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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (907 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 907 reviews, last reviewed 16th Jul 2025

400% increase in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

8% 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

Went on line, got a quote filled in the relevant for... Went on line, got a quote filled in the relevant forms , then asked for my bank details they took all this information and right at the end they said ... Read more Reviewed on: 16th 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 (907)

Appalling company, AVOID!!!

Appalling company, nothing gets solved but charge ridiculous fees for admin when actually their correspondence is misleading and conflicting in every way. Their team also lie when answering your questions. Every phone call takes over an hour while you are put on hold for no reason by totally imcompetent staff members. The staff never give you an apology for their total unprofessionalism. Will NEVER use 1st Central again. Reviewed on: 31st August 2016

Worst insurance company

Apparently I can't have my direct payment come out the day k get paid on the 28th, because you can only have a direct debit set up 6 days before or after your start date! And customer services refuse to change the date! This is ridiculous and am occurring 30 charges each time! Totally money grabbing company! I will be cancelling and going somewhere who have better customer service skills! Reviewed on: 26th August 2016

Good company

Handled all of my claims with easy, and it was afforrdablke Reviewed on: 26th August 2016

poor communication

good prices free breakdown cover but awful communication Reviewed on: 25th August 2016

Avoid this company

I had a car insurance with this company. After a while my partner insured with them too. They have requested documents which we have provided to them in time. After they have requested more documents such as prove of residence and set again a deadline. We have called numerous time to ask the reason to requesting additional documents but we haven't received an answer. The most interesting that I have insured with them 9 month, and they wasn't bothered about any documents all this time. Finally when we send the prove of residence they didn't accepted it and they not even informed us. If they informed us and actually explained us what is wrong this could be prevented. They just force the cancellation and ask for huge fees. Reviewed on: 24th August 2016

Cheapest Insurance

I purchased a new car and subsequently used a comparison site to identify the cheapest insurance. Unfortunately 1st central did not appear in the quotes so i tried a quote direct with 1st central as i was already an existing customer. The quote was £200 cheaper than any quote on the comparison site. Reviewed on: 24th August 2016

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

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