Atlas Choice gone bust in the last days of 2016

By late December 2016, it became clear that one of the most price-aggressive brokering services in the car rental business had gone bankrupt.

Atlas Choice defaulted on payments to suppliers around 20th of December 2016 after which suppliers like Budget, Easirent, Thrifty, Sixt and others saw no other option than charging customers who turned up with worthless Atlas Choice vouchers.

Furthermore, it transpired that Atlas Choices was behind with payments to suppliers, so even November booking-vouchers with Atlas Choice may not be honoured. Customers who booked many more months in advance may also be affected.

According to Autorentalnews.com, the online travel-business TravelSupermarket stopped advertising Atlas Choice rates around the 1^st of December 2016 after Atlas Choice missed a payment.

Lots of British customers affected
Atlas Choice had been active since 1999 and was a well-known company within the rental car brokering business.

It is estimated that Atlas Choice going bust has affected thousands of customers all over Europe and the US. The main business, however, was based on British customers; many of which found Atlaschoice offers through the popular TravelSupermarket price comparison site which is owned by MoneySupermarket Group.

The travel price comparison service Skyscanner.com is known to have facilitated a large number of Atlas Choice bookings too.

Also many German, Polish and Irish customers were caught out when Atlas Choice went bust. The AtlasChoice web site in Germany was called Atlasoption.de.

Atlas Choice not paying - what are the options for recovering money at a bankruptcy?
Customers with worthless vouchers from Atlas Choice are advised to contact the issuer of the credit card used for the online purchase transaction. If the purchase took place more than 4 months ago (120 days), the chances for obtaining refunds are slim.

If a debit card was used as means of payment when booking the car, there is little chance of recovering funds at all when Atlas Choice not paying.

AtlasChoice Trustpilot - reviews still active?
In a strange turn of events, Atlas Choice still received a few 5-star top reviews on evaluation service Trustpilot.com late December 2016 - and even a few top 5 star evaluations in January 2017. Is there more fraud going on?

At Find-Cheap-Car-Hire.co.uk we assume it is a mistake, but for some reason Trustpilot, by January 9th 2017, still gave Atlas Choice an acceptable review of average 6,2 (yellow) and quote the following on the Atlas Choice Trustpilot page: “AtlasChoice – your Number One Choice for Car Rentals, Hotels and Travel Insurance!” 

Trustpilot Atlas Choice Review - screenshot taken on January 9, 2017.
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