SIXT Portugal Reviews 1,841

Unbelievably horrible experience. One employee in a supervisory role created a personally humiliating, degrading and physically painful exchange, then assigned us a car without the features we required THEN charged us for their insurance WE TURNED DOWN. Second car given to us had oil light warning on. Third car available was a Mercedes and we were assured we would be charged the original car rate. We return the car tomorrow. I should have believed the former Sixt customers who had been scammed.
claudia, 83, USA

Warning about Sixt – Misleading Fuel Service and Disappointing Experience

At the counter, the Sixt agent clearly told me that I could choose an automatic refueling service and that it would be charged at the same price as a regular gas station, with no extra fee. That sounded fair, so I agreed.

However, when I received my invoices, I was surprised to see the following charge:

Prepaid Fuel 1.00 UN – 67,08 € (before VAT)

At no point was it explained to me that this would be a fixed prepaid fuel charge. I was led to believe I would simply pay for the fuel used, at normal station prices. The way this was presented at the counter feels misleading and not transparent.

It’s disappointing that a global company like Sixt uses practices that feel more like a pricing trick than fair, transparent customer service. Personally, I will think twice before renting from Sixt again.

My family and I booked a “Full-Size SUV” advertised to fit 4 suitcases—but it only fit 2. This forced us to rent a second car and take an Uber to the airport, costing over €400 in unexpected expenses.

Despite photos, receipts, and multiple follow-ups, neither Sixt nor Expedia has taken responsibility or offered any support. As a loyal traveler, this was incredibly frustrating and disappointing.

A warning to fellow travelers: double-check what you're booking—because if it goes wrong, you're on your own....NO SUPPORT from SIXT Portugal!

#CustomerExperience #Sixt #Expedia #TravelWarning #DoBetter

I am writing this review to warn others about what looks like a well-trained scam practice from SIXT Portugal.
After an 18-hour flight with two young children, I arrived to pick up my rental car. The SIXT employee refused to inspect the vehicle, telling me he was smoking and talking to someone. I was left alone to find the car in a massive parking lot, with zero support. No walkthrough, no verification, no professionalism.
Weeks after returning the car in perfect condition, SIXT suddenly invented “new damages” and demanded over €1,200. Absolutely nothing was documented at pickup, because their own staff refused to do their job.
When I disputed the claim, SIXT ignored everything and passed my data to a debt collection agency that has been harassing me repeatedly, despite having no actual proof I caused any damage. They keep sending threats and automated messages, hoping I will just pay out of fear.

WHAT A SCAMMERS!!!! I reserved a Peugeot 308 with basic insurance and then they charged me later with 200 euro on insurances which I didn't ask for and also for fuelling the car for 98 euro! I only used 1/8 of the petrol. The guy at the counter said it was free of charge. Don't use them ever!! WHAT A SCAMMERS!!!

I paid for a luxury van in Lisbon and received a low end
passenger van and was told that was all they had but still charged me the higher price. I had a number of charges at the end that were added on that were not disclosed up front. I never received my deposit back even though there were no damages. The Lisbon location does not answer the phone or care about customer service. Stay away.

Even though I wrote to notify the Funchal airport office of our connection flight change and the fact that the booking stated 24-hour car pick-up availability, we were welcomed with a closed office and had to use Uber to get to our accommodation and then back to the airport tomorrow morning. The first car we were given keys to had a flat tire, and then the card for the parking ramp didn't work. This was followed by a rental car with a faulty gearbox, which caused a lot of stress for my wife and me during the trip. The gearbox couldn't engage the appropriate gear on the hills, which often resulted in the car going backwards (quite scary). It also couldn't make it up a steep hill on the way to one of the hikes. As you can guess, the card for the parking ramp also didn't work on the way back, contributing to our missing our flight, as your employee insisted on a thorough inspection during the drop-off. Sixt later reached out offering some lousy discount on the next PORTUGAL rental, to "make it better". I've used Sixt dozens of times, mainly in the USA, and was always quite happy with it. I'll have to look for a new preferred rental company.

I thought we had had a good experience with SIXT in Faro airport until a few days after dropping back the car, to my surprise I was emailed an invoice with €280 in extra charges which I could not understand and had not agreed to. After waiting on a response for a long time I was told they were extra insurance charges and we had agreed to these on collection of the car. I did not request this and had made it clear I only wanted what I had ordered. I feel we were misled and taken advantage of.

I rented from Sixt Lisbon Picoas (Portugal) in October 2025 and had one of the most disappointing rental experiences I’ve ever had.
1️⃣ Undisclosed prepaid-fuel charge (€99.43):
At no point during online booking or pickup was a prepaid-fuel program explained or offered.
The agent simply said, “You don’t have to bring it back full — you’ll be charged for what’s missing,” confirming this would be at market price.
Only later did I discover I’d been charged for an entire tank at a highly inflated rate (€2.37/L vs ~€1.67 market).
When I complained, Sixt replied that it was “in the contract,” ignoring that it was never discussed.
2️⃣ Wrong vehicle class:
I booked a Ford Focus SW (CWMR) or similar station wagon for four tall adults.
Instead, I received a smaller Peugeot 308 GT hatchback — not the same category by any reasonable standard.
The agent refused to exchange it or acknowledge the downgrade.
3️⃣ Unrequested insurance & hidden fees:
I explicitly declined all insurance options, yet a “Liability Insurance” fee (€13.65) appeared on the invoice and was later described as a mandatory tax.
4️⃣ Post-rental charges with no invoices or explanations:
Multiple amounts were taken from my card after return — only clarified after repeated emails.
After three weeks of correspondence, Sixt Portugal continues to deny responsibility, claiming everything is “in the documents,” while avoiding the simple fact that these options were never explained or agreed to.
I have now escalated the case to ECC-Net Germany and opened a Chase dispute for unauthorized and undisclosed charges.
This pattern of non-transparent billing and dismissive communication appears to be systemic — and judging by other reviews here, I’m not alone.

The booking was made in the SIXT app. The gentleman Ivo at the counter is very helpful and friendly. I am also satisfied with the car. Everything went smoothly.

Please avoid Sixt rental at all costs. It has been 2 years and 6 months since my problems started. I received a note in late August 2025 from ECollection saying I still owed SIXT rental a division of JAPrac Car Rental 506.89€ .This amount is now greater than 850€ because each day something is added to these charges. Please note Sixt rental must have sold this to the collection company after agreeing that the amount owed was forgiven.
Do not deal with this company.

My wife and rented a auto from them in 2023 and returned the auto with zero issues. More than a year later the company charged our credit card with no explanation as to why.
We disputed the charge with Citicard for whom had no luck with finding out why the charge was applied. We naturally assumed it was CC fraud and the charge was denied by Citicard. Around 2 months later we were notified after a speed violation from the Lisbon Police inn Portugal. Upon knowing what the charge was I attempted to Contact Sixt Portugal to rectify the charge.
The customer rep indicated the charge was assigned to a collection agency and shortly after a German Lawfirm contacted me via email and USPS letter. We made numerous attempts to satisfy the charge of $35 euro with Sixt Portugal but we're unsuccessful. I believe it's a scam to charge late fees and interest inflating the amount to $350 euro. Reluctantly we paid the fee due to no resource or cooperation from Sixt Portugal. Beware of this scam and personally I would never rent from them again!
Buyer beware!!!

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!!

We had a terrible experience with Sixt Portugal. When picking up the car, their employee Rui Martins repeatedly assured us that if we added a €1.70/day toll service, we wouldn’t have to pay ANY tolls, either at the booth or after returning the car. It sounded too good to be true, so we even double-checked with him “If we add this service, we won’t have to pay tolls at ALL ever?”. He confirmed again YES. Based on that, we used toll roads.

Weeks after we returned home, unexpected charges from Sixt started appearing on my credit card. I had no idea what these random amounts were until Sixt told me they were for tolls. I immediately explained what their employee had told us, but instead of taking responsibility, they placed the blame on us and kept charging my card without authorization. I even filed a dispute with my credit card company, and they agreed this was scam-like activity and classified the charges as fraudulent.

Yet the charges kept coming. When they tried to bill us yet another €25 we refused to pay it on principle, determined to push back against their misleading practices. We tried to get in touch with them but they kept placing the blame on us. They then immediately sent it to collections, and that €25 has now exploded into €212.13 (≈ $346 CAD) with legal threats attached!

Their team now claims “there’s nothing they can do” because it’s with collections, which is false; they could revoke it if they wanted to.
Research shows dozens of similar reviews from other customers, describing the exact same deceptive practices about tolls. We even found a Google review naming the SAME employee for lying to another customer.

We reached out to Sixt multiple times, but they refused to take responsibility. This shows a clear pattern of deception that they’re not addressing.

What should’ve been a small issue has turned into a stressful ordeal over their own employee’s false assurances. We have never had this experience with other car rental agencies across Europe, be warned!!!!

EDITED TO ADD:
The response from Joana is not accurate. While my case may have been “reviewed,” Sixt has never acknowledged any wrongdoing or offered a real solution, only repeated deflection and threats from a collection agency.

At one point, Sixt Customer Care team referred me to contact a “dedicated team exclusively to assist me.” That so-called dedicated team turned out to be THE COLLECTIONS AGENCY.

Lastly, I have no idea why this feedback was shared with the Lisbon Airport branch, as my rental and issue were with the Lisbon Estefânia location which this review is under??

STAY AWAY - SCAM ALERT
Lisbon Airport SIXT location. Out of all the car rental companies I used in Lisbon, this one is by far the worst!!!
August 2025
They will rip you off, I wish I had read their reviews prior.
They will not have the vehicle you made a reservation for. You will be given the ‘option’ of a more expensive alternative. They might show you the new amount on the their IPad but you’ll end up signing for a lot more. After you get the email with the contract, it’s too late. Your trip is ruined, you try to reason with them by phone, in person, by email etc only to add to your frustration. Your credit card company will not be able to help you because you “signed” even though they change it.
You will continue to get charged months later for invoices with general description and not itemized so that you aren’t able to confirm or deny. I’m still getting charges on my credit card lmost 3 months later!!!!

At the beginning, everything was fine: nice personnel, the waiting time to get the car was a bit long but there were a lot of people.
The surprise came later, when the credit card was charged: our rental was 2 days, but they charged 3 days, with a 100 EUR difference. Of course, no one said anything at the drop off point, the Sixt center in Porto Zona Industrial, although I asked specifically "Is it all ok? No extra charges?"
UPDATE: after contacting the customer service team, we managed to find a solution. I really appreciate the actions taken by Sixt. In my opinion, a mistake was made, but the company made an effort and solved it.

Unprofessional Sixt staff at the Matosinhos, Porto branch. They did not clearly inform me of the company's rules when I picked up the car. They had a very rude attitude when I raised a complaint. They charged 150 euros to my credit card for a reason that I was not informed of and not aware of. Unacceptable!

Does not return my inquiries regarding refund.
incredibly bad,rude and untrustworthy staff
Dont trust them as i did.

- next step will be to involve the authorities and/or my insurance company, if I dont hear from the them as soon as possible.

-if you do not want to be scammed stay away from sixt!

- Ras BL

Scammers. We rented a car for 300 euros, to collect in Faro. We ended up paying 620 due to vague administrative reasoning. We were with a group of coworkers. They know we needed a car and had the money and just scammed us out of it. We should have just called an Uber, would have been cheaper.

Never renting a car at Sixt again.

...I should have read the reviews.
Having used Thrifty several times over recent years I booked with Sixt as a reputable and known brand despite not being the cheapest. I booked through booking.com and rebooked several times as it was free to cancel and current rate always appeared to be a bit cheaper than what I'd paid previously. I eventually paid £346 for one weeks hire of a premium vehicle.

I collected the car and went through usual upsale efforts around additional insurance which would have doubled the price of the original car hire. Pleasantly the car offered as Audi A6 estate equivalent was a BMW 530d touring which was good. I collected child car seat which we had to work out and fit ourselves and agreed payment for extra driver. Car was a hybrid however battery was at 0% and a bit dirty on the outside so difficult to check which we noted on the check out form.

No issues with car throughout one week, using to/from a gym and a supermarket and parking at a villa so always away from other cars.

Returned refuelled as required. We waiting 30 minutes to check car in but with very few staff working (despite a number of staff standing about) we were advised that we didnt need to stay and handed over the key.

Was charged an additional £130 from local JAPRAC company covering child seat, extra driver and tolls as expected. Further £549 charge was unexpected.

After unsuccessful email attempts I called the company and managed to get hold of a final invoice - they had written my email address wrong despite already having it through booking.com, the salesperson said it was no issue as they already had it.

One item of damage was included in the rental agreement and the check in - I was incorrectly charged for. One item was included on both check out and check in I was being charged for. 3 further items of very minor scratches and cracks on the front bumper were also being charged for. On reflection its odd that a car of over 98000km showed with no damage to the front of the vehicle and being dirty I didnt check this in great detail. The return photos showing damage were very difficult to see the damage.

I am now in dispute and believe these are underhand practices being employed. I would not recommend and not touch this company again.

Update June 2025.
I contacted them several times for information regarding discrepancies on the damage. They didn't respond. I raised it to my credit card and they didn't respond to them either. They've now sent me a legal chase letter which I've emailed them about. Also spoke to Credit card company who told them to advise they'd missed their chance.

Update August 2025.
SIXT representation to date have not reviewed the details provided back to them along with the evidence and have continued to escalate via legal letters.

AVOID.
October 2025
Emailed Sixt social media yesterday when I posted this. Awaiting response.

Update: advised they aren't going to do anything as it's with debt collector.

update (response to Sixt.pt)

Dear Sixt.pt team,Thanks for answering the comment on Trust Pilot. See below what I was asked to pay which doesn't make sense since you had all my details (bank and contact). I paid it because it's a small amount and, frankly, because I thought it difficult to fight it within 28 days as asked (rather threatening email), and so wanted to avoid a greater penalty. But I would welcome a refund from you. Feel free to contact Euro Parking Collection plc for additional information.Kind regards

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Well, the guys were lovely BUT, athough they had my credit card details and an automatic toll pass fitted in the car, they failed to let me know that a toll had not been collected. As a result, I was contacted by EPC months after the rental to let me know that I had a penalty to pay in addition to the unpaid toll (in effect doubling the amount to pay). Disappointing. A comment, below, encourages everyone to fight back. In my case, the amount was too low to bother but I told then that I would let the www know about what could be perceived as malpractice.