1st CENTRAL

1st. Central offered me a policy that is half the price my previous company were quoting (it was actually more than the value of my car and more than double the previous year) in spite of more than ten years no claims bonus.!

Very happy with my car insurance! It includes everything I need at a great price! However, I found it irritating when buying on line that before I could get to checkout, I had to go through a series of options, all of which would of increased the price - they were essentially upgrades to the items already included. I found this a bit confusing & totally unnecessary! Hence only 4 stars

If I could give 0 I would, Please please please do not waste your time or money on this 'insurer'. This company is not an insurance company they are brokers who will scam you, rob you and affect you both mentally and physically. I have no idea how this business is still running with the amount of people they are scamming. Out of the blue they cancelled my insurance, they said they needed extra documents. I was not notified at all, neither by text, phone call or post to indicate they require additional infomation. The only way I found out about this was because I checked my bank balance and they had refunded my money for the month. I gave them a call to understand why I had been refunded and only then they told me my insurance was going to be cancelled on 08/06/22 11:59pm - I FOUND OUT 10 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME IT WAS DUE TO BE CANCELLED. They expected me to pull out the documents out of thin air. To avoid this tarnishing my good record I asked the policy to be cancelled and they kept passing me over person to person - I was trying to deal with this whilst I was at work. Then in the end I had to ask them to call me back and then the lady said she will at 6:00 after I finish work. 6:00pm comes and no one has called me, instead I got a lazy email to say 'sorry we cannot cancel your insurance and there is nothing we can do'. The 'analysis' had locked my account so i was unable to cancel the policy online. Even the website is extremely dodgy, they had added a fee of £135 on my account and it said once i make the payment my account will be unlocked. I paid it and it was still locked - luckily I had sent written proof that i want my insurance cancelled and this was the only thing I had to cover my back. I called this morning and spoke to a man who was also very useless and he did nothing to help me and he kept saying to me the insurance cannot be cancelled and he has spoken to his manager. Later i conferred with a family lawyer and they advised me that what they have done is unlawful and should be reported to the ombudsmen. I then called them and threatened them with legal action and notified them that I have also contacted ombudsmen. After this they changed their tune and agreed to cancel my insurance on my behalf rather than them doing it and tarnishing my good record. This has caused me an unbelievable amount of stress and anxiety. PLEASE RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY - The few pounds and pennies you save going for this insurance will only last a month before they start slapping random charges on your account. I insured my run around car with them and for a 2005 mini i essentially paid approx. £200 a month with all the charges they gave me and i only had this insurance for 2 month. I own a BMW X4m and the insurance is no where as expensive. I must say I have learnt my lesson and I will definitely do research before looking for insurance. STAY AWAY LIKE THE PLAGUE.

Absolute joke! Will be writing a massive complaint and will be raising this with your CEO Michael Lee, due to your technical errors and failure in informing me that my automatic payment fell through, but even this is incorrect as I had updated all of my details on your portal! you left me uninsured and UNAWARE!! You then charged me an extra £80 from my original renewal quote which I had confirmed and agreed back in May. I will be raising this further as you failed to communicate adequately and then overcharged me!!

Totally unhelpful,very rude staff who pass you on from one to the other like a stinky parcel,as no one wants to deal with your query.my wife involved in accident which she was not at fault,struggled hours on end to get through to them,refused to send recovery truck for my vehicle and had to arrange with another company,refused to be involved in the third party claim and advised me to use accident claim companies,tried to hoodwink me by sending me emails that say I have decided not to use them for my third party claim and I could be liable for some charges-when they are the ones that said they cannot take on my third party claim,the list of troubles from this terrible company are never ending,avoid avoid at all costs,this company’s insurance is not cheap at all but very expensive in the end and they will run rings around you,when you are in desperate need for help after an accident,they promised to call me back and they never did ,it’s all shambles with this insurance company

Have been a customer of 1st central for a few years now. Recently inhereted a new car, changed my policy on line as requested and ended up with two insurance policies, one for new car and one for car I have sold. Then had to pay £91 to cancel this policy and £53 for the new policy. Not a happy customer

My first time using 1st central and so far so good, can't complain.
The quote I got was more than competitive and the online platform is so easy to use which is great for a fossil like me..

INSURANCE COMANY!
Had nothing but trouble with this company from start to finish,
Nothing is good enough even after been in touch with my old car insurance company for my no claims discount emailing and texting my phone demanding my no claims or the insurance would be cancelled!
wants proof of your driving licence card front and back its a right fares to say the least.
Payed my car insurance in full as it was one of the cheapest quotes I have had but believe me don't be sucked in Iike I have its totally not worth the hassle..
Thought right the have all my details everything is all above board the shouldn't hassle me no more but no how wrong was I the sent me an email stating that I needed to pay an extra £179.00 plus administration costs , so rung them up to get through to a rude man who wasn't helpful at all asked him why I had to pay the extra his response was you have changed some details on your online account which was the year I past my driving test my mistake yes and also I forgot to add my points too so all this results in been changed £179.00 for been honest and changing the details.
After paying the insurance in full I have now left myself financially short of money so asked if I could pay monthly even thou I wasn't happy with paying the 179 and to my shock straight answer NO !
WHY can't I pay monthly his response was because you have payed the insurance in full you can't pay monthly 😡 even though there page saying if you are struggling to make a payment please phone to chat to our friendly staff🤣😡
PLEASE DONT BOTHER IT WILL COST YOU MORE IN LONG RUN..

Promise 14 day refund if cancel. Wanted to charge me £50 to cancel after 4 hrs.
Value car at £1100 when trade price £1750 retail £3500.
Will cancel on return from holiday.
Total cowboys.

I hate leaving bad reviews but honestly this is the worst company I have ever dealt with please be careful pay a bit more for a reputable Insurance. I am 75 years old and thought I may buy a car got a quote and decided to take out a policy. The car fell through so contacted to cancel was happy to lose the first month that’s only fair, was told I could not cancel as I had not sent copy of log book, how would I have that for a car I never bought. I have tried 14 times to cancel and have proof but they won’t budge

Great until there is an issue, at times where most peoples finances aren’t great does this company feel it’s acceptable to charge a £15 late payment fee when I want to pay today 25th may by payment is due 25th may I can understand if I didn’t want to pay and just missed it, but not when I’m here stressed out wanting to pay I’m on maternity times are hard as it is! Had card issues and issued a new one and want to use that why can’t you just help people. There is no need for any of this hassle. Spent all day trying to pay trying to speak to someone and Nicky most unhelpful advisor as iv had issues with them before, everyone is struggling financially no other companies charge this unless the day has passed and a late fee occurs but I’m here trying to pay and they don’t care, they don’t care I have a family to feed I literally only have my insurance money available in my bank right now. I’m shocked I really can’t believe this awful company please they may be the cheapest but go for a more reputable understanding company because imagine what making a claim would be like I would dread to think.

Had an email to review some details, Had my policy out for over a month now,I went through confused.com for the quote originally. I was asked how many years i had been driving for, I put 4 because 3 years and 8 months was closer to 4 then it was 3, Anyhow that was wrong and because i overshot it by there customer advisors advice i should of put 3 years. They're cancelling a policy because i put 4 years and not 3 but i put 4 to include the months, Either way it was wrong, Customer advisor said policy wouldn't of got cancelled if i chose the 3 years but either way the date wouldn't of matched my drivers licence. PS no month option was available for me to input my information of months when i was purchasing through confused.com.
Colleague on the 10th of may confirmed my details and said yeah that's fine your occupation is what you said, Today i get told it's not and completely different however my job hasn't changed.
Now wants £209 off me for amendments of occupation and because of how long i held licence for or a £80 fee for cancellation when i've not done anything wrong my end.
Colleague at 1stcentral even said that it wouldn't of got cancelled if i chose 3 years but either way by the email i recieved and how they're trying to cancel it, It would of still been the wrong dates..... Anyway SHAMBOLIC on them, Questioned twice about occupation and then again today.
BY THE WAY, i've had the policy out for over a month and they only just spotted a mistake in the system but gave me no time to sort it.

This is the most shocking customer experience I have ever received.
I cancelled my policy and was due a £75 refund. I was not able to do this online as the bank details they held were out of date. I called and webchatted at the same time to explain this (I wasn't sure which one I would get through first!). I was told both on the phone and by web chat that their accounts team would call within so many days to take my new bank details to issue the refund to. This never occured. I received an email to say I will be sent a £25 refund to the card on file. I replied to explain I am due £75, and as I had said on the phone/web chat and that the bank details they hold are out of date. The response was that I am due £75 and they will refund it to my bank details on file. I replied again. I received an email today to say that the refund already was sent to my old account and they can do nothing more.
I have tried to get through to their complaints team today. It's easier to get through a prison barricade. I was told eventually, after explaining the whole situation that 'the money has been refunded to the account on file and it takes 10 days'. When I said that I was frustrated at their lack of ability and understanding of the situation, they put the phone down one me. Seriously awful customer service. Typical computer says no behaviour. Please, please do not use this firm. I mean, how difficult is it to issue a refund to new card details?

I received my renewal quote, it was a lot lower than expected which was great, I'd just moved house and was messaging them on their live chat, both to change the address and ask what the monthly payments would be for my renewal as the one I'd received though my email was the yearly payment.
I changed the address no problem and then asked for the monthly payments for my renewal, baring in mind my new house is a 2 minute drive away from my last one, on a safer more out of the way street, my renewal price has gone from £664.52 to £1184.64.
This is atrocious, I understand the system is going to calculate this all but a £520.22 increase for a street 2 minutes up the road from my last house is abominable.
It very much seems as if the company is using the change of address, even for exceptionally small distances i.e 2 minutes, to drag the prices up.

Very quick and easy process. So much cheaper than my current insurer that I cancelled and swapped mid term. Even with cancellation fee and adding on full RAC cover, I still saved over £200.

This is one of the worst insurance companies I have ever tried to use:
I took out this insurance in March 2022, knowing it was one of the cheapest. After 20 days, I get an email to review all my details and after 10 days I get an adjusted amount of + £911 (a barbarity). Adding up what I paid + new adjustment after 30 days, the value was more expensive than other companies year market renowned, so I decide to cancel and paid in cancellations £220, another barbarity. This is one of the worst insurance companies I have ever tried to use, pay attention.

Straight forward good service. Good set out. Easy to answer questions. All the cover I needed AT A GREAT PRICE. £110 CHEAPER. than previous firm. +added my partner too. Very pleased. 😁

Cancelled my insurance within 24 hours as found one £240 cheaper and got charged £51 admin fee and 2 days insurance!
Then got told if I decided to use them again within the next year of cancelling this policy I would lose my 5 years no claims bonus! Needless to say I told them I under no circumstances will I be back any time soon!

Astonished at the ease of completing the application for comprehensive car insurance. Everything self explanatory and good value for the money. I think I got a really good deal with your company. Thankyou

This is one of the worst insurance companies I have ever tried to use. I took out insurance with them and was advised I had a 14 day cooling off period and that if I decided to not go ahead I could cancel with no charge. I then bought a new car and called to get a new quote, as firstly my insurance hadn't actually started yet. I spoke to an advisor that said that the insurance would be nearly double the orice wich is what it is, I was asking for a breakdown and she then put the phone down. I called the 2nd time to cancel and was advised that yes it is within the cooling off period they will charge me £50 for registering me with the Insurance......something or other and that I am liable to pay this even though I wasn't advised of this on the phone! Worst experience ever!! Stay clear!!!