Europcar UK Reviews 

Rented a vehicle in March 2026 through a company online called Car Jet. This directed me to Europcar in Wallisdown, however when I handed over the voucher, literally got coerced into spending double as apparently my voucher didn’t cover the whole cost as advertised on Car Jet. Apparently Europcar have had a lot of issues with Car Jet not explaining the full costs to customers …. Unfortunately I had no choice due to work commitments that morning, and they refused to give me my £190 back when I challenged the extras (n.b. couldn’t get in contact with anyone at Car Jet). Vehicle engine also caught fire on the A31 during the hire (3hrs later got recovered back to Wallisdown). I was then given another vehicle this wasn’t an automatic as purchased, furthermore I was downgraded to a basic small vehicle (which then ended up having an oil leak). Was then told I’d be getting a refund for all the extras I was told I needed to pay, in addition to a discount next time for the aggravation. Eight weeks later they took £238 from my account. Still can’t get anyone to deal with my case (spoken to them directly since and emailed head office with evidence etc), clearly not bothered in engaging. Interestingly when I first arrived there were two gents arguing with the manager about getting their deposit back (must be an reoccurring theme!). But yeah, lesson learnt avoid like the plague.

​Do not use Europcar Cardiff Roath unless you want to be scammed and stonewalled. I booked and paid in full over a week in advance for an Intermediate class vehicle (VW Golf / T-Roc or similar).

​When I arrived, they handed over the keys to a Ford Puma—a subcompact vehicle in a completely lower category. There was no apology, no explanation, and no offer of a reduced price or partial refund. They simply tried their luck, hoping I wouldn't notice or care. To make matters worse, they sneaked the vehicle through the paperwork and tricked me into signing the agreement without once mentioning they were downgrading the car I had paid for.

​When I sat in the car and realized how small it was, I went straight back inside to demand the Intermediate vehicle I actually paid for. The staff refused to swap it, claimed they had "nothing else," and stated the manager had gone home. I had to force the desk agent to write down on paper that no manager was on site and no correct cars were available.

​I specifically booked a larger, comfortable Intermediate car to take my elderly mother on a 6-hour round trip to her brother's funeral. Forcing an elderly woman with mobility needs into a cramped, lower-category vehicle on an emotionally draining day is absolute disgusting behavior. Zero empathy, zero customer service, and zero accountability.
​This is a classic "bait and switch" operation—a clear breach of contract under UK Consumer Law.

I have formally logged a complaint ticket (Ref: 26934901), and if this is not rectified with a full refund and compensation, I will be escalating this directly to the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) and initiating a credit card chargeback.
​Be warned: Europcar Cardiff Roath will take your money for a decent car and hand you a budget box without telling you. Extremely dodgy company run by dishonest staff. Avoid at all costs!

Got a booking declined less than 24 Hours before I was supposed to pick up the vehicle. Charged me the full cancellation fee.

Unacceptable hygiene standards and unsafe vehicle preparation

I am extremely disappointed with my experience. The vehicle I was given was in a completely unacceptable condition and should never have been rented out.

The interior was not hygienic. There was dirt and rubbish, including leftover plastic packaging from a previous customer, making it obvious that the car had not been properly cleaned or inspected before being handed over.

Even more concerning, the windscreen was covered in watermarks and residue. When driving towards the sun, the glare severely affected visibility, making the car uncomfortable and potentially unsafe to drive. A clean windscreen is a basic safety requirement, yet this was clearly ignored.

Customers pay for a vehicle that is clean, safe, and properly prepared. Instead, I received a car that looked as though it had been handed straight from one customer to the next without even a basic clean.

This level of hygiene is unacceptable, especially for a major international rental company. If Europcar cannot carry out simple cleaning and safety checks before handing over a vehicle, it raises serious concerns about the quality of their overall inspection process.

I will not be using Europcar again and cannot recommend them based on this experience.

I wish there was a 0 star 'cos that's what they deserve.
Terrible customer care....You'd choose a car and they want to force you to collect a car different from what you paid for.

I made a booking for over 5 hours, was charged and car not delivered, I was advised to make another booking which I did.....still after 3 hours, no car delivered.

I paid twice, no car delivered, I still have to wait for over 48 hours to get my money back.

THIS COMPANY IS FRAUDULENT AND TERRIBLE.
STAY AWAY IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE YOUR MONEY STUCK.

Charged £361.56 in "optional" extras I was never told about. Never refunded a pence after months of complaints.

Rented from Europcar at Glasgow Airport in March 2026 as a walk-in after my original booking fell through. Base rental was £75.83 for six days. Final bill was £502.55.

The £361.56 difference was three products added to my contract without explanation: Premium Protection Package, Roadside Assistance Express, and Super Personal Accident Protection. I was handed documents, told where to sign, and that was it. No verbal explanation of individual products. No mention that anything was optional. No opportunity to decline.

I complained. Europcar rejected every stage by pointing at my signatures. They claimed CCTV footage from the counter "supports" their account of a transparent transaction.

I obtained that same CCTV footage through a Subject Access Request. The entire interaction — document presentation through to final signature — lasted 65 seconds. In writing to a separate dispute body, Europcar acknowledged the footage "is not audible" and cannot verify what was said. So the same footage they told me proved their case, they admitted elsewhere proves nothing about the conversation.

The BVRLA conciliation service sided with Europcar. The Financial Ombudsman Service declined jurisdiction on a technicality.

Europcar never refunded a pence.

I will never rent from Europcar or any Europcar Mobility Group brand again (Goldcar, InterRent, Ubeeqo included). I will tell every friend, family member, and colleague to avoid this company. What Europcar did to me is what a "reputable" rental company does when it thinks nobody will push back. I pushed back for months. Save yourself the trouble and rent from someone else.

We collected our rental car at Manchester Airport after a long journey with our one-year-old daughter. We had already waited over 30 minutes at the desk and then another 15 minutes while the car was supposedly being cleaned.

When we finally got the car, it smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. The smell was so strong that we spent the next day trying to air it out ourselves by leaving the windows open. This is not what you expect from a non-smoking rental vehicle, especially when travelling with a young child.

What disappointed us even more was the customer service afterwards. Europcar’s response was essentially that because no one had reported the issue internally, there was no evidence anything was wrong. They also suggested we should have returned to the desk for another vehicle, despite us already having waited 45+ minutes with an exhausted one-year-old who desperately needed sleep.

Instead of taking responsibility, they dismissed our experience and offered a 10% discount on a future rental. After this experience, I have no intention of renting from Europcar again.

Poor vehicle preparation, poor customer service, and a very disappointing start to what should have been a family holiday. I cannot recommend Europcar Manchester Airport.

I will never, ever use Europcar Swansea again. Indeed, I will simply never use nor recommend Europcar. I hired a car in March 2026 yet here we are nearly August 2026 and I frequently have a £90 debit made against my credit card by Europcar of which my bank can do nothing about yet the staff at Europcar appear to be too incompetent to clear. The staff are beyond useless, it has been one thing after another, beyond annoyed that I am still having to sort this out all these months later. Will likely end up having to cancel my credit card.

Multiple hidden charges levied after the rental period, especially beware of the ‘island explorer charge’. We were charged £36 after just going over the Skye bridge for less than 5 minutes after taking a wrong turn. When we explained the situation we were just told the standard ‘the computer says no’. Awful customer service.
Additionally the car was left at Inverness airport in perfect condition, no one was available to check the car so we left the keys in the box as directed. Some days later Europcar claimed there were ‘heavy scuff marks’ on a corner of the bumper and that we were not present to check the car out.
I would avoid this company at all costs!!!

I had a very disappointing experience with this car rental company - Europcar in Dover. My reservation was accepted, and I paid in advance. However, on the day I was supposed to collect the car, the company suddenly cancelled my booking without any proper explanation.

This left me without a vehicle at the last minute and caused a lot of stress and inconvenience. The customer service was not helpful and did not offer a suitable solution. I would not recommend this company to anyone, especially if you need a reliable rental. I will not use their service again.
Unfortunately, this is another company that treats the customer like a slave. You’re expected to show up without discussion, meet all the conditions that benefit the company, and in the end pay.

Soon we’ll see the company’s “delightful” response below.

!!!! Don’t ever go for this car company !!!
They take money from your account without permission .I had to be calling them and email them for more than three months to get refund and I’m still waiting while they done that mistake or they do it to take money from people without consent .no Ben one star straight robbery

Poor experience at Europcar Bristol which is massively understaffed for the number of bookings they have today. Waited over 45 mins to be served. I’d recommend using a different provider at Bristol if you’re looking for efficient service.

No issues at all with the sole member of staff who was doing a good job under pressure

I am giving Europcar a 1 star review because 0 stars (or less) are not available. After a totally satisfactory and long journey by train, bus, metro, and plane, we arrived at Gatwick Airport expecting that the last leg of our journey would be trouble-free. That all changed when we arrived at the Europcar check-in desk. There was one person on the counter so we waited in line. Another customer (who had just picked up her vehicle) asked if she could step in front of us because there was a problem with the car she'd been given. It appeared that the vehicle had been classified as 'two cases', but in her words, there was insufficient space for two handbags (along with her 3 children). After our unsatisfactory experience this customer was still there trying to reason with the guy on the desk to provide her with a more representative solution than the one she'd been given. Our experience (apart from the usual offhand response to questions, countered by fake friendly customer service banter that actually counted for nothing in the end because the will to provide genuine customer care and support was simply not there) was this: We made our booking two months ago and reserved with a credit card. When we came to pickup the car and make the payment, the card we had used for the reservation had expired. We had the replacement card (same account, same everything, the only difference being the new card had a new number). We explained that the old card had been replaced and presented the new card. The agent wouldn't have it. He insisted we had to show the original card. We asked to change the payment to a new card in the same name and he flatly refused. He said the only way was for us to go online, cancel the booking and make a new one. He wouldn't show an ounce of empathy or flexibility and adopted a "computer says no" stance. Frustrated by the experience we stepped aside to allow the woman with the 'two cases' problem to continue her efforts to get a resolution. We went on line and in a matter of minutes found an alternative solution at Drivalia. This is a company I hadn't heard of before. After a short shuttle ride to the North Terminal and a two minute walk to the Sofitel Hotel, we found the Drivalia office and a super friendly and genuinely helpful agent. He processed our order that had just come through on the computer and also managed to offer a great deal on fully comp insurance and half a tank of free fuel. The guy was a star and saved our day, a genuine example of wonderful customer service and a worthy recipient of our 5 star review (which would have been more if more stars were available). Top marks to Drivalia, bottom of the class for Europcar - we definitely won't be using them again!

I wouldn't bother hiring a medium/SUV car from this company, unless you are happy with a Chinese made car, which I wasn't. They advertise all sorts of good makes, but I was told 80-90% of these cars are now Chinese- disgraceful!

I was charged twice for a one way drop off fee. Then charged an extra day for being 20 minutes late - I was stuck behind a traffic jam in London for 50 minutes and moved 1/2 mile in that time. Customer service replied quickly to be fair, but still charged me £77! As I picked the car up 15 minutes early I exceeded their 29 minute grace time! Ridiculous.
As other reviewers said, there seems to be lots of drop off surprise fees! Use someone else if you can.
Positive was the car was new and had no issues. Without the extra charges it would have been a 5*

had a car when my motobility car broke down took it back with more petrol in than when I got it, next thing got a bill for £115 for leaving car with less petrol scammers wouldn't trust this company with a barge pole

I wish I came here before booking. Flight was delayed, tried to change the reservation but couldn't do it online and got the runaround from both Expedia and Europcar and Europcar refused to give a refund when went to the counter. Had to pay for a whole new reservation. Scamy and extremely poor customer service/contact process. Don't use them.

I should have looked at Trust pilot before booking. We ended up in a long queue and it was close to 2 hours after our flight arrived when the operator announced to the woman in front of us that the car they had given her was not ready and they needed to start all over again. I'm sorry to say I lost it and made some sarcastic remarks. As a result the operator refused the booking and we were left without a car. It was my fault but he did us a favour. We went to the Enterprise desk and 10 minutes later got a cheaper brand new car from the very polite operator. Never using Europecar again.

I had a reservation with Europcar on 11th July at 10am. I was due to attend a wedding, but had allowed for just over an hour to consider for potential delays. When I arrived at 10:40am, there was a queue of 8 people in front of me waiting to collect their cars. An hour later, there were still 4 people in front of me waiting to collect.

After waiting for one hour and watching other providers serve customers rapidly, leaving them without any queues at all, I enquired with the staff how long it would be and when asked if I'd be served and in my car within the next hour, he told me this couldn't be guaranteed.

I followed this up by confirming that as a result of failing to provide the expected service and the fact I was now already likely to be late for the wedding ceremony, would they be able to refund my booking so I could go with another provider. He confirmed this would be okay, and I was out of the car park in a car with Enterprise within 10 minutes of this conversation.

A week later, the refund had still not been processed. When I called, I was told that the booking was cancelled and no refund was issued. I raised this for investigation and was charged a no-show fee on top of the original booking shortly afterwards despite the fact I had showed up before my booking, waited for over an hour, and was still nowhere near receiving the service I had paid for.

Needless to say, I missed the welcome drinks and wedding ceremony for the wedding along with the four other guests I was driving to the event. On top of this, looking back at reviews for the past 10 years of this specific center, long delays and a failure to provide the vehicle on time are a running problem. Their competitors provide cars at a much faster rate without the dreadful customer service.

I followed this up with another call to customer services, who told me they couldn't do anything about either of these charges as they are part of the investigation. Europcar failed at multiple levels to provide even the remotest level of an acceptable service and I will be escalating these complaints at every given opportunity given the poor response to the issues.

I am disgusted at the woeful service provided by Europcar, along with their decision to charge my card multiple times without any clear communication or justification for these decisions. I strongly recommend using any other provider than Europcar if renting at this location.

I fully expect this review to be followed up with a generic and useless suggestion to contact customer support, which I have already done multiple times. If this company care even slightly about customer satisfaction, they would provide genuine responses to these issues.

was hesitant after reading the reviews but had already booked it - great service from bournemouth, collection lady at desk was really nice, drop off gent taking vehicle really nice, no fuss, deposit returned quick, no issues - only gripe was that ordered small van, day before collection got a call saying only have medium vans, and it would be £15 more per day - wouldnt budge on keeping price same as it was a fleet issue not a me issue, but needed the van, but the van itself was lovely so cant complain