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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.5 (957 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 957 reviews, last reviewed 17th Apr 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

56% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

11%

80%

Latest highest rating:

5

Just started my third year of car insurance cover wi... Just started my third year of car insurance cover with 1st Central. Good value for money, helpful customer service, clearly laid out website and easy ... Read more Reviewed on: 17th April 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

Do not use this provider for your car insurance I’ve had a very poor experience with this insurer. They failed to respond to three or four of my emails, and despite requesting a call from management... Read more Reviewed on: 10th April 2026

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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.

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1st Central Car insurance reviews (957)

SCAM

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

Premium over DOUBLED!!!!

WOW from £300 to over £700!! No claim, no change of anything and BOOM shot up!! NEVER AGAIN 1st Central!! Message for Michael Lee, your company is an utter disgrace!!!! Reviewed on: 3rd May 2023

Rip off merchants

Take 2 months of payments then send you a deadline (in 4 days time over a weekend) for more documentation, in the email it says you get 5 working days. Surprise surprise you can get the documents off old insurance in time over a weekend and they charge you £50, despite in the email saying you get 5 worming days and giving you a 4 day deadline over a weekend. Frankly laughable. Stay away. Similar experience 10 years ago, stupidly thought they had changed. Reviewed on: 3rd May 2023

Avoid them

Unfortunately I had accident with my fault. After that i call them and send all the pictures of cars involved in accident. They cancelled my policy from the beginning. Reason... your exhaust is not original. Was standard with catalysis system. I ask lawyer and they just ask what company. 1 central insurance. We now them very well they do that for many people. It's a scam insurance. Reviewed on: 1st May 2023

DONT LET THEM RIP YOU OFF

Accepted my policy took my large deposit then cancelled it saying information was missing and they can’t insure if we have it any way so we want a large cancellation fee Well guess what your not getting it you are a disgrace LEAGALISED FRAUD Reviewed on: 29th April 2023

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