Write a review

1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.68 (924 reviews)

View other 1st Central products

1.53

Based on 924 reviews, last reviewed 6th Sep 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

41% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

I have used this company before, and have never had... I have used this company before, and have never had any problems. Reviewed on: 6th September 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

I have never had such an appalling experience with a... I have never had such an appalling experience with a company in my life. 1st Call Central Car Insurance has shown me exactly how NOT to treat a custom... Read more Reviewed on: 5th September 2025

Read all reviews Write a review

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.

Review 1st Central: Car insurance now

Help others make smarter decisions by sharing your own experience.

Write a review

1st Central Car insurance reviews (924)

Scam Artists

Took out a new policy online through Compare the Market. They got the start date wrong and now required to cancel policy. Now keeping paid deposit as part payment towards the £50 'set up fee' and billed for the balance for a policy I never used, and had for less than 12 hours, since they got the dates wrong. Will be reporting yo relevant bodies. Avoid at all costs. Reviewed on: 4th January 2022

Ridiculous

Tried to charge me over £200 to change my vehicle over for my disabled son, doubling the monthly payments. I shopped elsewhere and found the exact same policy for half the price. Upon cancelling the policy they have charged me over £90. Absolutely scandalous. I will never use this company again - learned my lesson this time around to stick with high end companies such as Admiral! Reviewed on: 3rd January 2022

Awfull

Be carefull. Offer a good price then try and alter stuff. I am 42 years old been driving since I was 17. I said I had 20 years no claims. I have never made a claim. My previous insurer only sent out 10 years no claims. So 1st wanted an extra £78 plus £50 admin fee. Ridiculous. So I said I wanted to cancel the policy. For the 3 weeks I had been with them they wanted £14 plus £50 setup and £50 cancellation disgusting. They offer a cheap price then change you to the hills Reviewed on: 31st December 2021

AVOID

Will ask you to "confirm" details on your policy, then charge you an admin fee, and hike your insurance up. Call handlers are incompetent. AVOID. Reviewed on: 23rd December 2021

Rip you of mid way through your policy

Only been with them two months, first my date of birth was wrong, so i rang them & got it changed, days later they email me saying i had to contact their policy checking team & if i didnt they would cancel my policy.. Rang them up, went through all their checks they wanted & they hiked my insurance up by £150.00 Utter con merchants... Reviewed on: 22nd December 2021

Worst car insurance company out there

Terrible service, no information provided and a lack of any contact when querying things. Pick anybody else. Reviewed on: 20th December 2021

Appalling

Avoid this morally bankrupt outfit of sharks Reviewed on: 17th December 2021

no service, care or accountability

Reported a claim 19 days ago. Did not hear from them until I called them after waiting for 12 days without hearing anything. Assured I would hear from repair centre and hire car company within 48 hours. I did not. I still have not heard from the hire company. I have since called 1st Central twice more and still nothing, each time being told I would hear from someone in 24 hours.. My claim was non fault. I use my vehicle for work. It is now nearly 3 weeks and nothing. I have never been contacted by the 1st central with an update and when I call them I get passed around several times on each call. No one takes responsibility and sorts it out. I have raised a complaint and not heard anything, giving 1st Central an opportunity to sort the unacceptable situation out before posting a negative review. Unfortunately no one has reached out to me or rectified this hence the review I am now posting. Reviewed on: 14th December 2021

Scam Artists - STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They hook you in with a low insurance monthly fee then ask you for paperwork, which in my case the email went into my junk folder. They also don't state that additional paperwork will be requested at a later date when signing up for it, which regardless if you upload or email will cost between £25-20. They then charge you more money (in my case £250, plus £50 admin fee) if the paperwork isn't received within 2 weeks. I Only noticed when looking at my bank statement as my insurance was doubled. There website doesn't allow you to upload the documents, so instead of being charged £25 to upload the documents you are charged £50. They then communicate via email no problem until you send the documents (3rd attempt this week), in which case I'm told they haven't received it ( I have a delivery note) and tell you they don't have your email on file (you know the one you've been communicating on so far and confirmed on the phone a few days before). So you've to forward yet MORE info/documents, different to the original requested documents. Most likely to keep you costs as high as possible for as long as possible then charge you an additional fee to update, then charge you again to update again with more documents. Total scam, never in my life have a i experienced this with an insurance company - complaining to ombudsman. Reviewed on: 13th December 2021

Wrong doing company

After being insured with this company for 5months and having my car compounded by my son. I provided every document they asked for and still not happy as my maiden name is black and married name dodsworth. After 26yrs of driving under the maiden name black yet insured in dodsworth. Same address photo on driving liscence and passport. They adamant my divirce decree should have my name typed out black yet its still dodsworth. I cant gv them anymore documents to say im the person i am. Unbelievable so i cancelled my insurance 2nite b4 they cancelled it tomorrow as they wouldnt wait for more info from my solicitor. The cancellation fee was beyond greed when i cud of done it myself on the portal yet they blocked me from doing it. Never claimed in all the yrs of being a driver and you get a backstreet shitty company like this. Should of known better trying to save extra 50 qid on my insurance. AVOID WITH CAUTION Reviewed on: 9th December 2021

Do you have a different 1st Central product?

Share your experiences with products to help others make smarter financial decisions and learn more about different products available. Write a review

Alternative products

Caravan Insurance
from Safeguard UK Insurance 3.45 from 10 reviews
Van Insurance
from Highway Insurance 1.00 from 2 reviews
Car insurance
from esure 1.83 from 405 reviews

Want to see more from 1st Central?

Breakdown cover
from 1st Central 4.47 from 16 reviews
Personal accident
from 1st Central 2.00 from 5 reviews
Home insurance
from 1st Central 0.00 from 0 reviews

View all products

Join Smart Money People

Keep up to date on ratings of your favourite businesses. Find out about our awards and write new reviews with ease

Create an account

News, guides and insight from our team

View resource hub