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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.5 (955 reviews)

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1.50

Based on 955 reviews, last reviewed 24th Mar 2026

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

29% decrease 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

Worst insurance company I have ever dealt with. Worst insurance company I have ever dealt with. 1st Central have the incorrect date of passing my test, they told me to contact the DVLA as the info... Read more Reviewed on: 24th March 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 (955)

Useless, thieves

I thought Admiral was bad and then i got 1st central. Despicable Reviewed on: 10th October 2022

Excessive unnecessary charges

I wish I had read reviews before taking two policies. Similar to others asked for the V5 document and then charge of £69 for amending date. Never experienced an insurance company like this before. Avoid Reviewed on: 5th October 2022

RIP OFF --BE WARNED

After giving you a competitive quote they will come at you after the 14 day cooling off period to say the details on the policy may be incorrect ---things they have added or adjusted and then tell you you have to pay £68 inc administration fee --how can they get away with this ?? my mistake was to pay for the policy upfront should have done a monthly payment and would have stopped it Reviewed on: 5th October 2022

just awful

waited 3 weeks for them to arrange a payout and still waiting 12 days later for the money to land in my account. Really bad customer service on their webchat AVOID AVOID AVOID Reviewed on: 5th October 2022

Just avoid this company

Just avoid this company, took out car insurance with them and a few months later they asked for me to send some documents to them as well as give them a call, the call centre was only open Monday to Friday from 9-5 so I had to call them during work. During the call they said that I had put the date I bought the car down incorrectly but in fact they had just made a date up out of the blue and the document I had submitted was correct and inline with what I had put down. After this they then asked me what I did for work, I said I’m a mechanical engineer doing design work and he said “so you’re a design engineer” I just went along with it however when it got to the end of the call he said “that will be £100 added to your bill” this was done for the change of one word, mechanical to design, said I would not pay and hung up, they then put the bill onto my account and said it had to be paid within the week, I tried emailing them to sort this out but I only got a stock Email reply and nothing ever came of it. Sadly I had to fold to them and give them the £100 but I will never buy anything of there ever again. Summary – cold calls fishing for small changes on your policy and ask for £100 for one-word changes in your policy with no way to fight against it. Avoid like the plague. Reviewed on: 30th September 2022

Disgrace

Disgrace of an insurance company My wife had an unfortunate car accident on THREE weeks ago, she pay for courtesy car cover. They said they'd send her car to get fix and on the same day she'll get a car for a temporary replacement TWO garages they have sent the information to and both have said they don't work work First Central.... We have a 3 month old who has needed appointments to go to which I have to cover leaving me out of pocket with work. They finally gave her a car via Enterprise, which is two times smaller then the car she had. But that alone took TWO weeks. Car is still sitting at our address waiting Reviewed on: 30th September 2022

Great company

Excellent value insurance, would definitely recommend Reviewed on: 29th September 2022

Harry needs to be fired

Spoke to Harry on the claims line. His attitude was so extremely unnecessary. He kept referring to my employment telling me I should know this as I work with motor insurance. I explained to him a few times. This is a new job to me, I don't have any knowledge in the area like he would as I deal with people changing their cars not claims. 2 different things. He kept laughing at me like I was stupid and I felt extremely belittled. He kept talking like I was dumb saying I should go ask people in that department at my work place... Like wtf? This job I'm doing is a new concept to me, and regardless if I was working with motor insurance or a stripper he should be helping me and advising me. I asked him to not mention my employment, to stop referring to it as I wasn't feeling comfortable with the comments being made and Im here talking to HIM not my bloody work place. Does he not want todo his job or something? He didn't care and still was referring to my employment, being very condescending about it. I thought me telling him once that I wasn't comfortable about that would be enough for him to stop. He then went and told me something which I said something like fine I don't want to do that, in which he felt the need to tell me off for saying 4 words over him. Harry if you see this. Who do you think you are? Your job is to assist me, help me. Your job isn't to make he feel like shit. How dare you act the way you did. I don't know if you was having a bad day or if your just generally a nasty person. But seeing as you love my job so much you would be fired right away with how you deal with clients. Harry is someone who has really brought your company down. I work with high performance and modified cars where people ask us who they can also insure with if they don't meet our criteria. Best believe 1st Central will never be used by my clients anymore. Reviewed on: 29th September 2022

Worst ever company

I would advise anyone thinking of using this company not too. Go on Facebook and read 1st central insurance reviews. It will fill you in as why not to use them . Stuff of nightmares . Still trying to get over how I've been treated by them. Just don't use them . Cheap quotes them they come after you for more. Even seen some people ended up with bad credit ratings and distressed . I urge anyone to read these first before even considering getting involved with these sharks. Reviewed on: 23rd September 2022

Scammers avoid at all costs

Wish I had seen these reviews. Policy was cheap. Then 3 months after they ask for reams more information, photos of driving licence, dvla online codes, no claims proof in pdf format. I provided it all which was stressful enough. Then today they call to say my premiums have doubled because of inaccuracies in my driving pass date and no claims dates (which as I went through a compare website I'm pretty sure was never provided anyway). The man on the phone said it was £97 to cancel. I can't afford £56 a month to insure a crappy old Ford Fusion so I'll have to cancel. Am terrified it will cost even more than £97 with hidden fees tho. I could (and have) cried with how awful and unfair this is. Please avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 22nd September 2022

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