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1st Central: Car insurance reviews

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1.52
Based on 930 reviews, last reviewed 30th Oct 2025
300% increase in 5 star reviews
in the past 90 days
41% decrease in 1 star reviews
in the past 90 days
See only 5 star reviews
12%
See only 4 star reviews
5%
See only 3 star reviews
2%
See only 2 star reviews
2%
See only 1 star reviews
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
Matus's avatar
Matus

Latest lowest rating:

1

Avoid - Coercive pattern,will trap you, non consented £ DO NOT USE!!!! you will be trapped into paying extra!! i have been with 1st Central for a good few years now, since 2019 and i have not had any issue... Read more Reviewed on: 30th October 2025
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Jess
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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 (930)

quick and simple

5
so far so good. cheapest quote for me on comparison sites, straightforward form and done in a few moments. Reviewed on: 21st September 2016
rod clifford's avatar
rod clifford

Good company

5
I switched my car insurance from Debenhams, to 1st Central. Poepole over the phone were polite and helpful. They gave me decent quote for the cover i was looking for and setting up account with them was easy. So far, so good. Lets hope they keep up looking after their customers and keep providing best prices. Reviewed on: 31st August 2016
Igor Lukovic's avatar
Igor Lukovic

All FAB

4
Just took out car insurance with these and have to say that I was pleased with the prices offered. The website is very clear and easy to understand. I telephoned with some queries before going ahead and found they were very helpful and polite. It does state that payments can be made 6 days before or after the start date of your policy (for direct debits). So far very impressed and hopefully next year they wont do the same as all the others and virtually double the price. Reviewed on: 31st August 2016
Wendy Evans's avatar
Wendy Evans

Appalling company, AVOID!!!

1
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
Wendy Robertson 's avatar
Wendy Robertson

Worst insurance company

1
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
Nathan Costello's avatar
Nathan Costello

Good company

3
Handled all of my claims with easy, and it was afforrdablke Reviewed on: 26th August 2016
Reuben 's avatar
Reuben

poor communication

4
good prices free breakdown cover but awful communication Reviewed on: 25th August 2016
Georgina Prince's avatar
Georgina Prince

Avoid this company

1
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
Kristina Krampusa's avatar
Kristina Krampusa

Cheapest Insurance

5
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
Paula Tipping's avatar
Paula Tipping

Avoid like the plague

1
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
Robert Pritchard's avatar
Robert Pritchard

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