BEWARE OF GOLDCAR

I would just like to let everyone know about goldcar charging in pounds instead of euros. I have a Nationwide credit card so I do not pay charges. Goldcar do not verbally make the offer to you it is just written down (I discovered 48 hours later). When challenged at the airport a couple of days later they told me that if you use an English credit card then you have to pay in pounds that's it. They said that the system had been in use for 3 months now. However, I went to the Torrevieja office and he told me that you should be told verbally and that there is a choice. There seems to be one set of standards at a lovely air conditioned office with chairs and no queues and different, lower standards at the airport.

I arrived at the airport at half past midnight, then I had to queue, all this with a screaming 18 month old baby and a tired 7 year old. They just say sign here,here and here, which of course you do. The amount I have been charged is not too much but I am hoping that my card company and emailing customer services will do something. It is the principal.

I used to use goldcar regularly up to a year ago but I didn't find them very good. I ended up going back with them through doyouspain.com. Could someone also tell me if you can stipulate a company you don't want with them?

I have found this to be the case when the agen/shop is using Santander to process their transactions. There is a responsibility on the part of the retailer to ask which currency you require to pay in, in practice many don't as the staff do not know the difference. Unfortunately, if you look at the bottom of your credit card receipt, there is usually a disclaimer which states you were offered your choice of currency. Once this has been printed out you are stuffed basically as Santander will not accept your complaints. Whether Nationwide will or not I don't know? I have stood in a shop many times now with armfuls of shopping and being ready to leave them on the conveyor all because of a lack of staff training. I was annoyed about being continually stung that I put this page on my website for potential guests, which also carries a link to Nationwide's take on the situation.

If you don't want Goldcar, you have to email DYS once you have your voucher asking for a different company.

Mark

I use holidaysautos to book a car when I go to Spain.  The prices are all in £sterling and you pay online to book the car in £sterling.  There are no exchange rates to deal with.  You print off your voucher and it tells you which agent to go to when you arrive at Malaga, downstairs in the car hire hall.

The only additionals are when you collect the car, they ask if you want to insure against theft, tyre damage, loss of keys etc and that's all done in euros. If you pay by credit card, you only pay the euro price.  Your ciredit card company works out the exchange rate on the day and your statement will show the £ price.

Hope that helps.  I've never had any problems with Holidayautos and they also give you the option of returning a full to full tank of petrol, unlike others where you have to pay over the ordinary price for the fuel and return the car as empty as possible, whch isn't always possible.

All best

www.golfapartment.co.uk

The same sort of thing happened to me with Centauro and the security deposit. I paid the deposit with my nationwide credit card and assumed it would be in euros(if fact the girl on the desk said the charge would be 300euro!). After returning to the uk and checking my online banking I found that they had charged in sterling! However when they returned the deposit they returned it in euros!!!

So I lost out twice, they took £304 but only returned £254 with the poor exchange rate. I won't use Centauro again so its pretty short termisim on their behalf!

I'm going out in Oct and on the recommendation of others I'm trying Econorent this time!

This message was last edited by tonynault on 02/09/2009.

thanks for that info but I like to book and then check prices and this way it is easy to cancel. I don't usually have a problem and I went to all the other hire companies and asked how they charged and they all said in euros, some of them looked at me as if I was a little bit loco and  the lady at record cars said that spain was in europe and used only euros, she spoke very slowly to me.

I hope the others don't follow goldcar's example, but if they profit from it then I presume that they will.

I have a cap booked for 12th with Goldcar,

Thanks for the info. I  booked through Carjet and have a voucher with the cost in Euro so I will make sure I pay in Euro

I've had the same experience with Centauro, so won't be using them again.

I've used Malaga Cars 3 times now and had no problems at all. The cars are not in 5 star conditon externally but inside has been fine. You get the car half filled with fuel and can return it with an empty tank too.

Very interesting thread!  I am still sifting though car rental agencies recommended by people on this site for my trip to Spain in December/January.  In any event, I will ask for a quote in Euros and pay with a Euro credit card, so there shouldn't be any hanky-panky!

I have rented a CAR not a CAP !!!!

Oh and carjet are very good...

 I feel so annoyed by the way we have been treated this summer by the car hire companies! I feel like booking 4 cars everytime I go and then cancel 3 at the last minute! Lets see how long the short supply of cars lasts then! Anyone else prepared to do this or am I losing the plot! lol!

Oh dear....poor Kev    haha

I used Econorent in June and for the first time the operator didn't know how to change the machine for the payment to go through in Euros.  In the end I had to go back into the airport and get cash.

With my hire agreement was a piece of paper telling me that cash payments would have a surcharge of 30e but I don't think he had the cheek to charge me extra. 

On previous rentals I have to remind them to make sure the payment goes through in Euros.  In February we were unable to fly home because London was snowbound.  We had to go back to the Econorent site with the boss and even he had to do the transaction twice before it went through in Euros.  It's the machines recognising the english cards and not the car hire companies.

I've also heard of reports of people paying for fuel with a card and the same thing happening.

I agree, some shop staff don't understand what it is and they assume that we should pay in pounds because we use a British card. I normally withdraw cash to use in the shops but the hire car companies want credit cards. If I do need to use my card at the shops then I usually state that I want to pay in euros or I tell them to cancel it if I forget and put it through again, if they don't know how to change it then I don't buy the items, although you would be amazed at how many suddenly remember.

Sterling.....we have just returned having rented a car from Goldcar through Carjet with all the prices in euros.   We normally pay using our Spanish visa card however this time used our UK mastercard which has no charges.  It's only on reading this thread that I've pulled out our invoice (as hubby paid for it!) and there it is - yes the total invoice is in euros but on the right hand side there is abit that shows it in GBP.  It is even as blatant enough to separately identify the exchange rate mark up - incidentally 2%.  I'm very annotyed and certainly won't fall for this again.  I also thought the fuel charge was a bit steep this time too.

I hope the supermarkets haven't done the same - I'll need to await my statement!

It pays to be vigilant, although why we should have to make sure we aren't being taken for a ride every time we use a credit/ debit card abroad

Supermarkets are easy. If the price on the till isn't the same as shown on the card device, do not accept it. As myself and y100 have said, refuse the products. It is amazing then how quickly they know how to work the machine!! The biggest problem is that when collecting a hire car, you do not want to be stranded (and they know it at the moment with the shortage!!) so will more than likely reluctantly accept the GBP rate. I knw when we first went to Alicante with Econorent that is what happened, even though I insisted on Euro (there is another thread somewhere about this too).

Mark

The law changed years ago and all companies must show service charges.  At that time I found that I was paying £20 to pay my buildings insurance monthly instead of yearly.  I was also using my Bank Of Scotland Visa card when I went to America.  On return my statement would list the exchange rate conversion and beside that how much I had been charged for using the card..  It made me think twice about using the card on future trips.

I've since changed over to a Nationwide Flex account for cash withdrawals and a credit card.  At the moment when you use them in Spain there's no charge and only a small charge 1/2% in USA.

It's VISA and MASTERCARD who are making the charges.  They are large organisations who process the transactions similar to how cheque processing used to work.  They have to be paid for the work that they do and they do this by charging the shop that accept the payment by credit card and the buyer as well when they use the cards abroad.

There are other cards which are also free to use abroad.  Have a look at the website moneysavingexpert.com.  The cards are listed there and then do as y100 suggested.  Check your receipt before you leave and insist they put the item through again in Euros.

And pay for you fuel in a petrol station in cash.  That's what I was refering to in my earlier posting.

It isn't the charges that are the issue here though, it is the fact cards are being billed in Sterling and not Euros. The retailer is able to choose which currency to charge in, but they are supposed to offer you the choice not default to your native currency as Santander machines seem to do.

Mark

Scottebabe,

Thanks for that info. I will definetely double check and make sure that I'm charged in Euro. I've always been charged in euro before and useually get a good exchange rate on my card...

Slighty off-topic, American Express has not been mentioned on this thread, nor others that I have read.  Is it unpopular in Spain?