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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.66 (942 reviews)

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1.51

Based on 942 reviews, last reviewed 29th Dec 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

13% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

12%

79%

Latest highest rating:

5

Good and not too expensive Was looking for good value car insurance and found this one. Not too expensive and so far can’t say anything bad. Very easy to sign up. Reviewed on: 5th September 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

This company is scamming people out of money. This company is scamming people out of money. They use illicit abhorrent techniques to force changes to the information you have provided and make up ... Read more Reviewed on: 29th December 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.

1st Central Car insurance reviews (942)

Review of the 1st Central, Car insurance:

Great First Impression

I haven't had to claim yet and I hope I don't have to but the process to apply was easy and their website is excellent. Reviewed on: 9th June 2024

Reply from 1st Central Hello, Thank you for your review and for choosing 1st Central this year for your car insurance. Ashley Response date: 10th June 2024

Seems that's it's not just me experiencing the same...

Seems that's it's not just me experiencing the same thing. I just read this review. The same think happened to me. Sadly, it's quite common with this insurance company. "Be very careful when buying insurance of this company. They were the cheapest online at the time on confused.com but they needed additional info AFTER the policy was set up. I called them , they asked me about my occupation and they said it wasn’t the right discription and proceeded to ask question after question. After finally slightly altering my employment details(very slightly altered that would never change the price on the website)they slapped me with another 130£ including an admin fee. Absolutely furious as now my policy is way more Expensive than the next best one on confused.com . They have you snookered because to cancel the policy they slap you with another fee so I stayed with them reluctantly because of this.they’ve lost a lot of my custom on my other vehicles as I’ll never use them again for anything so ultimately they’ve lost out.Never experienced anything like it in all my years of driving. Not a happy customer" Be very careful!!!! Reviewed on: 11th February 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi AM A, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 12th February 2025

Worst insurance company!

Worst insurance company! Have never had such a bad experience like with 1st cetral they wanted to charge me £640 for makinga change Reviewed on: 11th February 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Klaudia, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 12th February 2025

Almost got me arrested

Opened a new policy in November, now currently February 2025. It turns out these scammers cancelled my insurance without telling me and allowed me to drive round for months without insurance! I’m lucky I was not arrested or in an accident. AVOID Reviewed on: 6th February 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Tom, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We'd like to look into this further for you to help resolve this, please send an email to [email protected] with your policy number a summary of your experience similar to your review and we will look into it. Ashley Response date: 7th February 2025

The worst experience and the worst insurance company.

The worst experience and the worst insurance company. My car broke down at the beginning of the insurance and they refused to suspend the insurance or even cancel it. I called for several months and every time they kept me on the line for an hour and told me that someone would return to resolve my problem as soon as possible. In the end, no one called me. I do not recommend this company at all. The worst dealings with customers. Reviewed on: 31st January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Rajab, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We'd like to look into this further for you to help resolve this, please send an email to [email protected] with your policy number a summary of your experience similar to your review and we will look into it. Ashley Response date: 3rd February 2025

SCAMMERS Untrustworthy keep well away from this c...

*SCAMMERS * Untrustworthy keep well away from this company. Reviewed on: 30th January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Benny, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right. Ashley Response date: 31st January 2025

Will increase policy

Started my policy they then asked me for more information I provided said information they then hit me with an increase and an admin fee which resulted in my policy doubling. I tried to cancel and they made it so expensive to leave I ahd to stay. Will not be renewing with these. Reviewed on: 23rd January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Garry, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 24th January 2025

the duplicate your policy by accident.

the duplicate your policy by accident....I did get a refund for this but it was a headache.... I called them when i got a new car to cancel and go with someone else and they didn't do it so months later I had to ring them up again where they required email proof I was with someone else.....then said they have to wait to get that email cause the person on the phone couldnt see emails....will not be going with them again. Reviewed on: 20th January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Tzice, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We’ll use your comments to help improve our service. Ashley Response date: 21st January 2025

Ridiculous charges

I’m still with 1st central unfortunately and have only been with them a few months otherwise I’d cancel but ever since signing up the payment fails to come out my bank coincidentally so then I’m hit with a £15 fee every month but it seems to take the payment when I do it manually online you don’t need to be a genius to work out 12 months of £15 is an extra £180 they are going to get off me for the year for an error on their behalf. Reviewed on: 16th January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Bradley, We’re sorry to hear on this occasion your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. We advise of our late payment fee when a policy is set up. We also have this FAQ - https://help.1stcentralinsurance.com/motor/payments-and-fees/why-have-i-been-charged-extra-on-my-direct-debit You can also move your monthly payment date, we have this FAQ for this - https://help.1stcentralinsurance.com/motor/payments-and-fees/can-i-change-my-car-insurance-payment-date Please speak to our team on 0333 043 2088 or speak to us on web chat which can be found on our website. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 8am to 8pm, Sat: 9am to 5pm, Sun: 10am to 2pm. They can assist you with moving this date. Ashley Response date: 17th January 2025

So my son passed his test 27th Apr 2023,he was stopp...

So my son passed his test 27th Apr 2023,he was stopped by the police may 27th 2023,he went to court 5th Dec 2023,where he was convicted of a DG10 and recieved 12 month ban. 1st central were the cheapest insurance we could find since getting his licence back and still cost £3,881 for the year paid in full 8-12-24,1st central are now trying to say we put wrong date he passed his test (we didnt) and also saying we put wrong date he was convicted we put 5-12-23 the date he went to court and was convicted, but apparently that's wrong we should have put the date the offence occurred 27-5-23?? But he was NOT convicted on that date, and are now demanding another £1,908.75 2 change the dates we apparently put wrong (which are not wrong) otherwise they are cancelling his insurance!! Absolutely disgraceful that they can do this,and how they think it's acceptable to be charging £6,000 for 12 months car insurance, may I add,that is just bog standard fully comp,no added extras,breakdown cover or anything like that,and he also has a telematics box too. I will be cancelling his policy and I will also be contacting the ombudsman and the FCA regarding this as I think it's absolutely disgusting they can get away with this!! Reviewed on: 6th January 2025

Reply from 1st Central Hi Bridget, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right. Ashley Response date: 8th January 2025

Distrustful customer service

Spent two separate calls of 10-15min in the past week (Christmas time) trying to get two 1st Central advisors to accept my annual mileage estimation (average based on last 3yrs worth of MOT certificates) and 1st Central flat out didn't want to believe me! In over 20yrs of insuring cars I've never once been treated with such distrust over my submitted details. Awful company that I'll be going out of my way to avoid once my policy runs out. God help me if I need to process a claim! Reviewed on: 23rd December 2024

Reply from 1st Central Hi Albert, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. All details on the policy impact the price of the policy we offer, if details are found to be incorrect we need to update them and this can impact the price of the policy. If you’d like to speak to the team about this process, please give us a call on 0333 043 2095. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 9am to 5pm. Ashley Response date: 27th December 2024

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