Europcar UK

Terrible Experience with Europcar UK – Misleading Practices and Unauthorised Charges I had a deeply disappointing experience with Europcar UK during my recent car rental. I booked a car for my family trip from 20th December 2024 to 20th January 2025 and paid in full (GBP 1,639.81) upfront. However, the problems began as soon as I arrived at the Gatwick Airport North Terminal after a 30-hour flight from Brisbane. Despite explicitly informing the staff that I did not require additional insurance because I have Allianz Travel Insurance covering rental car excess, I was handed a document to sign under the pretense of providing a security deposit. Later, I discovered it was a completely new rental agreement with added charges for unwanted insurance and a so-called "free upgrade" to a Peugeot PG5008. The upgrade was presented as complimentary because the originally booked MG HS was unavailable, yet I was later charged for it. Upon returning the car at Heathrow Airport, I was unexpectedly charged GBP 20 for cleaning without prior disclosure. The staff claimed it was because the car floor required more than five minutes to clean. This charge was never mentioned in the rental agreement. After returning to Australia, I discovered an unauthorized charge of AUD 3,889.19 on my credit card, labeled as a second rental payment. I immediately contacted Europcar but received only an automated response. Despite multiple follow-ups, I was given no proper explanation or resolution. To make matters worse, I noticed additional unexplained charges of GBP 45 each on 12th and 13th February 2025. Again, these charges were processed without my consent and with no justification provided. This experience has highlighted Europcar's lack of transparency, misleading practices, and poor customer service. I strongly advise others to avoid Europcar if they want a stress-free and honest rental experience.

used europcar for a short holiday and was fantastic, staff very informative, reassuring and friendly. Easy to contact too. Great pricing

I’ve been a long time Europcar customer but after my most recent experience I’ll never be booking with them again. Due to a flight cancellation, I needed to delay pickup by a few days. Rather than allow amendment of dates, I was told that to make this change I’d have to pay for a new booking. Which would cost double what I paid originally, despite it being for fewer days. Not only this but they told me they would need to downgrade my car type as the original wasn’t available. Which I can only imagine would have meant that if I’d made the original booking, they wouldn’t have had the car category I’d ordered and paid for anyway. Completely unhelpful and rude on the phone. This is just blatant profiteering at the expense of customers. UPDATE Contacted them as advised below and got back a confused and nonsensical answer - pasted below. It literally makes no sense that if I want to just reduce the length of my booking that my original car type wouldn’t be available. Seriously avoid. “Your booking was initially created on the 17/01/2025 at which point the branch had more fleet available which would explained that the booked vehicle, for later dates would not be available anymore and the category you would have initially booked be under high demand.”

Booked in advance online for £139 - they ended up stinging me for another £600 when I went to collect the car at the airport. Half of this was an additional insurance premium to avoid paying a €2,500 excess, the other two charges called variously emergency management fees and a special location surcharge (the special location being the airport). I was forced into signing the contract as I had a pre-booked place on a ferry and no time to argue about it. No-one with enough English to explain. No come back from customer services. Total cost during my holiday €4 per kilometre.AVOID, AVOID, AVOID Oh yes - and pay no heed to their reply below. I've contacted the 'customer service team' who have declined to offer any kind of refund. The tone was 'Scammed you! - tee hee!'

I asked a friend to track down a van hire company as i am moving and they found Europcar. What a disappointment. Europcar decided not to accept the method of payment my friend wanted to use and after over an hour they decided they could accept it after all. Because I work all week and I'm away I had one day to move my stuff. It isn't all moved because so much time was lost messing around and the van was so small when it came it was basically a car with the back seats down. Not worth 65 pound. Definitely not after the over an hour mess around. So disappointed.

The experience to get the car was fine and Led from St Pancras branch was helpful and asked me to sign up for fuel tank option. Upon returning my car, Europcar still charged me for a fuel tank option despite I return the car back with fuel tank. Even the return statement said I returned the call with fuel tank. I have made an investigation, case number #22353882 and I’m still waiting for my refund. I see you replied people’s comment with the Europcar link. Your link does not work so I had to call my customer service and they were not helpful. Please, I just want my refund back for the mistake that you made.

hired a car, after 6 days it clearly had a slow puncture. phoned up and they said it was covered, so they replaced it, then they charged me £150

I hired a vehicle before Christmas and upon returning it Europcar gave me back the deposit. I hoped that would be the end of it as the rental experience was not good and I felt ripped off. However, over 7 weeks later Europcar debited my bank account with a large amount of money without my knowledge or authorisation. Their customer services department is less than useless and not responding. Clearly Europcar is a company that cannot be trusted (and certainly not with your data and bank account details) so my advice is to avoid at all costs. If you have used Europcar before then clearly need to be vigilant and keep a close eye on your bank account for subsequent fraud transaction(s).

They charged me for damage I didn't do. When I returned my rental, they said damage that had been highlighted by them was not in the system but don't worry I won't be charged. What a joke. I was never informed of the charge before hand, it just appeared on my credit card since someone mistyped my email address. When I argued the point, I was told it would take 5 working days to investigate to confirm. It took well over a month. During this time I was told it was resolved, with no details so I called them and they were still investigating. Then not to call we contact you asap. After a month and many, many emails and calls, I was told I was getting a refund in 3 to 10 days. Then I wasn't. Then it would take 3 to 21 days. When I asked then to cover the interest their error had charged to my credit card, I was told no. It's not possible. Followed by how they offer excellent customer service. This company doesn't know their a*@ehole from their elbow. Avoid.

Booked the car was told on the app I would have to pay 124 pounds extra which isn’t great but whatever on arrival I was told I need to pay an extra 1200 pounds in total because I am 25 and that’s a young driver even though online it said 25 is fine. Got all that crap sorted ended up paying an extra 400 instead which is still a joke considering I had already paid for it online but never mind I have to get the kids home. I go to the car it looked nice small crack in the rear light took a picture of it but forgot to take a picture of the inside. There was a rip on the carpet and they are claiming it was me the car was drove no more than 4 time for about 30 minutes each way we had the car for 10 days so it was barely used just sat parked and somehow this old ass rip was me. Opened my bank today to see another 400 pound taken out without contacting me at all. Company is a joke just avoid and catch a train or bus

thank you all for the help

Terrible! I was supposed to get a hire car when I was dropping mine off to the garage to be repaired. 25mins before the appointment I had a missed call from Europecar. I tried 14 times over the course of 90mins to call them back. I eventually got through and was told by a rude man that my car wouldn’t be there for another 2hrs. You can’t speak to anyone on the phone unless you want to book a car or make a payment for anything else it’s nearly impossible to get through.

Provided with a pick up from this company due to a new one I bought having electrical issues. The pick up is not fit for purpose, it shakes, is unsafe, it’s filthy, the engine light is on and the customer service provided has been awful. Do not hire from this company.

We hired a car for 7 days, and while hiring the car they were very friendly, but on our last day when we were heading back to the airport the car wouldn’t start. We tried ringing and it took ages to get through but when we told them what happened they said we had to ring the AA. We explained we were heading to the airport and didn’t have much time to waste but he just said I can’t help. You have to ring the AA if they can’t start it they will organise a pick up and you can follow them to the nearest Europcar centre and they will give you another car. We explained we had a 1 1/2 hour drive and by this time needed to be at the airport in less than 2 hours but he just kept saying I can’t do anything else. We then called the AA who said it could be up to an hour before someone could get to us. Obviously we couldn’t wait around for that. Luckily we were staying close ish to the airport with our cousins the night before so we didn’t have such a long drive that morning. They said they would wait for the AA and we had to book a taxi to take us to heathrow. Luckily the traffic wasn’t to bad and we got there just in time. As we were boarding the plane we had a message from our cousins to say the AA had been unable to fix the car and were just then picking it up to take to the euro car centre. Had we not taken the taxi we would have definatly missed our flight. We contacted the customer services centre multiple times after this and they IF they answered my emails it was not with an apology, I was told in the first response to upload the receipt for the taxi and they would pay it back. I complained about the lack of help and the fact we couldn’t use it that last day so that should be reimbursed to but they just said they had closed the case and could do no more. They then sent us an email to say they would reimburse the full mount and take out the full mount minus the cost of the taxi…. But that the reimbursement could take up to a month for international transactions. Without checking first with us they had taken a further £2080 out on our card leaving us then with over £4300 on our credit card while we awaited the payment to eventually go back in. I emailed 4 times after that money was taken out against our credit card without permission… I asked to speak to a manager each time. I never had any responses from those last emails. I am outraged and disgusted by the lack of support from Europcars, I will never use them again and I am going to write this warning on every social media site I can find.

Gave 1 star as couldn’t give minus score! I am a motability customer who has been messed around by these people and been left high and dry. My own car is awaiting pick by garage, europcar are supposed to deliver a car - except although they say they will contact 24hrs ahead of booking they don’t. When finally get through their horrendous phone systems which switch you off and tell you to call back later after sitting for an hour - they say they will be delivering a car on day expected but 5pm - in the dark which means no opportunity to check vehicle, then on morning of delivery told definitely happening but can’t confirm car (booked electric suv) after midday call to say can’t deliver - basically I live in small rural town over hour away from them so of course they don’t want to deliver! I can travel and get though… the title motability customer gives clue in title - I cannot collect, get a taxi (few taxi firms will lose a cab for 2/3 hours on a Friday pm when they have school contacts to honour)… this is 3rd time they have failed with their obligations, apparently I can trust them to deliver when I’m not around to sign for it… if these guys cannot even undertake basic customer service skills or basic project management (can’t guarantee your booking for day booked maybe up to 3 days)… or in my case even with 2 weeks notice on booking they don’t source a car in time or deliver as promised… they made me feel completely worthless.. my car cannot get mended as I cannot be without a car!

Never trust Europcar, their employees and their processes. They all are waiting for the opportunity to manipulate and deceive you to earn cheap money and commissions. After returning the vehicle I noticed on my invoice that an extra charge of amount £223.04 has been applied to my bank account (in the name of 'Premium protection'). I never asked to add any additional service on top of the booking amount of £ 327.35 which was paid already at the time of booking (before even using the rental service). If I need any additional services, I always make sure that everything is in place and paid for to avoid any surprises and to keep a track of by expense and budget. I clearly mentioned "NO" multiple times for any additional services to Europe car rental agent (It must be recorded on their camera). Even when I said "NO" multiple times to any kind of additional services, Europcar's agent printed 'Premium protection agreement' papers without informing me and put in front of me to get my signature with other many agreement documents which is really deceiving and manipulating the valuable customer and forcing unnecessary extra charges to the customers while they are trusting the process. When I explained the situation to them and asked for refund, they denied. Never ever going to book from them. I request you all to avoid such shameless deceivers instead of getting deceived.

Avoid Europcar at all costs! I’ve rented from them TWO times, and each experience has been a NIGHTMARE with three different issues. 🚨 They downgraded my car, offered only a partial refund, and charged hidden fees that don’t add up. Their atrocious customer service rejects every claim and ignores all requests. They also profit off unsuspecting customers by opting out of automatic congestion charge payments, leading to unnecessary penalties. This company operates like a scam – sneaky fees, dishonesty, and zero accountability. DO NOT RENT FROM EUROPCAR! 🚫 Edit to Europcar's response: @Europcar UK, your response is disingenuous. I am already engaged in multiple email complaints and disputes with your customer service team, who have repeatedly dismissed my legitimate concerns and failed to address your unethical business practices. I am documenting every interaction, and my extreme dissatisfaction with Europcar’s handling of this matter is precisely why I am sharing this review. I will continue to highlight my experience to ensure other unsuspecting customers are aware of the issues they may face when dealing with Europcar.

Paid to hire a car went to collect car was told couldn't hire and wouldn't tell us why and said it will be 10 days to get our money back. Customer Service useless and left £250 out of pocket with no car for weekend joke of a company.

Hired a van for a week, then had to renew for another week, was on hold for over an hour, really rude customer service, eventually renewed for another week, have tried today to renew for another 2 days, after keeping me on hold for ages, they said they can’t do it need credit card details, explained we had a corporate account with them, still refused, really bad customer service, absolute joke

They are robbers and liars,thieves,i wouldl never recommand them to anyone. They have cheeky terms and conditions and they try to take your deposit by any means.