Budget Reviews 

Absolute scammers. Charged an additional $240 on a completely paid car rental. Won’t provide receipts or respond to emails. Only recourse is to submit a claim with your bank and AFIA. Do not use them.

My husband was in a not at fault accident. It was clearly not his fault and a guy ran up the back of him. Budget were terrible to deal with and kept calling trying to say it was my husband’s fault. Got a different person from overseas who had no idea every single time they called. They reluctantly did their job after months of hassle. I do not recommend.

Hired a car from Melbourne airport on 18th August for two days. The car had a flat battery and RACV was called. Advised by RACV that it was a very old battery and needed replacing. I replaced the battery and budget will not reimburse the costs. RACV also advised that the bill went directly to budget and they would pay, standard procedure. Budget debited my card without my approval. I would recommend another car provider, they have been very unhelpful.

Thank you Perth Australia Airport Budget and WA state office. I had accidentally left 2 valuable items I the hire car upon returning it at Perth Airport office. I only realised this once on my flight where I was able to send an email via inflight email to try and locate it in the car. Yvette (Fleet Mgr from State office) was very helpful and was able to locate it quickly. I was not sure I would see these 2 items again due to their attractiveness but I was very grateful that they were handed in to lost property. Thankyou Yvette for your help.

I booked a car with this company 4 months in advance and had a fair price confirmed.
2 months before I did their PreCheck with driving license etc and the price suddenly shot up to the current price. I'm very pleased this happened now and not when I got to the desk. I found out that even with a confirmed booking your price is not guaranteed even if nothing has changed. Don't trust this company, I will never use this company again anywhere around the world. I wrote to complain and didn't get an answer apart from an automated answer.

Budget Irvine, CA – Reservation Never Cancelled, Refund Promised But Never Received

I’m extremely disappointed with my experience at the Budget branch in Irvine, California. On May 25th, I went in person to cancel a reservation. The staff assured me on the spot that it would be cancelled and that I’d receive a confirmation email along with a refund shortly after.

That was over a month ago, and nothing has happened. No cancellation email, no refund, nothing. Since then I’ve called and emailed multiple times, and every time I’m told the same thing — that it’s “being processed” and the refund is “on its way.” It’s now July 6th, more than 40 days later, and I’m still out my money with zero resolution.

I have documentation from that day supporting my account of the visit. At this point it feels like I’m being given the same script every time I follow up, with no actual action behind it. I would not recommend relying on in-person cancellations at this location, and I’d strongly caution anyone dealing with Budget to get everything in writing immediately — verbal promises clearly mean nothing here.

I’ll update this review if the issue is finally resolved, but as of now, this has been a frustrating and costly experience.

Budget sydney airport !! Do not go there, we have been badly treated. The guy was so bad with us. Avoid that place

I booked a vehicle for hire from July 14 - July 23, not realizing the booking needed to be in my husbands name. When I called to have his name put on the booking, I was told I needed to create a whole new booking, and pay with his card. As our accounts are the same (separate cards) Visa Debit, I was told the booking fee $1500 would be debited in 7-10 business days. In other words - we would be paying $1500 twice today which seems absurd. The only other option was to pay a $80 cancellation fee.
This is an unfair policy which is not made clear during the booking process or given the option to edit during the reservation review. Terrible support by staff.

I had the worst experience with budget car hire Brisbane airport on 24th and 26th April 2026 started with bookings.com. selected a wild car paid $369 and $200 deposit I call up budget to confirm $200 deposit, the customer service representative which I could hardly understand confirmed and said that they would send an email to me to confirm it was only $200 but I never received it, twice that happened. as I stated I called a second time for budget a day later for them to tell me that I'm a local renter? has anyone heard of this? it means if you live within 100km of the pickup hire car company is the deposit changes to $1100. Now who has that kind of deposit is Ludacris, you should have that money for your holidays and travel not car deposits! So I had to cancel my booking unfortunately. the problem is my ID states I live 100km within the budget car rentals Brisbane airport so apparently that makes me a local renter but I moved to Mackay in last month so I haven't had time to get my address changed on my licence so that's an issue for them,vi have to provide documentation on current address. I feel you budget car hire Brisbane airport need to be more transparent with your policies and fine print. stop deceiving your customers and you might have more off them...

Terrible!
We bookwd a car using Uber rental, when booking was confirmed, Uber send us a message saying that be at airport budget at 8:00 pm with your drivers license and 200 dollar as deposit. We paid 70 dollars for taxi to get there and when wanted to pick up the car, their manager Fabio said that you must pay 1500 as deposit! When we showed them the uber confirmation and policy, he said that its your problem with uber, our policy is different! and we cant do anything!
Then I showed them this platform and said your reviews are very bad and your clients are not happy, he said I don't care.
An unbelievably terrible and disappointing experience.
Fara

I am a long term client with Budget Avis. It's not that their car are clean/new, but most of the time we return it without trouble. (We once had a very old MG with Budget Avis Melbourne).

Yet, this is the time make me leave a bad review. First, with so many previous experiences with them, this is the time they had little reminder and took extra time in processing everything (because of system) which is understandable.

But what surprises us is simply the outstanding upon car return, no reason, just a difference in the number that they already took that money from your card. When you emailed them about it, it took them 1 month to reply 'read the rental agreement yourself'. What kind of service are we talking about???

they are by far the worst experience i have ever had renting a car. DO NOT RENT ANY CARS FROM THEM.

I booked a Rental Car through Budget Australia for a holiday in the UK.
While in the UK and due to a change of plans, I wanted to pick up the car a day early and with the same original drop off date and time. I sent them an email with the request.
I also asked for an Automatic instead of a Manual.
It would take them 12 to 24 hours to respond and all they did was answer my question with another question. I would answer and obviously my response went to the bottom of the pile again. after a couple of days of this, I realised I was getting responses from a number of agents. No-one took ownership of my query.
I tried using thier Chat Line. They could not answer my query but said if I resent the email, they would look at it "immediately." 6 hours later another email with more stupid questions like - " we have 2 cars - which one do you want?" I asked for prices and they replied without prices and said, " we have 2 cars, which one do you want?"
I finally phoned from the UK and they made the new booking. Excellent - or so I thought.
Then I get another email 6 hours later offering me the same car at $80.00 less!
After this and 20 emails, I gave up.
I booked a car with another international supplier. I got my car of choice and an Automatic at no extra cost and it took 10 minutes.
Budget Australia is the most disorganised and incompetent call centre I have ever tried to deal with, and I have dealt with some idiots in my time.

I hired a car for 3 -4 days in New Zealand. Took a video of the car when returning it to the undercover garage. Next day received a call from a general Budget toll-free number "There's cracks in the windscreen, we're billing your credit card". Tried to return call but on hold for half an hour. Visited the Budget office where we'd left car before going to the airport to fly home. Was told they'd sent photos to my email - they hadn't. Budget had, however, sent other information to the same email. Showed us photos of the windscreen on their files - not of the whole car or with the numberplate, just a windscreen. Offered to show us the car then realised it had already been 'taken away for repairs'. Wouldn't accept my video of the car as it had been left the previous night. I will never use Budget again and will advise friends not to either. I don't believe there was any windscreen damage; Budget ripped me off. Poor service in every way.

Cynical over and extra chargers bordering on scam.

Ask for paperwork and check everything.

Car was very ordinary and not clean.

Manager was unprofessional.

I booked a van from hopper’s crossing branch nd this wasn’t my first time from them.
But when a was there to pick up today I was denied just because I was using my company card and the receptionist (Azoo) was way out of tone and denied to give the van
I have never had any issues before as I been using the same card always for payment.
Really disappointed with this kind of behaviour and service from this particular branch receptionist

I am currently in an unresolved dispute with this insurer Budget Direct /Auto General following authorised repairs to my vehicle.
The core issue is that I did not receive what was quoted and authorised, and the insurer has been unable to provide evidence that I did.
The approved repair quote specified new replacement parts. However, the vehicle was returned with components that appear repaired or reused, including panels that show signs of panel beating rather than replacement. Despite repeated requests, I was not provided with a repair report, itemised invoice, part numbers, or confirmation that new parts were supplied.
The vehicle was also returned with ongoing and worsened issues, including electrical faults and alignment problems. When I raised concerns that the completed work did not align with the authorised quote, I was told I would need to fund independent diagnostics myself to establish causation — even though the insurer authorised and paid for the repairs without verifying completion.
This has left me with a vehicle that I cannot reasonably say was restored to pre-loss condition, and an insurer that appears unable to demonstrate that the quoted new-part repairs it paid for were actually delivered.
This matter is now with AFCA. Based on my experience, I would strongly caution anyone with a complex claim to consider whether they are comfortable proceeding without clear proof that authorised new parts and repairs will actually be provided.

Overcharged for rental
Poor customer service at counter
Poor complaints management processes
Failure to followup complaint when it acknowledged as received by computer twice and no followup after 10 days
Months later and nothing from budget

At first, everything seemed great — the car was clean, comfortable, and the pickup process was smooth. I thought I was getting a good deal and was happy with the rental overall during my trip. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when it came time to return the vehicle.
After handing the car back in perfect condition and on time, I was shocked to discover several unexpected charges added to my bill. There was no clear explanation at the counter, and when I tried to question the extra costs, I was met with vague answers and unhelpful responses. What started as a reasonably priced rental quickly turned into a much more expensive and frustrating experience.
The hidden fees and lack of transparency really left a bad impression. I’ve rented from other companies before and never had to deal with this kind of surprise at the end. It’s incredibly disappointing to feel misled after being satisfied with everything else.
Because of this experience, I’ve lost trust in Budget Rent a Car and will definitely be shopping around next time. I’d strongly recommend anyone considering renting from them to read the fine print carefully — what looks like a good deal at first might end up costing you much more than expected.

WORST SERVICE! DO NOT GO WITH THIS INSURANCE.

Spent an hour on the phone to get my ex off my policy, they didn't do it properly.

Called multiple times, still nothing.

CAN'T EVEN LOG IN TO THE ONLINE PORTAL TO LODGE A CLAIM.

Chat AI "bot' gives no help what so ever, just sends me a link to the page i can't log in to.

Paying around $170 a month for a headache.