GoldCar Rental
Reviews and Complaints

Worst company I have ever dealt with!
Worst company I have ever dealt with
Absolute sham of a company. DO NOT USE! They fraudulently take more money on arrival which they say is an additional deposit on return it turns out that you will never see it again!
Paid an additional £400 on arrival at Palma Airport to be told it was a deposit that would be returned... total lies it was actually for additional insurance and tax! Which we've been told will not be returned to us! Do not be drawn in by the low online rates. THIEVES!

ref [protected]

Upon returning hire car to Almeria Airport your staff member claimed there was damage to the vehicle. A small dent above rear wheel arch. As can be clearly seen on my screenshot taken on the 03/09/19 this damage was clearly visible and it was pointed out to a a Goldcar staff member in car park on that date. I categorically deny damaging the vehicle in any way. I was charged 1231eu and a further 250eu on my credit card on the 24/09/19. A total of 1481 eu...This is a fraudulent claim by your company and I insist on a full refund.
It is my intention to carry out a full "Denuncia" upon your company as soon as I return to Spain should this matter not be dealt with and a full refund immediately. I also want a full breakdown of your charges and receipts for same.
Following research into your company it is obviously clear that you have a large history of fraudulent claims and scamming customers. .
Trust me a full Denuncia will be carried out by me and also to https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/.../COMPLAINTS-FORMS... citizens advice in Spain if this not dealt with to my satisfaction.
Take a look at my dated screenshot and it shows damage already there.

Kenneth Mc Kenna

Hello, I have a problem with deposit refund from GOld Car. I rent a car by Do you spain agency. I bought special insurance in Zurich Insurance ( Platinum Excess policy nr 9048654). On the airport Gold Car employee took for us 405e and told us in English, that is a deposit, which will be refund when we return the car. He did't show us valuation, he only told us amount. We show him our Zurich Insurance, he knew about it, but he counted some Gold Car insurance. We didn't know abot it. All documents are in Spanish, we translate it when we back home. Now, we get back only 81e from 405 that he promised to back. I paid this "deposit", because I didn't know that is not refundable second insurance, which we didn't need. Gold car insurance policy was sold us without my knowledge.
I saw the invoice only after the card transaction was approved.
Gold car seller has been informed that we have our insurance, and yet he pushed their own.
He used our tiredness, ignorance of the Spanish language and the queue that was behind us. When we were booking the car by Do you spain website, they assured us, that there will be no extra fees and know, we lost 320e...

Booking reference [protected] - Mr John Tutt

We booked a C Max car for the period of 7 -21 September 2019, instead we were given an Astra estate, which was filthy dirty on pick-up. A C Max or similar was requested for the specific reason, and an Astra estate is not in my opinion a similar vehicle and was in fact totally unsuitable.

The woman who dealt with the booking in the office was rude and insistent that additional insurance should be taken out. This was declined as we had already purchased additional full cover insurance.

Due to her persistence of trying to sell a further €190.00 worth of insurance, she did not clearly explained about the fees for not returning the car with a completely full tank of fuel, and we now find we have been charged a fee of €50 plus €11 for fuel.

This fee is ridiculous and totally inappropriate, and disproportionate and we request under the circumstances you reconsider this fee, and refund the €50, we have no objection to paying €11.00 for the fuel.

Finally, instructions need to be provided about the procedure for returning a vehicle, there were no details on where to return the car or how to access the area to return the car.

This is the first and most likely the last time we will use Goldcar for any future car hire during our visits to Spain, and we will share our story with family and friends who also will be making frequent visits to Spain.

We paid 43.97 EURO for 12 days car hire in advance via the 'Do You Spain' website to GOLDCAR, which was obviously an extremely cheap price, however we knew that we would be charged a fuel subsidy and extra admin charges of approximately 60 EUROs locally so a great deal of just over 100 EURO or so we thought...

We arrived at the GOLDCAR desk at Barcelona airport to collect our vehicle at approximately 11.00pm on Thursday 5th September. The initial reception by the guy behind the desk was unfriendly and cold. This attitude got significantly worse once we refused the insurance we were told we needed to buy from them. We already had perfectly legitimate and great value insurance bought via a third party. We were then rudely told that we had to give a credit card and be precharged 1400 EURO as a deposit because we were not taking their insurance. We were already aware of this so duly agreed. The whole admin process became extremely slow at this stage.

We handed over the credit card and driving license to complete the transaction and were then told very abruptly that we could not have the car as the driving license provided was 'not in an acceptable state'. It was a french paper license, perfectly legible although in two seperate parts and in a plastic wallet as it was old. We were told a second driver needed to be paid for and this license used instead. We disputed this and asked where in the terms and conditions this clause was stated, after 10 minutes of the very rude agent trying to find it he eventually gave up and agreed to give the car. Again the process of completing the transaction took an age. We had been at the desk now for approximately 45 minutes with a large queue growing behind us. The adjacent couple also seemed to be having similar problems to us with getting their vehicle.

Just before handing the paperwork to us, we were told that the car was not ready and that we were to go to the pick up point and would have to wait approximatley half an hour. It was now after 12.15 midnight and we were tired having an hours journey ahead of us.

Upon arriving at the pick up point, there was one lady, very busy trying to sort out numerous problems and check out cars and customers. She was obviously understaffed and stressed. After half an hour of waiting we asked when our car would be ready and were told that our vehicle was not clean and would not be ready for at least another hour or two. The guy at the book in desk obviously knew this and lied to us.

After another wait we were offered a downgraded car to what we had booked that we refused. We complained about the time the whole process had taken at this point and asked for the category of car we had reserved and that we wanted to get going. The lady responded by saying ' I was supposed to have finished my shift 30 minutes ago'. No apology or empathy at all!

We were then eventually offered another car at approximately 1am which we accepted. However, as the lady was so busy she just gave us the keys and left, after a check of the car - in the dark and under car park lights - we didnt see any damage so left.

Upon returning the car - at approximately 4.30pm on Tuesday 17th September, without any incidents at all, we went into the office to check the car back in. The staff member on duty was surly and did not even say hello. He then came to our car to inspect the vehicle... accompanied by a high powered light! He proceeded to minutely inspect the car in intricate detail making note of the tiniest and inconsequential surface scratches and swirls in the paintwork! I asked why this process wasnt completed when we checked out the vehicle and that it was impossible for us to have seen these small surface scratches in the lighting provided. The employee did not even acknowledge me and so I asked again, louder, asking him to stop and speak to me. He then started to shout at me saying he was just doing his job and stopped the procedure! I went into the office and asked to speak to the manager. Another - slightly friendlier - guy spoke in spanish to the original employee and I asked if the inspection was complete. He informed me yes and I asked if there was any damage and whether I would have to pay anything. I was told 'NO' and that all was fine. I asked if I needed a receipt and was told again 'NO' and that I would recieve an email and the refund of the deposit in the next day or so.

Lo and behold, upon returning back to the UK, an email was waiting for us with an invoice for 250 Euros charging us for damage to the left wingmirror rear bumper. There were accompanying pictures of superficial scratches of a few centimetres that did not penetrate the paint layer - almost impossible to see without the aid of a high powered light...

Dear Sirs,

SUBJECT: GOLD CAR Sicily, Catania airport CONTRACT [protected],

I have rented a car from GOLDCAR from Catania airport for the period 19 - 29 May 2019. The car was returned to Palermo airport GOLDCAR office as per the contract.
However, the company GOLDCAR has charged my credit card already 4 times in August and September 2019, three times 55 EURO and ones around 35 euro. I have submitted claims to their web site already twice once in august and once on 19 September requesting them to apologise for the mistake and to return the money to my bank account and to issue an apology for the caused inconveniences. I had spent many hours exploring their web sites and social media accounts searching for the right way to contact the company and to acquire information what is going on as well to claim the falsely charged amounts back. unfortunately this is very complex and not easy to accomplish. All I managed to find ways to submit automatic requests and I received some number and nothing has happened already for one month no feedback. in the meantime, they continue to charge my credit card without my authorization and of course without any explanation. in the section where they present invoices it is written that those are car renting charges.

I rented a car from GoldCar de Menorca and at the time of pick up they made me make a "deposit" via credit card of 112.00 euros and said that if we delivered the car in perfect condition and with full tank, they would return the full amount. .. when my invoice arrived, to our surprise, they only returned 79.00 euros and they don't want to return the rest and have no reason for it, they are literally stealing us in the hard face and I already sent several emails and they ignore it.
PS: I had to ask a friend who lives in Europe to contact them and ask for the contact email because there is no way I could call Europe and they would not pass ... then after days searching, I found an e-mail on the internet and sent it, they just answered me the first e-mail and then just ignored the others.

Ich buchte am 30.07.2019 über rentalcars.com mit der Buchungsreferenz [protected] ein Fahrzeug (Personentransporter Ciroen Berlingo oder ähnlich) mit Komplettschutzversicherung und bezahlte mit Kreditkarte (Visa) online den Betrag von € 265, 49 für die Zeit vom 30.08.-13.09.2019. Am 30.08.2019 holte ichbei Goldcar das Fahrzeug ab unter Vorlage meiner Buchung über rentalcar, musste einen Betrag von € 239, 67 mit der Kreditkarte bezahlen und dachte, es wäre eine Kaution. Bei der Rückgabe des Fahrzeuges am 13.09.2019 bei Goldcar machte ich die Dame bei Goldcar darauf aufmerksam, aber sie wies meine Beschwerde unfreundlich ab. es kann also nicht sein, dass für 14 Tage die Mietkosten € 505, 16 betragen. Ich ersuche um entsprechende Rücküberweisung auf mein Kreditkartenkonto.
Contract nr. Goldcar: [protected]
Code des Clienten: 3352816

The agent Josef at reception told me that charges on the contract were for a full tank of petrol and when I returned the car full, I would receive a refund. When I got home to UK, I translated and checked the invoice to find that I had been charged for, Office charge, Super Insurance, a bail bond and something called smart return. None of these were mentioned when I collected the car. I did not need any insurance as I had already purchased a Reduce My Excess insurance in the UK. I have had to call Golcar from UK to get details of how to claim a refund and submit an incident form. I am hoping for a full refund of the charges. I wanted to send a copy of my insurance but have been unable to find an email address for Goldcar. My contract number is: [protected] and my client number is: 1265920

Date of rental - 24th aug 2019 - 11.35
Location - malaga airport
Car registration - 1380 jzl
Car model - fiat punto
Contract no. - [protected]

Will someone please give me a clear english breakdown of the cost of 696.62 euros which has appeared on my credit card. I paid a deposit on january 7th of £126.44 and on arrival in malaga was told by the gold car sales girl that she was putting 260.? Euros on my credit card. She was in an extreme hurry to get to the next customer so when we were thrown the keys we made a hasty retreat as she indicated she wanted us out of the way.
This is where I made the stupid error of not checking the paperwork but to my credit I believed what the girl said - 260.? Euros,
Imagine my horror when I get my credit card bill and 696.62 euros is listed.
Please give me a listed breakdown of all the costs incurred by return email please

Thank you
Pauline stone

On the 15th July 2019, we booked a hire car under booking reference; DYS-[protected] and paid the fee of €97.81 for the period 21st Aug - 30th Aug through doyouspain.com for pick up from Valencia Airport.
At the same time we purchased insurance "Platinum Excess Waiver" policy number 5076422 for €59.50.
On arrival to the kiosk in Valencia airport on 21st Aug the customer service agent tried to get us to buy more insurance, which we refused as this was already paid however we authorised a block deposit for €1, 400 and a purchase for an additional driver for approx. €80.00.
We returned the car on the 30th Aug with a full tank and no damage, i received check-out and final contract statement with no additional balances required.
We have just received our credit card statement and we can see two transactions Debit £213.62 on the 21st Aug and credit £61.25 = net £152.37 when we would expect to pay approx. €80.00, so have and extra £72.37debit over payment.

We would like to be refunded for the full £213.62 and debited for the additional driver only.

contact me on

[protected]@gmail.com

I was renting a car in Malaga from 10 till 24th August 2019.

My contract number: [protected]
My Client Code: [protected]

My car had been fully prepaid through Carrentals service. There was a huge queue at the Goldcar office and I spent 2 hours to get to the counter. A the counter, the Goldcar employee included an insurance and other services (written in Spanish) in the contract without asking whether i needed them or not. I told him that i had no intention to buy insurance and asked him to remove the insurance service from the contract. The employee said that it was NOT an insurance but a deposit that was to be for the case if my car would be tolled. The employee assured me that that payment was 100% refundable and would be spent in the case of car tolling necessity only.

As i returned the car, the payment was not refunded. I contacted the Goldcar service.

Issue ticket number: 2241861.

I described the situation with the employee who actually cheated me, telling that my payment was a refundable deposit but not a paid service. However, Goldcar refused in refund. They refused to give me the name of the employee who served (and cheated) me as well :(

It's pity to have this experience as I used to rent cars from Goldcar several times and had quite good experience before...

I still hope to resolve the situation and have my refund before contacting the European Consumer Centre Spain.

Looking forward to reply and refund.

Evgenii Sandomirskii

Good evening,

on August 17, I picked up a rental car from Goldcar at the Barcelona Airport. The person who assisted me - Mr Estevan - informed me that I would have to pay 140 € plus 208 € for the picked up (I later realized that it was insurance, which I never requested). I presented a credit card when I picked up the car and, note, at no time the clerk asked me if I wanted an insurance to reduce the deposit or even explained it, he simply stepped forward and charged these amounts in an abusive way without any explanation. . In the meantime, during my vacation, which should be a leisure time rather than a troubled one, I made several complaints to Goldcar services and, when I returned the car, i told Mr Estevan the situation, hoping that he would acknowledge his mistake and abuse, explaining that what was hired was just a car rental without any extras and that his attitude was perfectly abusive and unprofessional. Pure mistake that he would recognized it. In view of the foregoing, I simply claim what is due to me and was wrongly and improperly charged, as I did not claim any insurance, ie the € 208 I paid and I want to be reimbursed/refunded. I´m looking forward for your reply and feedback and a speedy resolution of this problem, which I did not create. Best regards

The customer service was horrible and very unprofessional. They didn't have the car ready, even one hour after the time we reserved it for. They were rude and arrogant, ignoring us and letting us search for the car for ages in a car park, meanwhile the car was not there actually. They finished by screaming at us, and they gave us another car, which was not very clean inside. The girl and boy on service that day (Saturday 31.8. around 18:00) didn't want to give us their name, I suppose they were not proud of the service they provide us either.
This is really a pity, because we used the Goldcar based on our several year's experience, which was always great until now, and which caused us starting our holiday in a very deceptive way.

ATTENZIONE: procedimento legale AGCM in corso contro Goldcar.
SEGNALATE i vostri casi all'Autority qui: https://www.agcm.it/servizi/segnala-on-line (è gratis!)
e registrate tutte le vostre conversazioni da quando entrate all'uscita.

"Clienti pressati e quasi minacciati al desk (ndr. al fine di vendere la propria polizza Kasco), danni inesistenti contestati dopo la riconsegna dell'auto e addebiti mostruosi sulle carte di credito usate a garanzia." (articolo su Repubblica: https://bit.ly/2ke1ET0).

Goldcar è stata sanzionata dall'Autority AGCM per 1, 7 milioni di euro nel 2016 e 680 mila euro nel 2018. Adesso per le inottemperanze e grazie alle vostre segnalazioni all'AGCM rischia fino a 5 milioni di euro e 30 giorni di sospensione dell'attività.

Possiamo inoltre organizzare un'azione legale collettiva risarcitoria (class action) ed una denuncia penale congiunta per truffa ed estorsione.

Per info contattatemi su WhatsApp al num. +39 [protected]

We picked up a rental car from Goldcard at Palma Airport on 22.08.2019 which was reserved through Ryan Air. According to the reservation voucher ES595283750 the amount left to pay was 67, 31 EUR plus 34 EUR = 101, 31 EUR.
After arriving at the desk to pick up the car we were told that we had to get insurance. Since the insurance was already included in the rental agreement we did not want to take it. However the lady at the desk got unfriendly and told us that we had to get the insurance or else go to a different car rental company. She also demanded that we pay 1000 EUR in cash for deposit. Since we already had insurance for this we did not want to pay and did not have that amount in cash with us. So my girl friend [name removed] had to pay with her credit card and also had to be added to the contract as extra driver. We would not receive the car unless we signed and paid an additional amount of 411.87 EUR for which we have not received
a receipt or a signed rental agreement and we do not know what it is for.
We are officialy filing a complaint claiming the refund of 310, 56 EUR which was paid too much. Also, we would like to get a detailed breakdown of the extra charges. We have contacted Goldcar via email but have not received an answer and probably never will.

I have just returned from a lovely holiday in Spain. The only issue which upset the holiday was my experience of car hire with GoldCar.

We arrived at the desk - queued for sometime as there was quite busy. We were then greeted by the assistant. We were clear with the assistant that we did not need any insurance extras as we were already covered by Annual Car Hire insurance which we had already purchased. The assistant tried to persuade us that our policy was no use and inferior but we insisted we would stick with our policy.

When the card transaction was attempted it was declined. We then had to come out of the queue and called our bank (TESCO Bank) to clarify the situation. We were advised that there was no issue at the bank at that the issue was with GoldCar.

We therefore queued a second time however the same situation with the card occurred. The assistant again tried to persuade us to take the insurance policy as he felt this would resolve the situation. We tried to get the bank to talk to the GoldCar rep about why the card transaction was failing as the bank insisted there was no problem with the bank.

We had to then queue a third time. By this time queuing for the car hire had taken up 2.5 plus hours of our holiday, our children were getting upset and we were running late for a family gathering which we were attending. The assistant again reiterated that by taking the insurance policy the problem would be resolved. At this point we felt that we had no option but to take the additional insurance policy so we were charged €320.19 which can be seen on the attached invoice.

The most concerning thing was that there were also another two couples in the queue who had exactly the same experience. This seems very suspicious. At the same time the assistant was boasting to us that he had a good salary as he was on commission and was a very good salesman.

Another lady in the queue had returned to query a bill she had received for damage to the vehicle which Goldcar seemed to be unable to provide any evidence of.

The whole experience left us with a bad taste. On looking later on Facebook and Google I can now see that we are not alone. Taking into account the amount we had already paid for the car hire I feel we have been totally ripped off and cheated and that GoldCar does not seem a very honest organisation. We have now paid way over the odds and wish we had checked the reviews more carefully before booking.
I have a letter confirming the failure of the card transaction was with Gildcar and not the bank but I still have not been able to obtain a refund despite many emails.
I hope you can look into this matter for us.
Thank You
Thomas Main

OK like hundreds of others as it transpires, we have fallen victims of a Goldcar insurance scam…
As seasoned travellers we have started to purchase an annual car insurance policy in the UK to cover us for additional charges that we would incur should we be unfortunate enough to cause damage to a rental car overseas. This obviously is designed for two principal reasons 1. Because it is a lot cheaper and 2. to address the heavy selling that can result when collecting a‘rental' from staff who are on commission to sell the company insurance at inflated rates.
Anyway, last week having booked our rental from Goldcar at Murcia International Airport we returned it, somewhat dusty, to their compound, where a representative from Goldcar, holding an iPad, checked it for any damage…and having rubbed the dust off a specific area of the off side passenger door ‘low and behold' discovered the kind of inconsequential hairline blemish that you can get when the vehicle is washed. Indeed the blemish (which could be polished out in seconds) was so inconsequential that when we checked the body work on collection, had we have seen it we would have disregarded it.
It appears from all the negative reviews (there are hundreds) I have subsequently read about Goldcar this is a widely used scam, primarily used against those who refuse to buy their insurance policy, and one which is yielding them some serious money from us hapless travellers, because having had to pay a 1197 euro deposit when we collected the car, within 20 minutes of the inspection we received an email from Goldcar telling us that they had charged us 200 euros for the damage (blemish)…which clearly was on the vehicle when we collected because the representative, having consulted her iPad went straight to the spot, even though it was covered in dust with no outwardly tell-tale marks. (ironically recently my wife caused some substantial damage to the driver's door of my Audi Q5, which a local body repair and spray-shop fixed for £320).
The problem is Goldcar had our deposit so what recourse do we really have except hope that our tale might make other travellers think twice before handing out their hard earned cash to a despicable company who appear to have been fleecing travellers with various scams for many years…with impunity. Check out Goldcarcomplaints.com
P.S. having waited until Goldcar returned my deposit before posting this for obvious reasons, I note having checked my account that they have withheld over £300!
Be warned and PLEASE share

Complaint is made on the grounds that we were forced to pay an extra 436.54 euros to be allowed to collect our hire car, having already pre-paid for the hire online in the uk through jet2carhire.com. (booked with rhodium, whose desk at palma is operated by goldcar.

What we expected to be charged on pick up of the vehicle was 79.50 euros for 1 additional driver (i.E. Approx. £71). The amounts charged to our credit card on 18th june 2019 are as follows :- £390.51 + non sterling fee £10.74.
We should not have been made to pay for the following "nett of iva" items

Recargo aeropuer 20.14 euros (a "surcharge" - unknown what it was for);
C. Extra v diesel 20.66 eu; (why charged? We already pre-paid for full to full?)
Upgrade 41.32 eu; (was told it was a free upgrade - apparently not)
Coberatura super 112.99 eu; (did not need this extra "super" insurance)
Smart return 12.36 eu - not even sure what that is
Random 16.54 eu (20 eu incl iva) which is included in total but never itemised anywhere.
= 224.01 euros + 21% iva = 271.05 euros overcharge*

Goldcar have now refunded an 86 euro "card deposit", and we are aware we were due to settle 79.50 euros on the day to pay for one additional driver, meaning we were forced to pay an unauthorized extra charge of 271.05 euros for us to be able to drive a hire car away and start our vacation.

Goldcar staff were heard and seen visibly bullying us and other clients at the hire desk to pay all this extra money to be allowed to drive away a vehicle they had already pre-paid for in the uk. We and others were told "no money, no car"

Have reported to jet2carhire.com, and also to natwest chargeback team.

Anita benson & roger guy benson
24 breedon street, long eaton, nottingham ng10 4ff uk
[protected]
[protected]@gmail.com

our complaint is as follows:
1. We have full insurance cover and did not require any additional insurance cover.
2. At the GoldCar desk, we stated, we did not need any additional insurance cover and therefore we agreed to pay the refundable deposit, as outlined on your website and as per your previous response.
3. An amount was taken from our account and the GoldCar representative took my signature on an electronic signature pad, agreeing to the rental terms and the refundable deposit (including fuel charge).
4. Your GoldCar representative reassured us, that we had taken the refundable option (as per your email and website) and that the full amount would be refunded back to our account
5. We were not provided with nor sighted any documentation and were not provided with an invoice for any non-refundable charges.
6. Records provided to us via the booking company do not align - including different changes and different amounts and unmatching partial amounts have been refunded back to our account.
7. Your GoldCar representative fraudulently used my e-signature to sign up for insurance we did not agree to.
8. A full refund has not been provided (176€ outstanding)
The issue is that we agreed to the refundable deposit and were told explicitly by the GoldCar representative that the amount we were paying, was the refundable deposit and a fuel deposit. We have not received our deposit back.
This blatant lie, coupled with the discrepancies in the paperwork provided to us when we escalated and the unmatched money coming back into our account reinforces the dishonest practices being undertaken to fraudulently scam customers out of money.

We have been in communication with GoldCar for weeks now and they have just stopped responding despite our attempts at resolution.