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1st Central: Car Insurance reviews

Name: Car Insurance
Rating: 1.68 (853 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 853 reviews, last reviewed 23rd Dec 2024

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

10% 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

Distrustful customer service Spent two separate calls of 10-15min in the past week (Christmas time) trying to get two 1st Central advisors to accept my annual mileage estimation (... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd December 2024

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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 (853)

Review of the 1st Central, Car Insurance:

BEWARE!! Ludicrous charges! THEY DO NOT CARE!!

Took out insurance and over a week later they asked for proof of NCB and proof of claims. Asked my last insurance provider for this. When I didn’t get them in time they charged £175. I had told them I had contacted twice to get these documents. I decided to cancel after nearly 4 weeks and for this I was charged £156, minus my first payment, despite their website saying it’s a £10 cancellation fee after 14 days!! Very impersonal service and completely ridiculous charges!! Felt as though they grabbed me with a cheap quote and then added on extras to make money. My monthly payment went from £37 to £55!! Felt like dealing with robots whose job is to add money on excessively!! Wish I’d read these reviews first!! Reviewed on: 29th November 2024

Reply from 1st Central Hi Katharine, 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: 2nd December 2024

Avoid

Utterly useless Phone to discuss renewal, they went competitive so I instructed them to to auto renew and they completely ignored me, why can’t simple instructions be followed? Now they chatbot can’t help, the web portal is useless and won’t let me cancel Simple things shouldn’t be this painful, no doubt when I actually manage to cancel they’ll try and charge for something Reviewed on: 1st January 2024

7 weeks for claim

7 weeks for claim. Every single agent was giving me different information. „Senior agent will call you tomorrow” - five times didn’t call. I received calculations by phone, gave bank details and 1h later email to send pictures like 2 weeks earlier. After a few weeks I find out engineers can’t open my pictures. It wasn’t even attachment, was as part of email. „Replay in 1 day for comments for your claim” - never did. According to 1stCentral if you have accident abroad you must back to UK. Courtesy car? Only in paper. I may get one if I back to country first. In axa I had money in my account in 5 days from accident. Here bank transfer took longer. Ok, my accident was abroad, let’s say my fault, but second driver finished with claim in 2 weeks. With courtuasy car and expert at home. Plus they offer cover abroad for 90 days. Mess as hell. Accident on 14th Nov, week later information by phone - it will be written off, I was calling and texting them everyday to get money on 29th Dec Reviewed on: 31st December 2023

Awful company

They charge you extra money at every possible opportunity and they have the worst customer service! Reviewed on: 29th December 2023

Massive rip off

Fine until you try and cancel a policy due to a mistake made , ridiculous cancellation fees , and very confrontational call handler , Reviewed on: 28th December 2023

Professionally negligent ...

Worst consumer experience of my life. They may be cheap (in relative terms!), but you better hope you don’t have to make a claim … In my case I was hit by a 3rd party, who admitted liability in what was an obvious open and shut case. My excess was even waived on the strength of evidence provided, car repaired and I was told all was sorted … fast forward 6 months to my renewal and, on pursuing quotes for this, it comes out there is still an active claim showing on the insurance database. Turns out the 3rd party insurer were chancing their arm and debating liability, which 1st Central had known for months and yet not once communicated to me. Having then done all the legwork myself to uncover the facts, I discover that in addition to not informing me, they had also done next to nothing to even attempt to resolve the claim, close it off or pursue legal proceedings against the other insurer (who provided zero justification or evidence in support). 1st Central were “waiting for a response to an email” sent months earlier. That’s the level of professionalism and expertise displayed. And a snapshot of how they act on behalf of their paying customers … and I've still had nothing but tumbleweeds since ... Over the month+ since uncovering this issue, it has caused significant financial implications (other renewal quotes substantially higher due to the outstanding claim showing, pricey temporary cover sourced to give time to get this injustice rectified etc), much stress and annoyance, and consumed an unreasonable amount of my own time due to the pathetic response (or, more to the point, lack of) from 1st Central since raising with them … Even getting an acknowledgment from anyone, in any department (Complaints, Claims, Liabilities - none of whom are capable of communicating with each other either I should add), is a tough feat - I’m starting to think they are allergic to emails … You might get the honour of human contact with 1st Central if you can afford to spend your working days phoning them, waiting on hold, then typically being passed around a collection of largely unhelpful, unsympathetic (and sometimes rude), staff who can’t seem to action anything at all and have, on every occasion, failed to follow through with the promised next steps … Sadly, I could go on for longer and longer yet, detailing the worst consumer experience of my life. But I’ll just finish this by saying that I’m now taking advice about a professional negligence claim against 1st Central. They are utterly incompetent. Negligent. And they don’t care. Reviewed on: 21st December 2023

rubbish company & Rude customer service

They asked me many documents which should be provided within 30 min or my premium will increase!! Reviewed on: 21st December 2023

Rip of insurance

This is proper rip off insurance. First, they will give you good price and then after rape you off after one month normal. Cancellation fees for two months 24500 Reviewed on: 20th December 2023

Jokers

Absolute rubbish. Asked for no claims that I sent 3 times then decided I had accidents on record, except I don’t … not anywhere with anyone else. When I queried it they wanted all my documents from every insurance ever as proof that they were in the wrong. Total waste of time and effort dealing with them, jokers just want to stick your insurance payments up. Reviewed on: 18th December 2023

Do not use them

Sadly, 1st central failed to do the job they were committed to do. I paid enough money through the year and they simple closed my claim, no communication, nothing. My car was hit, I had 2 witnesses, they both seen the person, the car that damaged mine. 1st cental failed to support my claim stating there's nothing they could do. Then without notice closed my case. Said they tried contacting me, which was simple untrue. Please do not use them, pay little more money and get somone better. Reviewed on: 16th December 2023

Car Accident

Had an Accident in March, one of there insured drove into the back of me when I was stationary, they admitted liability now saying accident never occurred, bunch of jokers Reviewed on: 14th December 2023

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