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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.51 (957 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 957 reviews, last reviewed 17th Apr 2026

100% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

53% 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

Do not use this provider for your car insurance I’ve had a very poor experience with this insurer. They failed to respond to three or four of my emails, and despite requesting a call from management... Read more Reviewed on: 10th April 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 (957)

Scammers! Avoid at all costs!

Having read the other reviews, I totally agree that this company should be avoided at all costs! Quoted £25 per month which was taken for the first 2 months then month 3 - £65 was taken. They said our proof of 9 years no claims was sent to them in the wrong format, they don't accept a forwarded email we needed to send a screenshot which we did. Month 4 another £65 was taken. They then said they wanted proof of no claims from AXA our last but one insurance company. We sent that. They then said they wanted a letter rom AXA saying that we hadn't made a claim? AXA said that was what the no claims document was. We have this evening been on the telephone (cut off twice), web chat and telephone again for over 4 hours. They now say they want the documentation in PDF format! It's an absolute joke! I feel at a loss? I think I will try and get some advice off the Ombudsman tomorrow. Reviewed on: 21st June 2022

Liars and unhelpful

Recalculation of my insurance should have happened following the removal of a claim that was made against me, for an incident I was not involved in. They are telling me that the price for the fees is solely based on the information provided to them and that they do not run any internal check across the national claim database. Absolutely disgusting. I am paying more when I have done nothing wrong and never involved in any accident! Reviewed on: 15th June 2022

So many issues with so many of their staff and trying to take more of my money for their faults

Went for the full package, then bought a car, then when the car was faulty (only one break worked on my 200 mile journey home from the garage I our gased from and they wouldn't pay to recover it to repair) I wasn't covered because 'they don't do that sort of cover', after telling me they did. Secondly, I went to renew and change details of my policy last year, then had terrible service, and wanted to leave, so someone else spoke to me, said he'd do the changes and renewal together and got me to stay. Just to find out that he never did the changes (these don't appear on the policy attachments of email, just on your account. So I asked them to fix them, and they're trying to charge me for changes and admin fees, even though I'd already done this last year and they hadn't done the job. I can't wait for October when I can get rid of them. They're awful. I'm currently waiting till Monday because after speaking to different people today, one finally acknowledged that there were notes about changes made last year, so they need to review last year's phone call to check... No apology. All whilst I'm trying to keep my 3month baby entertained with what I thought was a 5 min job, which I've actually spent several hours trying to sort, all whilst bring told I need to pay them regardless. I'm raging. All because I was being honest about my policy. Why did I even bother?! Reviewed on: 15th June 2022

Terrible Terrible Company

Terrible terrible company - canceled within an hour of taking out the policy (Admiral beat the quote by a good chunk and has fab customer services) and have been charged a £50 arrangement fee that is non-refundable and "clearly stated" (hidden) on page 6 of the terms and conditions (not included with the clearly stated 14-day free cancellation section). What a con. Use a decent insurance provider such as Admiral I would say. Reviewed on: 14th June 2022

TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could give 0 I would, Please please please do not waste your time or money on this 'insurer'. This company is not an insurance company they are brokers who will scam you, rob you and affect you both mentally and physically. I have no idea how this business is still running with the amount of people they are scamming. Out of the blue they cancelled my insurance, they said they needed extra documents. I was not notified at all, neither by text, phone call or post to indicate they require additional infomation. The only way I found out about this was because I checked my bank balance and they had refunded my money for the month. I gave them a call to understand why I had been refunded and only then they told me my insurance was going to be cancelled on 08/06/22 11:59pm - I FOUND OUT 10 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME IT WAS DUE TO BE CANCELLED. They expected me to pull out the documents out of thin air. To avoid this tarnishing my good record I asked the policy to be cancelled and they kept passing me over person to person - I was trying to deal with this whilst I was at work. Then in the end I had to ask them to call me back and then the lady said she will at 6:00 after I finish work. 6:00pm comes and no one has called me, instead I got a lazy email to say 'sorry we cannot cancel your insurance and there is nothing we can do'. The 'analysis' had locked my account so i was unable to cancel the policy online. Even the website is extremely dodgy, they had added a fee of £135 on my account and it said once i make the payment my account will be unlocked. I paid it and it was still locked - luckily I had sent written proof that i want my insurance cancelled and this was the only thing I had to cover my back. I called this morning and spoke to a man who was also very useless and he did nothing to help me and he kept saying to me the insurance cannot be cancelled and he has spoken to his manager. Later i conferred with a family lawyer and they advised me that what they have done is unlawful and should be reported to the ombudsmen. I then called them and threatened them with legal action and notified them that I have also contacted ombudsmen. After this they changed their tune and agreed to cancel my insurance on my behalf rather than them doing it and tarnishing my good record. This has caused me an unbelievable amount of stress and anxiety. PLEASE RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY - The few pounds and pennies you save going for this insurance will only last a month before they start slapping random charges on your account. I insured my run around car with them and for a 2005 mini i essentially paid approx. £200 a month with all the charges they gave me and i only had this insurance for 2 month. I own a BMW X4m and the insurance is no where as expensive. I must say I have learnt my lesson and I will definitely do research before looking for insurance. STAY AWAY LIKE THE PLAGUE. Reviewed on: 9th June 2022

sCAM ARTISTS

they will scam you out of more money saying a dot was missing on information you gave them Reviewed on: 9th June 2022

Bad customer service

They charge way too much for change of address. I raised a complaint and it took me nowhere. They did not care they would loose another customer. I can't wait when contract is finished and I will not renew it. I would recommend other people to be aware of this company. They claim to be cheap when you first take an insurance but if you change details during your policy such as address , etc they charge you more than 50%. Don't bother with complaints because they will not consider it. Reviewed on: 8th June 2022

Disgusting customer service

Never experienced such bad customer service. Will never ever use them again. Tried to make me pay over £500 just to change my address Reviewed on: 8th June 2022

Terrible AVOID

They are keep sending me texts that I owe them money. I emailed them back with my bank statement to prove I pay monthly by direct debit. In the end I've cancelled my insurance with them but guess what. I still owe them money because I cancelled!!! Over 200 pounds for fee. I'm fuming Reviewed on: 8th June 2022

Reliable company to work with

No bad experience still this moment Reviewed on: 29th May 2022

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