Europcar Portugal Reviews 

DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY. GOT SCAMMED FOR ADDITIONAL CHARGES. We bought a three day rental of a basic suv through Expedia and the price we paid INCLUDED the drop off price (picked up the car one location and dropped off at their airport location). At the time of pick up they also charged an ADDITIONAL drop off fee but when we tried to explain to them that it’s already charged when we bought on Expedia they said it doesn’t matter and that they still needed to charge. Being on vacation I was short on time and didn’t want to spend any more time there arguing so I just proceeded with the rental. Returned the car at the airport and a guy came out, checked everything and said everything was good so we proceeded to the airport for our flight back home. A few days later I checked my charges when I got back into the country and it was $460.. for two days??. Clearly not what I signed to pay initially so I emailed and ask for the discrepancy between prices. They emailed back a week later saying upon returning the car they do an external check and also an INTERNAL check for anything else. Apparently during their internal check there were some missing documents so they charged me an additional $50 euros? What documents are worth $50 euros. What ever documents they provided when I picked up the car stayed in the brochure inside the glove compartment during the entire duration of the rental. They didn’t say anything about keeping any documents safe or else they would charge me. They waited for me to hop on the plane to head back home before they went ahead and charged me for something I didn’t lose? Whose to say that they didn’t even provide the “missing documents” in the first place? They even had the audacity to say “send proof that you’re not missing documents”. Pathetic scammers, save your time and money and go with someone else.

Avoid Europcar at Faro Airport at all costs. I booked a car online for just €66. When I arrived, the agent deceptively "upgraded" me to a Tesla, insisting it was the same price and no need to return it charged. That was a lie.

Without warning or consent, they charged me an extra €136, claiming it was for “government taxes” — a vague excuse with no proper explanation. I repeatedly asked what the charges were for, but the agent refused to provide clear answers.

To make matters worse, the entire contract was in Portuguese, a language I don’t speak, and I was pressured to sign it on the spot after a long wait and with a tired child beside me. Only after returning to my hotel and using a translator did I discover the truth: hidden fees for “Customer Choice,” roadside assistance, a premium location fee, and other unjustified charges.

This experience was not just unprofessional — it felt predatory and manipulative. Europcar took advantage of a vulnerable situation to force through charges I never agreed to. If you value honesty, transparency, and fair treatment, do NOT rent from Europcar Faro. I will never use them again.

I arrived at Porto airport on Monday evening feeling very tired. The woman working there convinced me to upgrade my car, saying the one I originally chose was too small. Later, I noticed they say the same thing to everyone (unless you booked a suv!). I felt misled and pressured, especially when she told me that the basic plan I had chosen was too dangerous. She scared me into signing the premium contract — for an extra €480!

The next day I came back, but it was too late to change anything. Even though I had changed the car, the expensive insurance — charged per day — couldn’t be modified. The moment I asked to change the insurance, they became aggressive and flat-out refused. Unprofessional and scammers! Never again with Europcar.

Probably the worst rental experience ever. From the signage that directs you to the car part only to be sent back to the desk (which is badly signposted), to over charges, the whole experience was terrible. The car was a mess (both inside and out) and none of the many dents and scratches were marked on the forms (took over 40 minutes to get them listed). I booked a car that could take 4 passengers and luggage but they tried to give me a much smaller car (not equivalent), was forced to upgrade at additional cost as the only car they would give me was too small. I paid for a toll pass but got charged again for it 3 weeks after returning home.

THEY WILL MISS-CHARGE YOU. Booked a car declined the insurance and took an upgrade that I was told and shown in screen would cost €10 a day. Charges weren’t highlighted to me. I mistakenly signed where I was asked to sign. I’ve been charged over £650 for the hire that was supposed to cost £180. Help desk this says it’s my problem my word against the agents. I should’ve noticed the small print that i thought was a deposit be aware this company is disreputable as any car hire company out there a shame as I’ve used them for many years. READ THE AGREEMENT SLOWLY EVEN IF IN A HURRY.

Arrived in the appollonian station in lisboa.
No picture to exploit where is the office.
The appuntamento Washington at 10 00 but at 10.45 no one speack woth me because there are four person attending the person in charge.
Unbeliveble dont'use this company car in this place.

Motorcycycles hired to do a trip around Portugal lasting a week. 5 motorcycles hired. BMW 1300 /1250's. The servicing had clearly not been kept up the engine noises were horrific. Front tyres on two bikes were below the legal limit and potentially dangerous, especially in the wet.
There was a 2 minute hand over over of the bikes and no detailed 'how to...' with the BMW controls. The brake pads on one BMW 1300 were worn to a degree that brake fade was noticed after 48hrs. Handlebars were also bent from a previous hirer's accident.
The deposits were not what was agreed over the phone and a point of contention when picking the bikes up.
When delivering the bikes back to the Lisbon outlet the staff had a 'couldn't care less' attitude and were more interested in chatting with other staff members and looking at there phones rather than dealing with our concerns and processing the return of the deposits (which were quite substantial).

All in all, quite disappointing for the money spent.
Staff need to up thier game and the vehicles need to be better taken care of.

Was upgraded on arrival,the receptionist was very friendly we had a basic pakage ,no upselling,and escorted to the car and guided through our inspection all in the space of 15 minutes great start to a lovely holiday in the Algarve

Date of experience: 21 March 2025

Rented a car for 5 days from Faro Airport. Catarina made it super easy to pick up my car (especially after a long trip). She was super clear and cheerful. Car was in amazing condition and great to drive. My return was super easy too - thank you!

NEW 2025: only by request they tell you that there is now a "cross country fee" since 2024 of 12€/day for the whole rental period regardless if you enter Spain 1 day or all days of rental.

The fee is not nice but of course they can do what others also do.

Problem is that they introduce such fees without proper communication after years when it was free at Europcar to enter Spain. There is absolutely nothing on their T&C, not during booking - only if you ask by email the reply is as above.

Scammers!

Probably the worst rental experience I've ever had. Poor management, a different car that malfunctioned, hidden charges until the rental, a car without emergency accessories, subsequent charges with claims, slow contact, and often no way to contact them to process the claim. Look for another company; there are many.

Rented just for the weekend, pick up at Praia da Rocha. Pre booked had a great price. Easy pick up, which was aided by a very helpful and friendly gentleman, I believe his name was George.
As all rentals make sure every little scratch and scuff are documented. I took photos of everything I could see, which helped on the return as one wheel hub scuff was not marked on the paperwork by I had on a photo to clear the matter (been stung before by a different unscrupulous company!).
Overall a good experience 😀

When I arrived there was no car and had to wait for 40min for a different car. The car was returned back a half hour later and charged me a whole day for.

For the motorcycle rent we worked with Miguel, but the other teammembers were helpfull to. But Miguell performed miracles! I made the reservation in the wrong month, and he still made a big effort of getting us two big bmws( new 1300) and for me an extra low 1250
All the bikes had navigation holderd for your own phone and i got a very nice well fitting flip up helmet
If thats not enough… i got ill and miguell aranged a smaller easier to handle bike.

And it doesnt stops there… i got so ill that i coudnt drive anymore, and we were allowed as een exception to drop the bikes off in Armaco… 2 minutes from our hotel in stat op 32 minutes to portimao and back with taxi.
For me this was a real timesaver, miguel !, and collegues… thank you

The owner has reached out with a link for more info. I gave my phone number so that customer service can reach out to me.

This is the worst car company I have ever dealt with. I've attached a letter I sent to their customer service department who came back saying after speaking to the manager everything went as planned. Not happy with the response I wrote their corporate head office and didn't get a response from them.

I rented a vehicle from your company through eDreams Car Hire last December 18, 2024 for a trip to Portugal in February 2025 with 3 friends . The voucher number from eDreams is XXX, see attached. The car I rented was a Peugeot 3008 which is for 5 passengers and 4 suitcases. When we got to the rental desk in the Lisbon airport, I presented my identification and the person looking after us went into a side office and returned with a package for the car we rented. He asked me if I wanted to include insurance, I told him I already purchased insurance at the same time I rented the vehicle. He responded by saying that insurance wasn’t from Europcar and wasn’t any good and if the car was damaged a charge of 38,000 Euros would be put on my credit card. A bit of a discussion ensued regarding the insurance after which he placed the package for the car he got earlier from the office in a drawer behind him. He then went into the office again and came back with another car package, the rental car he was giving us . I didn’t think anything of it at the time, however, when we went to retrieve the car it was not what we rented, it was a Kia and it did not have sufficient room to store all of our luggage. We went back to the rental office and a bit of a heated discussion ensued because he told us he didn’t have the car we rented and the Kia was the same car class. We told him we could not place all of our luggage in the Kia and we wanted a similar car to the one we paid for. He again said he didn’t have one and offered an upgrade at a cost of 163.59 Euros, see attached, which we had to accept since we needed a car to travel around Portugal. This brought the total cost of a 7 day rental to $657 Canadian.

The car we were given was badly scratched and dented and not cleaned very well. The tank was also not filled, the dashboard indicated travel distance of 745 kilometers, see attached. When I filled up the car the travel distance registered 922 kilometers. The car was a diesel and approximately 100 kilometres from Lisbon a message appeared on the instrument panel, Ad Blue, engine will not start after 700 kms. I have never driven a diesel car before and did not know what the message meant, we potentially could have been stranded on the side of the road. The following morning we drove to an Europcar outlet in Porto to find out what to do, we were told they couldn’t help us and we needed to drive to the airport location where they could add the additive. The additive was added by the airport location and were told we should be able to drive 3 – 4 thousand kilometres on a full tank of Ad Blue, so it was obvious the car was not prepared properly to be rented. We also wasted about 3 hours of our time visiting the two different locations to get the additive added. In total, between the Lisbon and Porto locations we wasted approximately 5 hours of our precious holiday time for no good reason.

I have rented a number of vehicles and if the vehicle I rented was not available, I was always offered a free upgrade. We should have been offered a free upgrade at the Lisbon location instead of putting us through a lot of stress for no reason at all. I am requesting the amount of 163.59 Euros be refunded to my credit car as a good will gesture. I hope this issue can be resolved amicably.

Thank you,

Terrible experience! We rented a car and later extended the contract by phone, also the car had a problem with the boot, causing it to open while driving. When phoning in the problem they advised us to go back and exchange vehicle. When arriving at the office the staff first told us that our contract was not extended at all (even after showing email confirmation and payment details) and then also doubted the fact that the boot has a defect. There is obviously no communication between European main office (phone service) and their Heathrow office and it ended in a terrible experience, no solution offered from their end and time and money wasted. Never again will we rent cars with them. Shocking really how Amina (the manager) dealt with the whole situation, a dark day for customer service.

I prepaid for a car rental from Lisbon Airport using Booking.com with Zurich Full Insurance.

When picking up the car I was given a different one to that booked, surcharged for an Electronic Toll Tag they said was fitted in the car so had to be charged for, a Premium Station Surcharge (airport) and an Assistant Service Fee (?). These charges alone doubled the rental.

They also said you have premium insurance and pointed to the line item. I said: 'this is the pre-paid one?' and they agreed but no, they charged me again for insurance which my booking voucher clearly showed I had already paid for.

In total my booking for 3 days went from £60 to over £140! BEWARE!!

Last time I used Europcar, I felt like used, awful experience

Rented with Europcar on recent trip to Lisbon. Collected car from Santa Apolonia station, and returned car to Lisbon airport. Drop off time was 12pm as per our reservation, and due to heavy traffic and torrential rain, we delivered the car at 12.27pm. All fine i thought, and no mention of any issues by person who received the car and gave me the paperwork.
I then received a charge a few days later for a further day of rental, despite returning the car back within the 29 minute courtesy period they state on their website. Have tried contacting them but their customer service channels (phone and email) are non existent. Would not trust this company ever again.

I collected the car from Faro Airport without any issues, drove it, and returned it in the same condition. A couple of days later, my £300 deposit was refunded. However, a week later, I received photos showing a long scratch (about 25cm) on the bumper, just in front of the headlight. There’s no way this damage could have occurred while driving—it was clear that someone caused it while the car was in the Europcar compound. Despite this, they sent me a bill for £250 for damage that happened after I had already returned the vehicle. Fortunately, I had taken photos and videos of the car before dropping it off, which I provided as evidence. Since then, I haven’t received any response. This branch operates dishonestly, so be cautious if you’re hiring from them.