*** (10/10/2017 15:32)
Minus stars if I could. Do not believe them when they say paying the deposit by debit card is OK, it's a scam. My deposit on a weeks rental was 1,803 Euros's which they took from my account on the day as £1,766.50, when they returned the deposit one week later the bank exchange rate had it £1,561.55. My bank have looked into this and no way was the exchange rate used to create the £1,776.50 sterling value valid/legitimate, it's rigged so they can make extra profit for doing absolutely nothing! Avoid, avoid, avoid at all cost. I booked this through Ryanair and will be contacting them to encourage them to stop using Goldcar! Does anyone know an omdudsman I could also involve?

*** (18/09/2016 06:16)
Same as all the other bad reviews. Credit card and deposit issues. The employee we dealt with was sympathetic but I would recommend avoiding this company.

*** (31/08/2016 15:02)
Stay away from here!! Unless getting overpriced insurance shoved down your throat is how you like to start your holiday... For me, it was the first and the last time with these guys.

I have NEVER had such an unpleasant experience or anything even resembling this with any other car hire company. While I think it can be great for companies to develop innovative business models and find ways to reduce costs to be competitive, Goldcar seems to have been fundamentally dishonest in the ways they exaggerated and lied about various elements to pressure clients into unnecessary additional purchases. This is a sad way to do business and I will never be a customer again. I strongly urge anyone else wanting to have a straightforward, honest and honourable business relationship with their car hire company to avoid Goldcar.

3. FINANCIAL PRESSURE. They happily explained that with the insurance, they would not need any deposit at all. However, should I “refuse to be insured” I would need to pay a deposit of at least 1,200 euros and up to 1,700 euros.

Upon arriving at Goldcar, they used the following techniques to try to pressure me into buying their excessively expensive insurance (almost as expensive as the initial cost of renting the car and more than 25 euros per day!):

The sales person claimed that with Goldcar insurance I would have “zero responsibility” for the car. Although I am not a legal expert, I seriously doubt that this is the case.

*** (24/06/2017 23:21)
We were happy to rent a car for £130 when booking the car.
When we arrive we paid almost 400euro!!!! On top of it!!!!
220 for insurance for 8days!
If we want to go to Monaco another 80!!!!
50euro for no limited kilometers otherwise only 150km per day...
75euro deposit for petrol - we left a car with more than 3/4 tank and they refund us only half.
Also we had to pay 19euro for service charge as they will top up the petrol for us otherwise if its not full we have to pay 50euro fine!
Not happy at all!
And feel robbed
AVOID!!!!!

The salesperson quickly became emotional, claiming that they explain these things all day along, clients often just don’t understand and that clients come to Goldcar BECAUSE they have such great insurance. Should I wish to prioritize insurance, I certainly wouldn’t go to Goldcar, simply because their insurance is so much MORE EXPENSIVE than the daily rates of their competitors.

*** (28/11/2016 22:21)
Cheaper than other car rental companies and great service. They are a little away from the airport but have a shuttle which will take even 1 person.

And finally, when I tried to pay the deposit with my credit card and lacked enough credit to cover their exorbitant rate, I asked whether I could pay the deposit with a debit card to which they replied no. However, upon later reading the conditions it is clearly explained that debit cards may also be used to pay deposits. Sadly, lying also entered into their toolbox of ways to pressure customers.

2. EXAGGERATION & LIES. The sales person claimed the minimum insurance imposed by law (already included in the price) would only cover the costs in case “I killed someone with the car”. From my understanding, civil liability insurance and the collision insurance required by law is much broader than just covering cases where some is killed.

They claimed the insurance already purchased via Argus Car Hire wasn’t “real” insurance because I would need to do paperwork to make a claim.

*** (01/10/2017 19:28)
Will never use again, total scam.. The type of place you need to scrutinise small prints... The front desk lady described goldcar as the ryanair of car rental to explain how i had to pay a surprise additional 105€ insurance to the 40€ rental. She explained at length how even with that they were the cheapest which is simply not true as others were same price including insurance, with excess and covering tge excess does not coat 100€..

*** (02/08/2017 01:29)
I've used Goldcar twice in a month - once from Nice Airport and once from Marseille Airport. Both times I elected not to take the fully comprehensive insurance cover which made Goldcar by far the cheapest option. I did have to pay a deposit in both cases but they were fully refunded when I returned the vehicles. I'd use them again as they are by far the cheapest.

1. THREAT OF CHARGES. Under the argument that Goldcar is a “lowcost” company, they claimed that without their additional insurance, I would need to do the initial and final inspections of the car _by myself_, taking more time and that when they would do their inspection, they would be highly attentive (more than ‘normal’ care companies) and charge the smallest signs of damage. They also pulled out a large table showing all the potential charges Goldcar would charge, supporting their argument that it would be very risky and expensive to go driving around “uninsured”.

In the end, being alone with young children in tow, and given the unexpected amount of the deposit (between 3 times and 5 times more than any other car company), the available limit on my credit card, and their lie about not being able to use debit cards, sadly I had no choice but to pay for the insurance.

*** (21/08/2017 13:01)
Range of vehicles offered was good, got the exact model I'd booked online. Be careful of the extras, sat nav isn't included, costs extra. They push the insurance options which are expensive but explained in a way that makes them appear essential. Computer system crashed several times while I was trying to get sorted so took well over an hour before finally got underway.

*** (05/01/2017 17:29)
Try aggresivly to sell you expensive assurances by makeing you afraid of expensive costs even when little damage. Be careful. And inspect good your car before taking, mine had a lot of mistakes that were not reportet in the contract. Never again!!
The only very BIG STAR is for the friendly, nice looking young girls, that takes me from the airport to the agence. Thaks to you

The Goldcar salesperson wanted to oblige me to sign a document declaring that “I refused to be insured” saying that I would not have any insurance at all (except from killing someone). On inspection, the paper was less extreme, saying that “I didn’t desire supplemental insurance”. Goldcar also seemed to imply that should I not want to have insurance, they would need to check with colleagues to see how to handle such a situation because it was so rare.

*** (17/08/2017 00:13)
This is the worst car company I've ever been to. After paying the original fee for 87€, we opted to not have insurance because my friend (who was renting) has international car coverage (and used it many times around the world). They told us at the agency that if we weren't going to use it (125€ for 4 days), we would have 1700€ "on hold" on our credit card in case of a scratch, as well as insisting that the coverage didn't work in France (even though it was fine in Spain). So they're basically in the business of basic blackmail. I would never recommend this company to anyone, even my own worst enemies. I will also go out of my way to make sure everyone I know won't waste their time on giving them their business.

*** (16/08/2016 17:13)
Worst Rental Experience Ever – I Recommend to Avoid Goldcar!