Europcar Reviews 

I booked a car by Booking.com platform and after going in aeroport to pick up location, I hot charged extra 235€. 135€ was some extra "insurance" for a car (for only 2 days) and 100€ was kind of deposit. After more than one month i didn't geet my deposit money back. Just after i contacted the client support in booking.com, for like 4 days in a row, they made the deposit realeast.

Honestly terrible. If you like having money in your bank account, I wouldn't go here. Their sales tactics are basically to scam you out of money and upgrade you to the most expensive car.

I booked a fully comprehensive rental package through Check24, including insurance, and paid for it in advance in euros. At Europcar Birmingham Airport on 4 April 2026, I explicitly declined any additional insurance or protection. The employee circled “0.00” on the document and assured me that signing would incur no additional costs. I later discovered a £194.21 charge for insurance products I had explicitly declined. An independent eyewitness was present and has provided a written statement confirming the interaction. On 3 July 2026, Europcar also attempted three further charges to my credit card, which were declined because I had already blocked the card. Europcar has refused to refund the £194.21 despite my evidence and escalation to its Executive Office. I have instructed a law firm, filed a police report, and notified the BVRLA about the matter.

Please check every charge carefully before signing anything at Europcar.

Don’t use this horrible scam company who will rip you off for every penny. They said we had caused damage to our hire car door which we disputed knowing we hadn’t done any damage. They charged us nearly £600 which we have been unable to do anything about despite contacting the BVRLA. Europcar charge everyone with repair charges but never actually get the repairs done. Our car was covered in scratches when it was delivered to us. It has put us off hiring a car from anyone ever again, especially Europcar.

Avoid Europcar like the plague! First off, we had to wait 3 1/2 hours at Shannon Airport because Europcar didn’t have the prepaid car we reserved ready for us. Imagine just sitting in the airport with your family for over three hours on the first day of your vacation. While all other car companies were moving their customers into cars, Europcar didn’t seem to think not having a car available for over three hours was an inconvenience or breach of their contract. They told us to get some coffee while waiting. Second, they are very creative with their insurance/protection upsell. Lots of extraneous line item charges that they don’t explain very well - likely intentionally to confuse customers. And they double charged the 8 day rental fee we already prepaid. My cost went from $500 to $1300 and they felt justified with this. The Europcar counter also does not respond to phone calls, and their customer service is useless; they only send emails thanking you for bringing concerns to their attention. And yes, I contacted my credit card company to investigate their services and upcharging. But what a pain when trying to enjoy the start of a vacation.

**Classic Bait-and-Switch – Hidden Fees, Forced Insurance, and a Terrible Rental Experience**

My experience with Europcar in San José, Costa Rica was extremely disappointing. What initially appeared to be a reasonable rental price turned into a classic bait-and-switch situation when I arrived to pick up the vehicle.

Despite already having insurance coverage that covered the rental vehicle up to **$50,000**, I was told that I had to purchase additional insurance from Europcar. I was also required to accept a **$6,000 hold on my American Express card**, and an additional **$177 insurance charge** was added to the rental.

These requirements and additional costs were not clearly disclosed when I made the reservation. The final cost was significantly higher than what I expected based on the original booking.

I feel that customers should be clearly informed of all mandatory insurance requirements, fees, and credit-card holds **before** they arrive at the rental counter—not after they have already traveled to Costa Rica and are standing there with no practical alternative.

Overall, this was one of the most frustrating car-rental experiences I have had. I would strongly recommend that travelers carefully investigate Europcar's insurance requirements and additional charges before booking.

12 day rental from Lyon airport. Large hidden charges, not disclosed at pick up. Clearly sought to deceive me from the outset. Very poor customer service since - email response to my complaint sent to an erroneous email address.

I have requested a full refund c£250 and as yet not a response or acknowledgment.

WILL NOT RENT WITH EUROPCAR AGAIN IF THIS IS NOT RESOLVED

The vehicle itself was exactly what we wanted, and throughout our vacation we had absolutely no issues with it. Unfortunately, the rental experience with Europcar was a completely different story.

When booking online, I specifically declined all insurance because my credit card provides Collision Damage Waiver coverage for rental vehicles up to $65,000 CAD. The vehicle I received was nowhere near that value.

When I arrived at Europcar at Málaga Airport, I spoke with the representative to confirm the details of my rental. The representative offered me additional insurance, which I clearly declined. I had already declined it online, and I verbally confirmed that I did not want any additional insurance. The representative acknowledged this.

Despite that, the insurance was added to my contract without my consent.

Even worse, the entire contract was presented in Spanish. I do not speak or read Spanish, so how exactly was I supposed to properly verify what I was signing? I trusted the representative to prepare the agreement according to what we had just discussed. Instead, I was charged for insurance that I explicitly refused.

When I contacted Europcar to dispute the charge, their response was essentially: “You signed the contract, so too bad.”

That is completely unacceptable.

I was charged approximately $800 CAD for insurance I did not request or authorize. In my opinion, this is taking advantage of a customer who does not speak the local language and is relying on the company's representative to act honestly and professionally.

My advice: BE VERY CAREFUL WITH EUROPCAR.

If you don't speak the language, do not assume that what you verbally agree to will be reflected in your contract. Read every single line, demand an explanation of every charge, and verify everything before signing.

The car was fine. The way this company handled my rental was not.

I will not rent from Europcar again, and I strongly recommend that others think twice before doing so.

Somehow they upgraded me to over 800 euros for a week. The lady was nice and friendly, but the car was not clean, had no washer fluid, and kept complaining about AdBlue running out all the time. When I returned the car, the lady receiving simply said "It is not my responsibility". They upgrade the price, not the car or the level of service. Be careful what you sign when renting with Europcar.

Picked up a rental car in the pouring rain at Manchester airport. It was quite a walk to the car with no cover. When I got there I discovered a hole in the passenger door of about 2cm in diameter (there was 'damage' noted in the documentation), but because of the weather and we were already delayed I drove away.
Upon return the representative said that I should have never been given the car in that state.
I was also charged more than the original 'guaranteed' price (only by a few pence, but since it should be automated then errors shouldn't happen and it could have been more).
Customer service say that the invoiced amount was the same a the guaranteed amount, but even after I sent them proof they refuse to acknowledge any errors, or apologise for giving me a car with a hole in the side.
This is the second (and last!) time I've had a bad experience with Europcar.

Europcar Gatwick airport should have negative markings, they charged me wrongly for insurance, changed my car and did not notify about high cost. they said same price. twice they charged GBP 50 and GBP without giving any reason. Dishonest people.

Booked a car rental, all the information said "debit OR credit card accepted". So did the several emails I received about it. Got to the desk, was told that only credit cards are accepted for the deposit and, basically, that it's not their problem. Got stranded at the airport and had to take a taxi to another city for about twice the price of the car rental.
Should have looked at the reviews before booking with them, of course...

Extremely disappointed with Europcar because they sold us an 80 GBP per day car, only for nearly 200 GPB per day, thereby swindling us out of 900 GBP. Complaining has no effect as they will not really reconsider they rather malicious activities and reimburse us. Never again, can only hope that this message will be a warning to others to NEVER EVER let someone of Europcar convince them to take a cheap upgrade. Or do as we do, never book at Europcar again!

Very easy to rent. Competitive prices. Cars are in excellent condition. They tried to get the most suitable car for me.
Easy pick up and drop off at schiphol airport. I will come back soon!!

I was overcharged by €101,87. Customer service is not responding despite my numerous follow-ups.

Really bad. The first car had technical problems and i had to go to a europcar station to get a new one. Then when i gave it back they are trying to get additional money from me. Never again europcar

Took over an hour to collect a car at Palma with most of this being them trying to upsell insurance and bigger car than booked. Photos and videos taken of scrapes and marks on car before we left the airport car park. On return, Europcar representative checked the car and showed me two areas of damage. I immediately showed him the videos timestamped to the collection. He wrote across the return note that photos were evidence and no charges would be made. Four days later, they send me an invoice for nearly €300 for this exact damage. I sent all of my photographic and video evidence and they still maintain that I did the damage. Currently in communication with credit card and ECRCS. Absolute fraudulent scammers, AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Malisima experiencia con esta gente, son unos ladrones. Nunca me devolvieron el depósito. Y ahora hace más de dos meses, me están cobrando 40 euros de no se que??? Les pregunto en email, y no responden. Son unos sinvergüenzas.
Really bad experience with this company. Don't rent from people dishonest like EROPCAR. They didn't return my deposit. Now two months later, they're trayng to run my card without authorization for 40 euros.
They're sending me emails to charge those 40 euros, but they don't respond my emails about my deposit. Or giving me a reason why they're charging extra money after two months from the rental.

Extremely disappointing experience at Europcar Munich Airport, specifically with Claudia.

I arrived to collect the car I had already booked and paid for online, only to be told that the vehicle was not available. Instead, I was pushed toward a more premium vehicle, which would also have meant paying more for insurance.

When I asked about taking a cheaper vehicle instead, I was told there would be no discount or refund of the difference, despite the fact that I had already paid for a more expensive category of car that Europcar could not provide.

What made the experience considerably worse was Claudia’s attitude. I remained calm throughout the conversation, yet she threatened to call the police. I found her behaviour unnecessarily hostile, intimidating, and completely unacceptable for someone working in customer service.

I also genuinely felt that I was being treated differently because of my skin colour. I cannot speak to her intentions, but that is how the interaction made me feel, and I found her behaviour discriminatory and deeply uncomfortable.

I expected a professional solution to a problem caused by Europcar. Instead, I felt pressured to spend more money, treated with disrespect, and threatened with the police for questioning the situation.

A terrible experience and certainly not the standard I expected from Europcar at Munich Airport.

Stay far far away from this company. I spent hours researching the car we needed for our family trip and had a GUARANTEED price. When I arrived from Canada to Germany to pick up they not only did not have my car but not even one in my class. I had a Skoda specified and they gave me a BMW Wagon at nearly twice my quoted price. The salesman lied saying it only added 28 Euros per per because once you did conversion and all their taxes and fees it doubled my price. Even then it would have been ok but the car was way too big for the areas we visited, parking was a nightmare, we picked a much smaller car and the experience with this much larger full sizes car made parking in tight places quite difficult for us and ended up stressing our vacation. Every decision was made to make sure we could park this overpriced large car we did not specify when we ordered.

So ignore all the cars on their website, its a RUSE, they only have a few cars available when you get there and conveniently they are a higher class of model with significant extra costs. They only choice we had was to pay or cancel and be stranded. PLEASE read other peoples experience, they oversell at every opportunity and none of the cars on their website we available to us when we arrived. It really stressed our vacation considerably and now I am stuck with a bill of $2,747 CAD when my GUARANTEED rate via my emailed quote was $1,496.

Beware, find a company that honors their quote, when we finally found a Hertz car rental company and inquired, they had the car size we needed at a more reasonable price. Live and learn...

PS. They also gave us a diesel which made us spend $48 CAD to add an additive called BLUE. That needs to be added every 10,000 km and the car display said the engine would shut down if we did not add it immediately.