Write a review

Go to business site

1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (947 reviews)

View other 1st Central products

1.51

Based on 947 reviews, last reviewed 23rd Jan 2026

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

31% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

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

Bait-and-switch insurer Feels like a scam – stay away Quoted one price, then after the policy started 1st Central changed things retrospectively, increased the premium and a... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd January 2026

Read all reviews Write a review

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.

Review 1st Central: Car insurance now

Help others make smarter decisions by sharing your own experience.

Write a review

1st Central Car insurance reviews (947)

Shocking

Absolutely shocking!!! We were left chasing them to put a claim in after completing the claim portal online. Once the claim was confirmed the following day we were told the Garage would call us. We heard nothing for 2 days, then we’re told the car is not assigned to a garage!!! All the time we have no car, even though our policy states a courtesy car. After phoning back and complaining I received a call from enterprise offering a 3 door Aygo. If we wanted anything larger we would need to pay for it. Any car would be fine however we have a 1 year old baby who has a car seat. This would not fit. We had to ring 1st central to ask and plead to offer us a 5 door car. They declined. And we were forced to pay a daily rental fee. The following day, I received an email saying they can’t find a garage for our car, and we would have to find our own garage and basically do all the leg work they do!!!! My partner has been unable to go into work due to the delay on the car being at a garage so we can get a courtesy car. Now we are paying on top of our monthly insurance payment for a car due to 1st central failure to get the car in a garage. It’s currently Saturday, the collision happened Monday and our car is still on the drive. Shocking… AVOID AT ALL COSTS Reviewed on: 14th January 2023

Awful customer service

Awful customer service, just want your money. When renewing after being with them last year i got a more expensive quote even with my 5 years no claims discount. I found a cheaper quote to renew with them through a comparison site, so went and purchased that. the day the policy started the the policy analisis team added a claim that never happened onto my account from a quote which was previously accidently made adding an extra £150. Rather than checking through my history and seeing the 5 years i have been driving and have no claims discount for, they just added this cost on without consulting me. This led to me cancelling my policy with them and losing out on £50 but worth every penny just to not deal with them and their incompetent staff. How can they be so stupid??? Reviewed on: 12th January 2023

Why choosing 1st Central for Insurance or otherwise is a HUGE mistake

I am writing this review so you The Reader don't make the mistake I did of ever using 1st Central. I will admit initially they were the cheapest option and they were fine while my interactions with them were small and insignificant. Eventually I decided to cancel and this is where the problems began. They will slap fees and fees on you as you try to leave. admin fees, leaving fees the works. They will make it difficult for you to cancel. Their customer service team will burden you with constant waiting and confirming just to simply stop the policy. Once that is all done, you will be chased for debt collection even after paying their ridiculous egregious fees. I strongly recommend you Reader to take a look here and Trustpilot and all their social media found here: Trustpilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/1stcentralinsurance.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1stCentral Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1stcentral/?hl=en Take a look at these people's comments and decide for yourself if they are for you. You get what you pay for in this life, and if you choice 1st Central you will only get misery. Reviewed on: 11th January 2023

Avoid this company they are awful and will try to add on charges of you make a claim or cancel your policy!

No thanks terrible company I wouldn't bother Reviewed on: 11th January 2023

Avoid

Absolutely not the company to use customer service is applauding very rude Reviewed on: 9th January 2023

Untrustworthy

Insured a car today Sunday 8th January.I got to the garage in Coventry and the car was sold even though I told them I was coming out.I rang 1st central straight away to be told sorry 59pounds to cancel even though I never had the car Reviewed on: 8th January 2023

Put through hell for 1 year

Do not use this insurer can’t even call them a company as it not, spent months trying to cancel an auto renew policy eventually after hours on the phone I got refunded £50 instead of £500, just received a debt letter from cars saying I owe £112 wow would make you go insane trying to get an answer AVOID if you want to keep your sanity stilll dealing with this 1 year later Reviewed on: 6th January 2023

A living nightmare!

Our car was involved in an accident on 1st October 2022, we are now on 6th Jan 2023. After 6 weeks of continuous calling we were told they couldn’t find a garage in our local network. So we got a private quote to try and move things along. Quote came out at just shy of £8500, we submitted this plus photos of the damage and was told that the quote was too high and WE needed to speak with our repairer to reduce costs by £1k! After a few more weeks of backwards and forwards 1st Central agreed that it wasn’t my place to “haggle” the repair costs and it was being sent to their “independent engineers” and that this would take 7 days…. 2 weeks later I’m back on the phone to find out what is going on to be told they hadn’t submitted it yet! I wrote a formal complaint saying if not resolved I would refer the case to the financial ombudsman, I got a generic letter back saying it will take 8 weeks to investigate! 2 days ago I called them again after being told our hire car contract had ended and we needed to go over to our local car hire branch and sort this out. They of course needed updates which I couldn’t give as wasn’t getting anything from the insurance company. Anyway 2 days ago I’m on the phone and I’m told it’s still with the independent engineers, I was furious! Now over three months since the accident and 5 weeks of that the case was allegedly with the engineer! They put me through to the engineers to discuss and the engineers agreed to call me back the following day! I have to say thank god the engineers are a separate company as they kept their promise and called me back the following day to say they agreed with the quote we submitted, it was a fair quote but felt that there was hidden damage to the vehicle which would not be seen until work is commenced and therefore costs would increase and felt the car is beyond economical repair! They have now referred back to first central to agree settlement figure but thankfully the engineer told us what our car is worth so we will not be accepting an offer lower than that! And I will probably be on the phone even more now trying to get them to part with the payment. Really poor customer service, they make promises that they can’t keep and have absolutely no contact with you unless you hound them. I have spent hours on the phone being passed from pillar to post as it’s rare you will get through to someone who knows what they are doing! I was with them for two years prior to this with no issues, but then I didn’t need anything until someone went into the back of us! So if you want an insurer that will have your interests at heart and deliver great insurance then please do not use first central they really aren’t worth the money (I have two policies with them and both will not be renewed!) Reviewed on: 6th January 2023

Scammed

I purchased via a quote engine answering yes to no claims on this or any other vehicle. No 20 days into the policy they tell me they won't accept my no claims as it was gained on a different car. This is not how the qualifying pre purchase question was phrased. I'm now looking at double the original insurance cost to stay with them or a cancellation fee. In trying to raise a complaint I've now been kept on the phone for over an hour. I think this is typical of their business model having read other reviews. Don't make my mistake. Buy elsewhere. Reviewed on: 5th January 2023

Absolute scammers

Same as other reviews - they will find anything incorrect with your information and scam you by updating the policy and adding a £50 admin fee to it. This is clearly their business model - to find errors and get more money from you. Avoid at all costs! Reviewed on: 4th January 2023

Do you have a different 1st Central product?

Share your experiences with products to help others make smarter financial decisions and learn more about different products available. Write a review

Alternative products

Smart Wheels
from MORE THAN 1.36 from 11 reviews
Car insurance
from Bank of Scotland 1.50 from 25 reviews
Breakdown Cover
from Tesco Bank 3.16 from 11 reviews

Want to see more from 1st Central?

Breakdown cover
from 1st Central 4.44 from 16 reviews
Personal accident
from 1st Central 2.23 from 5 reviews
Home insurance
from 1st Central 0.00 from 0 reviews

View all products

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