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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.51 (952 reviews)

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1.50

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

AVOID!!!!! I can't stress this enough.

waited a month to request the following to be emailed and no way to supply via secure portal: all 4 pages of v5, proof of address, work contract, both sides of license, check code, passport, bank statement. Demanded all of this or insurance would be cancelled, never been asked for such sensitive data from a company to be sent unsecured via email. Refused to send these details due to gdpr concerns, was advised I had mandatory set up and cancellation charges. Had they requested this in the first instance within my cancellation window (14 days) I would have avoided charges. Went elsewhere after cancellation which worked out cheaper and they never requested any of this information, all went through and confirmed with no issues. This company is cowboy con artists. Considering going to insurance ombudsman, poor service, terrible contact and money demanding. Avoid at all costs! Reviewed on: 17th August 2022

Cancelled my policy out of the blue

Sent me an email on Friday stating my policy had been cancelled due to lack of proof of address, stating they had been emailing me for months although I have no record of any email. When called they put me on hold for 1.5 hours all for the manager to give me less than 25 seconds of his time to say he was unable to help me. Blunt, rude and almost seemed to enjoy my displeasure. Said that there was a 48 hour window in which after that there was nothing they could do. I am sure they cancelled this on a Friday on purpose as they knew their call centres were shut over the weekend! And the final cherry on the top was they have charged me a £80 cancellation fee, for a cancellation I didn't even want! Joke of a situation really not much you can do but laugh - and never insure your car here. Customer service has a lot to be desired for. Reviewed on: 15th August 2022

RIP OFF

Cancelled my insurance without contacting me even though all payments are up to date. Then expect a cancellation fee Absolute joke of a company. Reviewed on: 15th August 2022

Cowboy company lots of hidden charges

Really bad, used alot of insurance providers over the years but this has been the worst. Reviewed on: 15th August 2022

Brilliant customer service

I had a car accident whilst with them and they were very helpful and their customer service is brilliant. Whenever I had questions or had information to check or to change they were very quick and efficient. I’d recommend them to anyone. Reviewed on: 14th August 2022

Just awful

We are a garage so used to dealing with insurance companies. Never have I known anything like this! We are owed money and it seems like they just don't want to pay us! Chasing them up is a nightmare, time spent on hold when I could be working. Even the customer has had nothing but hassle with them. Avoid at all costs! Reviewed on: 12th August 2022

Terrible service and support with an accident

I have used 1st central for the past couple of years as they were cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Had an accident in June where a car crashed into the side of me. All damage to both my car and theirs clearly indicates the third party hit me, I took photos and shared with 1st central. First employee I spoke to said there was a very good chance the third party would be placed at fault (and rightly so) as images of damage clearly indicated this. They also said they would fight this case for me if needed as I had legal cover also. Weeks passed and received no update on my car getting fixed or progress with the claim. Had to chase them to find they’d assigned me to a repairs garage which didn’t serve my area and they were looking to correct this. Over a month passed before I was assigned to a repairs garage. I then received a call to say third party were now claiming injury (both people in the car at the time of the accident got out and clearly displayed that they had not been hurt at all. They also crashed into me so surely I’d be the one who was hurt if anybody). 1st central employee asked me to again recount the incident and proceeded to say that I would be placed at fault?! I challenged this and also stated I had provided a statement at the time, as well as sketches and third party had said sorry at the scene of the incident. The employee was rude and dismissive of what I was telling them, almost as if I wasn’t paying them for a service and to fight my case as promised previously by their colleague. Now over 2 months later I have been wrongly placed at fault and my car will not be repaired until October. Third party walks away with a pay out and no consequences for the fact they crashed into me. I’m also now with a new insurance provider and paying more to ensure I get a better service should I ever need it. Looking at other reviews here it’s clear that 1st central are happy to take money from their customers with false promises in return. Would NEVER use this company again and would definitely NEVER recommend them. Avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 11th August 2022

Racist

Very distraught with my experience with them Reviewed on: 10th August 2022

RACIST COMPANY!!

I spoke to a manager named John who cancelled my insurance due to the fact that I simply didn’t reply to ONE email. They did not text me (which they have done before for providing them with documents) or make me aware that they will be cancelling my insurance only 3 weeks after, they texted me stating that my insurance got cancelled. I called them and spoke to the manager John and was very unhelpful with resolving this solution all because I have an ethnic last name. I am DISGUSTED with this company and to be honest, I would not reccomend ANYONE use this insurance provider as they only care about customers with Anglo-Saxon last names. I’m surprised they’re even still operating as I’ve been told by numerous people before that they’ve received racial abuse from them. Reviewed on: 10th August 2022

weeks waiting to be paid out

weeks… Been off the road now for 2.5 weeks with no car and I'm waiting for an offer on my car that's written off. I'm be waiting and waiting!! Everytime I call the customer service team for help they say there a two to three week backlog of claims to process on there offers. I ask can you give me a better idea as I need to buy a new car and they said no they can't give me an idea of how long I will be waiting. I think this is really poor service Reviewed on: 9th August 2022

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