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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.67 (903 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 903 reviews, last reviewed 17th Jun 2025

400% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

17% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Found you online,needed a cheap quote,you certainly... Found you online,needed a cheap quote,you certainly provided it.Thank you Reviewed on: 3rd June 2025

Verified source

Latest lowest rating:

1

It feels dishonest and manipulative!! Avoid them!! I initially received a quote over the phone, which I agreed to, and even got a confirmation email with the agreed amount. Later, I received another em... Read more Reviewed on: 17th June 2025

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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.

1st Central Car insurance reviews (903)

Review of the 1st Central, Car insurance:

Shambles!

My insurance increased from £780 to £1080 after another year of no claims. Obviously, I then wanted to cancel my policy. I spoke to the online chat where I cancelled my policy and I received a confirmation email for this. £1080 was then taken from my account a few days later suggesting my policy was being renewed, even though I confirmed I was not renewing a few days prior! Having spoken to customer services, it will take up to 10 working days to get this money back. Absolutely shambolic. I will never use this company again and I will ensure all close family and friends do not use 1st central either. Disgusting. Reviewed on: 1st June 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Tyler, 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’ll use your comments to help improve our service and training for our agents. Ashley Response date: 2nd June 2025

Do not recommend

After the policy had been purchased and on the day of the policy starting they requested documents such as DVLA check code, pictures of driving license and a copy of the NCD, all went through fine and got approved. They requested a phone call so they could run through details with policy holder which is fine. On the call they proceeded to question the job titles which we had submitted for all 3 drivers, essentially saying that the jobs didn't exist and asking invasive questions about what we do at work and what type of job it is, etc, also asked questions about how many days a week the car is driven, how many miles a day, etc which we could not give accurate information for as the car is used differently every week, proceeded to give us an average mileage and said that didn't match the amount we had taken out on the policy (it was lower than the mileage on the policy), eventually the person on the phone 'had to make amends' to our policy and ended up charging us extra on top of our policy (in that extra amount was a £50 administration fee!!). We decided to cancel the policy as this extra fee now put our policy higher than other premiums with other companies, the call handler was incredibly rude and condescending and offered no help to rectify the issue. Reviewed on: 20th April 2023

Avoid like the plague

Would give them 0 stars if I could!!! Went for this insurer as they were competitively priced, but wished we hadn’t now! Sent two texts asking for documents and that they sent an email with the details. No emails were received. We emailed them and asked what documents. No response. Next thing we know we receive an email from them advising the premium was increasing by £23 a month due to the changes we had made. We had made no changes. After 2 unhelpful web chats one of which was ended by them they advised they had done a check and I had 3 points on my license (I have no points). Asked for a copy of my driving license and my partners and a copy of a DVLA access code for me. Provided this for them to say it had expired (it last 21 days and they tried to access it in under 24 hours it had not expired). Sent them a new one but then they wanted one for my partner as well. I did this and then they put me on hold for a long time to reverse the previous changes they made to the points. They then came back and said the day we past our tests did not match so the premium would be £10 more than it was previously quoted a month. Utterly ridiculous when you don’t put a date in when applying and just the month and year. Asked to speak with a manager to get the fees waived. Waited 30 mins on hold to get through for them to tell me this was not in their remit and would need to submit a complaint. What’s the point of having a management team when they can’t do anything! Just another way to infuriate your customers. I have already submitted a complaint yesterday when this all started due to the amount of time wasted, stress and anxiety caused and their standard of customer service. Also emailed them with details of my complaint and have received no acknowledgment. After the additional time waster today will send a further email and hold with bated breath for a response. Wish we could just cancel but at a charge of £169 that is not financially doable! Working in insurance myself I am so shocked at their service they really shouldn’t be running. Feel I will need to take this further to the FOS when they finally respond to the complaint and make it my mission to ensure that no one I know ever takes out insurance with them. Social media will be the next outlet to let as many people know to avoid! Reviewed on: 19th April 2023

Avoid at all costs.

Insured with this company in Feb, today received email claiming I am unemployed despite being in full time employment and my Dad, who is a named driver, is not an air con engineer but a motor mechanic! Total rubbish and accusing us of lying on the application. They are now cancelling the policy and demanding full payment of over £2000.00 or will send in bailiffs. Absolutely avoid like the plague. Reviewed on: 19th April 2023

Terrible Customer Service & Hidden Fees

We cancelled our car insurance 220 days into the policy and were charged a ridiculous amount which couldn't be explained by their customer service teams, as well as a heavy amount of interest + cancellation fee. Their staff were unhelpful and borderline rude, clearly an offshore call centre with no real ability to deal with their customers and don't value customer retention. Stay away. Reviewed on: 17th April 2023

Lure you in with cheap price then ask for more information and double it.

Took out car insurance with them on annual price was £394. They asked for more information so I called them. We have never been able to find my partners job on the drop down so put it in what we thought was the nearest thing. They decided it was something else and raised the price by £300!!!! When I said I cant pay it at once I would have to pay monthly as on maternity leave they said I couldn't pay monthly as had taken out an annual policy. So I asked for a refund so I could get insurance elsewhere and they took £140 in admin fees off my refund! Avoid at all costs!! Reviewed on: 17th April 2023

Good luck if something goes wrong they will not help!!

It's a shame I can't write my full review on here but all I can say 1st central will treat you like nothing, they will neve call you back, they will make you do all their work, none of them have communication with each other , you will have to explain everything to each individual you speak to. Good luck with getting your curtesy car from them. Avoid them at all cost. Don't get food by other good reviews they trick the customers into leaving them Good reviews. Reviewed on: 14th April 2023

Avoid like the plagye

Car got written off by 3rd party this company wouldn't claim for anything in or on my car ie roof rack etc, trying to contact them either on hold for hrs or cut off. Take down personal details wrong on 2 occasions. Generally yseless Reviewed on: 11th April 2023

AVOID

Rip off merchants. Doubled my car insurance to nearly £80 Web chat is poor - they don’t help you they just try to catch you out. Still waiting for my refund. Please please do not use this company Reviewed on: 11th April 2023

Total rip off merchants

They lure you in with a fake low price then when they ask for additional information they then load the premium with extra. I cancelled and they charged me an extra £184 in cancellation and change of policy charges. Avoid 1st Central at all costs Reviewed on: 1st April 2023

Avoid Indians scammers

Service is not helpful, but opposite catching on questions and want charge extra. I never experienced that with other insurers. English language is terrible, hard to understand anything. Reviewed on: 30th March 2023

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