Write a review

1st Central: Car Insurance reviews

Name: Car Insurance
Rating: 1.68 (866 reviews)

View other 1st Central products

1.49

Based on 866 reviews, last reviewed 16th Feb 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

14% 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

I changed the address to another one 200 yards away... I changed the address to another one 200 yards away from the first one. They wrote that they would pay me 17 pence extra. But my renewal went up from ... Read more Reviewed on: 16th February 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 (866)

Review of the 1st Central, Car Insurance:

Avoid 1st Central Car Insurance at all costs.

Avoid 1st Central Car Insurance. They come up as the cheapest on many insurance comparison websites but they make their money through high administration fees any time you or they make changes to your policy. They requested added information 30 days after I applied and with only 1 day to go in my 14 day period, so when I had a disagreement over the documents I couldn't get out within the 14 day grace period. When they find fault in your documents, they don't explain what the problem is online and you can't make any changes to your policy until you've paid the admin fee. The call centre operator had an extremely noisy background (yelling and laughing) so I couldn't hear what was being said. They also failed to action something I requested over the phone. Two separate operators gave me incorrect information as to why my policy was being changed and why I had to pay the admin fee, wasting a day of my time and one less day to get this all sorted. They made it as difficult as possible for me to give them the new information to have the admin fee removed - I couldn't just upload to my online account and I have to call them once I've sent the documentation otherwise my email goes to the back of the 5 day long queue and I'll miss the due date. Most people wouldn't bother and just accept the fee, but that is how they make their money. I'll be cancelling as soon as possible. Could not imagine trying to go through this process if I ever had to make a claim. Reviewed on: 12th November 2024

Reply from 1st Central Hi J A K, 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. We’ll use your comments to help improve our service. Ashley Response date: 13th November 2024

Not a real company based in Africa and calls answere...

Not a real company based in Africa and calls answered by virtual assistants that do not have a glue Reviewed on: 11th January 2024

Disgusting company!

Disgusting company! Charge you additional fees and no way of challenging it! I got the purchase date of my vehicle out by a few days and the additional cost of £51 was for admin to change it. Bad customer service, avoid at all costs! Reviewed on: 9th January 2024

Disgusting business!

Terrible business! Firstly they tried to rip me off, telling me my occupation was incorrect and I should have to pay an extra £120 on top of my quoted price (pretty sure I know what I do for a living) Then auto renewed after being told not to and charged me £50 for the privilege. Rude customer service staff, and now ignoring my emails regarding thieving £50 of my money. Disgusting Reviewed on: 6th January 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

Alternative products

Breakdown Insurance
from Axa 2.47 from 4 reviews
Van Insurance
from RightSure 4.50 from 6 reviews
Motorbike Insurance
from Hagerty Insurance 0.00 from 0 reviews

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