Goldcar Portugal Reviews 

2nd time using Goldcar in Portugal. Travelling in the Algarve over 20 years. Last year we left the car back and there was minor damage under the car (specifically the tyre) I thought strange, as we did not review under the car and tyres when collecting. It wasn't a massive cost so I let it go, although was sceptical that we made the damage. I can see from other reviews here, that this seems to be common practise - advise damage to an obscure part of the car that you would not think of checking, then charge extortionate rates.

I was quoted a decent price this year and thought I will give them another try. We collected the car at night, the person reviewing the car spent no more than 8 minutes on the car but we were confident we had highlighted the damage. The car was nice but it was badly damaged. I will admit I didn't review the sheet he gave us with a fine tooth comb (something I regret now!)

My husband took ill when there, so we barely drove the car. On leaving the car back, we were advised that a fog light had been smashed and there was damage to the rear bumper. We did not see this damage when we had it, we felt very strange, it would have taken quite a bit of force to cause this damage and we know we did not have any accident etc. Car was parked in a safe garage. They charged me £126.00 but I did not receive an invoice, I had to email them.

This is when I got quite angry, on the invoice it stated the damage and charge to the fog light but also added damage that was not noted on THEIR return sheet! They had also charged us for damage to a luggage rack - which we did not have, over €300 might I add and another €200 for damage to part of the car where it was not stated we had damaged on return. I highlighted this and strangely I am yet to hear from them. Total scam, will not use them again, I hired via carrental.co.uk I will also be informing them of this dreadful service and all I can describe as fraud! Do not use, the are ripping innocent people off. I have insurance as I took 'worry free' but this might not be the case for others. I think it is shameful, we know we did not cause the damage and the fact they have sent me an invoice for damage that wasn't even noted on their sheet on return says it all really...

Watch out for these scammer!
When you prove them you are in the right, they end your call everytime again.
Also, whenever you want all the legal information, you need to call every day for 2 weeks straight to finally have someone who follows the law.

Scam company, be warned, don’t rent here.

If you’re thinking of renting from this company take a note of the reviews. I’ve been going to the Algarve for over 23 years and in my opinion these are by far the worst car hire company at Faro. Upon renting the car we identified 20 plus scratches dents etc. Gold Car initially said there were 13. I didn’t take there extortionate insurance but luckily for me I had arranged cover in advance in the uk.
There was no-one around to check my car in upon my return so I was encouraged to leave the keys in a drop box. Then a month later I’ve now been informed there was a scratch on a wheel, that wasn’t there when I collected it which will cost me £200.

Clearly despite taking loads of pictures on collection I cannot prove or disprove when this damage occurred and agree with others that this company is just looking to entice customers with low prices and then use sharp practice to charge you more after your return.

Luckily I have insurance but I will never use them again and must warn others to avoid them. There are lots of other companies at Faro and one would use them.

Our experience was with Goldcar in Porto. We had to pay extra charges once arrived there. We got a car that was not fully tanked. I told a guy about it (it was easy to see on the car dashboard). He replied that the car had a problem and was not marking the fuel level properly and that we should only tale a picture of it and we should be fine. Of course, it was a lie, because we brought the car back FULLY tanked. We preferred to do it this way, so they wouldn’t charge us more. But they found something else…17 days after having returned the car, they sent me an email that they found a damage on the car and they would charge me 300EUR. They had already freed the 2.000EUR they had blocked on my card, but still had access to it… They sent me a picture where there was absolutely no damaged to be seen. I complained because after 17 days, many people could have driven the car. I blocked my credit card because I didn’t feel confident about the story. Two days ago (the story started mid-August) they tried to take the 300EUR, but it has failed as my card is still blocked. How on Earth do they still have access to my credit card when they pretend they’ve unblocked everything? It’s a shame to behave like this.

The car got a flat tyre a few days into the9 day hire and when I went to change it I discovered there was no spare tyre. 

I eventually managed to phone the Gold Car desk who had to arrange and cab for myself and my wife back to the airport car hire desk, and a pick up truck to collet the car. 

This is crazy, all this time and effort because the do not have spare tyres, but that wasn't all, then came the extra charges!!! 

I was then told that I would have to pay for 2 (yes two) new tyres as the desk clerk said it is illegal to not change both tyres in Portugal, which I have since found out to be untrue! This cost me 128 euro.

Then after I returned the car and flew home I found I was charged a further 160 euros, for which I have had no email or receipt to say what that covers. I'm assuming it is the taxi and pick up truck, but no receipt or email. 

All because they didn't have a spare tyre. 

Classic scam: Goldcar offers you a cheap rental, but if you refuse their insurance, they’ll find ‘damage’ you can barely see—like a tiny mark under the sill you’d never spot. The guy checking it over is oddly thorough (so I thought ‘here we go’. He was running his hands everywhere, and then suddenly there it is: €250 ‘damage’ charge for something invisible. Sharp prices, sharp practices—watch out.

Rented a good car from Valencia airport. Goldcar were supposed to block a deposit on my credit card but instead they actually put 1600 euros through to my card. This also incurred a further £35 currency exchange cost. Furthermore I filled the car full at junction 435 on the A3 which is 4 Km from the airport and yet Goldcar charged a 50 Euro re-fill and a 10 Euro pterol charge but the petrol was spurting out of the filler nozzle at the petrol station!!. I have rented with Golcar many tens of times in the past but this is a disgusting new low. Very angry.

I rent it a car from Gold Car in Faro Airport Portugal for 3 weeks.
After 4 days the car broke down. Took the all day to get it sorted. Had to get a car picked up and also by taxi had to go back to Faro from Lagos which took a long time.

This wasn't the main issue as this things happend. The main issue was with my second car.

The car received was brand new and Perfect. ( or so I thought).

I returned the car early in the morning, so no one around.

When I got back to UK. I received the paper work to say the driver key lock was damaged... and had to pay 177 EUR.

This is a lie and a way to get more money. This car doesn't need a key to open the car. IT's done by button on the keys... this is a scam to get more money as they know most people dont check this or have evidence by photo.

I feel they did this to get money back from my original car I had which broke down.

THIS IS A SCAM AND ROBBERY... I have read in many places how this things happen.

NEVER AGAIN WILL RENT FROM GOLD CAR. Scammers

This review is for GoldCar Faro, Portugal. We booked a flight for 9 nights with jet 2 to Faro, Portugal and as jet 2 are a professional company, I booked the car via their links. It was with Gold Car. Oh, how I wish I had read the dreadful reviews on Which and Trip Advisor etc., on the non-existent customer service at Faro airport before I paid for this car. We arrived midday. It took around 15 minutes for the Gold Car representative to mark off the damage marks on the car sheet and the situation was made worse as the car looked like it had been polished or washed with GRIT in the cloth, small scratches all over it. The car was an SUV and advertised to take 4 suitcases, but we struggled getting them in the boot so removed the parcel shelf. Unfortunately, we left the parcel shelf propped up against the fence behind us in the Gold Car compound. We realised this when we were about an hour and a half's drive away from Faro airport, so we went online and emailed them, advising them of the bay number where we left the parcel shelf. We were not too concerned at this stage as this bay number was just behind their office and there were many gold car staff milling around (being midday), so it was quite busy. We were confident that a member of staff would notice it, as it was easily spottable. I also phoned them and was told I would hear from them within 48 hours. We heard nothing. This email address on their website is incorrect: “Your message wasn't delivered to faro goldcar.com because the address couldn't be found or is unable to receive email.” After 8 emails and 4 phone calls, 2 to them and 2 to the contact on the Jet 2 paperwork, (02083468 5883) we still heard nothing. Our daughter in London also was contacting them on our behalf but she received no replies either. The Jet2 contact gave me the wrong email address. On a 9 night holiday, we were approaching the end and had still not heard back from Gold Car. On day 7 of our 9 night holiday we finally got a reply: “Good afternoon, we have no information regarding anything found in our park. best regards. Goldcar Faro Airport”. When we checked the car in on departure, they had no information on our booking of all the emails and phone calls, and it felt like they just wanted to charge us for the parcel shelf. We insisted that they go and check. Thankfully it had been found but the attitude of the woman at the desk was completely disinterested in what I had to say about the emails and the phone calls. No apology for the lack of contact. I was really shocked and disappointed, especially as I had booked the car via the Jet 2 Link. The stress of this really affected our holiday, as we did not want to be charged for an expensive parcel shelf left on their property, that we had advised them about almost immediately. Jet2 should have more control over the car hire companies they allow their customers to book with.

Have used Goldcar from Faro Airport many times a year for several years without incident and found the staff there helpful and professional.
A reoccuring issue is whilst the Portuguese Authorities have introduced compulsory charging in advance by car hire companies for potential use of toll roads. If those roads are not used Goldcar is supposed to refund the customer. It does not operate a policy of automatically doing this and so the onus is on the customer to write to customer services to receive reimbursement. No doubt many will have forgotten they had paid an advance toll charge. Writing to customer services and requesting the refund does result in repayment, but a system of automaticslly refunding customers what us due to them would demonstrate good customer service and PR for Goldcar.
Unfortunately on 2 recent bookings have 2 separate problems and the customer services team have not demonstrated a reasonable level of ......customer service.
Following a late evening pick-up when there was no requirement for air conditioning, the a/c in the hire car was found not to be working the following day with temperatures hitting 40°. The battery in the car key fob also ran out. Despite repeated e-mails to customer services about this, from someone who has given them 30 plus bookings in recent years the reporting of this and my only other incident are being ignored.
On another booking shortly before the one above a €40 late pick up charge was imposed when car wasn't picked up at alloted time. Fair enough if I was late, but had actually arrived in time but was faced with a 45 minute queue at the Goldcar office due to a number of flights arriving at the same time. On this occasion the staff at the pick up office couldnt cope large number of customers due to circumstances outside their control, and when I was told they would need to levy a charge as I reached the front desk 30 minutes late (having queued for 45 mins) I assumed the reimbursement would follow contacting customer services Iin the same way as reimbursement of toll road advance payments.
The good work of the Faro Airport office team has been undermined by the Customer Services Team when standards have fallen short. Coupled with there being no automatic reimbursement of advance toll road charges unless customers chase these result in this 1 star rating. Prior to the late pick up charge and the faulty car incidents, despite the toll issue, 4 stars would have applied.

As other people have said, the advertised price is simply not achievable, ours increased by 40% due to various charges. We declined the exorbitant insurance so they placed a 2,000 Euro block on our credit card plus 123 euro for fuel (the car was a Renault Clio which costs 54 Euro to fill). And now they are saying it will take weeks for the block to be dealt with blaming the banks. Which is a total lie.
Much better to go with Sixt or the mainstream companies at least you know the price

They post incredibly low prices to lure people into booking a rental car with them, they take the fee which is agreed but when we arrived to get our car we were told that in the tiny fine print we should have noticed that there is no insurance and we were basically scared into paying several premiums. What was initially a 25 euro rental per day turned into a 250 euro rental per day. By that time we were tired after a very long flight, late for our meetings and had no real other choice than to accept (or leave a 7 thousand euro deposit). Additionally, they took a 250 euro deposit and they still haven't returned the deposit, two weeks later. When we called them they said that the deposits can take up to a month to return.

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.