Goldcar Portugal Reviews 2,230

Very slow collection process. First car had a flat tyre the next day. Credit to Goldcar, they got me back to Lisbon Airport very quickly by taxi at no charge...I think. I received a second car but was charged 397 euros for the vehicle recovery and the tyre replacement. There was no explanation as to what the charge was. The lady at the desk told me it was refundable. Second car was really nice, a new Fiat Panda. Return was very efficient and easy, so well done there. It was only a week later when checking our credit card statement that I realized that we had been charged for a flat tyre and vehicle recovery. I have now had to submit a claim to the insurance provider which Easyjet used-AXA. The Portuguese team at Goldcar Lisbon Airport is good, they were polite. However, they just need to speed up at the desk and communicate better to clients. I should have been told very clearly that this charge was covered by my insurance. I might use Goldcar again but will approach with eyes wide open. The Portuguese customer helpline is excellent.

I would like to give this company zero stars. I booked a car for 10 days and had to return unexpectedly after 3 days. I returned the car early morning and didn’t seek any credit for the early return. I dropped the car at 5.15 am and not surprisingly there was not staff but lots of people were returning their cars. I took a video of the car and it was unblemished from when I hired it. Weeks after my return to Ireland I received an email from CSdamages on behalf of Goldcar to say there was damage to the paintwork and that they were going to deduct €200.16. I disputed it and send the video. I suspended my credit card in case they tried to put the charge through and told them I was disputing their claim. Well after weeks when I reactivated my credit card they sneaked rhe charge through and robbed me of this amount despite I having sent a video showing I had not damaged the car in any way. This is my worst car hire experience in 27 years of going to Portugal and they are also robbers if you decide you want to go over the border to Spain. Horrible car hire to deal with. They offer headline low charges and then steal from you

Avoid Goldcar. Don't ignore the reviews thinking that it wont happen to you.
We had to pay much more when we arrived. The company charged us a huge E170 for petrol deposit and when we finally found the car it was fully electric after being told that it was not electric at the desk.
Took a long time to sort out and cost us the same amount as the mainstream car rental companies.

Avoid at all costs. Arrived at Faro, long protracted process filling details that I filled in at time of booking. Car had lots of scrapes, dents etc. person giving me the car seemed apathetic. Had to call him back twice to identify different issues. The a few weeks after I returned home I get an email claiming I scratched the car! I made a video of the outside of the car and the scratch in question is clearly evident. A month on and having provided them with the video the issue is still not resolved. I feel like they are set up to deliberately defraud customers.

Devious company that uses small print in t&cs to make more money.

Arrived at the Goldcar desk to pick up car at the time we had booked it for. We were given a ticket but not told it would be a two and a half hour wait. We were given this information quite quickly by other disgruntled customers.The girl on the desk was being quite rude to other people who were questioning the wait time. Awful service so we went elsewhere. Have not heard back from the complaint I made to them.

Arrives at the airport on Sunday morning at 11 with a booking for a car at Gold Coast in Lisbon.
Huge queue, I got a ticket with number 93 and on the screen only number 40 was served. After one hour 15 numbers were served. Very few people working at the counter and not very fast. Decided to pronounce to my booking and got a taxi.. terrible experience

NEVER USE GOLDCAR (SCAM SCAM SCAM)

The car they gave me was damaged. I took a full film footage of the entirety of the car and when I took it back they has the audacity to send me a photo of damage they claimed I'd caused. I have proof it wasn't me that caused it. In fact, my film footage proves there was more damage that even in the photo they sent me meaning their photo was very old and they must re-use it.

They also notified me via a "noreply" email address with no way to actually get in touch with them. They passed their "claim" to a company called 'CSDamages". I disputed the claim. They passed it back to Goldcar.

Goldcar sent me a generic email (again from the "noreply" email address saying they would respond to me within 14 days.

They did not!

Then I see they took money from my deposited card without my notification or authorisation.

Be warned, they are trained to scam you - it is part of their business model.

Would give it 0 stars if I could.

First of all the car was dirty and damaged ( Citroen c3 all road). Secondly I gave the car back with a full tank of fuel and they still charged me for not returning it full tank. They had the audacity to charge me 12 euro for fuel and a 50 euro penalty. Thirdly nowhere was it mentioned that I needed to purchase insurance for which they charged me 200 pounds .

Never using gold car again. No customer service at all

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!! I rented a car - 8 days from.Faro. it was dark and I was shown 2 small areas of damage one of which was not on the paperwork. I returned the car out of hours and it was in the same condition as when I picked it up. I was charged €319 . Luckily I had taken out a separate excess insurance with a reputable company. I have also never had the promised return for unused toll device on numerous occasions. NEVER AGAIN.

We recently rented a car from Goldcar in Lisbon Airport. I had my own insurance so declined the offer of their Excess Insurance. When we got to the car which was parked in the middle of a poorly lit parking area we did check the car and photographed a few scratches and dents in the bodywork. Nobody from Goldcar came to check the car with us. We had the car for four days. When we returned to the airport the person inspecting the car claimed that we had damaged BOTH back hubcaps. One side had some very light scratches (which could be seen when the person shone their torch) and the other side had damage to the very top of the hubcap rim. I admit that we did not examine the wheels/hubcaps carefully enough, we should have used the torches on our phones and looked more closely all around the wheels and hubcaps. But we know that there is no way we could have done this damage. The damage to the rim of the hubcap could only have been done when parking at a curb and it could not have done without noticing at the time. In the four days we had the car I never parked at a curb. I drove a few times a day from my cousins house to a nearby hospital. I parked in a paved carpark at the hospital and in a covered garage at my cousins. The very few other stops we made I always found a parking spot facing the curb not running alongside it. However, as we had not noticed the hubcaps when we picked up the car we had no way to prove we did not cause the damage. The bill for two new hubcaps we received comes to €435.44. We absolutely feel like we have been scammed. We know we did not cause the damage. We feel that if we had noticed when picking up the car they would have simply claimed to have missed it themselves but because we did not notice they know we have no recourse. We absolutely believe that we have been scammed and will never book wtih Goldcar again. This is also not the first issue we have had with Goldcar - a few years ago, on leaving the airport, we noticed that they had charged us for excess insurance which we had not agreed to. We had bought our own rental car insurance so we had no need to buy their excess insurance. They did not clearly ask us if we wanted to purchase their insurance and amidst all of the payments they ask for when picking up the car it was added without our knowledge. I said then that I would not use them again. This time I mean it.

Despite a lot of comments on Gold car, I have to say having used them many times I've not had any of the issues regarding damage, up selling etc. The person I dealt with Sara, did pre authorise my card for potential tolls and damage, however nothing used in terms of tolls and no damage. Sara was especially helpful and a credit to Goldcar
The only dishonest part from Goldcar Portugal is that they charge you for a toll rental device that you don't use in the Algarve, then never give you the money back..! Just refuse it

GoldCar car rental at Lisbon airport. Quite simply the worst experience of car rental we have ever had in decades of foreign travelling. 2 hour wait at the airport to get our pre booked car, rude and disinterested staff simply trying to get you to pay inflated insurance, and then charging €217 for an extremely minor scratch on a wheel that we say was present on collection. A quick google search will show this is not an isolated or unique complaint.
It all started at the airport after nearly 2 hours waiting in the queue for our hire car, first they ‘told’ us that there had been a mistake and that our hire car was not suitable for us and we would need a bigger (more expensive) car. When asked why, he said we won’t fit in. He was completely unaware if I was travelling alone or as a group but said it wasn’t big enough. When I pointed out there was just 2 of us he conceded. Then it was the insurance, they said we didn’t have any and would need to take theirs out. (I’ve had this rodeo before) I will point out, they don’t offer their insurance, they tell you it’s needed first, then you say you are not covered for any damage, you point out you have insurance but they say it doesn’t cover everything, even though they haven’t seen and don’t know what insurance you have in place. Next we were given a car with an engine light fault, even though it had been “thoroughly checked”. Eventually, after over 2 1/2 hours, we get our car. We check round it and take a video and some pictures.
On return they immediately start their checking process. I totally understand their need to turn them around quickly, but they are straight on checking with a torch for minor scratches. I was then told a wheel was damaged. You have to wonder how, within 3 or 4 minutes, they find a minor scratch they know wasn’t present when you drove it out, a 1/2” scratch on the side of the rim barely visible. I had only driven to our villa and the shops twice and knew I hadn’t hit anything so knew I had caused no damage. I had a video of all around the car but as the scratch was so minor, it was barely visible on the video and was therefore dismissed by them. They now want €217 for this scratch.
I feel justified calling it a scam for the reasons I have outlined. I have insurance that covers this damage but it’s simply not right to do this to customers. Just avoid GoldCar at all costs.

I booked a car via Cartrawler. The offer I was interested in was a rental car from the company Goldcar. Immediately after I booked, I received an email saying that I had to have a credit card with me when I picked up the car. Since I don't have a credit card and always pay with a debit card, I chose to cancel the same day, which I could do. The money came 1 week later, but it was about 10% less than it cost. The answer from Cartrawler is that I have to pursue this against Goldcar. They don't take any customer responsibility, so don't trust that you'll get your money back as they say. That's not true. They also have no support, only AI support, which is crap. Dont use Goldcar!

Charged £900. When car was handed back and no issues. Marks on car same as when picked up. Even with this eveidence, refused to tell us the damage committed and have charged credit card 2 months later. Avoid at all cost

shocking and fraudulent

paid 917 euros for a rental car for a few weeks.
additional monies taken from credit card with no explanation.
rang customer service who kept saying to email them
etc etc eventually he said it was a cleaning fee and airport tax. it now transpires there is no such tax.
avoid

Worst experience ever!!! They try to scam you, infront of you. We booked a reservation for a rentalcar at goldcar sicily, catania. They said we don’t have to pay anything when we get on the location.

So, when we arrived there, they told us we had to pay extra since we were younger than 25, even though. We gave our age when we were booking the reservation, remind you. We were supposed to pay 0 additional costs. Then the next thing she told us is, that we are not insured, while we clicked full coverage when booking the reservation, remind you. It stated on the voucher, that we had to pay 0 and were fully insured. After discussing it with them, they got very harsh and offended, we contacted the 3rd party where we booked it, whilst calling she wanted to intervene with what I was saying…

After a total hour back and forth with them, we got back and they cancelled the car. Leaving us to take another car at the airport.

I've had almost the exact same experience as another reviewer on here recently. The company keeps you waiting for ages at the airport - we waited about an hour. We then were shown the car (it was black) in full sunlight making any damage difficult to see. We found a fair bit of cosmetic damage (minor scratches and scuffs on the paint / plastic). We informed a member of staff who was disinterested and said it was all 'superficial' and didn't matter. Fortunately we took a lot of photos. On arrival at Lisbon, we were told the car was 'fine' by the member of staff, then got a bill for over 300 euros for damages (two very minor scratches) a few hours later. Fortunately we had these scratches photographed when we picked the car up, as eventually they dropped the charges. So, poor customer service and they WILL try and scam you for extra damage that you don't do. If you have already booked with them, take a high resolution video or lots of photos of the car. If you haven't booked, then avoid them...

This company is a scam stay away!!!! They keep you waiting a long time in arrival before allocating you a car which after a flight is the last thing you want in the middle of August. The car was returned and a week later we are informed of a small scratch that was supposedly our doing. Thanks to taking time to video the car on collection and drop off along with extensive photos we can prove otherwise! A friend had a similar experience with them and despite the dispute they took the funds for the supposed damage with no response to the dispute. We are receiving generic bounce back emails whilst trying to resolve the dispute and still haven’t had the nearly £2,000 deposit returned! Awful service and depending on their upcoming response will be taking it further… STAY AWAY

I made a reservation on the Goldcar website to pick up a car at Malpensa Airport from 27/08 to 31/08, with the Cross Border option and full insurance coverage.

However, at the moment of pickup, the desk agent informed me that the vehicle could not be released because I was planning to drive to Austria, and Goldcar's insurance does not cover that country. This restriction was never mentioned during the booking process, and I had explicitly added the Cross Border option.

The only solution offered was to rent a car from a competitor and to contact Goldcar's assistance service for a refund. When I called the service center, I was told that no help could be provided over the phone and that I had to send an email instead. As a result, I received no assistance either at the desk or through the customer service line.

To make matters worse, Goldcar later refused to refund the payment without providing any justification.

I find this situation unacceptable, especially from a company of your size. The lack of transparency during booking, the refusal to honor the reservation without a valid reason, and the absence of any real support caused unnecessary stress and additional costs, as I was forced to rent another vehicle on the spot, which was significantly more expensive than booking in advance online.