Budget Reviews 

Rental company included extra insurance without my consent, when I specificly said that I don’t want any extra insurance. Representative didn’t give me time to see a contract, never showed or told about extra amount they’ve added. Just sent me a two with a half times bigger bill than it should be afterwards.
My bad that I didn’t insist on reading a contract (I signed it on a screen, representative showed me only a box for a signature), but I’ve not expected them to be so bold when I said out loud that I don’t want any extras…

Look at excerpts taken from budget.co.uk. Essentially Budget or their insurer penalise customers through an additional £14 daily for each additional driver, even as they acknowledge that sharing the driving on long journeys reduce risks of damage to rental vehicle & risks to other road users .

"Adding an additional driver is a great way to share the load when travelling long distances or driving abroad. Driving in a foreign country can be stressful, tiring and quite frankly, sometimes a little boring!

By sharing the driving responsibilities, you can lower the risk of having an accident."

"In the UK, an additional driver costs £13.99 including VAT per day per driver. "

Disgrace of a company. We prepaid 200 euros for a car in Cristiano Ronaldo airport in Madeira. We were meant to pick it up the night of Sunday 11th Feb. However, our flight from Lisbon was cancelled. We immediately tried to call Budget but could not get through. When we arrived on rearranged flight early the next morning, we went to collect our car. However, the lady at the desk told us the price had now changed and we owed them an additional 290 euros on top of the 200 we had already paid to secure the car. We could not understand how us taking the car a day later could incur such a fee and assume we were scammed by the lady (her name was Carmen). We refused to pay the additional fee, forfeited the car and lost the 200 euros from our pre-booking. All in all, horrendous experience - avoid Budget at all costs.

Rented a car from Grenoble - it was in an awful state and budget admitted it was below their standards. However, they did not offer any form of compensation so I am left very unhappy with the whole experience and will not book directly with budget UK again. I will use a broker as I have found they are much more responsive to quality issues.

Here is another example of overcharging with Budget Car Rental LAX and despite using them for years, I think this the last time.
Booked and paid in full #40548011 for a mid SUV 27th Dec-9th Jan and when arrived for pickup said they didn't have one available. All they could offer was a Chevrolet Silverado 4x4 open back truck which was so impractical for business and luggage which got soaked in between hotels.
I didn't want all the optional extras apart from the unlimited toll charges as I was advised there were tolls between LA and Vegas and to be fair it's been years since I went to CES in Vegas so accepted but that was a crock of sh**t as I didn't pass one in 2 weeks.
On return we filled up at Mobil 765 N Sepulveda no more than 3 miles from the airport so as far as I was concerned was expecting just a charge for tolls.....
On the 11th January I was charged a huge $485.50 for additional services including $142 for tolls, $97 for roadside assistance plus and a massive $190 for fuel. Scandalous!!!!
We have spent the past 2 weeks disputing this through QEEQ which to be fair are brilliant but they are not budging despite even sending a fuel receipt from my expenses only 10 minutes before the vehicle was dropped off. This is not acceptable for a multinational repulatable company and should be ashamed of their practices. If this is not sorted soon then we are going to use our company solicitors to persue it further

When we have a fine, they don't send it to us. They pay it and charge directly the amount from our bank account, without any justification, no invoice or email or anything. And they charge the double of the amount!! For "administrative fees". So they charged £65 instead of £35. I read the general conditions, this amount is never specified anywhere. Scam

Luton Airport

This would have been a 5 star experience because the staff were very helpful and friendly on collection and drop off. The car was good quality BUT….

You’d better hope you don’t leave any of your property in the car. If you do, you can’t get through to the desk by phone. If you log a report through customer services, no one gets back to you. If you go to the desk yourself, they first suggest that maybe a member of staff has stolen/taken your property home. I was then offered someone else’s lost property instead, and then they promised to check everywhere and call the next day. Almost a week later, no phone call, and I’ve chased them up by email. Not impressed Budget!

The lady appointed sara to deal my case was professional and trustworthy and she dealt me in a very positive way and guided me properly!thanks to her and the company!

I received a call one day before my booking, informing me that my address check had failed (whatever that means) and that I couldn’t rent the car, even though I had already paid. The staff offered no help, didn’t explain why the “address check” failed, and provided no further information or solution.

From now on, I’ll be checking reviews before making any bookings.

Stay away from Budget!

I rented a car online pick up in Luton Airport , my email confirmation says I have CDW and Windscreen cover .
Cost for two days with the lowest group Fiat 500. £60.38.

Just had a phone call from their checking team to say that at present if I have an incident there would be a cost of £1730. But I could have that waived if I pay an extra £38. . Budget state on google that they are the cheapest car rental that is an absolute joke . Disgusted with their service especially as I was supposed to pick up the vehicle tomorrow and they called me today just after 5pm

Beware hidden extras Told there is a surcharge for picking car up at the airport .(Orlando) £20
Took the option of paying tolls upfront £275 only used £30 if that.
You only find this out upon your final invoice, in other words when you get home.

Phoned to discuss why the huge increase on motor insurance policy
Phone call answered and rep said she would see if a lower premium price is possible

Was kept on hold and had to listen to extremely noisy people in background laughing and giggling , I waited, but in the end just hung up, having to listen to this appalling racket

I consider this very unprofessional and totally
unacceptable
Dreadful!!

I booked a car on Rentalcars.com and purchased an annual excess cover policy separately. It was picked up from Budget/Avis off site at Murcia Airport.

After a 4am start I got to hire office where |I was given a small box to sign and they said they would send in email. On return home after my holiday I opened the email to see they had added excess insurance and windscreen cover. At no point was this mentioned. £249.41 later and several emails I have just been fobbed off.
This practice has got to stop!

Small Claims Court next stop

Avis/Budget car rentals. The first time I used them it was fine! (therefor you should ignore all good reviews!) but the second time they charged me for "optional" insurance coming to £152 even though I'd already paid for full insurance on booking.com and they could see this, they never asked me if I wanted optional insurance and I never agreed to one single optional thing yet they charged me. In a dark booth they got me to sign several bits of paper.... one of these signatures is next to the words "additional information" but then next to that in very small grey faded-out lettering in brackets says "I agree to the optional charges" well that's a con. They asked for my credit card details for a deposit! not for anything else so that is a pure lie. lying, conning, thieves. Disgraceful

Took Nissan Jeep from Scarsdale New York in Sept 2023, the member of staff was juggling between putting fuel in car and sorting out our hire. Very rude and unprofessional , took extra deposit without telling us

Well, as a well know brand and a company I’ve used in the past, I tried to book a car for this December in the UK. The website looks fine but the user experience is terrible, too many options over lapping each other and very difficult to select what you want on an iPad. Whichever directors have chose this website have done it on looks only and not usability, very disappointing. I’d strongly suggest you look at it in depth as the competition are wiping the floor with you.

Des escrocs !
J'ai loué une voiture via HOLIDAYSCAR.COM pour 15 jours au Maroc. Budget Maroc étant le loueur local.
Arrivé à FES, alors que j'avais tout payé, BUDGET-FES m'a réclamé 1200 dirhams car j'ai plus de soixante ans. Or le voucher indiquait que ce n'était que pour les personnes à partir de 71 ans. Ayant 70 ans, je leur ai indiqué que je n'avais pas à payer le supplément. Ils m'ont dit que leur système informatique ne pouvait pas faire autrement et j'ai donc été obligé de payer les 1200 dirhams pour pouvoir prendre la voiture, qui d'ailleurs était une voiture d'un état très moyen et qui est tombée en panne pendant le séjour, ma fait perdre une journée de vacances, sans aucun dédommagement.
De retour en France, j'ai contacté BUDGET Maroc pour me faire rembourser les 1200 Dirhams, mais ils ne veulent rien savoir.
Quand à HOLIDAYSCAR.COM, avec qui j'ai loué la voiture, ils sont aux abonnés absents malgré plusieurs relances.
Je vous conseille vivement d'éviter BUDGET Maroc et notamment l'agence de FES et HOLIDAYSCAR.COM.

I booked thought Costco and paid in full- £628.30.

On collection they scanned my credit car for ‘security deposit’.

Flight home was cancelled so returned the car 4hrs late.

On checking my credit card statement Budget car rental have charged me £466.65!!!!

Apparently, in addition to the extra days rental they charged me of £49 for the later return (fair enough). They recalculated the whole weeks rental and increased it by 70%.

The agent I spoke to on the phone called Angela informs me this is standard practice.

Avoid! Save your credit card!

Charge me now, dispute it later.
>1 months for them to tell me no refund after multiple emails and phone calls asking for updates.

One employee said a flat tyre repair would be at no cost, inaccurate I was charged the full amount of £250. I disputed and they declined refund. I would've arranged to repair the flat for <£100 however since they advised me nil cost I accepted the repair they organised.

Then when a second employee said the dispute will be fine because they should have a call log of the staff member telling me it would be at no cost, again wrong, corporate told me they don't log phone calls and don't accept a verbal agreement they can't confirm.

Essentially implying I've lied about it and signed a lease agreement; he then advised staff/managers will be updated regarding my case so staff don't give wrong advice...

Booked through British airways picking up the car at Bologna airport.There wasn't enough personnel. Went to office, given keys, went to car park and the employee was leaving to tend to her children. Had to go back in to take keys. Given a car with very small boot, has chosen fiat Punto, Opel mokka is much smaller. Could not fit suitcases.Car was all scratched with chip on front screen, none of this had been noted, had to get them to make note on contract. The amount to pay on computer was incorrect, clerk had to take out mobile phone calculator to re calculate. Aggressive personnel. What a joke, never again...