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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

1.50
Based on 951 reviews, last reviewed 13th Feb 2026
100% decrease in 5 star reviews
in the past 90 days
23% increase in 1 star reviews
in the past 90 days
See only 5 star reviews
11%
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5%
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2%
See only 2 star reviews
2%
See only 1 star reviews
80%

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
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Matus

Latest lowest rating:

1

FRAUDSTERS!!!!!!! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY!!!! In 35 years of using car insurance companies, I have NEVER been robbed/conned like this before! This company comes up as cheap but I can now see why, ... Read more Reviewed on: 13th February 2026
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Mem

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 (951)

Review of the 1st Central, Car insurance:

Awful service

1
Son took out insurance online. Got an email saying they needed extra docs by a certain date,which son sent. Only realised they had cancelled his policy when he saw he had extra money in his bank. No communication of ANY kind telling him what they had done. Lucky he was off for a few days. He could have been done for no insurance and he needs a clean license. Simple txt or email to let him know before they sent the refund and it could have been all sorted. Absolutely useless. Reviewed on: 3rd May 2022

Avoid

1
Got an online quote and went ahead with the quote. Couple mths later, we got an email asking for more money.(£600 more) called the company, who said they sorted this, and took loads more details from us. Again, it is not long after, another email asking for more money. This time, advising me they will either cancel my policy or take the large amount of money from my account. I've been trying to contact this company now all evening. This is becoming very stressful now. This company should be reported and investigated. Reviewed on: 18th May 2023

terrible company

1
they auto renewed a policy and i did not have that vehicle anymore they said id have to prove it before they would cancel when i sent proof they still tried to take money Reviewed on: 17th May 2023

Rubbish Company KEEP AWAY

1
Took out a policy via compare the market, all details correct including value of my car. I spotted a mistake with the value of my car, a couple of months in, which was under valued by over £2000. I asked them to correct the mistake and was refused. Was told I thats what I accepted when I didn't. Told them to cancel the policy as they are not covering what is needed and are refusing to rectify the issue. I immediately went else where. Now they are trying to still get money out of me. They can jog on. Found out afterwards that my son in law has also had trouble with them in the past. KEEP AWAY Reviewed on: 16th May 2023

Scam! Scam!

1
I've found 1Central on gocompare, everything was ok at first, they gave me a 31 £ / month insurance policy. I was ok with it and paid that sum for 2 months. Now I received a email that "Thanks for keeping us up to date and making a change to your 1ST CENTRAL car insurance policy." I didn't do anything to my car policy policy, didn't went online to change anything, didn't change car, or address... anything. Now they are asking 65£ every month. Is this even legal? Avoid please, don't go with those guys. Reviewed on: 16th May 2023

SCAM

1
The most ridiculous company. Signed up in March, they took money but never sent me the policy details. I phoned up and they said they had no record of me. They then took all my details and signed me up over the phone. A month later they asked for pictures of my driving licence which i uploaded. Then a month on again, i receive an email saying my insurance has been cancelled due to them finding out i am in a different occupation to the one on my account. I have not changed jobs so i phone them and she says she will stop the cancellation of my policy but that they have to 'amend' the policy to the correct details, which are the details i originally provided anyway. Now waiting for a call-back as said i am not paying for amendments for something they wrote. Huge scam, obviously enter wrong details so they can charge for a policy amendment. If i didnt amend the policy they wanted nearly £200 for cancellation fee!! For a policy i didnt even cancel. Reviewed on: 15th May 2023

Be very careful with dealing with this company

1
Be very careful with this company, they do not ask you if you want to auto renew, the opt you in without asking your permission. With my case a third party paid for my insurance as a gift and they auto renewed from their account without their permission, even though I didn't want their insurance. I explained this to them and they made it extremely difficult to receive a refund. So much so i had to register a complaint, their complaint handling times are 8 weeks for a response and this left the third party without the funds for a long period of time. Their response was lack luster and careless of somebody's situation. I would not recommend this company even of they are the cheapest provider you can find. They are cheap for a reason, specifically their poor service . Try the next insurer in the list, you will not regret it. Reviewed on: 10th May 2023

Waste of time - Misleading - over 80s BEWARE!!

1
Spent 2 days looking for a car policy for my 85 year old mother. 1st Central were the cheapest on ALL the comparison sites. Her DOB was entered as 1938 from the very first search. Only when we went to pay did a note come up to say that as she is over 85 years old they will not insure her. I called and they were unable to confirm that. There was nothing on their website about NOT insuring people over 80. Abysmal. Misleading. WILL NOT GIVE THEM MY HARD EARNED MONEY IN FUTURE Reviewed on: 10th May 2023

AVOID AVOID AVOID

1
AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID What a terrible company! As close to a scam as it can legally be! As already mentioned by other customers they will lure you in with a lowish premium to then find ways of increasing it, with £50's here and there for admin etc to bump up the cost. They have pleasant speaking personal but are ruthless in trying to catch you out to have you pay more for what you don't need. They inform you that they can not help you with your decision! Not at all customer friendly. I will not use again! Reviewed on: 9th May 2023

Worst insurance company

1
Cancelled my policy due to not paying £200+ fee for changing my millage a year, which I am not doing the millage they put down. Didn’t even ask to analyse and start charging me extra £50 fees for things I weren’t aware of. Awful company don’t use! Reviewed on: 9th May 2023

Awful service

1
Amended my policy with my new car details... for some reason this created a 2nd policy which I should never of had. Called them to sort, 1st advisor was very rude and patronising after going round the houses I didn't have it in me anymore to argue, she had agreed to waiver the £50 cancellation fee (as I'm still their customer) and would only need to pay £48 still don't feel that's fair but I'd had enough by this point. Told her to just waiver it and I'll pay the £48 ended the call cause I just couldn't deal with her, went to log on to make the payment and it's still showing as £98 a 2nd call to another person who was slightly more helpful explained the whole situation again, and again agreed to just pay the £48 to get this dealt with only to be told no you have to pay the full £98... she checked with her manager (who was to busy replying to emails to speak to me directly) who said no... when I told them to listen to the call the advisor went away and came back after some time and agreed they would waiver it but they can't get it amended as the accounts team had left and aren't back till Tuesday... I've left it with them to call me so I can make the payment of £48 just to get this sorted, but feeling robbed right now and I'm stuck with them for another 12 months as the 2nd policy only went live last week... awful customer service, rude and patronising advisors would definitely not recommend them. Reviewed on: 5th May 2023

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