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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.51 (958 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 958 reviews, last reviewed 13th May 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

75% 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

Cancelled my policy without warning and charged me a... Cancelled my policy without warning and charged me a cancellation fee. Impossible to get hold of, and when I finanally did, they refused to reinstate ... Read more Reviewed on: 13th May 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 (958)

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask

They did it to me too say they need more information and charge you for it .. tie you up in knots give you a major headache never a uk person on the phone they keep your card details on file.. and they are the biggest load of crooks on earth don't touch them Reviewed on: 13th October 2022

Sly

Sly company, not nice to deal with, hard to get your money back if they take it by accident too! Reviewed on: 12th October 2022

DODGY BUSINESS PRACTICES

Once cover has been taken out they will pretend that they haven't received all of the information and will hit you with untold admin fees. Use Aviva or Churchill instead. Reviewed on: 11th October 2022

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

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