Some rental brands earn a mixed reputation — genuinely split reviews, a real base of satisfied repeat customers alongside real complaints. Rhodium isn’t quite that. Across hundreds of reviews on Trustpilot spanning several years, a strikingly consistent pattern emerges: unauthorized charges after return, aggressive insurance upselling that overrides insurance customers already paid for, and disputed damage claims with paperwork that reviewers describe as manipulated or mismatched. This review says that plainly, upfront, because a reader deciding whether to book deserves that clarity before the details.
This is based on published customer reviews across Trustpilot (both rhodiumcar.es and rhodiumcar.com, together representing hundreds of reviews), TripAdvisor’s Portugal and Algarve forums, and general knowledge of how the brand operates. We haven’t rented from Rhodium for this piece — the volume and consistency of the complaints made that unnecessary to establish the pattern, though we’ve noted the more positive accounts too, since they exist and deserve mention.
What Rhodium actually is
Rhodium operates as one of several brand names — alongside Goldcar and others — used somewhat interchangeably at the same desks, with the same staff, and often the same shuttle and office as Goldcar specifically. Multiple reviewers describe booking with “Rhodium” online only to find the actual pickup counter, shuttle, and vehicle branded Goldcar, with no clear distinction between the two in practice. This matters because it means Rhodium’s reputation and Goldcar’s are, for most practical purposes in Portugal, the same reputation — and Goldcar has its own long, separately documented history of similar complaints across Faro and Lisbon.
The pattern that shows up again and again
Read enough reviews and the same handful of tactics repeat with almost identical detail across different years and different reviewers. Counter staff insisting a prepaid insurance policy — bought through Rhodium itself or a third party — isn’t valid, and pressuring customers into a second policy on the spot, sometimes described as bullying or refusing to hand over the keys until the customer agreed. Deposit holds far beyond what was disclosed at booking, including one detailed account of a €1,600 hold taken despite the customer having already purchased and shown proof of insurance. Damage disputes where the pre-existing damage diagram given at pickup reportedly didn’t match the actual vehicle, with charges appearing on the customer’s card well after return, for damage the customer says was never there or was already documented.
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Payment method disputes come up too — several reviewers describe being told, contrary to the company’s own published terms, that a debit card couldn’t be used for the deposit, which conveniently required purchasing extra insurance to lower the deposit instead. And more than one reviewer describes canceled bookings and no refund after a flight delay, with phone lines that reportedly went unanswered during the exact window a delayed traveler would need to call.
What’s fair to say on the other side
Not every review is a horror story. A handful of reviewers describe genuinely friendly, helpful counter staff and straightforward, no-issue pickups — the kind of experience that reads no differently from any other budget operator on a good day. This is worth including because it’s true, but it doesn’t change the overall picture: the negative reviews aren’t vague one-off complaints, they’re detailed, specific, and repeated by different people across different years with the same core tactics, which is a meaningfully different pattern from ordinary customer-service inconsistency.
If you’ve already booked with Rhodium
If a booking’s already made — often the case when a broker or comparison site routes you to Rhodium without your realizing it until confirmation — the reviews point to a fairly clear defensive playbook. Photograph and video the entire car before you touch it, including a date-stamped walkaround, and don’t sign anything until you’ve compared the printed damage diagram to the actual vehicle in daylight if at all possible. If staff claim your existing insurance isn’t valid, ask for that claim in writing and calmly decline to purchase a second policy — several successful reviewers describe standing firm on this exact point. Pay with a credit card rather than debit specifically because credit card chargebacks are the recovery method multiple reviewers describe successfully using after being overcharged; several report banks reversing unauthorized charges once a dispute was filed with evidence. Keep every document, and if a charge appears after you’ve returned home, dispute it with your card issuer promptly rather than relying on the company’s own customer service, which reviewers consistently describe as unresponsive.
What past customers say worked to get money back
Among the reviews describing successful resolutions, a clear pattern emerges that’s worth repeating on its own. Credit card chargebacks come up more than any other remedy — several reviewers describe their bank reversing an unauthorized charge once they submitted photo evidence, the original booking confirmation showing prepaid insurance, and a clear timeline of what happened. This tends to work better and faster than waiting on Rhodium’s own customer service, which multiple reviewers describe as unresponsive to emails and unreachable by phone during exactly the periods disputes tend to arise.
If you booked through a broker or comparison site — Rentalcars.com, Booking.com, or similar — rather than directly, that broker can sometimes act as an intermediary and has, in a few documented cases, refunded a customer directly when Rhodium itself wouldn’t engage. It’s worth raising a dispute with the broker in parallel with your card issuer rather than relying on just one channel. Formal complaints to Portugal’s tourist police or consumer protection body are mentioned by a few reviewers as a further step, though the reviews suggest a card chargeback backed by solid documentation is the most consistently effective route.
Rhodium/Goldcar vs. other budget operators
| Rhodium / Goldcar | Interrent | Other budget operators (Firefly, Thrifty, etc.) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Very low headline price | Low, competitive | Low to mid |
| Complaint severity | Frequent, severe, and consistent across years | Frequent, mainly damage-dispute focused | Mixed, generally less severe |
| Insurance upsell pressure | Described as aggressive, sometimes coercive | Standard pitch per most reviews | Standard pitch |
| Deposit disputes | Common and often large amounts | Less frequently reported | Less frequently reported |
| Recommended approach | Consider paying more for a different operator | Document thoroughly, consider extra excess cover | Standard precautions |
Is Rhodium worth the savings?
The honest answer, based on the weight of the evidence: for most travelers, no. The headline price is real, but the volume and consistency of serious complaints — unauthorized charges, coercive insurance sales, disputed deposits — represent a meaningfully higher risk than almost any other operator covered on this site, including other budget brands with their own share of complaints. If a Rhodium or Goldcar booking is unavoidable, or already made through a broker that assigned it without much choice, go in prepared with the defensive steps above and a credit card ready for a potential chargeback. If you have any flexibility at all, the price difference to book a different operator — even another budget brand — is, based on what shows up in these reviews, one of the better-justified upgrades you can make for a Portugal road trip.
