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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (944 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 944 reviews, last reviewed 16th Jan 2026

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

14% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Good and not too expensive Was looking for good value car insurance and found this one. Not too expensive and so far can’t say anything bad. Very easy to sign up. Reviewed on: 5th September 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

Fell for the Administrative Surcharge Scam I am another of the many who have fallen for the 1st Central Administrative Surcharge Scam..Basically, after the 14 days they contacted me to say that... Read more Reviewed on: 16th January 2026

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About this product

With 1st Central, you can insure a single car or opt for a multicar policy. There’s also a telematics policy.

As standard, you get up to 90 days free cover when driving in Europe. There are five policies to choose from giving different levels of cover: ValueOnline, Online, LegalOnline, PlusOnline and PremierOnline.

1st Central car insurance reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used 1st Central before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

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1st Central Car insurance reviews (944)

Fell for the Administrative Surcharge Scam

I am another of the many who have fallen for the 1st Central Administrative Surcharge Scam..Basically, after the 14 days they contacted me to say that they believe some of my details were not right. They put me on the spot on the phone but Basically they tried to claim my named drivers job title was incorrect... I wasn't aware at first of my named drivers exact title was so when I told them what it was they said there would be a charge for changing it. I then confirmed with my wife that no the original details were correct and told them this an therefore not to change anything.. They then tried to still charge me over £90 for a change that was not made and will not give up.. Reviewed on: 16th January 2026

Extremely poor service, shocking!

I strongly advise you, indeed, I plead with you, to pay a little bit more towards your premium, for peace of mind and a better, more professional service than you will get from 1st Central. Please read about my experience below, where I hope to convince you of their poor practices. I signed up to 1st Central for my car insurance via a price comparison website. I had been a car insurance customer of 1st Central prior to this, but their renewal quote was higher when taken directly!?! 1st Central were the cheapest car insurance provider over more than 4 price comparison websites. When I logged into my 1st Central online account, I could only see my older car insurance policy, but not the newer policy. I thought that this would be uploaded soon by the company. By this point, I had already received an email confirming my policy number and a certificate of motoring insurance, so I was sufficiently reassured. Conveniently, AFTER 14 days of my policy starting, I received threatening emails asking me that I should confirm various details stated on my policy. They FALSELY alleged that I had had driving convictions. They also alleged that I had not mentioned my wife's driving penalty points (one of which was already on my previous policy with them!). When I attempted to view my policy again online (no paper copies are sent), the new policy still was not on my account. The finer details that they were requesting were not confirmed on the initial email with basic information. When I prompted 1st Central to include my newer policy on my online account, I noted that the details that I had inputted on various price comparison websites were not on the policy, e.g. my wife's penalty points and my self-employed status. I could not believe that I had not done this correctly, as I had used those price comparison websites the previous year, and most details were still the same, except the additional 3 points on my wife's licence... which WERE INCLUDED ON THE PRICE COMPARISON SEARCHES I HAD MADE, when I re-checked it, after their allegation. I asked 1st Central, from which price comparison website they obtained my custom, they stated in an email that this was from confused.com. I logged into my confused.com account, which showed "no recent search"! 1st Central dug their heels in and effectively doubled my premium on the spot, stating that the added details increased my premium accordingly. But when I had conducted multiple car insurance searches over the next week, the cheapest car insurance quote was still from 1st Central, very close to the INITIAL premium cost, EVEN when placing all the details they alleged to have caused my car insurance premium to double! This felt exploitative and unfair, so I found a reasonable car insurance alternative, and asked to cancel my car insurance. They implemented the cancellation policy when it is cancelled AFTER 14 days, although I requested the cancellation BEFORE the 14 days from when I could actually view the policy in full, due to their administrative error. There has clearly been an administrative error in the transfer of my inputted details on the price comparison website to 1st Central. But, coupled with their lack of administrative skill, and poor customer service, I would personally rank the service received from them as the worst car insurance experience in my 21 years of using car insurance. Reviewed on: 7th January 2026

Reply from 1st Central Hi Wisam, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We'd like to look into this further for you to help resolve this, please send an email to [email protected] with your policy number a summary of your experience similar to your review and we will look into it. Ashley Response date: 9th January 2026

This company is scamming people out of money.

This company is scamming people out of money. They use illicit abhorrent techniques to force changes to the information you have provided and make up charges, only contacting you after the 14 day cooling off period. I had this policy for 21 days and they wanted to charge me £175 to exit the cover when it was only just over £220 for the entire year!!! Let them answer to the ombudsman. Companies like this do not deserve to survive in this economy. Reviewed on: 29th December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Julia, Thank you for your feedback and we're sorry to hear of your policy issue. If there's anything you'd like us to look into with regards to your policy please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please remember to include your policy number, claims reference number (if applicable), email, name, DOB and details of what's gone wrong and we'll do our best to put it right. Clare Response date: 2nd January 2026

Misleading information

I requested a quote to renew my policy and accepted it over the phone. On the very last day of my cooling-off period (22/12/2025), I received an urgent message saying I needed to contact them, with no prior warning. I was told I had to pay £95 for increased mileage, despite explaining I had quit my job and my mileage had actually decreased — this was completely ignored. When I tried to cancel online, my policy was locked, and although their phone lines were open, the policy analysis team only works Monday to Friday 9–5, so I couldn’t cancel over the weekend also asked to authorise my husband to manage the cancellation as I was busy, but they refused, even though their website and portal clearly allow this — they selectively shared information that suited their interests. I ultimately cancelled my policy as a matter of principle. Overall, this experience was stressful, pressured, and had extremely poor customer service. I would not recommend this insurer due to a lack of transparency and unfair practices. Reviewed on: 24th December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Efie, Thank you for your feedback and we're sorry to hear of your policy issue. If there's anything you'd like us to look into with regards to your policy please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please remember to include your policy number, claims reference number (if applicable), email, name, DOB and details of what's gone wrong and we'll do our best to put it right. Clare Response date: 2nd January 2026

Bad practices to charge customers additional admin

Best price from price comparison and then 3 weeks after policy started queried some dates and wanted extra £75 Reviewed on: 22nd December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi C M, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 23rd December 2025

Took money out of my account but DIDN'T SET UP...

Took money out of my account but DIDN'T SET UP A POLICY Reviewed on: 16th December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Michael, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. Let’s see if we can help put this right for you. Just give our team a call on 0333 043 2066 or speak to us on web chat which can be found on our website. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 8am to 8pm, Sat: 9am to 5pm, Sun: 10am to 2pm. Ashley Response date: 23rd December 2025

If a price is too good to be true, it probably is!

If a price is too good to be true, it probably is. I had read online of 1st central customers claiming that they had their premiums increased and charges shortly after taking out a policy but thought it would give them a try. This company uses shady tactics to add additional premium charges and admin costs. I had used a comparison site to apply for my insurance, and they ask a date of purchase of the vehicle. The comparison site only asked the month and year but if this does not match to your V5C exactly like mine did not, the premium increases and a 50 pound admin charge is added on for the privilege. This is the first time i have ever been asked for a V5C, so this should have raised red flags. Technically in their right to do so, but this is a shady underhand tactic to raise extra income. And it is very clear this happens to many of their customers. This should not matter anyway as you do not need to own a vehicle to insure it. Reviewed on: 10th December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Matt, Thank you for your feedback and we're sorry that your experience hasn't been as positive as we'd hoped. We don't change the information that you input into the Price Comparison Website, so whatever you enter into the PCW is what comes through to us. This is why we give everyone the opportunity to check and amend their details, on our website, prior to payment. All your policy details are checked through various other systems, such as the DVLA and shared insurance motor database, amongst others. If your details are found to be different to those that you put on your policy, when taking it out, we contact you by email and SMS, to check them with you. We're sorry to hear that there was an increase in your premium with the changes needed and we'll pass on your review to help improve our services. Clare Response date: 16th December 2025

1st Central won’t refund me my money

Their website crashed as I was purchasing insurance with the result being two identical policies set up and two payments taken. The issue was raised with them quickly but over a month later they still have not refunded the money and just make excuses. Reviewed on: 7th December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Ben, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. Let’s see if we can help put this right for you. Just give our team a call on 0333 043 2088 or speak to us on web chat which can be found on our website. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 8am to 8pm, Sat: 9am to 5pm, Sun: 10am to 2pm. Ashley Response date: 8th December 2025

AND YET ANOTHER PROBLEM..

I recently was in an accident and my car had been written off. I kept being told over the phone to just transfer my new car over to my current policy when I got one. When I got a quote online using the change the car on my policy feature the breakdown it gave me was ridiculous. They wanted me to pay for a year’s worth of insurance for the new car over 4 months which is when my policy ends as well as paying the current policy I have on my car. I used the web chat to try and talk to someone as I wasn’t understanding this breakdown when they’d been saying transfer a new car I thought it would just let me pay for the new one until the policy ran out. The person they connected me to (Sinothando) was completely useless I was talking to them for 40 mins and I just couldn’t get an answer as to why I was being charged for two policies and why I had to pay for 12 months of coverage over 4 months. They just kept telling me that there are different premiums for different cars which I was obviously aware of and that I wasn’t going to be paying for two cars but clearly I wasn’t from the breakdown. Then any time I asked about why I would have to pay for 12 months of coverage over 4 months they just would not answer the question. It was 40 mins of just going round in circles and they just wouldn’t answer my question. I looked it up online afterwards and if you make a claim you still have to pay out the policy, so I would have been having to pay the rest of my policy for my written off car and the new one. So the person I was speaking to was outright lying to me as it was completely the case that I would have to be paying premiums for two cars and yet they said multiple times that wasn’t the case. Then for the paying 12 months insurance over 4 months looks like it was just to maybe align with what they have on their system but then I would have been stuck with them for another year which I definitely didn’t want to be after the hell they have put me through the last few weeks and I would have had to have paid it in 4 months for no real reason other than to align with their system. Again the person I spoke to just wouldn’t answer this question I have no idea if they were just clueless or knew there was no real reason for this but they were awful and gave me no help. Just avoid this company they’re a nightmare to deal with and everything just feels like a lying scam with them. Reviewed on: 3rd December 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Chloe, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We would like to look into this further for you to help resolve this, please send an email to [email protected] with your policy number a summary of your experience similar to your review and we will look into it. Ashley Response date: 8th December 2025

Rip off company! AVOID AVOID AVOID

Rip off company! Scam you into paying another £60 after paying in full for the policy to change the date the car was purchased 3 years ago as i got the dat a month wrong. A completely irrelevant detail to the cover just a scam to get more money. Funny how they only asked for the info after the 14 day cooling off period and wanted a big cancellation fee. Worst of the worst company. When questioned they didnt care Reviewed on: 26th November 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Scott, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 28th November 2025

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