Write a review

Go to business site

1st Central: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 1.5 (954 reviews)

View other 1st Central products

1.50

Based on 954 reviews, last reviewed 18th Mar 2026

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

No new 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

11%

80%

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

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THEM IF YOU WANT... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THEM IF YOU WANT PEACE AND WANTS TO AVOID STRESS AND HEADIQUE THEY ARE ROBBERS I would strongly advise others to ... Read more Reviewed on: 18th March 2026

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 (764)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THEM IF YOU WANT...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THEM IF YOU WANT PEACE AND WANTS TO AVOID STRESS AND HEADIQUE THEY ARE ROBBERS I would strongly advise others to carefully consider their options before choosing this company, particularly if you value peace of mind and a stress-free experience. Based on my experience, the overall service was very disappointing and caused significant inconvenience. My experience with 1st Central Car Insurance has been extremely disappointing and frustrating. The customer service is very poor—staff are often unhelpful, and on several occasions I found them to be quite rude. There were instances where calls were abruptly cut off during conversations, which is completely unacceptable when you are trying to resolve an issue. I was also unhappy to discover additional charges that were not clearly explained at the start. It felt like there were unexpected costs appearing along the way, which made the whole experience even more stressful and lacking transparency. Trying to contact them is difficult, and when you do get through, it rarely leads to a clear resolution. I am particularly concerned about how challenging it would be to make a claim, as even basic communication has been such a struggle. Additionally, I was surprised to find that there is no clear physical office presence in London, which makes it harder to get support or feel reassured as a customer. Overall, this has been a very negative experience. I would not recommend this company, especially if you are looking for reliable customer service, transparency, and support when you need it most. I will be sharing my experience on various platforms to help raise awareness for others who may be considering this company, so they can make informed decisions and stay safe. Reviewed on: 18th March 2026

I cracked my windscreen at the weekend so rang them...

I cracked my windscreen at the weekend so rang them to get it sorted. Despite having fully comprehensive insurance apparently they wont cover it. First time ever in my life Ive seen that. Have cancelled my policy and will never use them again!! Reviewed on: 16th March 2026

Reply from 1st Central Hello, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear your experience with us hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. Let’s see if we can help put this right for you. Just give our team a call on 0333 043 2055 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. Emily Response date: 17th March 2026

FRAUDSTERS!!!!!!! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY!!!!

In 35 years of using car insurance companies, I have NEVER been robbed/conned like this before! This company comes up as cheap but I can now see why, they manipulate everything, then charge excessive fees that are not even realistic £50 cancelation fee, £50 arrangement fee! Do not fall for the cheaper car insurance scam they use like I did. Customer service is rude, unhelpful and unfriendly, customer complaints are exceptionally one sided and just brush everything off. I hope no customer has to experience what I did with these FRAUDSTERS hiding behind a company name. I think it is only fair I explain a little of my case. I had a policy with them already live from July 2025, and recently purchased a 2nd policy with them both cheaper than most other companies. Last year they asked for more info on the live policy and I sent them all the details, no problem. 3 weeks in to the new policy they asked for the same proofs but this time they also wanted a call. I did the required and called them the same day. They asked my job title and I told them SALES EXECUTIVE/ SALEMAN, they said oh you have Chief Executive down (I wish), I disputed this and they said yes, I can see your details as Sales Executive when you quoted through Confused.com but it shows as Chief Executive. Anyway after some back and forth and the lady trying to make me out to be an idiot, she said they would need to adjust my premiums on both policy £107 on one and £105 on the other both had amendment fees of £50 each. They gave me 7 days to make a decision or the policies would be cancelled. I decided to cancel, this is where it actually gets worse! To can the policy that had being running for 22 days cost me £13.28 but £50 cancelation fee and get this a £50 arrangement fee! What exactly had been arranged I do not know! A policy costing £270.11 for a whole year cost me £113.28 for 22 days absolutely criminal, if ever I have heard of unfair fees then this is it. Same with my 2nd policy 208 days cost £95.73 cancelation fee £50, arrangement fee £50 and also personal accident of £15 which surely would have already been charged at inception of the policy! Again the whole policy for 365 days cost £233 unproportionate fees is where this company make their money. Genuinely buyers beware! Reviewed on: 13th February 2026

Absolutely appalling.

Absolutely appalling. I have cancelled a policy with them and they proceeded to issue me a refund. Then they started hounding me with calls that I have an outstanding balance and added on a late payment charge. They are just hiding their incompetency instead of realising a member of their staff made an error and take accountability. Embarrassing. I do not recommend. Avoid. Reviewed on: 12th February 2026

Claims history being ignored

Theyhave received a claims history from previous insurers, which state a single claim in 2023. When I made the application I entered the wrong year, I sent along a copy of claims history that showed only one claim, but it appears as I gave a second claim date (which subsequently was corrected) they have levied another premium of £175.00. They refuse the information from previous independent insurers and action an error, despite no evidence of a second claim. They offer no positive assistance- stay well away or get ready to go to ombudsman Reviewed on: 12th February 2026

Worst experiwce in my 35 years of driving amd getti...

Worst experiwce in my 35 years of driving amd getti g drivers insurance. They were cheapest on comparison site.. purchased.. then on my policy details it had my pass date for driving as exactly 25 hears to the day.. this was incorrect as they initially asked if i had passed my driving licence over 25 years ago, not a date. I called straight away Was on hOLd for 1hr, then person said they cant change the date as its from the dvla. I contacted dvla who said they were incorrect. Its theor system which added the incorrect date. I called 1st central back and they still said they cannot change the date for me as its foxed even though its incorrect.. I then asked for cancellation.. they then said why do i want to cancel whoch firther made me angry.... it was like talking ti robots who were reading from a script Im sure its an overseas line... terrible. I was even charged 25 poumds to cancel. Had not even been 12 hours since i purchased the policy.. avoid avoid avoid, i tho g it was a luck escape as god knows what would have happened of i had to claim. Reviewed on: 4th February 2026

Bait-and-switch insurer

Feels like a scam – stay away Quoted one price, then after the policy started 1st Central changed things retrospectively, increased the premium and added a £50 “admin” fee. This is not transparent insurance — it feels scam-adjacent and designed to extract more money after the sale. Judging by the volume of similar complaints online, this is clearly not a one-off. Avoid. Choose an insurer that doesn’t play these games. Reviewed on: 23rd January 2026

Cancelled car insurance, no apparent reason - AVOID!

I have been with 1st Central for 5 years. This year they put my car insurance up from £26 pcm to £39 pcm, which I thought was a ridiculous jump in cost, given I have never had an accident or made a claim. I called to see if this was the best price they could offer and the South African gentleman I spoke to went through my details and asked if I wanted to make any changes. I suggested that I would more than likely be doing slightly fewer miles. He put me on hold and came back and said my new price would be £43.84!!! I was not prewarned that the price would or could go up! Since I was now stuck in that situation, I had to go ahead, rather reluctantly. On the 31st December 2025, I received an email saying that I was required to provide them with "a copy of all four pages of my Vehicle Registration Document (V5c) and proof of home address dated within the last three months – for example a utility bill or bank statement." I found this highly unusual as I've previously mentioned that I have been with them for 5 years! I was on holiday, so getting these documents was achieved through extraordinary effort on my part. Nonetheless, I was able to submit them online, on the 6th of January (with the cut-off being the 7th January 2026). I thought no more of it. They took a direct debit for £43.84 on Monday 5th January 2026. However, on 12th January I received an e-mail stating that my insurance was cancelled on the 7th of January 2026 at 00:00 and that I owe them an outstanding balance of £107.23! Please bear in mind I had been driving my car right up until 12th of January 2026, illegally, without knowing I wasn't insured! Upon reading the email, I rang them immediately and spoke to someone named Nouthando, who was most unhelpful and borderline rude. She told me that they didn't accept my letter from SSE Gas as proof of address as it was not a "utility bill", it was, in fact, a credit agreement with SSE to pay my most recent bill in instalments, which had my address, account number a valid date and was printed on official SSE Gas letterheaded paper. I explained that NOBODY told me this and, if they had, then I would have made arrangements to send an alternative. I asked to speak to the manager, and she explained that she had arranged this, and it would take about 2 days for somebody to call me (it is now 7 days later and still no call). She also suggested I e-mail a bank statement, which I did immediately, phoned back and spoke to Matthew, who also told me the exact same thing as the previous operator (Nouthando) and that my insurance would never be reinstated. Again, I asked to speak to the manager, and he explained that this had already been requested and would take up to two days for someone to call me. NO CALL. I haven't driven a car since, and I have NEVER in all my 46 years had car insurance cancelled! I fully intend to take this matter further as it is absolutely, criminally ridiculous. AVOID THIS COMPANY! Reviewed on: 21st January 2026

Reply from 1st Central Hello, 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: 23rd January 2026

Please avoid this company!!

Please read the reviews before you get tempted with the initial low fees. They wait until after the cooling off period before an aggressive sales person calls up posing as a customer service agent. The objective, to nit-pick on the details provided by you and force you to make changes to your policy e.g. increase your estimated mileage per year with threats that if you do exceed the amount you've put on your application, you will be hit with high fees - something I've never experienced with any other insurer. When you threaten to put the phone down and cancel your policy, they tell you you're now outside the cooling period and will need to pay a high exit fee. So they basically have you over a barrel. Disgusting practice and I can't believe this company isn't being investigated and removed from all comparison sites. Reviewed on: 20th January 2026

Reply from 1st Central Hi Nazmul, 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: 20th January 2026

Fell for the Administrative Surcharge Scam

I am another of the many who have fallen for the 1st Central Administrative Surcharge Scam..Basically, after the 14 days they contacted me to say that they believe some of my details were not right. They put me on the spot on the phone but Basically they tried to claim my named drivers job title was incorrect... I wasn't aware at first of my named drivers exact title was so when I told them what it was they said there would be a charge for changing it. I then confirmed with my wife that no the original details were correct and told them this an therefore not to change anything.. They then tried to still charge me over £90 for a change that was not made and will not give up.. Reviewed on: 16th January 2026

Reply from 1st Central Hi Scott, 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: 20th January 2026

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

Breakdown cover
from AA 2.27 from 215 reviews
Car insurance
from Hastings Direct 3.00 from 677 reviews
Car Insurance
from Insure 2 Drive 2.20 from 14 reviews

Want to see more from 1st Central?

Breakdown cover
from 1st Central 4.44 from 16 reviews
Personal accident
from 1st Central 2.23 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