“Appalling company to deal with!
We've had to ensure our 17 years old son on my wife's car in preparation for his driving test and purchased a policy. After only 6 weeks of driving, he passed his test and we contacted Sterling to cancel the policy, as our son now held a full UK license rather than a provisional.
The early cancellation fee was not far from 50% of the entire policy cost, not including what we have already paid. We accepted that an early cancellation feel was a reasonable ask, but I had to question why was the cost so high? All down to their credit partner apparently, but I could not understand why they would choose to offer such product to their customers…
We accepted the charge and came off the call. 7 minutes later we received an email from Sterling, stating that the outstanding amount is now due and that they were hoping to resolve this “avoiding the need for further action“.
I called their customer service to enquire why we are being threatened with legal actions 7 minutes after we agreed to pay the outstanding amount. After looking into this, as a gesture of good will and considering that the policy was only live for 6 weeks (their words), they offered to pro-rata the cancellation fee which we accepted. However, after a few minutes of silence and intense calculations, we were only offered a £20-ish reduction, not the pro-rata value as promised.
Once again, we accepted to settle the amount and came off the call. We’ve heard nothing from Sterling for the next 3 weeks. No invoice, no payment link, no instructions on how to settle the balance.
And finally, another threatening email came through a couple of days ago, with no payment links or invoice or any details on how to settle.
This is by far the most shambolic company we’ve ever had to deal with. Not insurance wise, but overall.”
“Poor experience. After being with another insurance company for 6 years with no claims, I got better offer that sounds to good to be true. In the end, they wanted to charge me more than the original offer they initially provided. Cancelling within one day still resulted in extra charges 43£ — absolutely shameful.
They kept threatening that if I didn’t call them, they would contact me, yet they never even bothered calling themselves. Very disappointing customer service. Felt completely ripped off. Never again. The review in their website are fake.”
“I am not impressed by the customer waiting time. Several times now I have tried to contact over issues with my payments or policie and have been on hold waiting to speak to an advisor for 20 minutes to then have the phone call ended. Really have not had a good experience with this company”
“Their prompt response and professional handling of my case made it possible to resolve my withdrawal issue smoothly. I sincerely appreciate the clarity in their communication and the steady support they provided throughout the process.
They took the time to explain every step and ensured I fully understood what was happening. Their reassurance and dedication gave me confidence from start to finish.”
“Extremely poor and unfair experience – avoid
I had a policy with Sterling Insurance which started off fine, but quickly turned into a very stressful experience.
I was given a quote, accepted it, signed the contract, and payments were taken. 3 weeks later, Sterling suddenly requested my V5C. I explained we were waiting for the logbook as we've transferred the ownership from a parent to myself and I've been driving the car as the main driver for 4 years. I sent the logbook once received, then attempted to re-rate my policy by £370 and stated they'll be taking the payment in 7 days.
They claimed I was a “new driver” or not experienced with my car simply because the V5C had only recently been transferred into my name. This is incorrect — I have been driving the same car for four years and have held my licence for more than 10 years. The V5 does not prove driving experience, yet it was used to justify a huge premium increase.
I was also charged an additional admin fee last week with no notice and no permission, in the policy despite having signed everything correctly through premium credit, which sterling blamed premium credit for taking.
The communication was poor, the process felt unfair, unjust and disgusting and I was put under pressure to pay a large increase caused by their own late checks. I’ve now cancelled the policy and will be taking this further, as they're now wanting a further £255 to cancel.
I checked all the same details again on compare the market and on their website, and they're coming back cheaper than my original quote.
I would strongly advise others to be very cautious — they are completely misleading, misadvising, misguided clients and just adding more and more, asking for more and more information and then jump premiums AFTER the policy has been signed. We cannot call our insurance and say 'you haven't provided me a good service so I will be deducting funds off the premium' and it cannot be done the other way round using the excuse of someone with more than 10 years experience is a new driver. Or new to driving a car that can be proven the car has been used for 4 years. Disgusting behaviour”
“A absolute shambles off a service we took a learner drivers policy out with Sterling ten months ago for his vauxhaul corsa. Before we bought the policy I phoned up to check a few things regarding no claims bonuses etc, and was told my son took out his own policy (£553) he would get a years no claims as apose to a Bolton policy to ours (£253) i asked what if he passed within 6 months etc, to be advised they would do an up date to his policy as a driver and there would be £££ for us to pay but ensured this would still be much cheaper than the alternative this way he would keep adding to his no claims etc
My son passed his test on 1st of Nov so we phoned to discuss and was told he would recive an excelerated no claims bonus for his policy and a decent discount back from the reminder of his learner policy I then got transfered through to sales went through all the details to be told sterling will not offer a policy as he drives a vaxhaul corsa and they can't insure corsas now the same car he had carried out his learner policy
The sales adviser said ahh well you won't get the no claims now as we can't offer you a policy and you will get no discount or money back either ahh well ( to be honest I felt like she was in a rush to get off the phone as she was nearing the end of her shift @ 1900 despite me pho ing around 1740-1745 and being on hold most of the time and being transfer found their office to explain it all over and over to every adviser I asked to try and change the quote etc and she basically cut me off
I then called back after work the next day and spoke to another sales member who was absolutely fabulous and understanding with me who went through several options on the quote to try and see if they could help sort something out. Unfortunately this was to know av and i was becomeing a little fraught and i explained what had gone on before and she relied although we can't insure you you will still go on your way with your excelerated 1 years no claims and posible refund of the left over policy etc but you will need to speak to service to cancel first
I then got through to service and was basically told all off the above was nonsense etc at this point I was getting irate ( i agree not through this call handler but due to being passed from pillar to post and getting conflicting info back) although the call handler was understanding and even went to check with her piers she came back and said to raise a complaint I asked about time scales she said I would get a call back but not tonight maybe tomorrow or the next day so we waited it out
I phoned back the day after to be told a complaint had been raise and to wait for there contact I said that's great but your now obstructing us from getting my son insured and on the road so again we have waited we are nearly a week on and still no end in site
Some of the staff are deliberately un helpful and can't get you off the phone fast enough
Whilst on hold the recorded message bangs on about there professional staff that are here to help and full of knowledge etc ( It's all utter rubbish to be honest )
Staff are great on takeing policy out etc they just tell you what you want to hear and basically lie to you if there was a no star option this review would be thier but unfortunately there is not
The only saving grace if any was there appeared to be one Genuine sales handler in the very middle who could not do enough to help and she was very empathetic
To be honest the rest of your team could learn so much from her you should maybe get her in your training and development department to pass her knowledge and customers service approach on to your other staff ( although her hands were tied and she was unable to help etc )”
“Fraudsters!!!
The company initially quoted the lowest price. However, shortly after I purchased the car insurance, they cancelled the policy and retained the payment. When we contacted them to resolve this, we were given the runaround without any resolution. Their only solution was to offer a new policy at a cost of more than double the original price!”
“My experience with Sterling Car Insurance was very disappointing. The first initial contact seemed good, but as soon as I had paid, everything went downhill. Communication was extremely poor — I never received the promised emails with my policy details, which was especially stressful as I was due to travel abroad.
I made multiple calls chasing this up, but the customer service team seemed to have no idea what was going on. Their lack of knowledge and support left me feeling like I had been scammed, and I was genuinely worried that I wasn’t covered while I was away.
Based on my experience, I would not recommend this company.”
“Absolutely a pain of a company. Never had car insurance that's been so stressful definitely so not recommended. All my insurance has been hassle free before using this company.
Won't use them again.”
“Please avoid Sterling insurance st all costs especially for learner driver insurance. Set up insurance then had a change of heart the next day as my son's driving test was much sooner than expected. A cancelled online as guidelines instructed 24 hours after setting up. Followed this with a phone call but Sterling insurance would bit discuss the cancellation with me (parent) despite the credit agreement being in my name and said my 17 year old had to call. Followed this up with 3 emails and a call from my son less than 48 hours after setting it up. Sterling insurance tried to make my son keep the insurance and then informed us that we would be charged £36 for cancelling 48 hours after setting up. Disgraceful service. Avoid avoid avoid”
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“Took my money,then cancelled my insurance,due to a question about my personal life,even though ive a clean driving license and never made a claim in 40 years . Stay away unless you want to be robbed.”
“I wish I’d looked here before I got learner driver insurance for my son was told ring up when he passes we will change it over to a full licence policy did that won’t insure him and demanding £127 hold a minute you cancelled the policy !!!”
