I was scammed by a taxi driver on a visit to Budapest – follow this golden rule to make sure you don’t

An Irish tourist has revealed how she can avoid being overcharged for a taxi ride in Budapest after being ‘ripped off’ on holiday.

Kerry Mitchell, from Dublin, posted a TikTok under her handle @kerryeatsduband it has already been seen by more than 177,000 people.

She told viewers: “So last night I got scammed in Budapest. This is just an announcement of general interest to everyone – and I already knew this, but I did it anyway.

‘Don’t take a taxi that isn’t on an app, don’t take a taxi from a stand, especially if you’re getting one of the prosecco boat trips.’

The tourist recalled that after the tour, she and her friends were freezing, drunk and hungry and wanted something to eat as quickly as possible, so they chose not to walk.

She explained: ‘I tried to order a Bolt because they mainly use Bolt here and it arrived but it was about a ten minute walk away so I thought, what the hell?

“And there was a taxi stand there, so we went there and asked if they accepted a card.

‘They all wouldn’t take a card, except one. They said, ‘Oh, go to the Mercedes up there.’

‘So we go to the Merceredes and it’s a guy, he’s so nice, he asks us where we’re from, is Budapest much more expensive than Dublin, is it cheaper, blah blah blah.

“He was having a conversation, asking how long we’re going to be here, all that stuff. I thought he was a nice man, even the ten glasses of prosecco didn’t help.’

However, she was cautious and admitted that she looked at the meter ‘all the time’ – having previously been warned about taking taxis in Budapest – and therefore ‘watched’ it too.

Kerry said: ‘It shouldn’t have been more than €20, actually it shouldn’t have been more than €10.

‘Anyway, so we get out, I tap my card, don’t think about it and then we go to eat, go to the bar and I’ll buy something to drink.

“I tapped my card and he said, ‘Oh, you don’t have any money.’

“So it’s almost a week later, this is me when I found out I had no money. He took everything in my Revolut account.”

The tourist’s Revolut bank account was completely emptied of cash, which she later confirmed contained €110. She shared a photo of herself visibly upset after the shocking incident.

Fortunately, however, she had only deposited €110 into her Revolut account. If there had been more cash on it, things could have been much worse.

She explained: ‘I had to cancel and went to the live chat. After an hour and a half I would say I was sitting in the corner of the bar sobbing, I somehow got my money back.

‘They managed to cancel the transaction. They’ve often told me they couldn’t do that.’

She ended the video with a stark warning: “In summary, don’t take taxis off the streets in Budapest or anywhere else, to be honest. Use Bolt when you go to Budapest.

‘All this aside, Budapest scores 10 out of 10 and I actually highly recommend it’.

However, this TikToker is not the only one to fall victim to taxi scams in Europe.

One viewer revealed: ‘This happened to me and my friend in Budapest, he tried to charge us over €100 and he tried to lock us in the car.

“I already had my door locked and told him to push it, and he ran up the road after us and told us he would find us.”

A second wrote: ‘The same thing happened to me: €111 for a two minute ride.’

Meanwhile, a third added: ‘No, I’m not even messing up, this is exactly what happened to us! He came from the Prosecco cruise and went straight to a ruin bar to find he had charged us €90 for a taxi!’

Someone said: ‘Exactly the same thing happened to me and my friend in Budapest, and again the guy was very nice and talkative and then absolutely ripped us off.’

Commentators shared their experiences of other destinations besides Budapest, including Prague, Athens, Amsterdam and Rome.

One viewer wrote: ‘Prague taxi drivers are absolutely the worst I’ve ever had. Such an easy city to explore by tram, but late at night you have no choice but to use taxis.’

Others added: ‘It happened to us in Athens’ and ‘Yes, beware of the overly friendly, talkative guys – especially in Rome’.

The warning comes after a veteran travel blogger was charged six times the going rate for a taxi journey from Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) to the city centre.

Melissa Hie, known online as girleatworld.net, recently blogged about an ‘intimidating’ situation she found herself in with a fake Parisian taxi driver who charged €360 (£312/$387) for a ride.

After refusing to pay the obscene amount, she said the driver became “aggressive” and followed her to her hotel. She only withdrew when she paid him €80.