assessment straightforward in a way nothing else does.
What happened to SB lizingas?
It is now Artea. The old domain sblizingas.lt redirects to Artea's leasing pages, and the business still writes car leasing, sale and leaseback, and goods finance for private customers. Older comparison tables and search results still carry the previous name, which is why people assume it has gone.
Work out the car before you work out the finance
The lease is the second decision. Which car, bought where, with what history and what registration tax attached to it, is the first โ and it changes the finance more than the finance changes it.
Disclaimer
General information, not financial or legal advice, and not a credit offer or an invitation to apply. We are not a credit provider and not a credit intermediary. Rates, fees, insurance requirements and lenders' terms change, and every representative example above is the lender's own as published on the date it was read. Verify every figure with the lender before you commit.