Thrifty Car and Van Rental UK Reviews 

We were supplied with a courtesy car by our insurers. When the car was returned after 3 weeks they stung us with a parking fee and a cleaning bill.

The parking fee was rescinded as it was a mistake by the car park’s cameras.

However, they would not budge on the cleaning fee, threatening us with court proceedings. With a terminally ill son to look after we weren’t up for the fight.

So be prepared to return the car in showroom condition or get a valeting charge.

Terrible experience with this so-called car rental company.
Absolutely awful service — after wasting 8 days of our time, they refused to provide the car. They asked us to make changes to our insurance 16 different times, only to leave us with nothing in the end. Completely unprofessional and unreliable.

I was given a courtesy car by my insurance company Chruchill after another driver had hit my car. The vehicle was dropped off after I provided 101 documents by the Dudley Branch. Ref No: DDY60542 Vehicle itself a Ford Kuga was a lovely drive. When the vehicle was dropped off by a Samir I explained that I had not been provided with a full tank it stated 319 miles of fuel remaining on the dashboard. His response was that it is minus the fuel to get to my house. When I returned the vehicle, I returned it with 327 miles, clearly this shows I returned it with more fuel than when it was given to me! But no Dudley branch of Thrifty then decided to charge me on my card that they had taken a deposit of £1 a fee of £18.97 not sure what for. So I rang them to clarify I spoke to an incredibly rude man called Alan who told me not to go by the miles of fuel left but by the needle! When I explained that the money should not have been taken until they had spoken to me he said well I called you and left a message! Not everyone can answer the phone when they have a job to do Alan. I asked to speak to a manager but was told he was on holiday for 2 weeks. How convenient. When I called back the branch after Alan had put the phone down on me I spoke to the Samir who had dropped the vehicle off, he denied the conversation or to the fact I had pointed out that I had not been given the car on a full tank and was then told it is the customer that foots the fuel to and from the car being collected! I have now called Churchill to lodge a complaint with them. I have had courtesy cars before but I have never experienced someone taking money without my authorisation or at least have the couresty to speak to me first Alan! And when challenged for clarification putting the phone down on the customer! I will never use Thrifty or again or accept a couresty car from them....

The Yeovil branch have helped me out massively this year. Friendly, helpful staff and great cars. Would definitely recommend renting a car or van with these guys.

Checked on line, as you do, for the best price for a four day hire and to my surprise Thrifty came out as the most competitive. Booked the hire through the website, nice, clear & simple and quickly received confirmation.
On the day of collection I went to my local branch in Yeovil and was warmly welcomed by Ryan (the branch manager) who went through all of the necessary paperwork & documents quickly & efficiently. At this point and to my surprise Ryan decided to upgrade my hire to a lovely new Volvo XC90 hybrid - what a stunning vehicle and I was very satisfied as this was a lovely car and very comfortable. Walk around checks completed and a brief overview of the controls completed and Ryan double checked that I was happy and confident with the vehicle and off I went.
On returning the vehicle, I was warmly welcomed again by another member of the branch team who checked over the vehicle noting that all was well. Deposit returned and Ryan again checked that everything was okay with the hire and I said how great it was and how impressed I had been dealing with the branch and that I wouldn’t hesitate in using them again.
Thanks Ryan & the team at Thrifty Car Rental Yeovil for a great experience from start to finish.

The lovely costumer service by Andrew made renting a car so easy and less stressful. With his friendly personality made us feel comfortable plus gave us some tips to make our journey the most enjoyable and easy. That made us feel that the decision to go for thrifty was the best decision ever. We will defo use their company again. Thank you for your kindness Andrew

Never use this company, terrible

This company operates like a scam. They take money from customers without consent, ignore all communication, and refuse to issue refunds even after being shown clear proof that the charges were baseless. Their behaviour is dishonest, abusive, and completely unacceptable. I've reported them to Trading Standards and other authorities — no business that treats people this way should be allowed to continue operating.

I regularly hire cars from Thrifty York, they always go above & beyond to help me. The check in process always runs smoothly. The cars are clean & new, the car I hired this time had 9 miles on the clock!! Sarah at York should have a special mention as her customer service is excellent. Thank you.

Hannah at St Albans is one of the best!

Awful experience at Bournemouth branch. I've previously had no problems, but this time they claimed I did "major damage" to the vehicle. I returned to see what it was, and a hairline crack was found on the front grill. Plus a couple of tiny scratches, barely noticeable. They claimed the grill would have to be replaced (an obvious lie), and so charged me the full £250 deposit. Sadly, this is how hire car companies make a profit - pick up tiny defects, then charge customers £250. I wonder what their target is? 1 customer in 5 scammed this way maybe? No wonder the daily hire charges are modest, as they make £250 for every tiny mark on the vehicle, so a vehicle could easily pay for itself over a year or two. What a pity, but alienating customers in this way gets around - including to my 5,000 podcast listeners yesterday, warning them about this minor defects scam. Same thing happened to me in Malta with the crooks called Sicily By Car (Recommended by Ryanair!)

Very helpful and courteous staff, superbly clean and well maintained vehicles. I thoroughly enjoyed doing business with them and will definitely go back in the future!

I got an email claiming to be from a debt recovery firm saying I had an unpaid balance. I checked my emails and hadn't had anything from Thrifty. I emailed the local office to see if it was a scam. They didn't reply. A week later I phoned them and they said a manager was looking into it and would get back to me next week.
An hour later I got an email addressed incorrectly using the first part of my email address. They asked me to email the scammers to arrange payment.
The police are not interested so I will just moan about it here. The scam company is called Scot group. Just ignore them

Sarah from York is absolutely fantastic never used thriffty before until today and there service is beyond exceptional.she deserves a massive pay upgrade for all her work!!!

Best experience I’ve ever had with a hire car company perfectly satisfied Sarah from York helped us out today! Wouldn’t use anyone else

I cannot rate this centre highly enough! Heidi and the team were a blast of fresh air following my customer service with cinch. They could tell that I was a little stressed out and went the extra mile to put me into as bigger car as possible for my massive frame! Their communication was on point to and again had my best interests at heart. The service I received made me feel part of the their team and I even washed the car before returning to help them out as I felt so fortunate to have been with them for the 4 weeks I was under their care. I would highly recommend thrifty/switch at europa way Ipswich. I can not say thank you enough! Thank you.

Still in the process of an awful experience with Cinch, but they provided a courtesy car via Thrifty. Collected on 7/3/25, a lovely 24 plate MG. Had a call that week that the car had been sold and they would come to my place of work to exchange to a Ford ST (really helpful to allow me to stay at work).

They collected the car today from my work place as Cinch had cancelled the booking (even tho car not fixed). I had slightly marked up the alloy on both passenger tyres, apologised loads to the collection guy and he was super nice and friendly, understanding too.

Had the pleasure of speaking to Dan about getting payment settled for damages (I was really anxious of this as other reviews state really high figures). I knew it was my fault but spoke through the alloy repairs and was a reasonable price as to what I had researched. I had nothing to worry about cost wise, just had to be a little more careful and could have been avoided. I apologised again to Daniel and thanked him for his help.

Overall a great experience from Thrifty with no issues.

I could not be happier with Thrifty. Hired a van for 24 hours from the Charing, Ashford, Kent branch. I went into their office to order a SWB Transit but it’s not possible to order that in person so I ordered a LWB Transit online as there was no availability online for the SWB. On the morning of collection, I found that they’d got in the vehicle of my choice from another yard. They went ‘over and above’ to make sure I’d got my vehicle of choice which was fantastic. Having never driven such a large van into London before, I was very nervous, so their help in securing me the smaller van made my trip far less stressful. Would definitely recommend Thrifty and my huge thanks go out to Paula and the staff there.

Absolutely amazing customer ser

Absolutely amazing service especially from James!