Write a review

1st Central: Car Insurance reviews

Name: Car Insurance
Rating: 1.68 (859 reviews)

View other 1st Central products

1.51

Based on 859 reviews, last reviewed 31st Jan 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

19% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Very good quote on car insurance, and recommended on... Very good quote on car insurance, and recommended on go compare site Reviewed on: 25th September 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

The worst experience and the worst insurance company. The worst experience and the worst insurance company. My car broke down at the beginning of the insurance and they refused to suspend the insurance ... Read more Reviewed on: 31st January 2025

Read all reviews See your review

About this product

Here at Smart Money People, we collect 1st Central car insurance reviews from genuine customers, to help you make an informed decision about your next provider.

1st Central was founded in 2008 and has been growing fast ever since. Specialising in car insurance, the brand offers a variety of products with different levels of cover, including a telematics policy for newer drivers.

When choosing a new policy, take the time to ensure it is suitably robust and meets all of your needs. Do you want breakdown cover included in the policy? Do you need legal cover? What about cover for any medical expenses that may occur after an accident? Working out your priorities before searching for a policy can make the selection process much easier. Check out our 1st Central car insurance reviews to find out what others think.

Have you had a car insurance policy with 1st Central? Whether good or bad, share your experience with the Smart Money People community to help us increase trust and transparency in financial services. Were you satisfied with the price of the premium? Did you have any interactions with the customer service team? Leave a 1st Central car insurance review today to help other drivers just like you.

1st Central Car Insurance reviews (859)

Review of the 1st Central, Car Insurance:

TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could give 0 I would, Please please please do not waste your time or money on this 'insurer'. This company is not an insurance company they are brokers who will scam you, rob you and affect you both mentally and physically. I have no idea how this business is still running with the amount of people they are scamming. Out of the blue they cancelled my insurance, they said they needed extra documents. I was not notified at all, neither by text, phone call or post to indicate they require additional infomation. The only way I found out about this was because I checked my bank balance and they had refunded my money for the month. I gave them a call to understand why I had been refunded and only then they told me my insurance was going to be cancelled on 08/06/22 11:59pm - I FOUND OUT 10 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME IT WAS DUE TO BE CANCELLED. They expected me to pull out the documents out of thin air. To avoid this tarnishing my good record I asked the policy to be cancelled and they kept passing me over person to person - I was trying to deal with this whilst I was at work. Then in the end I had to ask them to call me back and then the lady said she will at 6:00 after I finish work. 6:00pm comes and no one has called me, instead I got a lazy email to say 'sorry we cannot cancel your insurance and there is nothing we can do'. The 'analysis' had locked my account so i was unable to cancel the policy online. Even the website is extremely dodgy, they had added a fee of £135 on my account and it said once i make the payment my account will be unlocked. I paid it and it was still locked - luckily I had sent written proof that i want my insurance cancelled and this was the only thing I had to cover my back. I called this morning and spoke to a man who was also very useless and he did nothing to help me and he kept saying to me the insurance cannot be cancelled and he has spoken to his manager. Later i conferred with a family lawyer and they advised me that what they have done is unlawful and should be reported to the ombudsmen. I then called them and threatened them with legal action and notified them that I have also contacted ombudsmen. After this they changed their tune and agreed to cancel my insurance on my behalf rather than them doing it and tarnishing my good record. This has caused me an unbelievable amount of stress and anxiety. PLEASE RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY - The few pounds and pennies you save going for this insurance will only last a month before they start slapping random charges on your account. I insured my run around car with them and for a 2005 mini i essentially paid approx. £200 a month with all the charges they gave me and i only had this insurance for 2 month. I own a BMW X4m and the insurance is no where as expensive. I must say I have learnt my lesson and I will definitely do research before looking for insurance. STAY AWAY LIKE THE PLAGUE. Reviewed on: 9th June 2022

Misleading- do not buy

Before taking the policy out I read the policy details and it indicated that I met the criteria to drive other insured cars third party. There is nowhere to check that is the case on the site as there is with other insurers such as Admiral. The second I got my policy documents (15:06) I contacted them to check this, they didn’t cover me for this and won’t allow me to add this on. So I requested to cancel immediately, I am told that despite it being set up minutes earlier I would be charged £50 and for the days cover. I asked for discretion as this seems absurd, it had been mere minutes and I obviously hadn’t driven anywhere, and apparently the manager whose name Tamzine refused to give me, declined this. This is absurd. Please do not buy from these cowboys, mislead you into buying something. Also advertise as having no cancellation fees within 14 days but make no mention that you have to pay £50 to cancel anyways under the guise of an ‘arrangement fee’. Reviewed on: 4th March 2024

Started my policy in Feb 2023, got sent automatic re...

Started my policy in Feb 2023, got sent automatic renewal in Feb 2024. Decided to get rid of my diesel bmw before renewal. Asked for a quote for my new car for the remainder of my policy. Got charged £100, then got renewed price through and it was £16000!!! Rang them and cancelled, got charged £25. Kept getting renewed emails for my old car saying they will automatically renew after I had cancelled. Cancelled my policy online 5 DAYS before end of policy, then lost 1 year off the policy. Should have 5 years NCD only got 4 because I cancelled before the end of the policy by 5 days. There was no warning anywhere which said I would lose 1 year because I cancelled. Appalling customer service. Avoid this company like the plague. I feel fortunate that I didn’t have to make a claim. Imagine that!!! Reviewed on: 27th February 2024

Avoid lol

Got my insurance for a cheap price. They randomly cancelled my insurance no warning. And then blamed it on me not registering the other drivers even tho I wasn’t given instructions to do so. I spoke to customer service and just replied “alright anything else that I can help you with” after doing nothing at all Reviewed on: 23rd February 2024

Got in a crash and had my car wrote off.

Got in a crash and had my car wrote off. Other party involved was liable for the crash and they accepted liability but the claims team still tried saying it was my fault and needed dash can footage for a side impact crash. It took them 2 months to pay me out and valued me £600 for a car I could’ve sold to we buy any car for £1500. I was told with my courtesy car it would be arranged for pickup the day the car goes to the scrap company, I was waiting 2-3 weeks for the courtesy car and I use my car to get to and from work. Now to today when I cancelled my insurance 3 weeks ago when the courtesy car was taken as I have no need for insurance I receive an email saying they’re cancelling my policy effect immediately and charging me £3000 for cancellation. Id stay away they’re scammers Reviewed on: 23rd February 2024

Avoid extremely poor

Avoid. Daughter insured with these. She was hit in the rear and other driver accepted liability. She’s now been offered £5000 for a car that’s worth £6500. She said she would reluctantly accept £5500. They say no and have constantly threatened her too accept the offer and cancel paying for the rental. They’ve wrote it off and that took 3 month to find out they had too. Still don’t have an engineers report why and what for? Asked for written valuation reports on how they came to this value? Said they’d emailed it multiple times. Still not received. It’s made my daughter poorly and I have had to take it over on her behalf. They full face lie on the phone and when they don’t like the way it’s going, hang up on you. All Indian p/foreign people on the phone, following scripted responses etc. Made an official complaint now and will be wanting a final response in 3 weeks ( 8 weeks total ). Then it’s off too the ombudsman or solicitors after that. She sustained whiplash and concussion during the crash. She was stationary and hit in rear at 40mph. They won’t discuss her injury claims and just say you’ll have to wait and can’t provide a update. 4 months on now. Absolute joke… Please avoid this company. Research the underwriter. I’d never heard of them before when I did. 2 out of 5 they get for customer support. I’m starting to wonder if the lady that hit my daughter has the same insurer or underwriter? I’ll find that out I think before I get legal advice. Please avoid. I will never use this firm again… Reviewed on: 22nd February 2024

Truly Terrible Customer Service

My wife took out car insurance with 1st Central via Money Supermarket as they were competitively priced, all was good until we were asked to contact them to speak to the Policy Analysis Team, what followed was an absolute disaster, we were both relentlessly pressured to change our job titles to a more exact phrasing over and over and over by the Policy Analysis Team when we had initially provided truthful information and were consequently hit with a £50 admin charge to change these details for no reason, then my wife was asked for her no claims bonus from two years (two insurances ago) ago and because she didn't have it to hand was kept on hold for 20 minutes and then advised she had incurred a further £22 admin charge as the Policy Analysis Team had to investigate this, after leaving the call in tears she was then issued a renewed statement of fact where the majority of the details incurring the admin charges had not been actioned. We made numerous attempts to contact 1st Central asking that because of this the charges were dropped and were stonewalled at every turn with different totals of admin fees mentioned during each call, we raised a complaint and was given an excuse that the issue was just an IT issue and no admin fees were being dropped followed by the complaint being closed. In the end my wife had to pay £72 to cancel the policy (just to get away), to summarise, she was charged for unnecessary changes which weren't changed on her policy, charged for not having evidence of a no claims bonus from two years ago, no updated policy provided, complaint ignored and then no notification of cancellation of policy - do not be fooled by their low cost on the comparison sites! Thoughts and prayers for anyone who has to make an actual claim with this company - AVOID Reviewed on: 22nd February 2024

Con artist

In the space of 3 weeks of signing up my policy doubled. If I would like to cancel I can but pay a charge of £110. I was advised by staff it is not uncommon price change daily and can go up by 47% is quite normal. Staff read from script therefore a human conversation is impossible, very frustrating. I was with Admiral for 7 years I only changed due a cheaper quote a very silly.mistake being the quote has now doubled Reviewed on: 22nd February 2024

Con artists! Stay well away from 1st Central!

3 weeks after buying car insurance with 1st Central I received an email asking me to confirm details. After contacting them they asked the occupation of my named driver on the policy and then doubled my car insurance cost (another £200) because they did not agree with the named drivers occupation title and changed it to something similar. I asked to cancel the insurance and was told this would be another £90. Searching online it appears there are a number of 1st Central customers who have had the same problem. They offer the best quotes and then wait until your 2 week cooling off period ends before finding ways of charging extra. Con artists would be the term I would use. Stay well away! Reviewed on: 21st February 2024

USELESS COMPANY

One star is too much for this company - 50/50 on the staff, some are great, some are awful, the company does not know how to write to customers but can slap on a default for £98 without telling me?? been chasing the removal of this since December and IT'S STILL NOT RESOLVED. Thrilled to be declined on my car finance due to this, this is the company's negligence and I'm suffering & paying to price for incompetent staff. Reviewed on: 19th February 2024

NCD Certificate

his morning, I received my renewal notice by email. My insurance had gone from £240 to £403. I thought this was too high and decided not to renew with them. I went on to their website and followed their instructions. My insurance was due to run out on the 3/3/24 so I cancelled it from the 3/3/24 at the latest time they had from the drop-down box, 23.45. I received an email stating that my insurance would end on the 3/3/24. Minutes later I received an email with a NCD certificate. The certificate said 9 years when it should be 10. I contacted them via their webchat service and explained everything to them. After a while going backwards and forwards, I was told that there was nothing they could do, and it would remain at 9 years. They said the start date of the policy is 04/03/2023 and the time is at 00:01:00. So, for ending the policy 16 minutes early they have dropped a full years NCD off me. I thought I had followed the instructions correctly, but according to them I didn't. They refused to help me and said that is the final decision. I said I was making a complaint to the ombudsman, and they said 'OK, anything else I can do for you' this is shocking and appalling service and I am penalised for a genuine mistake and for not renewing with them. Avoid them as if they can do this for NCD what loopholes will they use if you make a claim. Reviewed on: 19th February 2024

Do you have a different 1st Central product?

Share your experiences with products to help others make smarter financial decisions and learn more about different products available. Write a review

Alternative products

Motorbike Insurance
from ASDA Money 3.50 from 2 reviews
Car Insurance
from Diamond Insurance 3.96 from 106 reviews
Car Insurance
from Covea Insurance 1.40 from 14 reviews

There's still more to see!

1st Central has a range of products available. Check the ratings of each product to find the right one for you. View all products

Join Smart Money People

Keep up to date on ratings of your favourite businesses. Find out about our awards and write new reviews with ease

Create an account

News, guides and insight from our team

View resource hub