Budget Car Rental Reviews

We rented a van months in advance and paid up front. We drove 4 hours to pick it up the vehicle. When we got there, they said they didn't have our van and offered us a little SUV. Way too small for what we required. We couldn't find a van anywhere else at that time. Ruined our trip we had planned for months. No apology or help finding another vehicle. I'll never go there again and don't recommend it.

I declined all coverages in the reservation and again when the agent asked at the counter. He buried the $33/day coverage in my actual contract that I signed unaware of the deceitful behavioral.

Terrible company. They charged me insurance when I verbally declined it and then it showed up on the receipt! I booked my reservation through Costco for $262. and then my receipt totaled up at a whopping $386!

Car broke down halfway through the rental period and had to be towed. Completely inconveniencing our trip. We had to eat the cost of the Budget rental (they would not refund) and pay twice the price for an emergency rental. Do not rent from budget, customer service is horrible.

Terrible experience. They charged me $30 to charge my electric car after the customer service rep told me they would take care of it. I had the car for 8 hours and drove it 70 miles.

I trusted Costco to refer me to a reputable company for car rental. I used the Costco referral for a car from Budget. The car had two front tires that were threadbare. I was then asked to continue driving on the unsafe tires as deemed by Discount Tire management to get a new rental from Budget. I chose a tow instead of endangering myself or others on the highway. The tow company was expected to take the tow truck with car into the parking garage to get me to the new rental car. This was an impossibility. The driver and I had to walk the length of the Houston rental car garage to get a new rental. I then had to drive to another parking lot in the new rental to retrieve my belongings. I was given a three day refund; however, I was charged for the tow of the unsafe car. I suggest that no one ever let a loved one get into a car from Budget without having the car checked to be safe.

After arriving at SFO and going to Budget Rental my wife and I waited in line for 45 min for us to get our vehicle. I don’t understand budget. They had the biggest customer service area yet only 1 employee who decided to take a break for 20 min while people were just standing there. Oh wait it gets better!!!! As I checking out I am looking at the charges and the employee never asked about the insurance they offer. He just decided to add it to my bill thinking I wasn’t going to notice. I have insurance that covers rentals yet he just added to my bill which increased the bill almost 200$. So I wonder how many others budget has ripped off cause they don’t ask the questions. The insurance is a choice and not mandatory so why is the employee just adding it to peoples bills. Please answer that Budget. You’re actually stealing from customers. I will say this is the last time I am renting from budget.

We've been in line at Logan Airport for over an hour. Based on the line, it will take up 2 hours of our lives and our vacation. There has been well more than 100 people in line the entire time. Budget knew how many cars it rented and the staff required. They don't care because, once they have our money, we have no choice but to wait. They say, "pre-check". It means nothing. We had the same thing happen in Denver. Never again. You shouldn't either.

If I could give budget no stars I would. When I booked my flight I also booked my car rental. I had opted out of all the extra insurance because my personal insurance covers my rentals. I traveled to Charleston with my two toddlers. By the time got to the service desk my children were exhausted and irritated from traveling all morning. So I was distressed and distracted. I was taken aback when I got to the counter and I was asked to sign all the documents a second time. I told the Budget employee that I did not want extra coverage. The family member I met with at the budget service station told them I did not need extra coverage. The budget employee asked if I was sure and I explained I was covered through my private insurance. He asked me to sign the waiver form and I did.

Budget Car Rental – Extremely Disappointing Experience. I rented a vehicle for two weeks through Budget and experienced problems from the very beginning. At pickup, I was given a vehicle that was clearly not equivalent to the one I had reserved. The representative argued with me instead of helping, and only after intervention from another employee was I provided with a suitable replacement. One week later, the replacement vehicle displayed warnings requiring immediate service, forcing me to spend a significant part of my vacation travelling between branches to exchange the vehicle. The replacement vehicle I ultimately received was not hybrid, resulting in higher fuel costs for the remainder of my trip.

Had a car rental agreement and prepaid for it. Went three days earlier to confirm I would get the vehicle before buying hotel stays and airplane tickets. Arrived on my rental date and they didn’t have a car. Ran to multiple other Budget locations and couldn’t get a car. Had to cancel my drive down to Florida. Still had to pay for the two hotels I booked along the way and my flight back home since I was too late to cancel those. Budget does not reimburse for any problems they cause you by their overbooking methods. Greedy for your money and unwilling to pay any fees you incur from their shady methods. The system allows them to get away with such horrid behavior. I will never support these jerks again!!

I reserved a car online, and when I went to pick it up, they charged me extra fees that I wasn’t expecting. I returned the car with no damage and a full tank of gas, and now they’re saying I still have to pay for insurance and other charges. Honestly, these people are scammers. I’m seriously thinking about reporting them to the news because they shouldn’t be doing this to people in our community. And on top of that, they don’t even want to give me my deposit back.

Picked up a rental vehicle and was charged with extra day of the agreement due early drop off.

I dropped my car off for repairs and called the pick up location to let them know I was heading there in an Uber And was told ok great come on by. I get to location and I'm told that there are no cars available. To call customer service. Customer service tells me to go to another Budget, at nearby airport they have it but the new price is $865, $600 more than the original amount. Why? Because I'm changing pick up location. I argued with them that I wasn't changing anything, ultimately it was them forcing a location on me. Reservation cancelled. BTW I went through 9 agents. A sneaky tactic of telling me to hold on the phone and then a few minutes later call is dropped. 5 times that happened.

There is nothing I can add to the deplorable reviews this company has received internationally. Most involving charges that were either hidden or not fully explained. In my case to a tired and jet lagged customer. So a 9 day rental ended up costing a total of almost five times the actual cost of the car rental!

We rented a car from Budget Rental in the MCO Airport for vacation. After driving less than an hour the low oil light came on. I called customer service and 3 separate people told me that I would most likely not be reimbursed for the oil if I put it in. Instead they said I needed to schedule service at a local garage on the weekend on my vacation to get them to put oil in and then I MIGHT get reimbursed.

I would give Budget zero stars. My experience was not only bad, but I was given an unsafe car to drive, and it was about to rain, and there were tornadoes coming. First, I booked a “mystery car” on Priceline because it was cheap. But Budget interprets car to mean “truck” and it could include an “electric car,” so when I got to the Budget counter at RDU, I asked to speak to the manager. I’m 70 and have never driven an electric car, and that’s what they wanted to give me. I asked to speak to the manager, and the best he could do. Granted I did not read the TOS that a mystery car might include an electric one.

Was quoted a price for rental of $69 plus one-way fee $231, total $300. Charged a $550 one-way fee due to high demand from canceled flights. Price Gouging! Unacceptable, illegal, and unethical.

On March 18. 2026 I started a Budget rental via a button on their site for an Amazon rewards program. This button made me login to my amazon account. From there I proceeded to book a rental for 9 days picking up a car in Anchorage 6/13/26. During the reservation process I also HAD TO VERIFY LOGON TO AMAZON account. After returning the car, I inquired as to my amazon gift card that should be attached to my account. I was told it would be 15 days before someone would get back to me..... FOUR WEEKS LATER I get receipt for my rental and a "you didn't sign in right" as to my gift card. This is hooey!

Horrible company… horrible customer service… the absolute worst!!! Reservations mean nothing, they charge you for random things and you cannot contact a person to fix any issues! If you do, they will give you the worst text book answer and their sincere apologies. If I would have actually got the car, I was promised and ended up wrecking, would they have accepted my sincere apologies!?!? Not hardly!!! No accountability!!!

What was supposed to be a great vacation was ruined by Budget. Received a rental with expired tags and broken passenger mirror. Got pulled over by the police (no ticket). Budget wouldn't bring me a car and had to drive back to the airport of exchange. (1 hour 1 way) Staff in the airport were rude and dismissive. Absolutely deplorable customer service. Called to complain and was treated as rude as I was at the airport. A coupon for a free day barely covers the despicable service I received. No amount of concern was offered by the staff or main customer service main office. Sad. BEWARE.

These are the most shameless people with absolutely zero credibility in this line of business. With an hour and a half left before I was supposed to pick up the car (scheduled for 12:00 PM), they called to say it wouldn't be ready by noon and that they would let me know in an hour—which they never did. When I complained (at 2:00 PM) and asked when the car would be available at the pickup location specified in my reservation, they told me they didn't have one there but had one available at another location. However, they said it couldn't be at the price I had already paid ($290.84); the new price would be $890.00, with the difference to be settled when I returned the car. You can imagine my shock—I was absolutely floored by that news. The guy coldly told me, "This is the option I have; take it or leave it." The agent's name is Adrian (ID number **); I will never, ever rent from these sons of bad woman again.

I booked my reservation (#**) after being told by a Budget employee that the additional driver fee would be waived at pickup. I confirmed this before completing the booking. However, when I arrived to pick up the vehicle, I was told the fee could not be waived. Since then, I've tried to resolve the issue through phone calls and emails, but I haven't been able to get anyone to help or provide a satisfactory explanation. This experience was frustrating and disappointing because I relied on the information I was given before making the reservation. Based on my experience, I won't be using Budget again, and I encourage others to carefully confirm any promised discounts or fee waivers in writing before booking.

Terrible staffing. One person to help a line of 20 people. 15 min per person.

Many things went wrong but mostly billing. I was incorrectly charged ($133.92) for several things. I've been told I would receive a full refund but only received partial refund. I was told I would receive an email confirmation about the refunds but that was never received. Also told many different things by different reps. No one takes responsibility. I have spent hours trying to find someone to tell the truth - all different including supervisors. I will NEVER rent through Budget/Avis again. In addition, the vehicle was horrible (Outlander).

Avoid This Place – Total Scam. We picked up a rental car that was filthy from the start — trash, dirt, stains, everything. When we returned it, the owner suddenly claimed we owed extra for “animal hair.” We never had a dog in the car. Still, we vacuumed it just to be polite. When we came back, things got scary. The owner rushed out from behind the desk, got inches from my face, and looked like he was about to punch me. He screamed, cursed, and spit while yelling. I’ve never experienced anything like this from a business. This place is a scam and the owner is aggressive. Do NOT rent here.

The process was quick. The gentleman did not walk us out to the car to inspect anything about the car like rental cars always do. He just gave us the keys and sent us to the lot. Thought it was a bit strange but we proceeded to the car. First thing we noticed was that the car was dirty. As we began walking around we first noticed a ding then a dent, and it was scuffed. Went back to the counter. Unfortunately they were not able to provide a satisfactory resolution. Instead of offering a car comparable to what we had, they were trying to downgrade. We didn’t want to spend any more time of our vacation dealing with this so we took the car as is. They knocked 50 dollars off the rental but I don’t feel like that was the best resolution.

I was stranded in Tulsa Oklahoma due to car problems on a Friday night. Unsure if I could get a tow or my car repaired, I reached out to Budget rental for a car. The young lady never told me to rent the car day by day as needed. Not knowing if the car could be repaired, I rented it till Monday. I never was told day by day was better because no refund would be given on prepaid days if return sooner. Unwilling to help and I will never rent from Budget again.

I rented a subcompact vehicle in Orlando, Florida airport online for $323 and provided my insurance card at the desk saying I would be using my own insurance. He kept insisting (in broken English) it was mandatory to accept and sign on the computer to continue with the rental agreement. Charges hit my credit card for $918 after I returned it. WHAT?!? So far I’ve fussed enough for them to drop it down to $518 but it still shouldn’t be this high. I can’t get anywhere with them. I will NEVER use them due to their practices. Looks like I need to take this to my credit card company for help.

I booked a rental back in January through Priceline! I added the extra insurance and paid $117! When I got to the counter the lady rattled on about extra insurance and I told her I already had it! She told me that it would not suffice for collision coverage! I accepted the charges which added an additional $186.41! After renting the car and returning it I got a charge for $266.39 more! When I called about it because I thought they were adding $172.90 for fuel charges because it was under that as additional charges and it said I accepted that! The entire way there we had a rattle in the driver side window! It was so loud no one could sleep on the way and we had a 5 year old with us!

We recently rented a car from Budget in Hartford. We returned the car with a full tank of gas. When we dropped off the car the attendant did not look at the gas gauge. I questioned him on the spot. He said the computer scanned it as we drove in. I received my receipt by email before I left the office. I see that they were charging me for something, so I stopped by their counter to inquire what the charge was for. They did not tell me what the charges were for, but they printed out a receipt. They charged my credit card. I contacted them. They said it was for gas. I sent them my credit card statement showing the gas purchase. They said it was not enough and would not take the charges off. They are not treating their customers well. I would not recommend them to anyone.

The worst car rental: overpriced and hidden prices. I was supposed to get back $200 dollars. When I called, they told me that it covered the freeway toll and it’s only $40 that went back. Only nothing showed in my statement. Called back and they told me that they need a fax number from the credit card company to ask permission to put the $40 dollar. First time I heard of it, called the credit card company, told me that they never heard of such a thing and they don’t have a fax number. They should be able to put the money with the same system they charge the card. If they keep $40 just from a few customers, imagine how much money they are making. They are a scam; do not ever rent from Budget Miami int airport.

Was overcharged by $56 at FWA airport on Sunday, 6/21. Not sure that I will ever see a refund. “Incompetent” and “dishonest”. My advice is to just not use them.

My rental car had a tire with a slow leak. When I called Budget, they told me they would send someone out to change it and charge me a service charge!! This is totally unacceptable. It was the tire on their car. Was not my fault. I will not rent from budget again. There are many other choices.

Landing at DFW with a reservation. Waited two hours in a line because they had no vehicles. I ask the agent if they had over booked and he replied that he wasn't at liberty to say. After two hours as cars were returned they put me in a vehicle. I waived the gas refill and was told to make sure I brought back the vehicle full of gas. Did not get Budget's insurance and no inspection was done on the vehicle.

Budget toll scam in Orlando, FL. I did not agree to the toll package but was charged after the fact. I only had about $11 in tolls and they charged me $64.00 for the package that I did not agree to.

Do not ever pre-pay for Budget. The price they give you and the price they charge you is two different things and if you tried to change it, they charge you an additional fee. It is a scam.

We accidentally left behind my daughter’s wallet when returning our rental car at the Tampa airport. We realized within 20 minutes. We immediately ran back to the rental area. After some time they said they located the wallet but the money was taken out of it. $200! The manager proceeded to tell us that he watched the cameras and no money was taken, although the manager would not allow me to see his name or badge and couldn’t tell me who found the wallet. He said he wasn’t sure. Shady af and complete thieves! Police will be involved! Do not use Budget!

Beware Scam!!!! Budget Rental Car Federal Circle JFK Airport. Worst rental car experience ever. I picked up the rental and was at first very pleased that the car was big enough to hold all of my family's luggage comfortably.... But regrettably I failed to check how much gas was in the tank until after I had already passed the Budget exit gate and was driving out near the Airport. There was only between a half and three quarters of a tank of gas in the car, but of course the paperwork stated that the tank was supposed to have been full. Rather than turn around and make a big deal of it, I decided to let it go and just return the car full and take the hit. Big mistake. After a two week vacation, I stopped at an Exxon and put $54 worth of gas in to fill the tank completely, which was about $7 over the amount that the pump had first automatically shut off at. I forced the extra amount in to be sure, and then drove straight to the car returns.

You will be sorry to rent from them. Very misleading agents, deviants and untrustworthy. If you are going to San Diego, especially, they are terrible. Absolutely, the worst I have ever seen.