Thrifty Car and Van Rental UK Reviews 

I regularly hire cars from Thrifty York, they always go above & beyond to help me. The check in process always runs smoothly. The cars are clean & new, the car I hired this time had 9 miles on the clock!! Sarah at York should have a special mention as her customer service is excellent. Thank you.

Hannah at St Albans is one of the best!

Awful experience at Bournemouth branch. I've previously had no problems, but this time they claimed I did "major damage" to the vehicle. I returned to see what it was, and a hairline crack was found on the front grill. Plus a couple of tiny scratches, barely noticeable. They claimed the grill would have to be replaced (an obvious lie), and so charged me the full £250 deposit. Sadly, this is how hire car companies make a profit - pick up tiny defects, then charge customers £250. I wonder what their target is? 1 customer in 5 scammed this way maybe? No wonder the daily hire charges are modest, as they make £250 for every tiny mark on the vehicle, so a vehicle could easily pay for itself over a year or two. What a pity, but alienating customers in this way gets around - including to my 5,000 podcast listeners yesterday, warning them about this minor defects scam. Same thing happened to me in Malta with the crooks called Sicily By Car (Recommended by Ryanair!)

Very helpful and courteous staff, superbly clean and well maintained vehicles. I thoroughly enjoyed doing business with them and will definitely go back in the future!

I got an email claiming to be from a debt recovery firm saying I had an unpaid balance. I checked my emails and hadn't had anything from Thrifty. I emailed the local office to see if it was a scam. They didn't reply. A week later I phoned them and they said a manager was looking into it and would get back to me next week.
An hour later I got an email addressed incorrectly using the first part of my email address. They asked me to email the scammers to arrange payment.
The police are not interested so I will just moan about it here. The scam company is called Scot group. Just ignore them

Sarah from York is absolutely fantastic never used thriffty before until today and there service is beyond exceptional.she deserves a massive pay upgrade for all her work!!!

Best experience I’ve ever had with a hire car company perfectly satisfied Sarah from York helped us out today! Wouldn’t use anyone else

I cannot rate this centre highly enough! Heidi and the team were a blast of fresh air following my customer service with cinch. They could tell that I was a little stressed out and went the extra mile to put me into as bigger car as possible for my massive frame! Their communication was on point to and again had my best interests at heart. The service I received made me feel part of the their team and I even washed the car before returning to help them out as I felt so fortunate to have been with them for the 4 weeks I was under their care. I would highly recommend thrifty/switch at europa way Ipswich. I can not say thank you enough! Thank you.

Still in the process of an awful experience with Cinch, but they provided a courtesy car via Thrifty. Collected on 7/3/25, a lovely 24 plate MG. Had a call that week that the car had been sold and they would come to my place of work to exchange to a Ford ST (really helpful to allow me to stay at work).

They collected the car today from my work place as Cinch had cancelled the booking (even tho car not fixed). I had slightly marked up the alloy on both passenger tyres, apologised loads to the collection guy and he was super nice and friendly, understanding too.

Had the pleasure of speaking to Dan about getting payment settled for damages (I was really anxious of this as other reviews state really high figures). I knew it was my fault but spoke through the alloy repairs and was a reasonable price as to what I had researched. I had nothing to worry about cost wise, just had to be a little more careful and could have been avoided. I apologised again to Daniel and thanked him for his help.

Overall a great experience from Thrifty with no issues.

I could not be happier with Thrifty. Hired a van for 24 hours from the Charing, Ashford, Kent branch. I went into their office to order a SWB Transit but it’s not possible to order that in person so I ordered a LWB Transit online as there was no availability online for the SWB. On the morning of collection, I found that they’d got in the vehicle of my choice from another yard. They went ‘over and above’ to make sure I’d got my vehicle of choice which was fantastic. Having never driven such a large van into London before, I was very nervous, so their help in securing me the smaller van made my trip far less stressful. Would definitely recommend Thrifty and my huge thanks go out to Paula and the staff there.

Absolutely amazing customer ser

Absolutely amazing service especially from James!

Quick to deliver my courtesy car. Friendly staff on arrival, easy to sort collection of the car once I had finished with it.

We were given a courtesy car via Thrifty. Made a crossing both ways on the Merseyflow bridge due to a medical emergency. Unfortunately I forgot to pay the crossing charge. Called Thrifty immediately to inform them and offered to pay the fee or have it taken out of the security deposit. The lovely lady on the phone said not to worry they would pay and then send an invoice. Failed to mention they would charge a £42 admin fee on a £20 fine, BOTH WAYS! Cost me £128 for them to pay £44. When calling Thrifty the really unhelpful man said it was because they had to call to confirm the crossing (which I rang and told them) That's an expensive phone call and surely they wouldn't have needed two calls? Daylight robbery! I would never use them again.

Another crap QR ran company. I spent longer trying to get the keys for a hire car at Bristol than the drive should have taken. Useless

Paid for a Vauxhall Corsa, received a brand new BMW 1 series M Sport instead, with only 10 miles on the clock! Really nice car and fast and efficient service with home delivery / collection options, and very reasonable price. Jason at the counter was very pleasant and helpful aswell (Thrifty Dudley). Would definitely use again

Ripped off badly by Thrifty. £120 extra charge post-car rental on credit card, not discussed with us at pickup or dropoff. No way to complain. Car was returned to Malaga airport with full fuel and no damage. Booked and paid for in advance through Easyjet. You should be ashamed. (NB: I got the money refunded in the end by going direct to Thrifty online, complicated process dealing with lots of companies but at least I've got the refund)
However, its now early March 2025 and I haven't actually got a refund from anybody whether it be Thrifty, Firefly or Hertz, they all seem to be the same thing and they've now stopped replying to my requests for the actual refund. I do need the money!
Maybe I need to raise a new complaint to get them to send me the money. Both Hertz and Firefly have agreed with me separately that they will refund....
Case number is: 25174440

Having had a shunt on the A37 Thrifty came to the rescue in double quick time - even delivering the vehicle to my home. Faultless service

Thieves. Avoid this company at all costs. They will do everything to rob you, they fabricate car pick up reports to claim for damages. Apart from also being not professional, disorganized and unhelpful.

I thought I had a complex booking problem but Jason at Dudley was able to resolve it calmly and efficiently which removed a lot of Stress from a tricky situation. He was able to explain what was required and simplified it amazingly well. Thank you very Much Jason and staff.

And I got a great car upgrade as well !
Cheers !