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1st CENTRAL Reviews

3.9 Rating 5,237 Reviews
75 %
of reviewers recommend 1st CENTRAL
3.9
Based on 5,237 reviews
Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods
Own Driver, Postal Service
On-time Delivery
99%
Customer Service
Communication Channels
Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In
Under An Hour
Customer Service
4.1 out of 5
Read 1st CENTRAL Reviews
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Phone:

0333 043 2066

Email:

marketing@1stcentral.co.uk

Location:

Capital House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath
RH16 3SY

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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 8th January 2025
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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 8th January 2025
Anonymous
1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 22nd August 2024
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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 21st August 2024
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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 21st August 2024
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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 21st August 2024
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1st CENTRAL 1 star review on 9th May 2024
Marcus Wickwar
5
Anonymous
Anonymous  // 01/01/2019
Very poor customer service.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
When I first took out the insurance, I had to spend hours on the phone confirming all the details, repeating the process with several different members of the customer service team. It appeared that no one talked to anyone else in the team. Eventually, my policy was cancelled and restarted which seemed to solve the issue. Fast forward 6 months and my new car was written off, reversed into whilst it was parked. The other driver immediately accepted liability. I rang First Central to inform them and was told my only options were to: 1 - transfer the insurance to a new vehicle. I cannot do this as the country is in lockdown and a cannot buy a new car. 2 - pay out the remainder of the insurance 3 - pay the cancellation fee of £75 As you can see, my options were limited and hands tied. No matter what I did, First Central would be making money out of me and all because someone else wrote my car off. Again, having explained this several times to different members of the team, it appeared that no one communicated it or could solve it. I have have a letter saying I have to pay otherwise the debt collectors will come calling. It seems like there is a lack of sympathy towards the current climates. Ideally I would just pause the account until I can buy a new car but, it seems that this ''isn't possible''. Overall, terrible experience.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Sometimes is cheaper insurance not at another company,but very very very poor, is not possible get money back from accident access.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Don't bother rip off and they messed up but wanted to charge me a further £30 want I already paid to change vehicles over wouldn't ever go back
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
I spoke to a rude staff member this morning who was intimidating as I was a first time driver. Refused to repeat the insurance quote as she had 'already said it once'. Please be nice to your customers during this global pandemic!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Nightmare to contact! Made an error and took a policy out when my partner had already sorted cover, so needed to cancel. Tried to get in the customer portal 4 times but kept saying link expired, round in circles for an hour - could get to documents or to see if I could cancel online. Emailed 3 days in a row and got no response. Six days later got an email from the instalments team telling me to web chat or ring. Web chat told me that my initial deposit was non- refundable and I owed them an additional £16.10 so over £60 for 7 days cover I had tried to cancel for a week. What a set in con artists - I refused to pay so there sending the debt to their collections team to pursue Don’t have any documents as still cannot get on portal after a week, requested them but who knows if I’ll get them, most expensive pile of scrap paper I’ve ever bought!!!!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
I recently cancelled my insurance with 1st central as I took my car off the road due to not needing it during the COVID-19 social distancing. They charged me over half the total insurance amount as a cancellation fee and the person on the phone completely ignored me questioning the fees and simply was trying to rush me through the phone call. He was completely unfazed when I said I would never recommend them as a company or use them again and was down right rude ignoring everything I said. Appalling service, appalling company, appalling staff. AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with speaking to one of our team and having to cancel your policy. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll look into this further for you.
Posted 5 years ago
Very dishonest company, even borderline illegal, charging £50 setup fee to get around the 14 days cooling off period. It may look cheaper compared to other insurance but there are many hidden fees which was not mentioned transparently. These hidden charge was not communicated in the document. BEWARE
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Eko, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with cancelling your policy. Our full terms and conditions can be found in your policy wording.
Posted 5 years ago
Dear customers Be aware with this insurance company They did cancel my Policy after 3 weeks Of course I paid deposit and first month rate , totally I paid £180.00 Now they keep chasing me to pay £ 52.00 cancellation fee . I did sent them all documents they asked for and there were no reason to cancel my Policy.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear about the experience you've had with your policy. Unfortunately, we can't see any of your details, but we would like to look into this further for you. Please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please remember to include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll look into this further.
Posted 5 years ago
Worst company ever!!! Took car insurance with them sent all ID for the check received an email that everything was fine. After couple of days things went down hill accusing me of misinformation and putting the wrong passing date on the license although the website I have use for a quote (money supermarket) don’t even ask for an exact passing date of the license. My insurance been cancelled with a record, I have call them several times to explain they have hang up the phone twice on me after waiting for more than 10minutes. Still got to resolve the problem avoid as a plague!!!!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Mamadou. Thanks for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with your policy. We can see you have spoken to our team who raised a complaint yesterday, this is being looked into and our team will provide you update shortly.
Posted 5 years ago
Waiting on refund for car insurance.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Allan, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear you’ve had difficulties with your refund. I can see you've spoken to one of our team about this since your review and they have chased up your refund for you. We’ll use your comments to help improve our service and training for our agents.
Posted 5 years ago
I had the absolute worst experience with 1st Central and it still has not been resolved. I wanted to be temporarily insured on another car while mine was in the garage. I changed over the insurance online for 12 hours and then called in to revert it back. The advisor confirmed it had been changed and a new policy in place. A week later I received an email confirming cancellation of my policy on the temporary car but no other policy had been put in place! I had been driving my car with NO INSURANCE FOR 7 DAYS! I requested for the call to be listened to and it came back as no fault of the agent. The worst company I have ever used!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Mariam, Thank you for your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear about the experience you've had with changing the car on your policy. Unfortunately, we can't see any of your details, but we would like to look into this further for you. Please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please remember to include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right.
Posted 5 years ago
When I got my renewal price through for my car insurance I noticed that they hadn’t included an accident I had told them about previously. I called to tell them and they set up a new policy which was great. The problem came when I got charged for both policies as the other one hadn’t been cancelled. I called again and they cancelled the first policy and offered a refund. Unfortunately, after 15 days I still haven’t received my money back and they are now ignoring my emails. I was told the refund would take 3-5 working days. My advice to anyone tempted by their cheap premiums is to choose a more well known name if there is not much in the price difference. The admin is terrible and could have left me underinsured and now it seems I have paid extra anyway!!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Kelly, Thanks for your feedback. We're really sorry to hear about your experience. We passed on your details to our management team yesterday, we apologise if you still haven't heard back. We will chase this up for you.
Posted 5 years ago
you don't send documents by post which infuriating.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Safia, Thank you for your feedback. We send our documents via e-mail and they are also available within your customer portal which is located on our website. However, if you’d be happy for us to look into your documents further for you, please contact us on 0333 043 2066, where we would be more than happy to help.
Posted 5 years ago
AVOID! AVOID! AVOID! All staff are incapable of doing what they promise. I am still waiting for them to deal with a complaint from June 2019. It is getting close to a year now and still not resolved. I have to ring them every single month sometimes at least 10 times in a month as they do not call back as promised. I have been waiting for a cheque from them because they over charged me! They decided to change how to spell my name (even though it is correctly spelt on my policy. Obviously a delaying tactic) on the cheque so I could not pay it in. Once I finally got through to them they admitted it was an agents mistake (only the 10th mistake they have made in 8 months!) and was resending the cheque with my name correct this was a month ago now and they now cannot check where the cheque is or give me any updates on it. I am currently on the phone to them and have been waiting for over an hour to speak to a manager
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Jade, Thank you for your feedback, we're really sorry to hear about the experience you've had with your complaint and refund being sent to you. We have passed your details onto our management team to look into this further for you and we’ll be using your comments to help improve our service and training for our agents.
Posted 5 years ago
Stay away from the company. £350 Policy purchase price in Jan £173 Refund on cancellation in Feb £177 in total for 1 month of insurance + admin + correction + cancellation + .... The claim that I have provided them with incorrect start date on driving license and have charged me £70 for correction.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Nilesh, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience with us. Unfortunately 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. For more information, our full terms and conditions can be found in your policy wording.
Posted 5 years ago
Seems cheap at first but you get charged for anything and everything once you start a policy with them. Get charged £50 for each single amendment you make to the policy on top of the charge for the change itself. Given at “14 day cool off period” where you won’t get charged a cancellation fee but fail to mention the £50 arrangement fee they will retain. If you want to cancel your policy after 14 days (most likely due to the excessive fees for amendments) its then a £50 cancellation fee on top of the £50 arrangement fee. Customer service is poor and staff unhelpful. Money grabbers.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Louise, Thank you for your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear about your experience with your policy and speaking to our team. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right.
Posted 5 years ago
been with 1st central for 2 years and always found the quote reasonable but now my renewal quote has gone up 44 pounds a month(not bad considering i have 10 years no claims and have never made a claim) I WOULD NOT RECCOMEND.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Moze, Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear your experience with renewing your policy hasn’t been as positive as we’d hoped it would be. If you’d be happy for us to look into this further for you, please contact us on 0333 043 2055. We’re here to help from Mon-Fri: 8-8, Sat: 9-5, Sun: 10-2.
Posted 5 years ago
Absolute scam!!! £20 cheaper on comparison sites, so you take the policy, 14 days later they then send you and email saying, some details are not correct, and you have to pay an extra £144 or £81 cancellation fee!!! Disgusting! Stay away from these con artists!
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Hi Jim, Thank you for your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear about your experience with us. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right.
Posted 5 years ago
I regret ever choosing this company. Worst service I have ever experienced from staff who give incorrect information, after it’s taken 5 days and several phone calls to get a response that is.
Helpful Report
Posted 5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear about your experience with us. If there’s anything you’d like us to look into for you, please contact us by sending an email to customer.relations@1stcentral.co.uk. Please include your policy number and details of what’s gone wrong, and we’ll see if we can put things right.
Posted 5 years ago
1st CENTRAL is rated 3.9 based on 5,237 reviews