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Review of the 1st Central, Car insurance:

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AVOID TRIST THE OTHER BAD REVIEWS

Awful company! They were fab all last year, never an issue. Found them through compare the market, reviews were good and they were the cheapest quote. When it came to renewal the price went up by 38% despite there being no changes since I took my policy out, this I accepted because there were good so far and I didn’t want the hassle of finding a new company. Due to my own stupidity I was caught speeding and therefore received a speeding ticket in the post; annoying a few days before my auto renewal. Immediately I tried calling them but due to long waits I used their web chat (definitely glad I did now!). I notified them that I had been caught speeding and that I will be getting a fine of £100 and 3 points on my licence, that I wanted to make them aware so they can update my policy as it will auto renew in a couple days time. With this she asked for the SP code. I politely informed her that I had only just got the FNP letter so I have to send my license off and choose to accept the points (at the time of my renewal I technically had no points on my license as I had not yet accepted them and was in the window to appeal etc). She therefore said she couldn’t put this on the system and that I need to call when the points have been added I queried this saying I don’t want to get in trouble that I’m trying to let her know I will have points but she copy and pasted the same response and left the chat. I left it just kept checking DVLA for when my points have been added every few days so I could call them back. Unfortunately a a couple weeks after I found out some devastating news about my child. Due to this I was at the hospital for 10 days. During this time I got an email to send documents to them before the 24th… it was the 1st so I had time to wait until I was home. Was already a month into my policy when I checked DVLA again and saw points were finally added. It was past opening hours and on a Friday so I added the documents as asked as I was finally home to do so. With this included the one notifying them of the speeding code and that the points were finally added. These were put for review and accepted. Thought nothing of it until 16:55 last Friday (bare in mind their opening hours are 9-5 mon-Fri) saying I did not inform them of my speeding ticket and that I put my date of passing my test incorrectly (I never put a date it, only how many years I’d been driving! So THEY had put the date I accepted the quote as the day and month and used how many years I put to calculate the year- I will say they had my licence number from when I took out the policy AND when I renewed). They claim they’ve tried several times to contact me- they hadn’t and I have proof of this in my correspondence section (thank god!) and In the email they upped my premium yet again by 800 a year. They gave me until the 3rd to contact them else they’d cancel my policy. I will add that whilst I DID notify them, they also put down I incurred said points 3 weeks prior to me even getting caught and used the wrong SP code! One min after I got an email saying my policy is cancelled!!!!!! So 4 mins before they closed for the whole weekend! Saw it unfortunately later due to being at work. I called today and she tried to accuse me of lying until I threatened with the ombudsman in which she suddenly found the transcript where I notified them and when I uploaded the documents! Said they haven’t cancelled my policy but have applied to! Told them to shove it, paid the £97 exit fee and gone with a cheaper company! After looking at reviews there has been 10 other instances where they have done this in October alone!!!!! That’s only on one website too! They may be cheaper on comparison websites but honestly this has cost me a lot more to cancel and get a new policy elsewhere! Customer service is awful! Reviewed on: 30th October 2023

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