If you don’t want to read the whole story then here are the reasons why you should never choose Goldcar: - I was forced into paying over 270 Euros for the full, zero excess insurance under false pretenses - The car was not maintained well and unsafe - Staff was rude and condescending I cannot stress this enough, please don’t choose them. You are going to be better off with a reliable car rental company. Here’s the detailed backstory to that: I arrived at Madeira airport where I had booked a car with Goldcar. I booked it on the basic insurance because I have a private car rental excess insurance. When I was asked to hand over my driver’s license, passport and credit card, I did so. I was then told that the credit card could not be accepted because my first name was initialed. The only option to get a car, if I didn’t have a credit card with my full first name, would be if I paid for the full, zero excess insurance and they would then put the 116 Euro petrol deposit on my debit card. The reason which was given to me was that I could in theory rip off any family member who has the same first name initial, after they pointed out the T&C state that my name needed to be on the card. I was very surprised, because initialed first names are very common on credit cards in the UK and I have never had issues with any car rental company with this credit card. I argued that my name was on the card, but this wasn’t accepted. I pleaded that I could show the Santander banking app which would show my full name together with the last digits of the card, but I was told by Sofia, the member of staffI was dealing with, that she was ‘not a bank’ and she did not check banking details. After some more arguing about the terms ‘name’ (as stated in the T&C as necessity on the credit card) and ‘full name’ (what Sofia was demanding from my card) I was told that I didn’t understand her (Sofia’s) point, that if my mother would have wanted to name me after my initial at birth, she would have, something which I found quite condescending and rude. I asked if I could double-check with her manager, to which I was told with a smile that unfortunately it was Saturday and I would need to wait in the airport until Tuesday until the manager was back. Then I was handed a card with the customer service telephone number on. I went away and called customer service to ask if my card could not be accepted after all. The lady on the line gave me three options: 1. log in to my account and try to change the first name on the booking to my initial (I objected that according to the argument given to me at the counter I was concerned that my driver’s license and passport would then not be valid anymore) 2. book another car with the initial as a first name and try to claim back the money for the original booking based on the fact that I had second booking (an option which I did not want to try out after my experience with the company) 3. pay the security of the car not by credit card but by debit card, something which she assured me was possible While giving me those options she tried to thank me twice for my call and end the call. Upon the third time, she told me that she had given me three options, wished me a good day and hung up. I went back to the service desk and asked to put the car deposit onto my debit card, but was told that this was not possible. In a final attempt I asked for Sofia to show me where it said in the T&C that I need the full name on the credit card and where it says that only credit cards are allowed for the security deposit, to which I was told that this was not her job and that I should contact customer service for this. I then asked for a confirmation that I was denied a car due to the initialed first name, to which I was told that she was ‘not a lawyer’ and that she would not give me any confirmation of any sort. Finally, after over an hour of stressful thinking about how to get a car to start my holiday, I had to agree to pay for the full insurance, which more than doubled the rental cost (˜204 Euro for the rental plus >270 Euro for the zero excess insurance). It turns out that I could’ve paid the deposit by debit card after all, as I figured out later while re-reading the T&C, where it says under point ’15. DEPOSIT’: ‘The deposit blocked (credit card) or charged (debit card) will be unblocked or refunded to the customer once the vehicle has been returned, and Goldcar has checked that the vehicle is in a good state and that the terms of the contract have been fulfilled.’, meaning that I was wrongfully forced by Goldcar to take out extra insurance. To make matters worse, on the trip we found out that the car wasn’t well serviced at all. While driving with it, we got multiple warnings of low tyre pressure, the front collision sensor not working and the electronic stability system needing service (see images). Whenever turning the steering wheel when the car was stationary, the steering was cracking horribly. We weren’t feeling very safe at all in this car during our trip. This was in addition to the car not being well cleaned when we collected it (see pictures). So yeah, please don’t give that company more money and rent from another car rental company, for your safety if nothing else. Also, since finding out that the group belongs to Europcar, perhaps you don’t want to rent from them either for moral reasons…