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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.5 (951 reviews)

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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

11%

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

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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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

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

Credit Solution

We wanted to buy a car, but we found out that my credit score was really low to do anything. I had about 1O cards in collections. One was a medical bill I guess. We hired a credit repair agency to assist me with my credit. Within a few weeks, they raised my score to 791, took care of all collection cards and added a seasoned line of credit. We got the new car ASAP. FixMyCredit is a sweetheart, you can hire them too; fixmycredit at writeme com... Reviewed on: 28th March 2023

Stay away

I had an accident and First central wrote my car off and liaised with Copart to sell for parts before even informing me. Refused to give me a curtesy car or hire car, despite being in the policy. Two complaints solved nothing with no movement. Then tried to get me to settle the claim for my finance settlement figure without telling me the correct figure (liaised with the finance company without my knowledge) Customer services were inexperienced or rude. No call backs and failings at every point. Absolute nightmare, stay away at all costs Reviewed on: 25th March 2023

Disgusting treatment

Trustpilot reviews Review of 1st CENTRAL Insurance LL Les Lovelock 9 reviews GB Rated 1 out of 5 stars Updated 6 minutes ago How stupid was I but MORE how… How stupid was I but MORE how frustrated are we !! Writing on behalf of our daughter. Because I did search on her behalf for a reliable car insurance cover. Decided on 1st Central. Comprehensive car insurance However!! My daughter had an RTA on 3rd March She’s a single parent with 3 children 4,6 & 9 yrs. I thought I’d arranged replacement car by paying extra for ‘like for like, important as she needed to fit three children car seats. only to find out if car is Written off or Stolen, Loan car is void !! What stupid insurance cover AND me,for missing!! When loan car is key it’s not an option ( unless you pay EVEN MORE ) More to the point, at time of writing this on 21.03.23 she has filled in umpteen forms. Made umpteen calls and STILL NOT had her car valued so she can get a replacement Reviewed on: 23rd March 2023

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

Disgusting company! After 2 months of being with them they sent me an email saying that they had found out that I didn’t pass my driving test on the day I told them, I drive more miles than I said and I didn’t have 10 years no claims so they were going to cancel my insurance and charge me the cancellation fee! These were all lies! So I sent them them proof that I did have 10 years no claims, I do only the amount of miles I said and I did pass my test on that date. It didn’t make any difference! They still cancelled my insurance and charged me a cancellation fee even though all their information was wrong and I should have never received that email in the first place!! They done the exact same thing with someone I work with so they are a complete scam! Reviewed on: 22nd March 2023

A joke

My car is in for fixing covered by them, they choose a garage and promise me a courtesy car, few days before the fix, i find the garage don’t provide courtesy cars and the insurance relies on the garage to sort it. Why in gods name would an insurer rely on the GARAGE to provide courtesy cars and then outright REFUSE to provide one themselves? An absolute joke Reviewed on: 20th March 2023

Scammers! Avoid them!!!

“I started my policy with 1st Insurance in 2022. Unfortunately my car was stolen that year and I had to make a claim. On the following year my premium was excessive, which it was understanding after a claim. When I tried to get few NEW quotes prior to deciding to take the one. It cost me £132 a month, because I did not have other opinions I paid for it. I asked 1st Central insurance if I could pay a higher deposit so the instalments were cheaper but they refused. Nevertheless, I decided to pay 4 months payments in advance this for January, February, March and April 2023. And it was just over £700 to pay for the rest of year 2023. However, few days later I had a text message on my phone from 1ST CENTRAL saying they added additional charged to my policy. Now I have over £1000 to pay, almost DOUBLE of the initial price. I called them and explained that for two weeks I had about 4-8 quotes from them. I had to tick boxes on the go compare website. Because of a mistake of not ticking a box, a error they charged me DOUBLE as if it was a fraud ( I am a student nurse I don't need to make a fraud). They have all my details, all my details are on their system, none of my details have changed, same name, same phone number, same address and email.. I tried to explain that it was an error, I would not LIE they paid for my previous system Its all on their system. They refused to listen, were very rude condescending and extremelly unhelpful. I had tried many quotes, 7 quotes in a period of 2 weeks. All the quotes were expensive. I went with one although it was expensive I could not find a cheaper quote but all my details still same. First Cental staff said I did not disclosed a claim from 8 months before. I made a claim with 1ST CENTRAL I had no reasons to lie it was an error on the document was filled online they charge me double on my policy so I am paying almost £2000 for my policy. 1st Central Insurance stuff are rude, incompeten, very unprofessional, Not a clear English and poor communication skills. The worse customer service. They will put the phone down on you if you complain, customer service nonexistent! They will hang up on the phone on you. The worse customer services. And no I would not recommend you to any family and friends Reviewed on: 20th March 2023

AVOID! AVOID!! AVOID!!!

I wouldn’t even give them 1 star, insurance was quote was quite low so I read the reviews, reading them I realised it was a mistake. I took the policy out on line late at night so tried to cancel online but it wouldn’t let me as it was still pending, I called them at 9am to cancel but have to pay a £50 arrangement fee!?!? It had be 9 hours since I’d taken it out and it was still pending but ive had to pay £50 to cancel!!! Unbelievable!!! … hopefully you read the reviews before purchasing. AVOID!!!! Reviewed on: 20th March 2023

Stressed and extremely Dissappointed!!

Stressed and Dissappointed customer I feel I was treated unfairly, my insurance informed me that someone made an allegations that I was involved in a car accident I know nothing about?? This a word of mouth, can’t produce evidence after almost 5 months of claiming. I feel obligated to prove my innocence so I sent a photograph of my car in every angle to prove there was no damage or never been fixed in any way. I have to resent it after 1 week knowing they did not received it?? Also a letter from my manager to proved I was at work on that day from 07:45- 21:00. Then told me to call back in 3 weeks only to tell me after 3 weeks that the other party did not received it ?? So they need to resend it. My insurance is due for renewal and they said it will increase!! As the case is not close. I feel so dissappointed, as no one can assure me that they will resolve it ASAP as I have all the evidence.. and the other party doesn’t have any evidence nor can’t produced any wvidence until after almost 5 months now. I was also informed that they will call me back, but no one bother to give me update. I got conflicting informations from the staff as well.. Until now I’m waiting from slow action!! Very odd insurance company!!?? Reviewed on: 17th March 2023

It is a scam company don't buy from it

I bought the insurance from this company to make a change on second driver name which it was clearly error of printing they requested over£270 when I asked to remove the second driver's name as I don't need it again they asked for same amount of money it is absolutely a disgusting company Reviewed on: 17th March 2023

Avoid this company like the plague

AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE. Unless you enjoy being harassed by text messages, debt collectors and threats of being taken to County Court for no reason. They lure customers in with a very low initial quote, once they have you hooked, they start putting on extra, disproportionate, unjustified and unreasonable charges. We took out an insurance policy with this company who then proceeded to demand extortionate extra fees for minor admin alterations (that may also be spurious), and made it impossible to provide proof of No Claims discounts from previous insurance company, despite spending 45 minutes on the phone trying to sort it out. They presumably also make money from their premium rate phone number as well! So they hiked up their demands for even more money because they refused to accept proof of a No Claims Discount. We wrote to them to make a formal complaint but did not receive a reply. We cancelled the monthly policy premiums, which with a normal insurance company would mean you are no longer covered and be the end of the story. However First Central seem to believe they can wring more money out of us for cover they stopped providing when we stopped payments and moved to another insurance company who accepted our No Claims Discount with no problems. We are writing to the Financial Ombudsman and Financial Conduct Authority, and Martin Lewis the Money Expert. Message to First Central: no need to "reach out to us" via Trust Pilot thanks. We have all the correspondence you have sent us; contemporaneous notes from the phone call we made to you when trying to submit our No Claims Discount proof, plus a copy of our initial formal complaint. We've got things in hand. Reviewed on: 17th March 2023

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