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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.67 (881 reviews)

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1.48

Based on 881 reviews, last reviewed 5th Apr 2025

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

39% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

11%

80%

Latest highest rating:

5

Very good quote on car insurance, and recommended on... Very good quote on car insurance, and recommended on go compare site Reviewed on: 25th September 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

Took £881 when by their own admission the insurance... Took £881 when by their own admission the insurance was cancelled. Then tell you it will take 10 days for the refund . Absolute disgrace . AVOID THIS ... Read more Reviewed on: 5th April 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 (881)

Avoid like the plague

Took me months to stop them harrasing me, after they demanded I send them proof of my car sale. I sent them a screen dump from the DVLA and a ferry ticket out of the country to prove to them I had sold the car, i.e. exported it. Then months later they still hounded me for money of various amounts, even after I sent them proof of my car sale, bizare. In all I rang them regarding the cancellation of this one policy some 20 times, maybe more, some calls lasting an hour and over and costing over £10:00 a call. Every time I never got a conclusive answer, but was evasively told it would be sorted, i.e for them to stop hounding me for money, but never it never was sorted. Terrible hey, well it gets worse. I then receive from them an email from 1st Central telling me that they have successively debited my account using my card details stored at 1st Central,for £199.00, I was furious, phoned them over an hour on the phone, spoke to three different people, no conclusion!, only for a representative at 1st Central telling me it was probably fraud and that I should contact the Ombudsman! what the heck!.. This is illegal to debit someones account without consent using customer card details. I then receive another email several days later that the email saying my account had been debited was sent to me in error. I had already cancelled all my cards, as the email did not specify which card number they had debited! What a nightmare company, stress, stess, stress. Is it possible that this is common practice from 1st Central and could possibly be making money from premium rate phone calls. Also due to their bizare evasive tactics, and what I have had to go through, I do not trust the ethics/practices of this company and the culture in which it's staff are trained. They have you ringing up so many times and a great cost, an hour a time and more to no conclusion. Do not trust this company and steer well clear. Reviewed on: 22nd August 2016

Great company

Great customer service Freindly helpful I felt right at ease explained everything to me Reviewed on: 21st August 2016

Professional

I took out our 2nd car insurance online. When completed I realised there was a mistake on the start date. I needed immediate cover but somehow put 3 weeks time in error. As this was evening I had to wait till the next morning to call customer services. There wasn't any way I could amend the date so the policy had to be cancelled. I was refunded in full including the setting up fee which all brokers charge, no quibble, no hassle etc.. I then went on the comparison site again and started over. Although 1st central wasn't the cheapest I opted for them again given the level of service received over the last year and the way in which they handled which was my error on the second policy. I was also advised that they offer 2nd car discounts but it's worth still checking comparison sites as they can sometimes still be cheaper than direct with themselves. It was a question I asked and it was answered honestly. So far I can't fault them. Maria Reviewed on: 19th August 2016

No fuss insurance

Easy to set up, very responsive when needed. Would recommend Reviewed on: 14th August 2016

Straight forward and easy to actually get insurance online,

I was directed to One after searching on Go compare and they where the cheapest. I completed everything online and within 15 minutes i was insured. The next day i needed to change my vehicle which a lovely Scottish women sorted for me. I would recommend if its the cheapest for you. Reviewed on: 4th August 2016

Not filled with hope

I got a quote online but ended up having to ring them to complete it as the system wouldn't allow me to complete the process. I then spent an hour on the phone because they couldn't add the words 'the flat' to my address! Received paperwork and they've still not got it right... I'm wondering if they did it on purpose so they can charge me to update it! I hope I never have to make a claim won't be renewing when the year is up!! Reviewed on: 3rd August 2016

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!!!!!

How I wish I had read the reviews before buying a policy with the worst insurance company in this country. I was unfortunately fooled by the cheap price since every time I've gotten a quote 1st central has always come up as the cheapest. I was in a pretty bad crash, hit and run, in Feb 2016, on the motorway. It wasn't my fault, I got clipped by a van on the left rear of my vehicle. My car was brand new, only 3 months old and a lease vehicle. And because they couldn't locate this van driver, they said it was going to be split liability. It's the first of Aug today(5 months now) and I'm still fighting with them. They have stalled and stalled, tried to find any loop-hole they could not to pay out. They even tried to cancel my policy because apparently I had lied about when I passed my test but the reason why the date on my licence was different was because I had lost my previous licence hence the date on my new one was when I applied for it not when I passed my test. Unfortunately for them, I am very clued on when it comes to stuff like this so it didn't work. My claim has been put on hold numerous times because of one reason or another. Every time I call, I have to wait at least 20minutes only to speak to someone who has no bloody clue what the hell is going on and when they said they will call back, forget it coz they won't. I had to threaten to get some lawyers involved and also refer them to Financial Ombudsman that is only when I started to see some significant progress on my claim. I consider going with 1st Central one of the biggest mistakes I've made in a long time and as soon as my claim is settled, I a running for the hills. And I will make sure no one I know will make the same mistake I made of buying a policy with these incompetent and foolish thieves. As far as I am concerned, they should be shut down. Not having insurance at all is better than being insured by these idiots! Reviewed on: 1st August 2016

COULDN'T RUN A BATH

BEWARE!! This is a totally incompetent organisation. They made a mistake on the cancellation date of my policy, telling me that I was insured (in writing) and verbally telling the police that I wasn't, on a Saturday after I was stopped for a dead rear light bulb. The result was that I have been disqualified from driving and cannot work - my losses are well into five figures and the cheapest insurance quote I've had is £3000 a year. With the state of British courts it's taken four months to get the court to reopen the case and it'll be another six weeks before a hearing can clear me of the ban. The ban will stay on my record for ten years, costing me around £30k in car insurance. Premia don't go down any more - only up. My first formal complaint was not upheld by the company, despite having unequivocally proved their incompetence. Escalating the complaint to the company's board of directors and legal department resulted in them agreeing they were wrong, issuing a letter of indemnity and offering me £300 in compensation for my 'Inconvenience'. - Less than the court attendance have actually cost me by the time my license is reinstated. Other than saying 'We're sorry that you're disappointed with our service' there has been no apology whatsoever. I have now involved the Financial Ombudsman and reported the incident to the Financial Conduct Authority and involved a national daily newspaper. Reviewed on: 27th July 2016

Great company

Would recommend this company to family and friends. Reviewed on: 26th July 2016

Absolute rip-off merchants

Went to cancel my policy as I have got rid of my car. As soon as I cancelled the direct debit, they started posting and emailing aggressive default notices. When I called to cancel, they didn't want to charge a nominal fee (which I'd have been happy to pay), they charged £111 - which is almost as much as if I'd let the policy run out at the end of the term. Customer services were vile, refused to help, just kept telling me I'd agreed to it and had to pay it. I've read terrible stories now about how bad they are if you actually have a problem - there is no way I'd ever use them again. It's beyond belief that companies like this are even allowed to operate - they are no better than whatever the insurance equivalent of a loan shark is. Reviewed on: 22nd June 2016

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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

No new 5 star reviews

39% increase in 1 star reviews

Latest highest rating:

5

Latest lowest rating:

1

About this product

Review 1st Central: Car insurance now

1st Central Car insurance reviews (881)

Avoid like the plague

Great company

Professional

No fuss insurance

Straight forward and easy to actually get insurance online,

Not filled with hope

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!!!!!

COULDN'T RUN A BATH

Great company

Absolute rip-off merchants

Do you have a different 1st Central product?

There's still more to see!

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