Europcar

Hired a car through Europcar in Geelong for 3 weeks and kept extending it by 1 week - 3 weeks in total. A hold amount was placed on my account for each week, the three holds totaling $1,376.10 Returned the car on 24/08/26 and the amount of $1,376.10 was taken out of my account on the 27/08/26, the three holds on my account adding up to the total… Read more

paid are still being held on my account to this day 10/09/26. Ringing Europcar customer service they state that the holds will be held by them for 7-15 business days, absolutely appalling claiming it is my bank issue, rang my Bank ING they say no Europcar hasn't done anything yet to reverse the funds and that they deal with a lot of similar issues with Europcar. Absolutely do not recommend going through Europcar for car hire, steer well away from them

**1 star — An alleged “free” replacement car that cost me £3,600** **I strongly recommend that anyone hiring from Europcar reads every single line of the rental agreement before signing — regardless of what the staff member tells you verbally.** I booked a car directly with Europcar for a four-week rental from **London Heathrow**, from 16 June… Read more

to 15 July 2026. My original quoted price was approximately **A$1,330**.

At Heathrow, the Europcar representative suggested changing my booked vehicle to a hybrid because it would be cheaper. I agreed. He went to get the hybrid but returned and said it was too dirty to hire.

He then offered me an **Audi Q5**, specifically telling me it would be **“at no extra cost.”** I understood this to mean that the Audi was simply being substituted for the unavailable vehicle I had booked.

I was tired after travelling and in a hurry, and I signed the paperwork without carefully examining every charge. That was my mistake.

After I had returned the vehicle and had already left the UK, Europcar charged my credit card **A$9,251.12**.

When I received the final invoice, I discovered that Europcar had added an **“Upgrade” charge of £3,000 — £100 per day for 30 days — plus VAT, making £3,600 including VAT.**

I had never requested a paid upgrade and, most importantly, I had specifically been told at the counter that the Audi was being supplied **at no extra cost**.

I complained to Europcar, but they refused to refund the upgrade, relying on the fact that I had signed the rental agreement.

I subsequently disputed the charge with my bank. The bank also rejected the dispute, again relying on my signature on the agreement.

So I am left with a four-week rental that was originally quoted at about A$1,330, ultimately costing **A$9,251.12**, largely because of a £3,000 upgrade that I say I was told would cost nothing.

**My advice to anyone considering Europcar:**

Do not rely on what the representative tells you at the counter. Do not assume that a replacement vehicle is being provided at no extra cost. Read every charge on the paperwork before signing, even if the employee is telling you something completely different.

I accept responsibility for not reading the paperwork carefully enough. However, I do not accept that signing a document proves that I knowingly agreed to a £3,000 upgrade when the Europcar representative had expressly told me the replacement vehicle would be supplied at no extra cost.

**I will never hire from Europcar again.**

Car was provided by insurance company. Nothing wrong with car but the pickup process was a disaster when they insisted on a PHYSICAL credit card. Yes, the insurance company did say something but who remembers to carry one when everyone has a smart phone??? 2 hours later and $50 of Uber to go back home, search for card and return, to finally get… Read more

car.

And the poor girl at the counter said many people forget and they cop it a lot. Shame on you Europcar! You have asked us to respect your employees but created the environment where abuse is very likely. You can easily create a safer workplace for your employee by upgrading your technology.

My review concerns EuropCar Gatwick South Terminal and in particular the actions of their employee. I had a prepaid car rental voucher for a… Read more

predetermined type vehicle through a third-party provider. On my arrival in the UK, I went to collect the vehicle from EuropCar Gatwick South Terminal only to be told by the female EuropCar employee that the vehicle we ordered was not available. She said “We are giving you a free upgrade”. No mention in anyway of any charges or cost we would have to pay etc. because we were told they were GIVING us an upgrade. GIVING! It is my understanding that under law, if the company cannot provide the car ordered (and in this case already paid for) they must offer either a free upgrade or a lesser vehicle with a monetary refund, The upgrade we were given was a very luxurious vehicle and I was immediately resistant and anxious and expressed deep concern to her because it was not what I wanted. I was told by the EuropCar Gatwick South Terminal female agent not to worry because the vehicle was at the end of its rental life, it had 50,000 miles on the odometer, which it did, and it was to be disposed of when I returned it. Reluctantly I accepted it but I felt it had been foisted upon me. When I was outside loading the car, the female agent came out and said the car had damaged wheels and I had to sign a form to acknowledge the damage. She presented form with a diagram of the car, both sides, with X marks on the wheels. I now believe that this woman had folded the paper in half so that I could not see and therefore would not know what was on the other side. In hindsight I should have said NO! NO! NO and I should have run away, screaming, and rung the third-party provider and complained, but I didn’t, fool that I am. However, after 26 hours of travel I was exhausted, and yes, I now know I was dim witted, no need to tell me. I hated the car from the start. This car wrecked my entire holiday and nearly wrecked me. I was highly anxious when I drove it and it made me quite ill from worry, It was too large and too wide for UK parking spaces. It literally got stuck in the entry to a shopping centre car park. It gave my daughter high level anxiety attacks. I had to try to park it away from other cars because I was terrified they would dent the car’s doors. This car was just too big,and too wide for UK narrow roads, even some A roads were scary and it did things I found hard to accept. It was so technical it was dangerous, simply because it was distracting. But just as importantly, mechanically it was difficult. When the car started off there were many times when it just didn’t want to change up gears. Leaving Cobham Services, the car wouldn’t change gears at all and I held my breath thinking I would need a tow truck, but eventually it did change up. I am used to driving a Subaru with CVT automatic, but this vehicle had a habit of just stopping and not moving off. It would stop and go into Neutral and once you realised why the car wasn’t moving and what had happened, you had to go through the set process to get it going again. This happened in dangerous places at times like waiting to enter a large roundabout on a 70mph road. A friend suggested I return the car and I jolly well wish I had. On the day I had to return the car to Gatwick, a yellow message about the tyres appeared on the consol. 8 calls to EuropCar proved useless and so I drove just down the road to the local dealership for the marque. Service personnel said it was ok to drive it back and gave me instructions as to what to do with the gadget in the trunk should tyre pressure deteriorate. And this is how I returned the car. During the term of the car hire I did check my credit card several times to see if EuropCar had levied the £1500 block for security and I was surprised they had not. I returned the car on 1 August and flew home. The day after I arrived home, I checked my credit card and found that on 28 July a huge charge against my credit card had been made and cotinued to be made until 9 August (8 days after I had returned the car). EuropCar had charged me $3,630.06 in my money for the upgrade of the vehicle their employee had told me they were GIVING me because they were unable to supply the car I had ordered and prepaid for. It was then that I remembered the EuropCar Gatwick South female employee who had asked me to sign the document acknowledging the damage to the car, and it was then that I realised she had folded the document in half and therefore I could not see what was on the other side. I dont think you have to be that bright to know that on the other side of that form was the upgrade charges etc.What a Fool I am!!! Of course, I have lodged a dispute but EuropCarUK is notorious for completely ignoring disputes. I guess they hope they will just go away. Whether this is correct or not, I have been told that what this woman did could be a criminal offence called Fraudulent Misrepresentation which applies to both verbal and written matters. Some might say that this woman could not benefit financially from what has happened but that isn't quite correct. Significant bonuses and incentives are attached to sales and basically that is what these people do - sell us car hire and especially very expensive car hire insurance. The more you flog to the "marks" (we the consumer), the bigger bonus you get. Apart from putting me in a difficult financial position, what has happened has absolutely destroyed my trust in others. Stupidly I thought that the car rental business was past all this sort of nasty thing but after reading many reviews, I now realise that nothing has changed over the years and although not everyone is a rip-off merchant, there are still dishonest, unscrupulous people (crooks?)involved in the car rental business. When all these numerous complaints are put online, I just dont understand why the car rental companies dont investigate these claims of unscrupulous and dishonest behaviour and either sack those who they know have a pattern of bad behaviour or at least put them somewhere where they cant rip off customers. Or maybe it is a trait that some car rental companies may see as a positive? Of course I will not be letting this matter go, because I cannot afford to - $3,630.06 is just too much dosh to walk away from. Everyone I tell is appalled and others in the travel and insurance industries have been advised. And I intend to follow this right through to the bitter end.

Unsafe undriveable, unroadworthy vehicle – Placed a booking for a vehicle, but when I arrived to collect the vehicle it had two, yes 2 flat tyres. They knew I was coming given the booking, but had still organised for the vehicle to be unroadworthy, completely dangerous to drive, in fact… Read more

undriveable. Yet Europcar claim to get you moving. It is hard to move with2 flat tyres. What a lying fraudulent business.

Today i went to collect a booked rental, advised intime i would be 4 hours later to collect due to work commitments. Was advise it was fine as id advised within collection time. Waiting in line 40min to be advised we have no vehicle's,i asked were… Read more

was the booked car from my booking was advised “we gave it to some one else”. Then was told we also need to clean . I asked why if i was told it was ok why did you give it away without advising me and staff response was “ look do you want a vehicle or not” this was the managers statement. Had this not been booked for one month and paid for, and now over an hour waiting, i was told to take a seat while they clean a car. NEVER again will i allow eurocar treat me like this, i will go elsewhere and i suggest anyone reading this also go elsewhere!! When i finally get into the vehicle i observe a staff members lanyard on the seat with all their work keys on it…. Need i say anymore

I was in a really horrible situation I booked at budget only to be told that because I’m local I had to pay $1000 bond so I really crushed that I wouldn’t be able to see my mum and go to cemetery to visit my dads grave so I called Sherene from europcar in Mackay this beautiful lady went above and beyond to help me get a car as by Friday morning there was nothing around so thank you again ❤️ Show details

Nobody seems to read bad ratings so this may be the cure. DO NOT EVER, EVER HIRE A CAR FROM EUROPCAR UK OR EUROPCAR AUSTRALIA. I have hired 2 cars in the last five years, both from Europcar. The first one was in Australia and they tried to rip us off over pre-existing damage. Luckily my partner was smart enough to take photos. Their claim was… Read more

dropped. Believing that lightning doesn't strike twice I hired a car from them in the UK. I was so wrong. Without so much as a nod from the return inspection employee they tried to charge us for petrol when the car had a full tank on return. This after that same employee directed us to the nearest petrol station to fill it up prior to the final return. I had to compile a brief containing downloads, screen captures and bank statements to prove our case, and the fee again was dropped. It took ages for the refund to come through. Fishes rot from the head down and it is evident that their reputation means nothing to them. Don't take my word for it, look at their satisfaction ratings. I know this rating will boost their ratings but it's worth it if these rip-off merchants can't hurt any more honest people.

Hired a car from Eurocar Adelaide city Aldi Q3, great car, received outstanding service from Dylan, nothing was too much trouble, Dylan is a great asset to Europcar and I will be using them again. Robin Murphy Saratoga NSW Show details

If i could give europcar a 0 stars i would. Do not ever rent a car with this company. Extra charges deducted, invoices are produced with extra charges that were not disclosed when signing the contract at pick up, $500 deposit taken and then the transaction disappears from your bank ststament and you have no evidence they took the deposit and you… Read more

will not get it back. Asking for no insurance and then being charged for it anyways and after disputed they acknowledged it was an error on them however you signed the contract so you will not get a refund. Scammers, scammers SCAMMERS

**Extremely Poor Customer Service – Lost Two Bookings Over a Cancellation Fee** I would strongly recommend avoiding Europcar based on my recent experience. I originally made a vehicle booking for the Gold Coast in October 2026. Our travel plans later changed and we needed the vehicle in Sydney for exactly the same dates. There was no obvious or… Read more

user-friendly way to simply change the pickup location online, so rather than take our business elsewhere, I made a **second reservation with Europcar in Sydney**.

I then called Europcar to cancel the original Gold Coast reservation. Despite explaining that our plans had simply changed location — and that I had already rebooked with Europcar for the same dates — I was told I would be charged a cancellation fee.

What made the experience considerably worse was being asked, **“Did you not read the terms and conditions?”**

That is not customer service. It was dismissive, unnecessary and completely missed the point. I was not trying to walk away from Europcar or cancel our travel altogether — **I had already made another booking with them.**

I escalated the matter to a manager named **Ghian**, expecting some common sense and discretion to be applied. Unfortunately, the response was no better and the cancellation fee was still not waived.

At that point, we cancelled **both reservations**.

It is genuinely difficult to understand the business logic here. Europcar had a customer who had made two bookings because their travel plans changed. They could have waived a cancellation fee on the superseded booking, retained the Sydney reservation, and left us feeling that we had been treated reasonably.

Instead, they chose to enforce a fee and lose the entire booking — along with any future business from us.

We regularly hire vehicles for both **business and personal travel**, and after this experience we will simply use another company going forward.

Terms and conditions are one thing. Good judgement, customer service and understanding the value of a long-term customer are another.

**Europcar failed badly on all three.**

I would not recommend Europcar, and we will not be using them for either business or personal vehicle hire in the future.

⭐️ 1 star — Warning to other customers Extremely disappointing experience with Europcar Tullamarine. Following my rental, Europcar alleged damage relating to a windscreen chip and subsequently sought approximately $1,000. I dispute both my liability for the damage and the amount claimed. I only wish I had Googled “Europcar windscreen damage”… Read more

before renting. I was shocked by the number of reviews and complaints I found from other customers describing similar disputes involving windscreens and unexpected damage charges. Had I seen these experiences beforehand, I would have chosen another rental company.

The way my matter has been handled has left me with very little confidence in Europcar. I have disputed the claim in writing and made it clear that I do not authorise my credit card being charged while the matter remains unresolved.

My warning to other customers: photograph and video every part of the vehicle, particularly the windscreen, before leaving the rental location and again when returning it. Keep every document and piece of correspondence.

Based on my experience, I would not use Europcar Tullamarine again. I would choose Budget, Avis or another provider instead.

**Serious child safety issue and unacceptable treatment at Europcar Brisbane Airport** I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Europcar Brisbane Airport, particularly because it involved the safety of my 20-month-old son. We requested a child car seat suitable for our 20-month-old. When we collected the vehicle, Europcar provided us… Read more

with a booster seat intended for an older child. I immediately told staff that the seat was too big and unsuitable for his age, but I was not provided with an appropriate alternative.

After leaving the branch, I contacted Europcar's service desk because I was concerned that my son could not safely travel in the restraint they had provided. As we were approximately two hours from the original collection location, I asked whether an appropriate child seat could be delivered to us or whether another solution could be arranged.

I was told they could not help.

I even asked whether I could drive to the nearest Europcar branch to exchange the seat, but they could not tell me whether that location would have a suitable child restraint available. I asked for the matter to be escalated to a manager and was effectively given the same response.

What was particularly upsetting was that during my dealings with the Brisbane Airport branch, the manager referred to my son as **“autistic.”** I found this comment completely inappropriate and discriminatory. There was absolutely no reason for a manager to make a comment like this about my child, and it had nothing to do with resolving the safety issue I had raised.

Ultimately, I was left with a rental vehicle but without an appropriate child restraint for my 20-month-old son and with no practical solution from Europcar.

I am now returning the vehicle and hiring a car through another rental company so that I can obtain an appropriate child restraint and ensure my son can travel safely. This has caused significant inconvenience, additional expense and distress that could have been avoided if Europcar had simply provided the appropriate restraint or resolved the issue when it was first raised.

I have made a formal complaint to Europcar and am requesting a refund/reversal of the rental charges, reimbursement of the reasonable additional costs caused by having to arrange alternative transport, an investigation into the manager's conduct, and appropriate compensation for the treatment we experienced.

For a major rental company, I expected a child-safety concern to be taken seriously and addressed immediately. Instead, we were left to find our own solution.

Based on this experience, particularly the handling of my son's safety and the inappropriate comment made about him, I cannot recommend Europcar Brisbane Airport.

was clearly stated at phone call to book that i get 300klms when buying extra klms rang back again to confirm after invoice suggested 200klms and she said she would amend invoice when i pick up. when i return late at night get invoice days later only have 200klms = many other charges 16,50 for rural because i bought extra klms not told to be as… Read more

buying them and this fees makes it useless , card and admin and other fess just endless, when complaining in writing just told you signed the agreement and tuff luck, never again will i deal with these people cheats and liars

**Damage claim more than three months after return** I returned the vehicle to Europcar Hobart Airport on 26 April 2026 and received the final invoice with no outstanding amount. More than three months later, Europcar suddenly contacted me about alleged damage. However, all the supplied damage photos and the report were dated 5 August 2026—not… Read more

the date the vehicle was returned.

The documents only show the vehicle’s condition in August. They do not prove the damage existed when I returned it or occurred during my rental. No completed return inspection report was provided.

It is extremely concerning that a rental company can wait over three months and then attempt to hold a previous customer responsible without contemporaneous evidence.

I have formally disputed the claim and requested the original return inspection, timestamped photos and the vehicle’s rental and movement history.

Based on this experience, I would not rent from Europcar again.

Disappointing first experience with Europcar. I had already booked and paid through Auto Europe with refundable excess protection, but at pickup I was sold Premium Cover without the differences and extra charges being clearly explained. The final invoice included Premium Cover, a Premium Location Surcharge, admin fee, card fee and GST, totalling… Read more

AUD 224.46 in extra charges. Europcar later acknowledged the booking information was confusing, but still relied on the signed agreement rather than looking at the customer experience fairly. Not good customer service, especially for a first-time customer.

Rented a car in the UK and emailed company following receiving my account and questioned why l believe l had been charged for 6 days not 3 as per contract. Have received emails stating they are looking into it, but no resolution or explanation. This was over 3 weeks ago. Very poor service and lack of customer support. Not worth even one star. Show details

Very complicated sales system. Extremely aggressive upgrade sale tactics. We are still trying to work out the actual cost of renting. Nothing is straight forward and contacting them is difficult. Definitely wouldn’t use them again.