nextbike Reviews 629

Very disappointing and not to be trusted. I rented two bikes in Potsdam, Germany. I was charged a 20 € service fee for not returning the bikes to a station, when actually I locked the bikes while I got a coffee, unlocked and dutifully returned them. When I told customer service, they claimed they couldn’t refund me because someone rented the bike in between, even though it was in front of me the whole time.
Customers shouldn’t have to pay for a glitchy app. Thanks a lot, nextbike :(

If i could give 0 stars i would!
downloaded this when i stayed in Glasgow for the weekend (a bit useless you can only use it where you downloaded it?) and ive never needed it since.
have tried multiple times to get my money back from my wallet and they will not refund me. had an email in october 2025 saying glasgow next bike was closing so id get my money refunded.. never happened.
have contacted customer services who said i had to do this by email.. but guess what.. they don’t respond!
i emailed them a week ago asking to get my money back so i could close my account and what did they do?! just closed my account without refunding me so now i can’t even get into the app!!
i can’t believe it. fuming!
absolute scammers, stay clear!!!

Yellow zone nonsense and charging with no notification while parking.

Do not install this app under any circumstances, it is an absolute scam.

Back in January, the app charged me 57€ for a ride I never took because the bike NEVER unlocked. Instead of refunding my bank account, they forced an "app credit" on me. I have been fighting to get my actual money back for almost two months.

I have called their customer service 4 times. Every single time, they make empty promises that a bank transfer is coming, just to stall. During my last call, they flat-out refused to let me speak to a supervisor! I even sent them a formal legal notice via email, which they completely ignored. They are literally holding my funds hostage.

On top of this scam, their basic service is catastrophic. Half of the time, the bikes are completely unusable: either they don't unlock, they malfunction mid-ride, or they refuse to lock at the end (while the app keeps ticking and charging you for nothing).

Save yourself the headache and your money. Use a different service, or you will get robbed.

I’ve been using Nextbike for some time through my university partnership, expecting it to be affordable as a student. I occasionally use Lime or Bolt, but Nextbike when no e-scooters are nearby. I was aware of service fees, having once paid 1 euro when I left a bike outside a store. In that case, I tried multiple times to unlock it to move it back to a station, but it remained locked, and I accepted the small fee.

However, a few days ago, I had an accident on their bike due to tight brakes. I fell, was injured so I parked at an S-Bahn station—not a Nextbike station—to get to a hospital. The bike was undamaged, and I even took photos to show it. Yet there’s no option to report such incidents in their app. Without warning, I was charged a 20-euro service fee. I’ve tried contacting them for days via app and email, but no response.

They present as affordable, but these surprise charges and lack of support are disappointing. Many bikes have defects, and service quality is poor. If they were upfront about costs and improved their operations, people might pay more willingly. I’m switching to other services, even if pricier, because they offer better customer care. I expected more from Nextbike.

I used a subscription with nextbike in February 2026 and honestly, I’m really disappointed.

First of all, the GPS in the app is very unreliable. Several times I walked around looking for a bike that was shown on the map but wasn’t actually there. At the same time, the app often still shows me at my starting point even after I’ve reached my destination. The location jumps around a lot, so sometimes I literally walk in circles until it updates correctly. It makes something that should be quick and easy unnecessarily stressful.

Because of this, I now only park bikes at official stations. Even then, I’ve been charged €1 multiple times for supposedly parking incorrectly. Every single time I had to contact support to get it fixed. In one case, I was told I would get a refund — but the money was still taken from my account.

Yesterday, €8 was deducted from my account without any explanation. There’s no trip or charge visible in the app that would justify it. That lack of transparency is really concerning.

Not even mentioning the 20€ they sometimes charge just because their GPS didn't work- Horrible

On top of that, many bikes are in poor condition. A lot of them are damaged or have obvious issues. Ending a ride can also be a struggle because the locking mechanism doesn’t work properly. I’ve spent 15 minutes or more just trying to close a ride.

Overall, with all the technical issues, questionable charges, and the complicated cancellation process, I genuinely don’t understand what I’m paying the monthly fee for.

The last but least issue for me is the cancellation process. It says everywhere that you can cancel in the app — but you simply can’t. I tried multiple times and just got redirected from one page to another without ever finding a proper cancellation option. That feels deliberately complicated and, to be honest, pretty frustrating.

I really wanted this to work, but based on my experience, I wouldn’t recommend it.

I had an account with this company to use their bike hire service. While the product itself was generally satisfactory, the customer service was consistently poor.

Incorrect £20 service charges were frequently applied to my account, and I repeatedly had to call, email, or message to get them refunded. Although refunds were usually processed, on one occasion only £18.50 was returned. I queried the missing balance but did not aggressively pursue it at the time.

The service has since been discontinued in my area. I have repeatedly requested the return of the remaining balance on my account. After multiple conversations with different operators, I was told the only way to receive my money was to close my account and the funds would be returned to my payment method. As they no longer provide a telephone number and only offer chat support, I was already sceptical—but followed their instructions anyway.

I received no confirmation that my account had been closed. Only after emailing to chase this did I get confirmation, at which point I was then told I needed to provide bank details for the refund (apparently nothing would be refunded from to the card they were so eager to take money from). I supplied these by email and as of today I have followed up twice asking for acknowledgement, as well as trying multiple times to make contact via their customer service email address. I have received no response whatsoever, from anyone.

They provide no account references, no automated email acknowledgements, and no names when using chat (which I can no longer access because I closed my account).

While the amount of money involved in my case is small, the principle is not. This company treats customers with complete disregard and makes it almost impossible to recover money taken in error.
I will never use this company again and strongly discourage others from doing so. Once they have your details, they can take your money in error—and if you want it back, tough.

I'm not in the least bit surprised that they have a 1 star rating.

The reservation policy of nextbike is a disgrace! It‘s misleading and unfair. If you contact them, they are very unfriendly, not helpful and understanding at all.
Even a partial refund for the multiple reservation fees was declined although the map to identify where bikes are located is extremely inaccurate!

Terrible company randomly charging my card for a subscription I cancelled 6 months prior. Had to do a chargeback to get my money back.

I got several parking fees from nextbike even though I left the bike where they say it's free of charge. I contacted support and they refused to make a refund. I find this service rather dishonest.

They used to be good now not anymore. Customer service is horrible and the lock problems and nor registering returning of the bike

It's a fraud, you almost always have problems with the bikes, mostly related to the restitution. That means that you end up paying for services you don't get or even better, you can't end the rental and you just keeps on paying. People in service just don't care, they also don't check if the bike actually works. If you have a problem (and you will, since old bikes don't get any reparations and new ones also don't function properly) just don't expect any solution. It used to work just fine, but since this year I've had so many issues with them it just doesn't worth it. It's a fraud.

I had so many calls with the support by now, bc things are just not working with the payment system.
I had the situation two times now, that i parked the bike in a zone where it costs 20€ to give the bike back. But i didnt wanna give it back. I just wanted to lock the bike, do smth and then use the bike again. And as it says in the AGB if u use the bike again and then park it in a "legal zone" u shouldnt be charged 20€.
I've been charged 20€ for 2 times now and the phone support told me that they cancelled it and i should get the money back for both incidents, but nothing happened. No ones replying to my mails since over a month either. They owe me 40€ and they even admitted it but nothing's happening. This is so frustrating... Scam..

£30 fee charged for no reason. bike was taken for 10 mins. Have sent 6 messages to try to resolve and every one has been ignored. This is a scam. Be very careful when using this service!!!

For me, nextbike worked fine until the welo transition. I just want to warn you that, now they're just waiting to put additional charges. And even without justification. It says in the app if you cancel reservation within 15 minutes it is free of charge but they charge you anyways even cancellation within 15 minutes.

And they just claim that you had the reservation and didn't cancel, there is nowhere in the system that you see and say this is not true. It is pretty scary how everything works, they even claim I had a reservation at a time that I didn't open the app. Therefore, I am thinking to delete my account to prevent additional charges.

Absolutely gutted by my last experience using the Nextbike app. My ride summary clearly showed that I used the bike for 20 minutes : from 12:44 till 13:04, which should cost £2. However I was charged £4 instead.
When I contacted the support, they told me that according to their system I had gone over by a few seconds; measured in seconds, which are not displayed anywhere on the app. How is a customer supposed to see or control that? Doubling the price over a few seconds that aren’t even shown is simply outrageous. And no help or sympathy from support..! To me this feels like theft. Will stick to the bus instead

Absolutely shitty service! Got fined EUR 20 for handing in my bike in a place where I was not allowed.

1) I got the message 10 min. after I parked, when I had already entered a museum. No info on the app about not being allowed to park there.

2) Got an email which led me to a support site where I was told that I could cancel the 20 EUR fee by picking up my bike and continuing my journey - would have bee nice to be told on the day in the app and not via email.

3) Customer service is absolutely useless and told they could not give an exemption as they had given me one before - which they had not. When enquiring about this they even agreed "oh yes, that message did not consider your case. It was just a standard phrase we use".

Can totally recommend using the service because it is convenient, but I have absolutely nothing positive to say about providing information in the app or their customer service support team.

Dishonest. The bike lock didn't lock at the end of my ride, and I was charged a total amount well beyond my actual usage. I've written over 10 support messages but received no response. In addition to not offering reliable technical service, they've proven completely indifferent to customer issues. Zero-star support. Absolutely avoid.

Unehrlich. Das Fahrradschloss verriegelte am Ende meiner Fahrt nicht, und mir wurde ein Gesamtbetrag berechnet, der weit über meinen tatsächlichen Verbrauch hinausging. Ich habe über zehn Support-Nachrichten geschrieben, aber keine Antwort erhalten. Sie bieten nicht nur keinen zuverlässigen technischen Service, sondern zeigen sich auch völlig gleichgültig gegenüber Kundenproblemen. Null-Sterne-Support. Unbedingt meiden.

Disonesti. Il lucchetto della bici alla fine della mia corsa non si è chiuso e mi è stato addebitato un importo totale ben oltre il mio utilizzo reale. Ho scritto oltre 10 messaggi di assitenza ma non ho ricevuto alcuna risposta. Oltre a non offrire un servizio tecnico affidabile si sono dimostrati totalmente indifferenti ai problemi del cliente. Assistenza zero stelle. Da evitare assolutamente.

I Wish I Had read the reviews before I signed up on Nextbike!
I have paid for a membership that I can’t use and when I try to get my money back, I get no response at all. The customer service is awful - it’s like I get automated answers by a bot,not a person.
Worst bicycle hire ever!

If I could give zero stars I would. Worst experience ever.