Car Rental Scams in Greece You Want to Avoid (And How to Beat Them)

Greece is an incredible country to explore by car, but a handful of rental scams catch out travellers every single year. Here are the five scams in Greece and one sneaky trap you’re most likely to run into, and exactly how to avoid each one.

The Pre-Existing Damage Claim

This is one of the worst scams you’ll come across when renting a car in Greece, and it can cost you up to €1,000 for a couple of small scratches you never actually made.

Very simple: you pick up the car with scratches and bumps that are not fully documented on the contract. At drop-off, they claim you caused them. Honestly, sometimes, it’s hard to document all the small damages; you may be in a rush, or you pick up the car in a dark environment.

The fix is simple: photograph the car thoroughly the moment you pick it up. Front, back, both sides, the roof, underneath, and the interior. Pay particular attention to the front and back bumpers, since that’s usually where these claims get made.

My tip: make these photos at both pickup and drop-off time. Also include the fuel level on the dashboard. In this way you have full before/after documentation.

Those photos are your proof the damage existed before you drove off, so you won’t end up paying for something you didn’t do. I’d also always take full insurance in Greece regardless, since it covers this scenario even if your documentation isn’t perfect.

Charged for a Scratch You Could Barely See

The second version of this scam is being charged a large amount, sometimes €500, €700, or even €1,000, for a genuinely tiny scratch that you made.

As a rule of thumb, marks smaller than about 1.5 to 2cm shouldn’t be chargeable at all under most rental agreements. Anything bigger than that, including small dents, is where companies start quoting real money.

Full insurance is the simplest way around this, since it covers these smaller scratches and dents outright.

For the last five years I’ve been booking my cars on DiscoverCars, a comparative website which ranks every provider in Greece from 5 to 10 stars based on real customer feedback.

I filter above 8 stars to shortlist the most trustworthy companies, and, so far, I’ve never been disappointed. Full insurance through that site runs about €8 to €10 a day, and it’s genuinely saved my holiday more than once.

Trustworthy providers + affordable full insurance = no worries experience

The Insurance Upsell at the Counter

This one usually happens right at the pickup desk, where staff try to sell you their own custom full insurance, typically €20 to €50 a day depending on the company and car.

The catch is that it doesn’t always cover everything. Wheel damage, for example, is sometimes excluded. But you’re standing at the counter under pressure, and it’s easy to sign without reading the fine print properly.

My advice is to never buy insurance at the counter. Sort it out when you book instead, so you have time to actually read the terms. If you’re unsure what’s covered, upload the PDF to an AI tool and ask it to summarise exactly what’s excluded.

You’ll often find the insurance you arrange in advance through DiscoverCars covers more than what’s offered at the desk, which makes the upsell even less worth it.

The Fuel Policy Trap

Most rentals use a full-to-full policy, meaning you get the car full and return it full. Like-for-like is similar; you return it with roughly the same level you picked it up with. Both of these are fair.

Empty-to-empty is a little more annoying, since you’ll need to find a petrol station immediately and return the car empty, which is hard to time exactly and usually costs you some leftover fuel.

The one to really watch for is full-to-empty. It happened to me when I rented a car in Rhodes. You’re charged for a full tank upfront, usually 10 to 15% above market price, and then expected to return the car empty. In practice, you get charged twice.

The Late Return Penalty

Most rental companies give you a grace period of about an hour. Go past that, and you can be charged for half a day, a full extra day, or even hit with a penalty fee on top.

It’s a fair rule in principle, since the next customer may be waiting on that same car. But flights get delayed, and traffic happens, so it pays to plan around it.

I personally build in an hour to an hour and a half of buffer. If my flight is at 10 am and check-in closes at 8 am, I’ll set my drop-off time for 9 am, so a normal delay still keeps me inside the free window.

I experienced a late return when I rented a car in Naxos (I just didn’t hear the alarm bell). I straightaway called the rental company explaining my delay. It was just 30 minutes delay, but I believe the call alone avoided an extra charge, since it gave them time to plan around it.

The Sneaky APO Surcharge

The APO, or airport surcharge, is the one real trap in this list rather than a scam outright. If it’s already built into your quote when you book, that’s completely fine; you know what you’re paying for.

What’s genuinely annoying is arriving at the desk and being told there’s a surprise €30, €40, or even €50 airport charge you weren’t expecting, with no real option but to pay it.

I always message the provider directly to confirm there’s no APO surcharge before I book. That’s what I did when I was renting a car in Crete, and found out there was a €40 APO charge to be paid on site. I cancelled and looked for another operator.

Honestly, to avoid this issue, I typically look at off-site companies instead, since they’re based just outside the airport and pick you up by free shuttle in about five to seven minutes, usually at a lower rental price too.

If You Do Get Overcharged Anyway

If one of these does slip through and you’re charged unfairly, you’re not completely out of options. A few routes are worth knowing about before you travel.

Keep every photo, email, and receipt from the rental. That paperwork is exactly what these bodies, and your card issuer, will ask for if a dispute ever goes anywhere.

Sometimes it’s better to rent through a comparison website as they will typically deal with these kinds of issues.

Being aware of these six traps before you land in Greece puts you in a much stronger position than most travellers. A bit of preparation at booking time saves a lot of frustration at the counter, and if you’ve run into a different scam here, I’d genuinely like to hear about it.

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