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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.5 (957 reviews)

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1.50

Based on 957 reviews, last reviewed 17th Apr 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

50% 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)

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

Avoid them

They increased my premium without any valid reason. Reviewed on: 14th December 2022

Unreasonable premium increase

Below is the excerpt from the document I provided to policy analysis. However they still charged me additional £180. Avoid them! "We can confirm that no claim was never made against the insurance and your no claims bonus was allowed. We can advise that we have never made any payments to your self or any third party's in regards to any settlements nor have we dealt with any damages relating to your vehicle or to any third party property. There is a single payment on the incident for a sum of £18.00 as you spoke with our out of hours team who are a company called Coplus who are are contracted to pay upon notification of every incident brought to our attention. We can confirm that this single sum payment of £18.00 is an administration fee only and should have no reflection on this incident. This should not have and impact nor hinder your insurance in the future." Reviewed on: 14th December 2022

No responsibility at all

The worst car insurance company , my vehicle was damaged when it was taken by them for a catalytic onverter theft for 1 month I am trying to get a response with no help , you cannot even speak to any managers they transfer your call here and there. The worst insurance company ever. Reviewed on: 12th December 2022

Scammers. Steer well clear

This company are a scam operation, plain and simple. I signed up via GoCompare, accurately completing all the info required. After the first payment, I get an email asking for some trivial "further info". I replied. They then email to say my account has been "updated" and there's nothing more I need to do. Along comes the 2nd DD and my premium has been unscrupulously doubled. An email received a day or two before (in very tiny print) tells me I gave inaccrate info about "Date passed UK driving test". BULLSH*T. Email queries demanding an explanation go ignored. I then get a cancellation email (in spite of not having asked to cancel) with a giant bill including "non-payment penalty" (again complete BS), admin charge, processing charge, cancellation charge amounting to several hundred ££. A Google search shows I am not the only one who's been tricked in same way. Don't be sucked in by the 5-star Defaqto rating. That only refers to affordability, nothing more. Reviewed on: 9th December 2022

DO NOT USE! - STUPID EXTRA CHARGES

Tried to cancel my policy as I sold my car - to be told that I have to pay nearly £100 in cancellation fees, didn't take into consideration the direct debit that had been paid, and was told this was refunded. Policy wording is vague in regards to Arrangement fees etc. Avoid at all costs, if you don't want them taking money for the sake of it and not explaining the reasoning. Reviewed on: 9th December 2022

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