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Neil J

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Review of the 1st Central, Car insurance:

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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

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