Europcar Reviews 

Really shocked that they didn't accept my Luxembourgish driving licence! They kept insisting I needed a "national" one. So, I couldn't drive the car we had hired. Really unbelievable. They could have just googled it... Very backwards indeed.

Very poor experience with Europcar Spain, from start to finish.

The whole issue started when I could not pick up my rental car at Sevilla Airport as planned because my aircraft was late. Apparently, if your flight is delayed, Europcar does not wait for you. Which is quite surprising for a rental company operating at an airport.

Because of that, I had to make alternative arrangements, including taking a taxi and picking up another car in Jerez. So already, what was supposed to be a simple airport car rental became complicated and more expensive.

The car I eventually received in Jerez was already full of small scratches, marks and impacts when it was handed over to me. It was definitely not a clean, damage-free vehicle.

When I returned the car in Sevilla, the Europcar employee seemed to raise the issue of scratches. I immediately explained that these marks were already present when I picked up the car in Jerez and told her to check the original rental documentation.

She replied along the lines of “OK, no problem”, did not clearly show me what she was entering into her handheld device, and simply asked me to sign, saying everything was fine.

I later received an invoice for EUR 463.22, although the original booking made directly on Europcar’s own website was around EUR 207. So I ended up paying more than double the expected amount, plus the cost of a taxi, and then had to deal with disputed damage-related charges and a so-called “franchise” amount.

I strongly dispute these charges.

If Europcar wants to charge a customer for damage, they should be able to clearly prove that the damage was not already present at pick-up. They should provide proper photos, a proper damage report, a repair estimate or invoice, and clearly explain the charge before asking the customer to sign anything.

None of this was properly explained to me.

I am not refusing to pay for something I am responsible for. But I will not accept being charged for scratches that were already on the car when I received it.

The overall experience was poor, unclear and extremely frustrating. For a major rental company operating at an airport, I find it unacceptable that a delayed flight immediately turns into a major problem for the customer, followed by unclear charges and damage claims that are not properly justified.

I have asked Europcar to provide the full documentation supporting these charges, including the pick-up and return condition reports, photos, repair estimate, and contractual basis for the charges.

Until they can properly justify the amount, I consider these charges unfair and unacceptable.

I expected much better from a major rental company.

When I returned my car it was dusty & the clerk that received the car & did the check is going over it with a light like it's under a microscope. He then proceeded to draw two big fat lines on the bonnet, in the dust, supposedly to "make two tiny scratches visible" - first and foremost, given the condition of the car (dusty) one should really not do something like that since that can actually scratch the car.
The location (on top of the bonnet, close tot he front windshield) is one where it's next to impossible to cause damage oneself, not through bumping or anything like that. Anyhow, since I didn't make minute pictures of that particular spot of the car (I had sides, front and wheels since I had assumed any accidental damages could appear there) I can't contest whether it's the agent that caused it or some mysterious other activity happened while I had the car.

However, the real kicker is this: 2 scratches of 2.5-3CM that haven't penetrated the paint come with a bill to fix of over EUR 800. With some wax and buffing those would have hardly been visible - but Europcar creates an additional revenue stream through extortion of its customers, clearly. Iterating with their "customer service" showed that Europcar actually has a formal published list of these extortion prices.

Bottom-line: Avoid renting at Europcar, take 360degree pictures in Hi-Res of every possible angle of the car if there's no other option than to rely on these thieves.

A day after the car was returned in good order, I received a surprise invoice (from an unmonitored email address) with ridiculous and unknown charges, totally unexpected! My credit card deposit of €300 that's supposed to be fully refunded was deducted €210. Europcar was uncontactable after I left Brussels; not responding to my email or inquiry. How unethical can it be and can I call it a "scam"?

We forgot our phone in the car and we lost our flight because we had already dropped off the keys and there was no one there to help us on Saturday afternoon. Terrible service.

I reserved a car ahead of time and when I arrived they simply refused my reservation even though it was non-refundable. My original reservation was $350 and the only way they would rent me the car is if I bought insurance for an additional $475. Avoid them at all costs and go with a reputable company.

I had a very bad experience with this rental (Europecar brussel) company and would strongly advise others to avoid it. The staff appeared to work together in a way that felt dishonest and misleading.
At Brussels Airport in Belgium, their behavior was unprofessional and unpleasant. I was initially quoted €148 for one day for a small hatchback car, which I agreed to due to the situation. However, I was later charged €248 instead.
When I realized the discrepancy, I contacted customer service to report that I had been overcharged (the agreed amount was €143.40). The representative put me on hold for an extended period nearly an hour without resolving the issue. When I called again, the same thing happened.
Overall, this was a very frustrating and disappointing experience. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

Unjustified charge after rental – concerning lack of response

After returning my rental car in Catania, I was charged €75.63 without any explanation (booking via CHECK24, booking number CN932025578840, rental period 19.03.2026 – 30.03.2026).

The vehicle was returned in perfect condition:

- No damage
- Full fuel tank (8/8)
- No remarks or additional charges noted in the official return protocol

The €100 deposit was fully released, confirming that the vehicle was accepted without any issues.

The charge appeared on 31.03.2026. I contacted Europcar on 02.04.2026 to dispute it. As of 11.04.2026, I have not received any substantive response, only automated acknowledgements.

It is somewhat surprising that an unexplained charge can be applied immediately, while a customer is expected to wait far beyond what would generally be considered a reasonable response time for a financial dispute (typically within 2–3 working days, and at most within 5 working days).

To date, no invoice, no contractual basis and no explanation have been provided.

The case is currently being escalated via CHECK24 and my bank.

I will update this review once the matter is resolved.

Thinking about Europcar - don't, find someone else! I made a booking with Expedia and chose the full additional insurance, for peace of mind, paid via Expedia, as part of the same booking. The agent (at Brussels Zavantem) refused to let me take the car with the insurance and I had to pay another €65 for Europcars own minimal insurance at the desk, which I had no choice but to pay, or I could not have got the car - totally scandalous! During the trip I received a parking ticket (the sign was obscured by construction work and I would have challenged the legality, if I had been at home). Anyway I paid the €80 fine the next working day, to the correct bank account / correct parking ticket reference. Six weeks later Europcar invoiced me for a further €42 admin. fee. It was a parking ticket, not a speeding fine / traffic violation. The extra insurance and the 'admin.' fee doubled the cost of the rental. Never again. Avoid them.

I hired a car at charleroi. On its return some damage with spotted. I was assured that the damage was small and I wouldn't be charged and encouraged to sign the return form. I was then billed £157 a few days later. No invoice or explanation was sent to me. I raised a query about this and sent a picture, little blurry, back that showed that the damage was pre-existing.
I got no response to the ticket that I raised and so had to call. It was difficult to get through and I received confusing messages. Needless to say no response came back and when I called to chase progress I was given a bland response by the service agent.
This is easily my worst car hire experience ever. For the mishmash of poor service confusing messages and downright lies.

I only want to give an advice, because in general we are happy with the cars we rent with Europcar. What we don't like is that they say 'you can drive and check the car later'. That is ff. stupid, because when you don't have full coverage, you will pay for the damage from the rental before you. CHECK THE CAR BEFORE STARTING IT WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE LAMP. They did it like that when we returned the car. We think the damage was already known, but because of a full coverage before us, it wasn't yet mentioned on the damage report.

Avoid at all cost - you may be scammed as I was. I rented a car from BRU airport from 13/12 to 15/12. We waited in line for half an hour at pickup - annoying but not the end of the world. We received a car with (relatively minor) scratches and bumps marked in approximately 10 different places (as of the contract). Due to the many preexisting pieces of damage, the bad lightning in the parking garage and the confined space around the car (and as we didn't expect to be charged for damage we didn't cause). Instead of moving the car to a more useful inspection site and wasting an extraordinary amount of time on our weekend trip to Belgium to inspect every single inch of the car, we took photos all around the car. When we returned the car, the Europcar employee noted a scratch in the bonnet (within a few seconds, somewhat suspect). We showed a time stamped picture documenting that the scratch was pre-existing at pick up. He simply advised us to go to the pick up desk. We did that and they told of us to send and email and our picture to the "Statement of Departure" email and that everything would be ok. We did as advised but did not receive a reply. A few days later I received and invoice with the amount of approximately 350 euros for the damage (to be transferred 15/1). I few days later I received another invoice from another Europcar email with the amount of approximately 1000 euros stating that my credit card would be charged (which they did 23/12 - Merry Christmas). As I did not notice the damage and report within two hours of pick up, the do not accept my photo as proof that the damage was pre-existing. Here almost a month later after 10+ emails and 5+ phone calls, they only respond very sporadically to emails and are still "investigating" why I have received two separate invoices. I will never use Europcar again and I will advise all my friends, family and professional contacts to avoid Europcar.

I had a nightmare experience with Europcar Belgium. I rented a car from Oct 1–3 and received a Brussels parking fine. Europcar didn’t even bother to notify me until Nov 14th—16 days AFTER the government’s payment deadline. > I immediately paid the government fine myself to avoid further penalties, but Europcar still tried to slap me with a €42"admin fee." I contacted them through their website multiple times and got zero response. When I finally called, an agent told me the case was cleared and I owed nothing.

Instead of keeping their word, they just unauthorizedly charged €42 to my credit card without any explanation or response to my formal reports. This is predatory behavior and a total lack of professional communication. They ignore your questions and just steal money from your account months later. Absolute scam. Save yourself the stress and rent elsewhere.

Very disappointed with the service at this Europcar office. The staff works very slowly, which leads to long waiting times, and at the same time they fail to clearly explain important information to customers.

When I picked up the car, I was told that only the deposit would be blocked on my card, as the rental was prepaid online. However, after returning the car and having the deposit released, an additional service fee was charged to my card without any prior warning or consent. No one informed me about this in advance, and no one even apologized afterward.

Car rental itself is not a problem — you can rent a car anywhere. What really matters is service quality and transparency, and unfortunately Europcar failed in both. Because of this experience, I will not use Europcar again. During my most recent rental, I chose Avis instead.

Worst experience ever - the company is not able to hold it's promises. Don't trust the price they promise to you

Terrible support and fine/fee policy. First they notified and charged me a fine of 50 EUR + 10 EUR administration fee. No problem, I paid that immediately. After a month suddenly they charge me additional 40 EUR without any explanation! I had to write multiple times to their "support" and I received only non-sense as a response - it is administration fee and that's it. They refuse to explain why they charge that fee twice and even more so - increasing amount. Huge disappointment!!!

I was given a car with multiple scratches which I wasn't informed about during collection. I took pictures of all of them and sent to Europcar. There was no contact from their side, just an automatic response. The car drop off was out of hours so I didn't have a chance to speak to anybody in person. I was quite surprised when I got an invoice a week later for £250 for the scratches, the same scratches I took pictures of and sent to Europcar. Since then I've been trying to contact Europcar about this but they're not interested in even replying to me. Every email I've sent was ignored, even though I've got proof that the scratches were done by previous customers. Each email I sent to multiple Europcar email addresses was assigned a ticket number and the next day was closed as 'completed' with no further feedback, call or any explanation. Their customer service is a total joke and I see them as scammers. Avoid that branch at all costs!

Stay away from Europcar Charleroi. They are crooked. They let you sign the paper with the conditions of the car in their office. At return they claimed that a wiper was missing and additional scratch happened. Unfortunately I had an early flight so I was not present during their inspection. I suspect that somebody from their staff took away the wiper. They claimed additional scratch, I rented the car was less than 24 hours, I am 100% sure I did not have the slightest incident. They gave me additional charges of 350€. They are totally corrupt maffia.

I rented a car from Charleroi Airport in Belgium. There is a Moroccan guy named "Hamza Anjay" he is a big thief and a liar. He informed me all the wrong information; that the insurance would be a price of 90 Euro and in reality it was over 200 Euro.
The customer service of Europcar is beyond terrible. NEVER every rent from Europcar at Charleroi airport.

Hamza Anjay should be terminated immediately

Worst customer service ever at Brussels airport, and Europcar in general.
Because of an issue on my project I had to extend my reservation until July 1st (original return was June 29). Nor me or the third party app through which I made my reservation, were able to contact them through the number on the reservation. Right now the extension is pending the case created by Orbitz.
Same situation when I tried to reach out to them informing of my late arrival due to weather condition. Not only I risked to lose my reservation, but I also had to suffer a lecture from their representative about their policy of keeping on hold it.
If you are an international traveler move on with other companies.