Europcar Reviews 6,766

included an "upgrade" for 170GBP without making us aware of it and without us having asked for itz even though we had a prepaid contract through our company. they charged additional 50GBP for 9 liters of fuel even though we filled it completely 1km before dropping it off. 3 weeks later suddenly another 50GBP cbarge. horrible company, hands off.

Not very helpful. I had forgotten my physical driving licence (my fault, stupid me, no excuse). I had a digital version with me, but Europcar wouldn't even look at it. Having my wife do the rental instead (who had her driving licence with her) was also not an option (somebody explain that to me, please) except for her doing a NEW rental at TRIPLE the price. Well, actually that would have cost us quadruple, since I wouldn't get my money back on the first rental. It's like Blockbuster in the early 2000s with their well known late-fees. A cash cow, but also the reason they eventually went bankrupt because customers left en masse once competition (Netflix) offered a customer friendly service. See you on the other side, Europcar.

UPDATE: Europcar replied (probably automatically) to this review that I should send it directly to their customer service. The link they provided in their answer lead not to an e-mail address (as promised), but a complicated web-form (with the intent, it seems, to have people NOT give feedback). I went ahead and wrote down my whole story anyway, only to discover a "Your form couldn't be stored, please try again" at the very end when I hit "Submit". Obviously, 'trying again' didn't work (it never does) - not even when I entered the text a second time from scratch. Well done, Europcar - you've managed to NOT get feedback from another customer. Goal achieved.

UPDATE: Contacting the so-called "customer service" of course didn't lead to anything but wasting my time. I'll have to subtract another star for that, resulting in a one star-rating now.

Be careful ! Didn’t show the condition of two years of permit at the payment and didn’t want to refund after two hours. Horrible experience.

❌ Terrible experience with Europcar – never again!

Text:
On 30.08.2025 I rented a car from Recklinghausen with drop-off in Ludwigshafen. The rental agreement was for a maximum of 24 hours. I picked up the car on Saturday at 9:25 AM and should have returned it by Sunday, 31.08.2025, 9:25 AM.

The issue: the Ludwigshafen branch is closed on weekends (open only Mon–Fri, 7:30–18:00). On Saturday evening around 9 PM I tried to return the car, but it was impossible. I called customer service – no one available. I then sent an email explaining the situation – no response.

I finally returned the car on Monday morning, only to receive an invoice charging me an additional €320! This was not my fault – I couldn’t return the car because the station was closed. When I complained, the answer was simply: “We cannot change the invoice.”

This is absolutely unprofessional, unfair, and customer-hostile. I feel ripped off and completely abandoned. Without a lawyer, you are powerless against Europcar.

➡️ My advice: Avoid Europcar at all costs! I will never rent from them again.

I rented a car from Europcar, but my experience was mixed. The staff weren’t very friendly, and the car (Hyundai i20) wasn’t in the best condition. The rental process worked, but overall it was just okay — not the smooth experience I expected.

I have rented a car from Stuttgart Airport on mid July for 5 days with full kasko, via Trip.com. I have returned the car within the time. They have charged me for extra 450+ euros, in which the invoice includes 8 days of kasko!!!

I thought that might be a mistake and written to them via their customer portal on 11th of August. And today, on 2nd of Sept, they have charged me extra 364 euros more without any information (no mail no call etc).

Now I am trying to write them via their customer portal again, it always gives "fehler".

Usually.customer services are there to explain what the hell is going on there before charging extra amount but here in europcar, it is almost impossible to get information. I am calling them and they always say there will be information.

People be care full buy insurance when booking hire car
And don’t get talked into buying extra insurance when picking up the car
Your details are not on there computer so they won’t know you have already bought insurance. And they will try to push extras on you .
Terrible service
Wont be using this company again there customer service is pathetic wrong advice give over 3 days on there phone calls and online chat 😡

Very bad experience returning the car, they are scammers! After 3 months of use, they found a 6 cm scratch, which was negligible, and I'll ignore the fact that I have no idea whether the scratch was there when I picked up the car. The staff's behavior when I returned the car shocked me! I had to pay EUR 790 after a heated argument, as they originally wanted EUR 980. I have never encountered such scammers before and would expect them more in the Balkans, but not in Germany. I immediately ordered the return of the second rented vehicle ASAP and never again. I warn you, they are thieves and scoundrels. And as a joke at the end, they said that because of the scratch, they would repaint the entire fifth door. Well, that made me laugh. We are considering legal action. A company like this should not be allowed to operate. They are stealing from customers under pretexts such as scratches for extremely high sums.

AutoAbo in Germany experience:
Picked up car, tire was punctured. Had to drive multiple times to get it fixed. All on my time and kilometre allowance. No sorry. No compensation.

Car was swapped after a few months. Car needed dealership service because of issues with a previous registered user still having full access remotely to locate the car and unlock doors open windows change settings etc.
Again many trips on my time and KM allowance.
No sorry. No compensation.

They allow you to upgrade KM packages. But if you realise you don’t need that many you can’t downgrade. That’s a dark pattern and can only be greed and not technical restrictions.

Have now switched providers who allow to change contract details like KM packages every month as you please.

Nearly all other providers allow the driver to change KM packages monthly via an app!

I hired a car from Berlin Airport. And right from the begining the car fuel guage showed it was not FULL.

And it showed a epc fault light on. This was demonstrated a faulty switch.

However whilst on route to Frankfurt . I had to stop overnight at Wolfsburg . THIS SHOULD NOT be a stopover. INCONVIENENT.

Furthermore the car, had chewing gum stuck to the floor.

The replacement is a not a car , I expect it to be. I wanted a Volkwagen group car and not a jeep compass.

And the car has either a faulty fuel guage or a high fuel consumpution.

Europcar should provide a clean car and should compensate fuel and inconvience.

Avoid, avoid, avoid at all costs Keddy EuropCar, Munich airport. It was an horrendous start to our holiday.

Firstly we had to wait ages to get served. When we finally were served, the agent was adamant that the car could not fit our suitcase and tried to persuade us to spend hundreds of extra euros to get a larger vehicle. This was a blatant lie. When we collected the vehicle, the suitcase fitted perfectly well in the boot. When I said I wanted to keep the car I booked he continued to waste time pushing us to upgrade. When he knew that I wasn’t going to be persuaded his manner changed abruptly to downright rude and impatient. He failed to properly explain and document the charges, deposit and the process for reporting damage. He entered my email address incorrectly so I got no receipt. He also double charged me for cross-border use of the car even though I had already paid for it when initially booked. What was absolutely appalling was he got me to sign the document in various places without explaining what I was signing. When I tried to read the small print to understand what I was signing, he had the temerity to tell me hurry up. When I went to the parking lot, there was no one to talk me through the damage report showing the location of any existing damage. I could hardly see the car body because the car park was so dark which made any complete inspection impossible. I had to waste 45 minutes uploading multiple photos of damage with no auditable way to show evidence that I had done so.

I have hired many cars in my life and this was the worst experience ever. Shambolic and contemptuous. I expect better from the EuropCar brand. I am dreading dropping off the vehicle at the end of the stay.

To add insult to injury, the complaints form doesn't work. You get an error message. EuropCar simply don't want to know about your problems or the devious practices of their agents.

This operation should be reported to both the German trading standards authorities and the airport for malpractice.

We booked to rent a car in Naxos Greece months ago. The day came and no one showed up at 10:30, we waited and then started calling and emailing and texting them on whatsap and no one answered. We had to ask a rep from hertz to help us and still couldnt get anyone to answer the phone. We finally went back to our airbnb just before 12pm. We called again and finally someone answered and told us the rep would be there in 10 mins so back we went. Then we were told that hubby had to have a credit card which he does not so we had to pay an extra $435 euros because we needed the full insurance since he had no credit card. Why were we not told this months before? Then we were charged an additional 70 euros as now they needed me to be the official driver and him to be the 2nd driver as he was the one who was going to drive the car. Then i received our bill which was in total $2326.78 cdn for a 2 week rental that was suppose to be $1379.90 canadian. We paid almost $1000 more and were stuck as all other cars on the island were already taken. Im outraged and will never rent a car again from europcar.

Europcar falsely claimed I cancelled my booking – then refused to honor it

I made a confirmed reservation (#1190191091) with Europcar. Everything was fine — until I suddenly received an email saying I had cancelled the booking. That was a blatant lie — I did no such thing.

When I contacted them, they admitted that it was actually cancelled on their side due to a so-called “pricing error” — but instead of taking responsibility, they blamed the customer.

This kind of behavior is not only unacceptable, it’s unethical. They then offered me a 25% discount on a future rental — which I find insulting, given the time and effort I spent trying to resolve this.

I booked in good faith at a reasonable price (€419), received a confirmation, and was counting on that car. Europcar simply walked away from the deal and covered it up with a false excuse.

Be warned: even a confirmed reservation may be cancelled without reason — and you might be blamed for it.

I had rented a car from Europcar in Flensborg, I returned the car with 1/4 tank of gas and of course wanted to pay for it to be filled up.
but I got a shock when I got the bill it cost 4.12 euros per liter and it was 206 euros in total (1545 Danish kroner).
I think Europcar should be ashamed I will NEVER rent from them again

Wrong invoice and no solution after one month:after we returned our can in Inverness airport with no incident, we received a wrong invoice and was charged 100 pounds more. Emailed the customer service and chased several times but after one month there is still no apology and no solution. Totally unhappy!

When I came to pick up the booked car from Europcar at Manchester Airport the guy in the office told me I have to leave a deposit of 39.000 Pounds or contract an additional insurance. Instead of 276 Pounds they made me pay 610 +700 Pounds. I disagreed for one hour.
Later they told me I would have asked and signed this change in contract, but they actually forced me to do so.
Be careful of fraud.

Update 2025.08.04
Europcar confirmed that they ask for a deposit of 39.000 Pounds (depending on the car model) if the car has not an insurance directly with Europcar themself. You need to contract an additional insurance with Europcar for any damage to their car of 16 Pounds a day if you booked the car on a third party website. A liability and car insurance with a self payment of 1500 pounds is not enough and they will not give out the car.

At the BER airport station i was handed a car that wasn't fit for driving, because it ran out of motor oil within 300km due tue an overdue regular inspection (1500km service overdue message popped up).

Had to pay for the motor oil myself.

Poor costumer service:
-on the day of the problem they couldn't tell me which type of engine oil the car needed
-didn't respond to my written claim for 3 weeks
-phone operators hung up on me twice and didn't resolve my refund claim

Requested a refund, which has been ignored so far.

Hassle-free pick-up if you reserve the vehicle online or through the Europcar app.
Frankfurt Hahn Airport is quiet and not crowded, which made the process even smoother.

But be careful! When returning the car, no one inspected it on the spot. The next morning, I received an email claiming there was a scratch over 15 cm long in a tricky spot—almost underneath the vehicle. I honestly don’t recall causing any damage, and being asked to fill out an insurance form for something I didn’t do felt wrong. Luckily, I had full insurance, so I won’t be paying anything. Still, the situation didn’t sit well with me.
The car WV was new, though.

Having booked a car with the cheapest option, I was not able to later change the collection date. Europcar thinks it is perfectly OK to take the full payment for a service that will never be used. Simply delaying the collection date will result in a complete loss with no compensation at all! This is not what I call customer service.

Slow process at pick and felt pressurised to take the enhanced insurance which was a lot more than the hire cost. Told not worry about checking the vehicle as was covered, there was an existing scratch which they were aware of. The car was not what I expected, had been well used and not the car referenced and was damaged, scratch and broken back shelf holder. They tried to pressure me to take prepaid fuel offer, which would be more expensive than full to full. At drop off they identified the scratch that had already been there at pick up and suggested it was my fault. I think if I had not been covered they would have charged me for this. The car was picked up in Belfast and the cross-border insurance charge was huge - I compared with a friend that picked up a car with Avis in the same week, was over double.