Goldcar Portugal Reviews 

I rented from Gold Car at Lisbon airport in September 2025 having rented from them previously in September 2024. Do not use this company unless you have no other options. I have annual excess insurance and I also booked extra cover with the online provider. I am a very regular traveller and user of hire cars. But I was still shocked by my treatment. On both occasions I have used them I have had to challenge an attempt to charge me for damages to the car. On the first occasion I had enough photographic evidence to convince the desk manager not to proceed, but on the second occasion I received an email a month after I returned car with a claim for over 500 euros of damages. I challenged them, but I had deleted my photos and video because of a change of phone and the time elapsed. I am convinced that the garage staff are incentivised to find damage and that this is a deliberate revenue raising exercise. I have insurance, but the hassle involved is intensely irritating. I have used the company in Italy too, and had similar experiences. So please avoid if you want to avoid a lot of pain. If you do have to use them, take the insurance at the desk!

I have charges that occur almost daily , and when i dispute wirh my credit carr they said the cancellation return policy was not followed . So i guess in hndsight they know the return policy will not be followed

This is a scam

Very poor service. Complete lack of transparency about costs, and dishonest about deposits which were made. We hired a car from Economy Car Rentals for short holiday in Portugal from 27/09/2025 to 08/10/2025. The car was to be supplied by Goldcar at Faro Airport. From the outset there was a complete lack of transparency over costs. We were told we would have to pay separate deposits for Fuel and Tolls and these would be refunded at the end of the hire period. We used no motorways with tolls, returned the car cleaned, undamaged, and with a full tank purchased at the Faro airport. When we checked the returned car in we were assured that the deposits would be returned after 7 days. The deposits were never returned. Each enquiry to customer service was answered with a standard reply which did not address our concerns. Using Economy Car Rentals and by extension Goldcar proved to be an expensive mistake. Go elsewhere. This is a chaotic company lacking transparency and with no concept of customer service.

30 days after a handed back the car rental they claim that I scratched the car. I dispute this and we are discussing the claim when they just take the money out of my account. I see this is a very common path for these people and would recommend you pass on the low hire price and find someone else who does not try to upsell and claim for damages you did not do

A true scam -- 3x the price from Expedia.com

I reserved a mid size SUV on Expedia for $728. I triple confirmed passengers (5) and luggage (4) before booking.

When I got to the Goldstar counter, they assured me I booked a vehicle that was too small and that I should upgrade to a mid size SUV (mind you this is exactly what I booked and verified the vehicle types and the passenger and luggage accommodations).

All and all I ended up paying $2k USD for my $728 quoted rental. Would not rent with this company again.

Car was fine and staff were friendly and helpful, didn't try to charge for any mysterious damages

However goldcar are very sneaky and add on charges that are in the T&Cs, but do not appear anywhere in the total of your invoice. On a quoted price of 65 euros for a rental I was charged about 30 euros extra in fees such as years since driving licence issued, and toll booth device rental. Very cheeky imo

Booked and paid for car hire in advance. I received email cancelling the booking whilst at Heathrow airport about to board for Bologna. Reason - Goldcar offices now closing at 4.30pm when we due to land Bologna at 5.30pm. Despite me having "Key and Go" which means I collect key from automated machine. Caused me significant inconvenience to arrange alternative onward travel. To add insult.... refund can take up to 15 days and they had the ordasity to ask me to review their company. Goldcar don't not care !!

I recently rented a car from Goldcar in Lisbon and had a very frustrating experience. When I made the booking, it clearly stated that no security deposit was required. However, when we arrived at the airport to pick up the car, we were suddenly told that we had to pay a €269 security deposit and that they would not release the keys without it.

We were completely unprepared for this unexpected charge, both financially and practically. It felt misleading and left us in a difficult position right at the start of our trip. The staff simply repeated that there was nothing they could do.

Overall, this experience was extremely disappointing, and I will never use Goldcar again. I would strongly advise others to double-check the fine print or choose a more transparent rental company.

Additionally, the staff were very rude when we got the the key kiosk, all 3 of them on their phones which were very unapproachable.

We recently booked a car with GoldCarHire for our trip to Madeira. The website looked very professional, and we opted for the Full Cover package, which promised key-drop collection from the airport machine and an easy pick-up process. Unfortunately, our experience fell short of what was advertised.
Upon arrival at the airport, we were about 20 minutes early, so we went to the customer help desk. The representative who served us was extremely rude and unhelpful. We were told we could not collect the car until our 1 p.m. booking slot and that we had to use the machine — with no further explanation or assistance.
When we used the machine at 1 p.m., the key fob malfunctioned and did not provide us with a key for the car. We then had to queue again at customer service, where we were treated rudely once more. After eventually obtaining the key, we walked a considerable distance to the car area and finally located the vehicle.
Unfortunately, the problems didn’t end there. As soon as we began driving, we realised that the gearbox was in poor condition — reverse gear was complicated to engage, and the car felt poorly maintained overall.
We are highly disappointed. We paid a premium price, expecting a smooth and reliable service. Still, from start to finish, the experience fell short of even the most basic standards of customer care and vehicle quality. Having now read other reviews, it appears we are not alone in this experience. We will not be using GoldCar Rental again and would advise others to think carefully before doing so.

If it looks too good to be true, it will be!
Paid £40 online and sorted my own insurance waiver as I do yearly!
It was either pay over 1900€ at the desk in Faro with no guarantee I’d get any back or pay for their insurance at 174€ for 5 days.
I got a taxi instead and customer services won’t give a refund!
Gold my A***e . Steer clear and go for one of the better hire companies.
Atrocious attitude

A very bad experience renting a car at Goldcar Faro. We had a early check-out, so the car wasn't inspected by a person but we had to drop the car key in a deposit box.

When home, they sent an e-mail with photos of a so called 'new damage'. Upfront, I made a video of the car, so I answered to Goldcar with proof that the damage was allready there when we received the car. Allthough the proof is clear, they just don't accept it and charged me €108,37 for damage which we didn't cause, and for which I have proof that it was allready there!

Never again with Goldcar.

They tried everything to sell additional insurance. They gave me a car with loads of damage. I then recieved a damage bill of €1500. I sent photos showing the damage beforehand. They dropped the charge to €177 for a damaged door lock because the lock wasn't in any photo. Absolute gangster operation. Just read the reviews

DO NOT book with Goldcar. Heavy sell on additional insurance which if you refuse to take they then request hefty deposit.
ALWAYS take photos of car on pick up if you have booked. 1 month after returning car and back to UK I was emailed with photos of 'damage' I had caused and a bill for nearly £300. I was able to send my photos back and show this damage was pre-existing. They came back within an hour and claimed 'email had been sent in error'. Nonsense! If I hadn't taken the photos and been able to prove it wasn't be, I think they would have pursued the claim. SCAMMERS.

Service may look good and cheap at first, but it WILL end up expensive. Look for any other alternative, even if it's more expensive. You can’t trust them, and you won't be able to get a decent reply when you need.
I got a car completely scratched on the right side, the attendant showed me it was all marked already on that side and the check wouldn’t be rigorous, and after returning the car, they want to charge me more than 100 euros for a small scratch that I didn’t do, and they couldn’t even prove it was from the car I rented - they just send a generic photo of a scratch. If you are thinking of renting a car with them, don’t do it!
To make things even worse, talking to them on the phone, you can only contact a generic phone asking for me to prove the scratch was already there before (from a side that was all scratched already). By email is no different. It’s a scam place that will get your money in any way!

A terrible car rental company. Please do yourself a favour and avoid at all costs (there are so many other rental options in Faro, do your homework and pick the more trustworthy ones, even if they cost a bit more).

The reason for this low scoring review is mainly due to them trying to give us a smaller car than we booked. We booked a Nissan Qashqai or Similar, as we needed a vehicle that would fit 3 adults and a small child, plus luggage. The 'similar' car we got was an Opel Mokka, which is smaller than a Nissan Qashqai. We couldn't even fit two suitcases in the boot.

I went back in to ask for a different car. The person serving me was relatively decent, but she said she could not help me with another car, but said if we wanted a bigger boot, we would need to upgrade. We saw a Qashqai in the car park, and she said that we needed to upgrade for that! This left us no choice but to splash out an extra £93 we had not budgeted for on an upgrade to a Ford Kuga (apparently the Qashqai was even more expensive!!)....

Truly disappointed that we were subjected to this, and I have been in touch with Expedia, the site we booked through, and they have been useless to us as well and neither party are accepting responsibly. So we, the customer, have to take the sting.

I also need to add that the staff here were VERY rude to a customer being served to my right. I don't know the full details of what was wrong with his booking, but to have the staff berating him like a child was unbelievable. This company does not deserve business from anyone.

Having used Goldcar on many occasions without any problems my good run has come to an end.

I picked up the car a white Toyota Corolla with 79k kms on the clock and 35 crosses where they agreed existing damage.
I joked the only panel without damage was the roof!

Dissapointingly they charged me for Toll transponder, please be aware the A22 is toll free at present.

On returning the car the young girl checked the car off against her sheet and then advised me there was new damage to the rear bumper lower reflector, digging out my original paperwork I showed her the area was clearly marked with an X which in my eyes showed areas of pre existing damage!
No amount of discussion would presuade her it was existing damage, the manager refused to get off her ample backside and kept calling the damage a broken headlight.
With a flight to catch my time is more important than the 104 euro charge, moving forward.

Lesson learnt

We hired a group DD car (Picasso/C-Max, which was meant to be the key n go service (which is just as well it wasn't given what they did), and gave us the key to a group B car (Skoda Fabia). We tried to complain and explain that this was not correct , and we wouldn't have even been able to get our luggage in, but the rude member of staff shrugged and alluded to not speaking very good English. We unfortunately had to get a little louder to make ourselves heard until a other member of staff stepped in, and because I had an actual print out of the car reservation, she saw the group car we had PAID for. Only for the fact we were eventually heard did I give a 2 star rating instead of 1. The difference in price is over £13 per day between the 2 groups.

The car was dirty, it smelled inside and immediately had a check oil warning light on. The airport at this point was jammed, and we just wanted to get out of there.

Not the best impression for the start of an eagerly anticipated holiday, and had this been our first time to Majorca, we'd seriously consider whether we would go back.

I would recommend giving Gold Car a wide berth and go with Hertz instead.

Now, three months after my car rental, I still haven't received my deposit back. It is becoming a legal issue as Goldcar stonewalls requests. Fingers crossed it will work out, but this headache and 1000+ euros in jeopardy is just not worth it to rent here again.

If I could give zero stars I would. Avoid this car rental company. We were told we could only add an additional driver if we also purchased extra full cover insurance - costing hundreds of euros. We’ve never encountered that rule anywhere else. Seems like a scam to take more money when you’re stuck. We ended up walking away from our prepaid booking and using a different company altogether, as that was cheaper than what they were trying to make us pay! Definitely preying on tired travellers with made up rules and costs that don’t make sense or exist with any other company. The bad reviews are true. Avoid avoid avoid!

I had to pay up front for a full tank of fuel and toll charges. Okay, I can understand that but 4 weeks after returning the car full of fuel and without using a toll road I am yet to receive a refund. When I returned the car I was told everything was okay by the young man who served me and was told I would receive the refund within 5 days. I emailed customer service with no reply.