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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (942 reviews)

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1.52

Based on 942 reviews, last reviewed 29th Dec 2025

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

This company is scamming people out of money. This company is scamming people out of money. They use illicit abhorrent techniques to force changes to the information you have provided and make up ... Read more Reviewed on: 29th December 2025

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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 (942)

1st Central are criminals falsifying documents

After 2 months of me being insured with them they falsified information on documents out of their own volition and raised my policy for £500! They didn't even say why! I haven't been sleeping all night. Next morning I call and they say they doubted my occupation so they put me as unemployed. What is false and it was never true! They just made up information and raised my premium for £500! Borderline criminals!!! Reviewed on: 15th November 2022

Poor customer service

Was charged an exorbitant amount to cancel policy and thereafter they continued to take money via direct debit. I Rang them and spoke to someone incompetent who promised a refund of fees taken after I had terminated the insurance….I’m still waiting for the refund. Go elsewhere. Reviewed on: 9th November 2022

AVOID THIS COMPANY!

Terrible company. Somebody crashed into my car on the 20th of August (not my fault) and I am still waiting for an engineer.. I have rang them countless times and told the same thing that someone will be in touch and then nothing.. and as for the emails and they have not even responded to them. I’m seriously thinking I have to go to Ombudsman because its just ridiculous. Now water is coming into my car through the door and causing more problems. I can’t believe that they can still operate. Not only is claiming unbelievably difficult even when it’s not your fault. They got some information on my statement of fact incorrect which was their fault and are now changing me an extra £100 a month! They really are the worst insurance company. Reviewed on: 7th November 2022

Disappointing

I am very disappointed by 1st central insurance. Poor website, links not working then website crashed. Charged £50 to cancel a policy within 2 hours, which is extortionate!!!! I will never want to use this company again. Reviewed on: 4th November 2022

Claiming is a nightmare

Update: I was told by the repairer that they couldn’t find what the problem was and 1st central said they were going to send out an independent engineer. However I got a phone call last night (3rd Nov) from the third party company that supply the engineer saying my insurance was in agreement with the repairer that the faults (which have only been present on the car since it came out of the repair shop) weren’t caused by the accident or repair and I have to pay for repairs out of my own pocket. I would love to know how they’ve come to this conclusion as the repairer doesn’t know what the fault actually is, and no one from the insurance company has been out to look at the car. Communication both internally and externally is not their strong point. I’ve had to do an excessive amount of chasing up on every aspect of the claim, including informing 1st central that the repairer they had assigned had rejected the repair when they had first been approached. Apparently 1st Central were unaware. I chased for a courtesy car twice before my car was picked up due to it being unusable and once again when my car had been picked up and was told I had said I didn’t need one. I was told there would be a courtesy car with me by the end of the day. There wasn’t, so I rang up and was then told the repairer didn’t have one available. Three different repair companies were mentioned to me over the phone within 2 hours after my car had been taken away, which was concerning, as it seemed they didn’t even know where it had gone. One call handler asked me where it had gone, as if that wasn’t information they should probably know. My car returned from a cosmetic repair with engine and anti skid faults that I can prove weren’t there the day it was picked up for repair and I now have no idea what is happening. 1st Central hasn’t contacted me once in reference to this, I have had to call them repeatedly to ask them to chase things. I will say when I put a complaint in they managed to deal with that within 24 hours and I was offered compensation that was suitable at the time. Due to the issues that have arisen since I feel it is no longer adequate. Just save yourself the hassle and stress and go with anyone else. Reviewed on: 4th November 2022

Beware of cancellation costs!!!!

After the first year the cost of cover increased by 15% (Even though I had an extra 1 year of no claims discount). Their email advised that should they not be able to collect the first payment, the policy would cancel as of the end of my previous one. Charged the princely sum of £128.20 cancellation costs. Avoid this company at all costs. Reviewed on: 3rd November 2022

Price increase after first month

They increased the price from just over £300 to nearly £900 because they though I didn't provide them with documents. I did that 2 weeks before deadline but they didn't notice! They put the price up anyway because apparently I entered wrong date of passing driving licence test and wrong occupation!! Absolute scammers. Reviewed on: 3rd November 2022

How much?

Changed my car they wanted £118 admin fees. Ok I'll cancel £170 cancellation fee. WTF. Will not be renewing with 1st central. AVOID. Reviewed on: 1st November 2022

AVOID-One of the most unorganised and incompetent companies I have ever dealt with.

I wish I could give them 0 star. One of the most unorganised and incompetent companies I have ever dealt with. They didn't instruct the garage to prepare a courtesy car for me although it's included in my policy and I requested it a number of times when speaking to their claim team. After two weeks' wait and numerous chasing calls, they finally rented a car for me through Enterprise. BUT they rented a Manual car when I only have an automatic license. I called them and Enterprise more than 5 times from last Friday until now, but the problem is still not sorted out. How hard it is to arrange a right courtesy car for your customer? Just unbelievable how slow and incompetent they can be. I would not recommend anyone to use this insurance company. Reviewed on: 1st November 2022

extra charge

got an email at 20.10 saying it was their second attempt trying to take payment and failed. This was the only email I received and the worst thing was I couldn't even call them up to rectify this as they closed at 20.00. called in the next day and was charged extra for late payment Reviewed on: 1st November 2022

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