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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

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

AWFUL COMPANY

Charged me an admin fee to cancel my insurance within the cooling off period. it states you wont be charged a cancellation fee, however they dont tell you about an admin fee. Customer service is awful!!!! so hard to talk to anyone and get told different things by different people. honestly avoid avoid avoid i cant stress it enough Reviewed on: 3rd January 2023

Cheating customers

I had a very bad experience with this company.They increased our insurance payment without any notice.When we called them ,they tried to find to many excuses for this and finally they came up with the reason that my driving test date was wrong and they had to change it in their system which cost £75.We finally cancelled their insurance and they charged £173 for that too.The entire experience was soo bad and it is not a company we can trust.The staff is also not too supportive.Initially they fool the customers with low insurance cost but eventually they will cheat you by charging extra money ,that even for the reasons no one can ever think of.*DON'T GET FOOLED* Reviewed on: 30th December 2022

Shockingly bad

I cancelled my policy earlier this year and paid the cancellation fee. Since then, I have had to prove to them that I paid it (I sent bank statements), which they have ignored and I am now being chased my a debt collection agency with the threat of my credit score ruined for a bill I’ve paid. Absolutely useless, no customer service, scammers who have caused me stress for several months. Avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 30th December 2022

Nightmare is understated

Nightmare is understated. I filed a claim in August 2022. It's now a few days to Jan 2023 and my car hasn't been sorted out after doing all the legwork myself. I spoke to different people in their call centre in South Africa who gave me varied information. First I had to source my own repairer because theirs are not bothered. Second I had to chase them all the time, no courtesy calls for an update. The courtesy car company kept calling me for an update, which I didn't have. I had to cancel the courtesy car to stop the annoying calls. I have been passed on, put on hold, etc. Endless. Don't be deceived by low prices. Reviewed on: 30th December 2022

Extra charges

Avoid at any cause, they are applying extra charges to everyone. That is how they make money. Reviewed on: 29th December 2022

Horrible company. You will regret your decision.

They quote cheap on GoCompare, all obliging and attractive. Then they will find fault with your application input information to cause them to slap an admin fee change on you. I was bombed with £150! The following experience got so bad I was really upset as I reckon I do not cheat as a way of life. Over the phone I was challenged because I could not remember the day of the month I passed my test! ( 40 years ago) You will regret Could you? It got worse from there. I paid and ended up owing them! Reviewed on: 27th December 2022

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