Last Updated on 25 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! For my most recent hire car usage I’ve been using Europcar when travelling in Portugal, and was pleased with what was an easy service. Europcar also have a loyalty scheme, called Europcar Privilege For You (formerly named Europcar Privilege Club) so I thought I would write up a review and our classic usual question of if we think the service is worth your time.
Please note this post is affiliate – if you click a link on this page we may earn a small fee for it. Per our editorial policy it doesn’t affect what we write (we cover the good and bad) and we only review services we’ve used ourselves. Your trust as readers is something we take very seriously!
What is Europcar Privilege For You?
Europcar Privilege for You is a classic “benefits” as you use it loyalty scheme. Each time you hire a car you’ll be registered as having accumulated both a rental period and rental days. As you use it multiple times, you’ll earn rewards, either for free car usage or other benefits like car upgrades or a free additional driver.
Your rewards are earned through two streams – some (usually the money off vouchers) are earned when simply hitting a number of rentals.
Others are more permanent benefits when reaching a new “tier” of membership within the Europcar Privilege for you program.
How do I earn points with Europcar Privilege for You?
You’ll earn points on a 1 Euro spent equates to 1 point basis. If you’re not paying in Euros, a currency conversion will be applied.
How does the Europcar Privilege For You Tier System Work?
As you take more rentals, or rental days you activity will be logged against your account to automatically record your status.
We cover below in further detail what each Tier gets you in terms of benefits – this is just what to need to get there!
- For Level 1 (Discoverer) benefits you simply need to sign up.
- For Level 2 (Traveller), you need to accumulate above 999 points
- For Level 3 (Adventurer), you need to accumulate above 3000 points
- For Level 4 (Navigator) you need to accumulate about 10000 points.
In terms of timings needed – your points will stay constant so long as you have made at least one booking within the year.
What benefits do I get from Europcar Privilege For You?
The specific benefits earned by Europcar Privilege For You members vary depending on what tier level you are – but unlike many loyalty schemes the rewards at the basic level (which you qualify for on signup, you don’t have to have done a rental) are pretty good.
Using Europcar Privilege for you Points
The first thing to note is that you’re earn points at each level.
These can be cashed in at checkout for additional services – at the most simple these are money off, but often the best value items are to add on extras if you’d buy them anyhow (like an additional driver).
As you accumulate points these will also start to boost your tier rating based on how many you’ve earned overall during your time using Europcar.
Benefits at Level 1 Discoverer with Europcar Privilege For You
10% off Europcar Bookings made direct
Worth signing up for even if you only plan to use the service one, a booking made with Europcar directly with save 10% on the main website price.
Advance Check In (Faster Vehicle Pickup)
This sounds a bit of a meaningless reward, but based on my usage in Portugal I would say it’s actually one of the most valuable! This is where you have your documentation checked and verified in advance before travelling.
There were about 30 people waiting in a queue system at the airport for the car, but when I checked in I found myself at the head of the queue and had my car in 5 minutes. (I did get some looks!)
A 15% discount at Accor Hotels
Europcar have a partnership at present with Accor Hotels which can get you a nice discount on a stay. You can also combine this with Accor Live Limitless, Accor’s Hotel Loyalty Programme which we’ve written about the link.
Bonus Rewards at various steps
You’ll also earn interim bonuses at various points multiples, which are usually in the form of a money or percentage off discount on a future booking.
Benefits at Level 2 Traveller with Europcar Privilege For You
You will also receive all benefits listed at Discover (level 1).
10% Extra Points
A slightly increased points earning rate is the only real benefit of stepping up the level at this point.
Benefits at Level 3 Adventurer with Europcar Privilege For You
As before, benefits at the previous levels will still apply.
A free Vehicle Upgrade
As ever this will be subject to availability, but you’ll be offered a free vehicle category upgrade if you wish.
A Free additional Driver
It’s always an annoying extra cost when travelling abroad, but at this level you can add an additional driver for free in order to share the load with a friend or partner.
20% Extra Points on Each Rental
And at this level you’ll earn an additional 20% on points on each rental.
A Double free Vehicle Upgrade
Still subject to availability, but at this point you’ll get a double free upgrade if you choose to redeem it.
30% Extra Points on Each Rental
At the points benefit also takes another upturn here to push us into a 30% extra points per rental.
Invitations to Europcar Events
Apparently you’ll also get invitations to special Europcar events – although I haven’t spent enough with Europcar myself to hit this level so I have no ideas what these are like and if they do actually happen! (Anyone who has, please write in the comments)
So is Europcar Privilege For You worth it?
It’s worth signing up for as the basic level benefits are themselves good, but requires business/heavy use to be at all likely to see the high tier benefits.
Whilst most leisure travellers are unlikely to do enough car hire make it to the higher tiers, we like Europcar Privilege For You because most of the key benefits can actually be found at the basic level, meaning we think it’s a programme well worth signing up for.
The real winners are the discount on booking direct (in my experience to date this was competitive even when trying to hunt for a better deal) and the priority car pickup. If travelling in the busy summer months or to a popular destination, that last one really is a huge time saver. The free weekend offer is also a nice perk.
If you’re a business traveller or hit the elite tiers the various benefits do provide some good extra perks, with the car upgrades and free additional drivers the highlights.
Other FAQ’s on Europcar Privilege For You
How do I sign up to Europcar Privilege For You?
You can sign up at the Europcar website here.
Is Europcar Privilege For You free to join?
Yes, it’s completely free to sign up for, and you can sign up before doing you’ve done a car rental rather than needing to complete one first.
Can I use Europcar Privilege For You outside the UK?
Yes, whilst we’ve focused on benefits from a UK side given our location, you can sign up to Europcar Privilege Club across most of mainland Europe where Europcar operates.
Can I use Europcar Privilege For You with Goldcar?
Europcar do have a budget arm run as a separate company called Goldcar.
You cannot earn Europcar Privilege For You credit for any reservations with Goldcar.
We’ve also heard of a number of examples of poor customer service involving GoldCar who have quite a few issues in this space, and so it’s not a company we recommend using despite often being the cheapest option on comparison sites.
Any questions?
Just let us know if you have any questions about using Privilege For You and we’ll be happy to try and help!
Looking to save money on car hire in general?
Please do check out our general article on how to save money on car hire!
And that’s it!
Thank you for reading! You can sign up below to get our new articles delivered to you on a range of financial topics, or remember you can follow our Facebook and Twitter pages.
I’ve also been using Europcar recently, and find this information very useful.
One question:
Do you move up the tiers automatically as soon as you meet each category requirements, or do have to ask Europcar for the upgrade?
Hi Anthony, thank you so much for reading and glad you found the article useful!
Yes, you move up the tiers automatically, but need to have your rentals logged against your account. If you go to the [eafl id="9972" name="Europcar" text="Europcar"] website here, click Menu then My Account and sign in you’ll be able to see how many days they have registered against you and what tier they consider you.
If you have your booking references, their team can also add on you appear to be missing to make sure you get any credits you’re owed.
I have been a Privilege member for 6+ years now and have reached the UPPER level in the program. Not very happy with it. One of the main benefits is the car upgrade but 3 out of 5 times I don’t get an upgrade even if I persist about getting it. There are times that I don’t really need it so I don’t mind.
I fully understand if there is no availability but it HAPPENS very often which puts you in doubt if this really is a benefit. I get almost the same number of upgrades in other companies by not being a member with them.
Europcar staff comes up with all sort of excuses for not providing an upgrade:
– Season too busy
– Rental period longer than 6-7 days so they cannot provide an upgrade (YES I heard that too)
– no availability etc etc
– Ah sorry, in city centres we don’t do upgrades frequently, only airports. Airports then say the same. 😀
The “strange” thing is that these excuses appear throughout the year, even during the lowest of seasons. All in all, the company is trying to save money everywhere and the program is not really worth the “loyalty”. Many times I can find more competitive prices for the same car, with other big rental companies.
I think what you get from Privilege Club will depend on where you are in the world and what branch you use and how well they know you. There often seems to be some mismatch between different countries. Here in the Uk they seem to be also calling it “Privilege Loyalty Programme”. According to the very bottom of the page the perk of the priority pass service for airports has gone from the 23rd Feb 2025 although existing cards are valid till they expire. Europcar websites are constantly changing and at present you cannot access details of how many rentals have counted towards your tier level. Maybe you can in the app? Terms and conditions for the scheme seem to trail behind whats often indicated online. Currently they are dated 2022!
Dont assume a second driver details that you have used before will be automatically added as they computer drops them off and you have to ask to make sure they have been added to the hire.
Actual discounts for being a member can vary between 10 -25%. The website link from the discount vouchers that come via email may not be the best price!
Seems to be some confusion over the maximum number of days you can hire for certain benefits. Uk sites say upto 20 days and some other countries say 21. Worth trying both periods when booking as can make a considerable difference to total price if discount drops from 25% for 20 days to only 15% for 21.