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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (909 reviews)

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1.50

Based on 909 reviews, last reviewed 25th Jul 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Found you online,needed a cheap quote,you certainly... Found you online,needed a cheap quote,you certainly provided it.Thank you Reviewed on: 3rd June 2025

Verified source

Latest lowest rating:

1

You think you’re getting a good deal with a cheap pr... You think you’re getting a good deal with a cheap price but they do that to get your card details then they invent reasons to change your policy and c... Read more Reviewed on: 25th July 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 (909)

As the rest of the review says Scammers, Con Artists, avoid avoid avoid

I went with them as with the cash back it made it slightly cheaper than my previous company admiral. They never provided the cash back and also in September someone reversed into me and I am still waiting for the go ahead from them to get this fixed in March. I can only assume they have pocketed the claim money as it was a council vehicle that reversed into me and the driver admitted fault straight away. Con Artists. Reviewed on: 8th March 2022

Scammers

Very shit. Quick to upsell cannot delivery with services. Horrified wait times. Staff that dont know what they are talking about. Had to wait 20weeks for payout. An to top it off the charges/fees when transfering vehicle after being written off Reviewed on: 4th March 2022

Changed my renewal by £100

Sent me a renewal email on 13th Feb / all good happy to stay - changed my surname & marital status with them as I had recently got married - was told there is no charge & nothing else. Look at my bank on the 1st March to see that they had taken over £100 more than the renewal stated. Contacted them to be told that they had sent me another renewal email because I had changed my name & changed from single to married that I never received (not in junk / bin etc) & said they couldn’t do anything as I had ‘opened’ the email - which I have never ever received. Only thing they could offer me was to cancel - but they would keep £50 for doing it. Happy to say I cancelled on the spot & will now be looking to get that additional £50 back due to their error. ABSOLUTE JOKE OF A COMPANY. Reviewed on: 2nd March 2022

scamming people

took insurance as it was cheaper then my current provide 25 pound. 1st central asked me for my NCD and Logbook and after 14 days received email to pay 71 pound to make a change because vehicle was bought 8 years ago on 14th rather then 1st of the month. where i booked the vehicle on 1st of the month. I been with 1st central for 3 years in past never asked such information. I am so worried how they will deal incase of a claim. stay away guys they might appear cheaper on compare websites but not worth... Reviewed on: 28th February 2022

Scam insurance company

I took there fantastic quote, then after 14 days cool off period they required information front and back of licences NCD but this wasn't enough they wanted to almost double the insurance, daylight robbery all because I said the wrong day j passed my car test. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Reviewed on: 25th February 2022

The worst customer service ever!

Avoid if you do not want to wait on chat for 1 hour just to change the simple details. They charge £30 if they do it via chat or £25 if you do it on your account but it does not work and just loading so you are not able to do anything except use chat, they do not have a phone line for the customer service on the renewal department and customer service are playing ping pong game with customer - for example: JoaddanI see, If the change must be done prior to the renewal, I recommend that you contact our Customer Service line via the chat line or on 03330432066 open from Mon-Fri 8am-8pm Sat 9am-5pm Sun 10am-2pm, and the team will be able to do the change for you.18:52:02 or I can see this query is for our Renewals team. Please contact them on 03330432055, and they’ll be happy to help.19:03:34 I would personally stronly recommend to use a different insurance company if you can. Reviewed on: 22nd February 2022

excellent service

easy to get insurance excellent service and reasonable prices Reviewed on: 14th February 2022

Don't trust 1st Central to stand by their promises

When it comes to trusting an insurer to give you their best price offered, 1st Central are the last people to follow that etiquette. 1st Central promised me a certain price 21 days before my insurance expired, but at the very last minute (due to an error on their behalf of not putting in a simple form), they tried to shaft me and charge me extra without giving much of an option to negotiate. Why should the customer have to pay the price of an error on the insurer's half? The first time it happened, I let it slide due to human error. But the second time I knew they were trying to string me along like I knew nothing was going on. This kind of behaviour is unacceptable and shocking that it happens still in 2022. This is gutter-level behaviour. They also failed to email me about the prior promise of the agreed insurance price when I Negotiated. Something so simple and easy to do, yet has cost me both time and money. As the saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. DON'T TRUST 1ST CENTRAL TO BE ON YOUR SIDE Reviewed on: 9th February 2022

Thieving cowboys

I took out a car insurance policy with 1st Central back in October 2021, I paid for the year upfront. On 24/01/2022, I receive a text from the bank telling me I've gone into my overdraft due to 1st central taking £300+. I call up 1st central and ask them why they've taken out that money, they tell me they've e-mailed requesting x3 pieces of information from me, with no response on my end (this is true, unless I am on the look out for e-mails, I tend to miss e-mails due to the sheer volume I receive- I told them this& asked why they hadn't called me /sent notice via post to which they answered that they were a predominantly online company) . I was told I needed to provide proof of no claims, proof of employment and the date I'd purchased my vehicle. I called my previous insurers, who sent me an e-mail confirming my proof of no claims. I call up my father& he scans me a copy of my V5 form. I forward these to 1st Central and call them up. Whilst on the phone, they tell me they can't take a forwarded e-mail as proof of no claims (despite being a self described 'predominantly online company) and that I'd need to send them a letter from my previous insurers with their letter head. They also told me that they needed the complete V5 form, as opposed to the 1 page that my father had scanned in. They also asked me what my job role is, when I gave them the answer, (that is on the Policy) they said that what I'd entered onto the comparison site was different, I told them that it was more or less the same in terms of what I do at work, and so they changed it to what was on the comparison website, and told me I had to pay £100 admin fee for this. When I stated that when asked by them, I'd given the answer that was already on the Policy, they relented. I then called my previous insurers who then sent out a PDF version of a NCD letter which I forwarded to 1st Central. I then called 1st Central, and after hours complaining on the phone, I managed to get a refund (minus a £50 admin fee), on the condition that I provide the V5 in its entirety within 2 weeks, which I do, and receive confirmation of receipt of both. The refund would take 5-10 working days to appear in my bank account, which did nothing for me in terms of taking me out of my overdraft/overdraft fees. On the 24/01/2022, I explained the effect of them taking £300+ out of my bank account, the stress caused and that my experience with them had been awful- I didn't receive anything by way of apology- not even an offer for the manager to get back to me. I then, on 04/02/2022, get another e-mail stating that they're still going to charge me £288.53 for having had to make amendments to my Policy which I could see online (when I checked online, there was no audit trail as to what has been amended from what to what). I called on 07/02/2022, and was told that there was no outstanding balance. I requested a copy of this in writing, and have not yet received this, which does little to bring me any peace of mind. I also stated that they'd given me an incredibly stressed out weekend, and again reiterated that my experience with them had been awful. Again, I didn't receive anything by way of an apology. Reviewed on: 7th February 2022

Crazy charges!

Cheap initial price then hit you with ridiculous admin charges, set up charges, cancellation charges, mid term policy charges bla bla bla-joke of a company will be reporting to financial ombudsman. Avoid Reviewed on: 4th February 2022

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