I made a reservation with NextCar at the Orlando airport through Expedia, for a trip in February 2026. The reservation was for 4 days at a total of $188.17 and I prepaid $135, with the remaining $53.17 to be paid at pick up. I had read reviews about needing to show your personal insurance at pick up to avoid extra charges and I was prepared with a printout of my USAA insurance, which is one of the 'allowable' insurance companies that Next Car accepts.
When I arrive to pick up the car there was not a live agent but rather I had to go into what resembled a large telephone booth in order to talk to a remote agent on a screen. Long story short, even with my USAA insurance in hand, she wanted to charge me an ADDITIONAL $267.13 for some ridiculously bogus reason that I still don't understand. Something along the lines of because my deductibles totaled $2000, this charge was required so that in case of an accident I would only have a $500 deductible. I declined their 'offer' and confirmed I was quite happy with my personal insurance coverage. Regardless, the extra $267.13 was required in order for me to rent the car. I pressed a lot further to get a reasonable explanation for this completely surprising and ridiculous charge and even pulled up the Terms & Conditions on my phone to show her that they included nothing about this charge (after she said "it's in the Terms & Conditions when you rented the car.") I also tried to talk to the guy at the desk outside the phone booth, whose job was to provide me with the keys once the transaction was complete, and he was not only of no help, but incredibly rude and also tried to justify the extra cost basically saying "if you don't like it we can cancel your reservation." So that is exactly what I did - and instead went next door to Advance Rent a Car, which was more expensive (given I did not have a reservation) but their real live agent, Tina, was wonderful, professional, and very understanding, and personally walked with me out to the car to make sure everything was satisfactory.
My experience was not unique - during my time in the Next Car office I or my children witnessed two other couples having similar negative experiences. One couple cancelled their reservation on the spot like I did, and the other relented and paid the fees only because they had 4 children with them and didn't feel like they had any other option.
Regarding the $135 I had prepaid on the reservation, I contacted NextCar who said that I needed to work with Expedia on the refund since I rented through a 3rd party. When I contacted Expedia, they opened a case for me but said that they'd need authorization from NextCar that the reservation was cancelled since the cancellation was not processed through the Expedia site. It's been one week since I first contacted Expedia and they're still awaiting a response from NextCar, which I doubt they'll ever receive. So now I'm moving on to disputing the $135 charge directly with my credit card company.
I'm guessing the surprising and unexplainable charges are not unique to the Orlando airport office, so I would NOT recommend Next Car at all.
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