Goldcar Rental Reviews 

I rented a car from Goldcar at Marseille Airport from 14 to 20 October 2026, booked through a third-party website, with my own insurance already in place. My only credit card is American Express, which Goldcar doesn't accept at the desk, and I was not told this when I booked. I had to use a Visa debit card.

At the desk, the agent told me that I would be charged an 8% conversion fee on a deposit of about €3,000, and again when it was refunded, and that the only way to avoid this was to take Goldcar's insurance. I felt I had no real choice because I needed the car, so I cancelled my existing cover and took theirs, which cost more.

I was also not asked whether I wanted to pay in euros or pounds. The card machine charged me in pounds with a 4.5% exchange rate mark-up added.

I would advise anyone renting from Goldcar to check which cards the desk accepts before booking, to read every line of the contract before signing, and to insist on being asked which currency to pay in.

Booked through ryanair and naively ignored the reviews calling the company a scam.
Hired a car from marseille to drop back in toulouse, was instantly charged £180 extra for the return of the car to marseille which was never disclosed when booking.
Returned the car and then 2 weeks later i had an email saying i was being fined £460 for 2 scratches on the wheel trim. I had taken photos and videos before picking up the car which the scratches were obviously present. Submitted the evidence, it was all declined. To summarise, i was scammed £600.
Avoid at all costs, dont even consider for second

Very pleasant rental: Auto-key-pickup and 10 second drop-off. Easy - and payment according to order.

I visited the Goldcar at Nice Airport. I had an excellent service from Sergio. He was extremely helpful, professional and kind. He made the whole rental process very easy, solving issues, by offering personalized assistance, in a very busy day, with many obstacles. He solved everything! Thank you Sergio!

Abusive practices: charged nearly €300 for zero service and demanded €900 more over a name detail.

Terrible experience and a clear display of abusive customer treatment. We booked through a corporate account, and at no point during the checkout process did the system ask or prompt for driver details. Naturally, the booking was created under the company's legal name (which obviously has no driving license).

Upon arrival at the counter, they flatly refused to assist or facilitate a basic name change. To make matters worse, they refused to allow a cancellation, keeping the almost €300 we had already paid, while insisting we pay an additional €900 on top by forcing a brand-new walk-in booking.

They are exploiting a missing driver field in their own corporate booking system to retain customers' money without providing any service and gouge prices on the spot. Absolutely disgraceful management. I demand an immediate full refund of the original booking or an equivalent voucher for the amount withheld.

Rented a vehicle from Goldcar via Easyjet site for 20th-26th September from Nice airport.
As an regular traveller I have my own annual excess insurance. When I collected the car I was not allowed to use my Chase credit card to pay for the deposit as its an online back (in their terms & conditions), so asked to use a debit card. I was told that this would incur a 10% fee if and when the deposit was returned. Having returned home I have found out THIS IS NOT TRUE !!!. They are offering cheaper excess cover than the 10% fee.

Avoid – inflexible policies, excessive costs and absolutely no compassion (we literally had someone break their back)

I cannot express how dissatisfied I am with Goldcar. Based on my experience, I would strongly encourage anyone considering renting with them to look elsewhere.

What appears to be a straightforward car rental can quickly become extremely expensive because of their restrictive payment and deposit requirements.
At the desk, we discovered that:
• They would not accept Monzo, Starling, Revolut or American Express.
• The card had to be a physical card – Apple Pay/Google Pay were not accepted.
• The card had to be in the exact name of the named driver.
• If you cannot meet these requirements for the deposit, the alternative offered was to purchase their insurance at approximately €250, which removed the need for the deposit.

This effectively left us choosing between paying for their expensive insurance or using an alternative debit card for the deposit, which in most circumstances would have resulted in roughly £200 in currency/transaction costs – cost of transfer both ways.

Even Goldcar’s own staff acknowledged to us that these policies were ridiculous and felt uncomfortably close to a scam — which says everything about the way this company operates.

However, the worst part of our experience was what happened during a genuine family emergency.
My sister broke her back and required surgery while we were away. We needed to extend the rental because of this completely unforeseen medical emergency. Goldcar wanted more than €90 per additional day, without cover, and showed no meaningful discretion given the circumstances.

While my sister was literally undergoing surgery, we were put in the position of having to make a two-hour drive to deal with the rental car rather than being able to remain with our family.

I understand that rental companies need policies and conditions. What I cannot understand is an apparent inability to exercise even basic discretion when a customer is dealing with a serious medical emergency involving emergency spinal surgery.

The combination of restrictive payment rules, potentially substantial additional costs, expensive insurance and the complete lack of flexibility we experienced during an extraordinary family emergency made this one of the worst customer-service experiences I have had.

My advice to future customers: read every single payment, deposit and insurance condition before booking with Goldcar, then go elsewhere. Do not assume that a card you normally use for travel will be accepted, and do not assume there will be any flexibility if something goes seriously wrong during your trip.

I certainly would not use Goldcar again.

This company is really poor. Customer service is non existent and they try to steal from you.

Horrible experience at Goldcar Marseille ! First, I got charged 22€ of "Airport fee" (something I never heard off in the past 25 years renting cars at airports in France and in Europe !). Then the car given to me was in a very poor shape (damages on every sides and holes in the seat and floor fabric). I will not comment on the pressure received to buy the extra insurances but that was insane ! The worst experience was returning the car : they first tried to add external damages (luckily I did verify the check-in report and I was able to demonstrate there was no additional damage), then they told me everything was fine and asked for my signature at the bottom of an endless iPad screen list. The following day I figured I had been charged 150€ for a deep cleaning of the car with 4 photos attached to the email showing literally 4 pieces of straw on the driver mat and an unsmoked cigarette in the rear ashtray (that was probably there before !). Nothing that requires more than the standard hoovering done between bookings. I did try to discuss with the client support but they are refusing to refund. I forwarded the case to my lawyer as I cannot stand being robbed this way without reacting. Whatever the cost will be, I will make sure this prejudice is refunded.

Terrible experience with Goldcar Bordeaux.

We refueled the car to full at a gas station only 4 km fom the airport before returning it. However, the fuel gauge did not completely reset by the time we dropped the car off so appeared below the full line.

When we dropped the car, the attendant from Goldcar told us that this happens occassionally and to contact customer service and they will sort it out.

Instead of sorting it out, we were hit with a 'not full charge' plus charges for the fuel itself. Upon disputing this, Goldcar asked for a receipt from the gas station, which we provided. Then their excuse was that the gas station was "too far" from the airport according to their policy. When asked to see this policy, no information was provided. So despite paying for a full tank of gas, Goldcar still charged us the entire amount which is absolutely unfair and ridiculous.

Completely unacceptable business practices and customer service by Goldcar. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone!

Save yourself the headache and rent from literally anyone else at Nice Airport.
Our flight into NCE was delayed by four hours, turning what should have been a smooth trip into a frantic rush to make a close family friend’s wedding reception. On the autoroute, I unfortunately got flashed by a speed camera going 5 km/h over the limit when the road ahead was empty. Frustrating, sure, and my fault too, but a fairly minor mistake on a stressful day. The fine from the French authorities, received three weeks later was €45 if paid promptly. Which I did.
The real kick in the teeth came when I checked my statement and saw that Goldcar had quietly charged my credit card with a €55 "administration fee." Not that they had written to me to explain, they had just quietly done it and hoped I wouldn't notice.
Charging €55 just to forward an automated email with my details to the police—a charge higher than the actual fine itself—is absolute daylight robbery. It takes two seconds to process, but they treat it as an easy cash grab. Clear predatory pricing, with no regard for how stressful the day in question was.
I emailed their customer service to dispute this and ask for a sensible adjustment, suggesting €10 at most. They ignored me completely for over a week, didn't even bother to reply properly. Hence this review.
Zero customer care, total radio silence, and complete price-gouging when you’re already having a bad day. Rent elsewhere.

They charge a huge deposit for damage, which they then hold for 28days after returning the car without damage!
They also charged extra for kilometres covered.
We rent cars all over the world, and I have never been treated like this, very poor company!

Had a great experience. Check in was simple, car was superb and extras simple. Check out was with viktor and again the process was great, will definitely use them next year when we return.

My wife and I hired a car from Gold Car Marseille in July this year and had pre-booked (via Booking.com) a child seat for a 9kg baby

1. The car seats were piled on the dusty floor which in itself is unsanitary. When I asked which seat was the one I booked, I was told to choose one myself. Child seats are specific for age/size/weight so when I booked a specific seat it is surely their responsibility to provide me with that seat - not mine to try and figure out which is correct.
2. When asked for instructions how to install, I was told to Google it. Fortunately I had data roaming but what if I hadn't? If they are providing an additional add on (with a not inconsiderable daily charge) it should be their responsibility to provide the correct information to install the seat.
3. When I was having difficulty installing the seat I asked their staff for assistance to which I was told it's not their responsibility to install. I am staggered that they are willing to sell a add on product yet offer no support in how to use it. Even if their staff cannot accept responsibility for its secure installation, surely I am not the first person to request assistance? What if my wife was traveling alone? Their staff said they might be able to get someone from another car rental place to help but I am disappointed with how this interaction was handled.

Emailing customer service I felt they were deliberately trying to mis-construe my complaint - saying I needed to confirm the age and weight of the baby which I had already done.

Eventually got an apology although there was no effort to offer anything more meaningful.

Yes Gold Car are cheap, but the service and attitude towards child safety is appalling. Will never use them again.

AVOID AVOID AVOID, unless you want imaginary EUR600 charges, a nightmare experience and a lot of stress, whatever you do, do not rent a car with this company even if they are cheap. They will find ways of charging you that'll cost you a fortune. They provided us with a car that was dirty and had dirt and bird poo on the roof. Ethan, in the Marseille Airport Sales Team, said take pictures and that'll be fine, so we did. When we returned the car (to Ethan ironically) they charged us EUR600 for 'damage' to the roof and a EUR46 cleaning fee when we did no damage to the roof (there was a small dent and scratch to the side of the car which I had reported immediately and said I was happy to pay for). Their customer services team then said that we had to report the bird poo within 48 hours of the rental starting, directly contradicting their sales team (and french rental law). Despite me sending the pictures proving the car was dirty, calling customer services multiple times, their response times are horrendous, you'll never be able to get through to the case manager again, and they won't respond for days at a time. Despite one of their team agreeing the car had bird poo on it from the start they have refused to budge. Now we now have to go to a European Consumer Centre to raise a dispute. Horror show of a company.

Initially everything seemed fine, although they didn’t bother explaining how the automatic car worked — something I’m not used to. The worst part came at return: they had me sign a check‑in paper for the damages I admitted, but then later charged me for additional damage and took photos without telling me. I only received those pictures by email when I was already at the gate, unable to go back and contest what feels like outright fraud.
When I called customer service, they told me I couldn’t claim anything without evidence — even though the “damage” they charged 300 € for could have been wiped off with a cloth. Completely unacceptable and deeply dishonest.

Worst Car-Rental experience ever with Goldcar in Nice - Reservation FR959145330,
WARNING - DO NOT USE GOLDCAR!!!
Now it is more than 72 hours since we delivered the car back. The car was fully fueled and no additional external or internal damage was added during our rental period, neither large (>2 cm ) nor smaller (wear and tear)!
BUT we have still not received any check-in receipt, Goldcar has still kept the 2.661 EUR deposit, and GOLDCAR customer service do not reply.
We are convinced that it was all about - that we did NOT selected their Mega Relax insurance for 169€ for 4 days, BUT that we chose a deposit via my credit card.
Because when we selected a deposit, it suddenly became important for Goldcar that we were informed - that we would be charged for all dents/damages - larger than 2cm.
And that we were indirectly tasked with verifying that all existing damage to the car (21 crosses in the contract) had been registered before we left the parking area, and that any new ones should be photographed (and it was clarified that this also applied to the car's roof and all the car's glass.)
BUT – we had to do this at Goldcar’s parking lot in the evening darkness – in incredibly poor light (from a fluorescent lamp) one on both sides of the car, this took us 15-20 minutes.
The pictures had to be sent by e-mail within 45 minutes after delivery, BUT we were NOT informed about this important time limit by the staff.

Quick pickup, drop off and very nice car

Watch out for these bandits. They charge a 50 euro penalty for not returning the car with a full tank. Of course they don't mention that when you hire the car. It's well hidden in their standard terms and conditions (when English law would require them to put a little red hand next to the penalty clause.)

We arrived at Marseille airport with my 90 year old wheelchair using blue badge holder father in extreme heat.
For two hours we battled with Goldcar as they would not rent us the car despite a clause on page four of their voucher stating the main driver needed ‘a credit or debit card in their name’ we had this but they have a further clause on à following page contradicting this clause.

Despite two other drivers present with other credit cards they would not change the driver. Instead they ‘pretended’ to call the manger who was at first ‘just here’ and then ‘back in 30 mins’ whilst trying to get me to pay 600 euros for a new booking which I had originally paid 300 euros for. We ended up leaving losing our money and paying another hire company more than double the amount to hire an emergency vehicle.

I am disgusted in a world where customer service has been bought out by big business and the constant need to make profit Goldcar should be ashamed of themselves.