Europcar Gozen charges

greenbunny_12345

Does anyone have any experience in being charged a Go zen charge by Europcar?
We hired a car at Nice airport and the rental agent led me to believe I was signing for a security deposit and no money would be taken from my credit card however I was actually signing for a 'Gozen' charge and the money was taken from my credit card.
Europcar are refusing to refund the money (250euros) because I signed for it (the document was in French).
I have been to my credit card company and the British vehicle and leasing Association (BVRLA) none of which are interested. 

anonymous_mee

This exact thing has just happened to me - also at Nice airport, last month.  I am disputing the charge - will keep you posted.  We already have separate cover from Questor and said we did not want insurance. At no point did the man behind the desk tell us that we were being charged for it! We picked up our car on the 13 September - I suspect we both encountered the same rental agent

CARHIRESCANDAL

This exact thing has happened to me also at NICE AIRPORT - we hired a car from 5th - 12th September 2025.
I have disputed my charge through ZEST based in UK (Who I made my booking with) and after three weeks they replied that Europcar had said that as I had signed for the cover and already had the benefit a refund wasn't an option.
I then contacted Europcar directly at "FR_customerservice@europcar.com" and got a similar response.
My issues are
1. I had taken a much cheaper (but equally comprehensive) policy from ZEST - I told the Europcar employee this and he advised me that this was fine - their cover was optional.
2. I was given a document to sign in many places. I noted that lines named "Protec. Dommages" and "Protection Vol" were showing Nil sums due but there was a line called GoZen that was showng €202.86. I was asked to sign by this sum. I had no idea what GoZen was but thought I was signing for the car hire - not insurance. The form was all in French and with the benefit of hindsight I feel it was designed to mislead.
3.I was told that as I had had the benefit of the cover a refund could not be considered. I dispute this as I didn't know I had the cover and would therefore not have pursued a claim, even if an incident had occurred.   
4. I had taken out top-up cover from Zest so I could never legally claim on GoZen as I would potentially be claiming twice for one incident - which I believe is classed as Fraud.
5. I was asked for a card swipe of my credit card to cover accident damage. I believe that it is this card-swipe that has been used to cover the GoZen premium. It is my belief that the card swipe was only to be used for accident damage - and not for other costs e.g. GoZen premium
6. I told the Europcar employee that I had taken extra cover through Zest, and so even if I had requested his extra insurance, he should surely have pointed out that even if I have two identical policies, I can only claim once, or will need to make a 50% claim from each policy. 
7. I note that the debit on my credit card was applied on the day I returned my hire car. From my experience with insurance companies, cover does not normally commence until the relevant premium has been paid. Most strange. 
It seems that here are three of us on this forum with identical claims. I am going to bring this to the attention of my contact at Zest and take their guidance on the way forward.
If there has been any further developments since the two posts above were made I would welcome an update from you. I am not going to give up on this as I feel we have been scammed.

jbrassy

I'm speculating, but could they have kept back some of your deposit to cover any toll roads you drove through? It's quite common when hiring on the continent.