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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.51 (952 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 952 reviews, last reviewed 4th Mar 2026

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

15% 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 (952)

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

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

Cancelled my policy and charged me

I renewed after a year of being with them to avoid having to sign up to a new company (might aswell have) I even paid an extra £100 they added onto my insurance quote. Paid the whole year then a month after my renewal they needproof I'm from the UK, I sent them my bc, council tax bills, national insurance number, p60s etc anything I could find to proof I was born and live in the UK, then they said they needed a 5 year or older bank statement which I told them I couldn't get from the bank at short notice they need to send it to my house, so they've cancelled my policy and deducted a £75 cancellation fee plus I've lost a month's insurance so I'm nearly £200 down and my car is now uninsured for tomorrow! It's ridiculous why I would need to provide so much details when I've sent the correct proof you guys need, and I renewed to avoid having to send all my documents to a new company!! Reviewed on: 22nd December 2022

Awful do not insure with this company

Took out policy.. after 14 days they asked for NCD proof which I haven’t been asked for by previous company’s for years. I thought I had 12 years but I only had 11 so they they have charged me £11.02 plus £50 admin charge. They state on their website that there is no admin fees. Clearly they do so miss selling policies.Customer services are not helpful, even spoke to manager. They should have requested this within 14 days so that I had the option to cancel and go elsewhere, which would have now been a lot cheaper. Do not use this company, avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 20th December 2022

Tried to cancel a day after auto renewal

Should have caught it earlier but illness and hospitalised prevented this. They will charge a £50 admin fee so whilst I still might make a saving there is little point. Cx service not willing to help. Cost for the days insurance £1.91, total cost £51.91 Reviewed on: 20th December 2022

SCAM PREDATORS OPERATING ON COMPARISON SITES

As with everyone else I signed up to them as they came up the cheapest with decent reviews on GoCompare, all was fine until ONE MONTH later (after the cooling off period!) when they asked for further information, this was sent within minutes of their request, and a follow up telephone call to check they had everything they needed, yes they said. Another ONE MONTH later they decide the information is wrong and added an admin fee of £50, when I told them no way and I wished to cancel they added a £180 cancellation fee. They have now been chasing me relentlessly for nearly a year threatening ruining my credit record. I have lodged an official complaint about them with the ombudsman which i suggest you all do too. I don't know how they are still operating or why the comparison sites are allowing them to advertise on there????!!! Absolute SCAM operation, cowboys. Avoid at all costs! Reviewed on: 19th December 2022

Unhelpful and rude

Tried moving my Direct Debit from the 24th of each month to the 25th. You would think that was a simple request/process. I was advised that they can only move payments 6 days either side of the inception date. Annoyingly this would make managing my finances for the month awkward and simply by pushing the payment back 1 day would help with my admin! Chatted on the phone to Mogamat a team leader who cut me off (these things happen but no sign of trying to call me back - after all they confirmed my contact details plenty of times getting me through security, so they must have them!). I then live chatted Stacey who was extremely rude and cut me off. I asked to cancel the policy but was told one day into my cover I would be charged £50 cancellation fee. What happened to the 14 day cooling off period? Ultimately stay away, they are unhelpful and rude. I don't want to find out what the claim service is like! Reviewed on: 19th December 2022

The Worst Ever!

Sent out car to scrap yard after saying its going for a repair. Would not bring car back with all sorts of excuses. Finally the real reason was exposed as under their care our car was badly damaged! No courtesy car offered. No car for two weeks over Christmas. And for how long still. customer service rude and sarcastic. Cant seem to understand why we would be upset about the major damage to our car Reviewed on: 19th December 2022

A stressful and horrible experience. £150 'admin charges'. Nothing left after 45 days cover!

Beware, they will find a way to relieve you of your money in whatever way available to them. I was charged £150 admin fees (fines, or nice income). When I submitted a request to add my Partner as a named driver they insisted that unless I could tell them what day of the week 31 years ago she passed her test it would incur another £50 admin charge. They took all my money and I had no other choice than to cancel the policy ( It is illegal to have two policies at the same time ) as I needed to get to work on the Monday. They would not quote for my new car without any reason, they now had all my money! I got it insured for £280 with AXA including my partner without a problem. My £208 dissapeared and I still owe them £4.46p. Why GoCompare still supports them is questionable. Reviewed on: 18th December 2022

Total Scam merchants

Do not use this company they lie and cheat to get your money. The scam is based in Gibraltar but luckily they are held accountable by UK financial ombudsmen which is where you will need to go to try and get your money back if you are (probably) defrauded by this disgrace of a company Reviewed on: 18th December 2022

Taking payment when customer asked to cancel insurance policy while recovering from cancer

I am recoering from cancer treatment and noticed money taken from bank account, contacted 1st central and straight away as soon as i mentioned i thought insurance was cancelled and a mistake had happened the advisor went on defensive telling me i cant get any refund and cant put account on hold for 3 months whilst i recover. I asked to be put through someone higher like manager, when manager finally came to phone it was same attitude with a added cant suspend account due to ilness cant refund money and refused to give full name. This i find totally unacceptable and discusting especially as i was told to now cancel insurance i would also be charged additional fee of a £100 not taking into consideration my medical condition. This is not acceptable, i wont reccomend and suggest avoiding like the plaugue, bad customer service and over priced as had insurance renewal qoutes cheaper by half. Reviewed on: 14th December 2022

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