Budget Car Rental Ireland Reviews

Started with the ignorant staff at the counter. Ignorant to everyone. Zero help whatsoever. Had booked a large car but was given a medium sized without any option. No other availability apparently. Not my problem. Maybe I should have charged them for the last minute change. Given a car that had its dashboard lit up like a Xmas tree. Drove it about 300m then took it back to exchange. Gottold it was the 4th exchange in the last 20 mins - that says it all about the standard they have. Then I got given a three year old battery Dacia of some sort. More hits than the Beatles. Took a video as it would have been too many photos. Again, lights on the dash for the brakes and tyre pressure all weekend. So, I was already late "collecting" the car from them. Problem with tyre pressures all weekend to the point where I had to get a tyre company callout it plugged on the morning I was returning it (which i didnt pass on to budget)which delayed me getting back to them. Explained all this to the returns team and they said don't worry about it. The counter team then charged me €72 late return fee for 3 hours without even telling me. When challenged I was told to email. When I did I was told there were no reported issues with the car when it was returned 🤣 All in emails. Shocking customer service. I hire cars every week across Europe - needless to say me or my company won't be using Budget again for the principle of this issue. Avoid at all costs.

The equivalent of Ryanair, the will find any way to add various fees and suddenly you have a shitty car for a huge fee. Also terrible customer service. Avoid avoid

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They will not refund your deposit. They use already damaged cars to scam money from you. The staff I dealt with dropping the car off at Dublin were rude and dismissive. £500 scammed from me. Disgraceful behaviour. Ignored and dismissed. Hopefully someone who reads this will go with a different company.

We reserved a car Nissan Qashkai or similar in England that was quoted at £42.59 a day for 6 days. Pretty sure it didn’t give me a choice of insurance cover. In Dublin it was made clear that quote was for 3rd party with an excess of €3500 Euros. Decided not to pay an extra €180 Euros for zero excess but did pay €10 per day extra for a second driver which they offered to not charge us for if we took the higher insurance. Clearly some sort of wheeling dealing going on to get the extra insurance money. The order I signed also included €160 for a full tank of fuel which was I think very steep, maybe twice the price per litre for a 50 litre tank. I didn’t see this till later. The order also said received full return empty. Again didn’t read that till later. I thought I had to return it empty which is stupid I know. I didn’t realise this was not fixed and that if we returned it full paying a reasonable price for fuel we’d get the €160 refunded (slowly). I think this is a deliberate obfuscation on their part. I only realised when on return I got a receipt with the fuel cost of €160 removed and the return data saying fuel 0/8. So I guess I will be paying €160 Euros. Just beware. The car itself was a Renault Arkana and it had several lumps and bumps on it. I photographed them all. Outside it had not been properly cleaned. The wireless key was held together by gaffer tape. It was ok but I was naffed off about the fuel con and the lack of transparency when being quoted of insurance being 3rd party only with a huge excess. Clearly I should have been more careful reading stuff but I will not be using Budget again.

I hired a FIAT Panda over 4 days. They reimbursed me 50EURO less than my deposit, which I suspect was for the petrol. The tank had 5/8 petrol left when I returned the vehicle. 2024 FIAT Panda Hybrid has a fuel capacity of 38litres, so the petrol costs around ~25EURO (1.75EURO/litres * 14.25litres). So, they've charged another 25EURO on top for refuelling. It's a pretty sneaky and dishonest business practice. Beware and avoid if possible.

AVOID AVOID AVOID! I would give this awful company 0 stars if it was possible. They scammed my friend as they claimed that damages were made to the vehicle and the that the vehicle was returned without any petrol which was untrue. My friend provided photo evidence that neither are true and they ignored the evidence. Please avoid hiring a vehicle from this company at all cost. They scammed my friend of nearly £1000. Absolutely appalling.

SCAMMERS!! Accused of returning car with empty tank, despite evidence of petrol transaction and photo of the dial just before returning. Please avoid

Avoid at all costs. This company scammed my friend out of hundreds of pounds for damages that they did not do. When they proved evidence that they did not do the damaged, they then tried to scam them for other reasons. Awful scammers who should be ashamed of themselves.

Booked through a third party and collected the car without problem. Provided my confirmation showing deposit paid and amount outstanding. Despite this, I was charged 3 times the agreed amount after they added on insurance that I had already purchased with the 3rd party. Budget were not interested at all. Ignored the deposit and refused to deduct it from my bill. Insisted that I had 'chosen' to purchase additional insurance. Just a massive con. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

I'd give NO stars if it was an option Booked a car through a 3rd party and paid them a deposit. I had to cancel my flight due to bereavement so I had put the car hire into my sister's name. When she arrived to collect the car they had her booking and asked her to sign the documents. My sister explained that she didn't have her glasses and couldn't read what she was signing. The woman advised her it was just confirmation of the additional £20 she was paying for the upgrade to 'automatic' and that everything else was the same as her original booking. So my sister signed the paperwork (trusting she was being told the truth). Low and behold, Budget sent an invoice charging her 3 times the original quote and haven't deducted the deposit I paid to the 3rd party provider prior to travel. Numerous emails explaining the situation have fallen on deaf ears with box standard 'you signed the agreement' response. Totally disgusting. NEVER will I use Budget again and I travel to Dublin a lot.

I dropped a car back 30 minutes late due to traffic. I had booked through a third party, at a rate of around €15 per day. I was charged €172 for the 30 minutes. I complained I was being ripped off, and they reduced to €80, but that is still pretty much double what the rental was for 3 days. They won't answer emails about it now. I will NEVER rent from them again.

I had an extremely disappointing experience with this car rental company. I made an online reservation and went to collect the car at Belfast International Airport. However, I was told I needed to have held a UK driving license for at least three years. This contradicted the terms and conditions, which stated a minimum of two years, not three years! I explained that I also hold a valid international driving license with over 12 years of experience, in addition to my UK driving license, but they refused to accept it. When I requested a refund, the desk staff said they couldn't help and asked me to call customer service. After calling nearly 10 times, I finally got through to someone who processed a refund but deducted around £45 as a cancellation fee. I explained that the cancellation was not my fault – it was due to their inconsistent and misleading policies. On the phone, they claimed a two-year UK license requirement, while the receptionist insisted on three years. Despite pointing out this contradiction, they refused to refund me fully and stopped responding to my follow-ups. To make things worse, right after this ordeal, I walked over to another car rental company at the same airport and rented a car without any issues using the same license. This shows how inconsistent and unreasonable this company’s policies are. Their customer service is shockingly poor, dishonest, and nearly impossible to reach – be prepared to call multiple times before anyone answers. This was by far the worst experience I’ve had with a rental company. Save yourself the hassle and rent from a different company!

The kindness of the Irish is legendary... If you come to live in this country, Budget is the worst company to ever take!! Instead of accepting/organizing a second time a simple car rental extension, they directly threaten you with the police!! All this with unspeakable aggression. Budget, whatever your answer, the way you behaved is unacceptable (as if I were a thief.) We are talking about a service rendered (car rental) for money. Indeed, we will never again be on budget. The unacceptable way you have treated us will be fully disseminated to our various expatriate groups. Good luck

Great experience and extremely friendly staff in Dublin airport especially at the car returning facility.

Avoid avoid avoid!!! Picked up my car in Killarney, there was obvious damage which LUCKILY I photographed. Dropped the car back at Dublin airport. At no point - pick up or return - did staff bother to come and take a look at the car. Landed back in USA and found over $2,000 was deducted from my account. All because someone ‘forgot’ to document the damage made by a previous client. Asked for a refund - Brian at the office DENIED a measly e400 refund on the hire but couldn’t argue with the photographic evidence so put the illegal 2k charge back on my card. Sloppy work all around, Budget. BEWARE.

Paid for car in England for wife to go back to her father’s funeral. As she was rushing to she him before he passed never clocked the insurance charges totalling 910 euros at 146 of that will get back once returned with full tank. This firm have to be on drugs to think this is excepted . There insurance cost 4 times what the car cost. Never ever hire from these bastards again. What an advertisement for Irish tourism. Avoid at all cost

All very efficient and good value for money. The collection and drop off process was done without undue delay. I had used Budget previously and expect to do so again.

Paid for satnav but none provided. 2 warning messages appeared after 10 km. Debiting excessive fuel costs so they can earn interest for 15 days is poor.

We decided to rent a car during the Christmas period to visit family. We prebooked our rental (everything included) but were charged almost double the amount when we arrived at the airport because we didn’t have a credit card. When we realised this additional charge was on top of the prebooked amount, we decided to return the car (within 2 days). We called to be sure we would get most of our money back. Both their Athlone HQ and the Dublin office confirmed we would get most of the money back. However, after we returned the car we got less than 1/3 of the total amount back. Then we hit a wall because of their terms & conditions. This was disappointing since we would have kept our overly expensive rental car if the person on the phone confirmed we would only get 1/3 of the amount back. Don’t book with Budget since they will say one thing but do something else. We only had the car for two days but were charged for twelve days.

When picking up the car, I had to pay 2000 euros upfront. This wasn’t possible due to the maximum credit card limit, and as a result, I was forced to take extra insurance. I have never experienced this with other rental companies. I feel scammed. I will never choose Budgetcar again.