I took out insurance with 1st Central as they had a decent price and seemed to have decent ratings online.
The first red flag should have been when I had to re-enter my details to get a new quote as my original quote had locked me out from purchase and they couldn't tell me why. It turns out the quote you get with them lasts only a day and therefore it had become invalid, so I had to do an entire new quote.
I then received an email for someone else, with their personal information, telling me that my policy wasn't valid, except it wasn't my policy number so I had to contact them to correct this mistake and all seemed fine.
I then had to contact them as an accident had occurred that wasn't my fault. Two cars had collided on my street and my parked car was hit. I contacted them to inform them the 3rd party was taking responsibility and that was fine.
While I was on the phone I had to advise them that as well as being a full-time student I had obtained a part-time job. There seemed to be a problem with this as I was put on hold for 20 minutes. The person who i spoke to informed me that because I was now working part-time my policy no longer met the criteria to be insured by the company and that my policy would have to be cancelled. I advised that I was still a student and got a job to make some extra money, but that I wouldn't be using the car for commuting. I was baffled by the brick wall they put up in terms of communication, continually stating that, because I had a job they would have to cancel my policy.
Needless to say I was extremely angry and unsatisfied so I demanded to speak to a manager, which they refused, repeating the same line over and over. They then charged me for having to have my policy cancelled and stated I'd be getting a refund, missing £100 of my original quote, for only 17 days of cover. I have now had to quickly arrange new insurance which had ended up costing me an extra £120.
I would strongly advise you not to use this insurance company as I believe they bring people in with low cost quotes and make it very difficult to maintain your policy if you have any changes to make.
Please spread the word to anyone considering taking a policy with them.
Reviewed on: 19th November 2016
