First central insurance (car) - any experiences?

anewman · 15 January 2009 at 12:08PM

After using the screen scraper sites I found 1stcentralinsurance.com was the cheapest, with Halifax coming a close second at nearly £50 more. The only reference I have found to them on the internet is http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=15271620&postcount=8 which is merely a recommendation to try. They do not appear to be underwritten by another company so cannot check for experiences with those either.

Their policy document seems to have everything it should, although worryingly I had to work out that the date input field for cover start date on their quote pages is in the form MM/DD/YYYY rather than the quoted DD/MM/YYYY which seems very unprofessional. I figure I would be better off spending an extra £50 but thought I might ask if anyone had any experience with them first.

Thanks in advance.

LadyIndecisive · 15 January 2009 at 1:45PM

http://www.1stcentralinsurance.com/

This is their website. Personally i would avoid a Gibraltar based company. Depends who would deal with your claim should you have cause to claim.

pborojon · 15 January 2009 at 3:45PM

LadyIndecisive wrote: »

http://www.1stcentralinsurance.com/

This is their website. Personally i would avoid a Gibraltar based company. Depends who would deal with your claim should you have cause to claim.

Why would you avoid a Gibraltar based company? I think you will find they are based there for tax purposes and have a fully functioning uk operation.

LadyIndecisive · 15 January 2009 at 4:03PM

I understand why they are based there.

As I said it depends who the UK handling agents are in the event of a claim.

Service-wise I think you will get what you pay for.

pborojon · 15 January 2009 at 4:36PM

LadyIndecisive wrote: »

I understand why they are based there.

As I said it depends who the UK handling agents are in the event of a claim.

Service-wise I think you will get what you pay for.

Personally I think price doesn't even come into quality of service.

jacobsdaduk · 11 September 2009 at 12:14PM

LadyIndecisive wrote: »

I understand why they are based there.

As I said it depends who the UK handling agents are in the event of a claim.

Service-wise I think you will get what you pay for.

What's worse - a UK Insurer with a Gibraltar head office but with UK claims handling agents, or a UK insurer with claims centres in India (i.e. Aviva/Norwich Union, RSA, etc). Even trouble American insurers AIG have started to do this.

In my years experience of the motor insurance sector, the customer often gets a worse deal from one of the so called "market leaders", and smaller companies tend to be more efficient. I can say without fear that a higher premium does not necessarily mean better service in the insurance sector. For most people it's a low premium and excess that are important - worry about the claims service if and when you need to use it. Try calling Royal and Sun Alliance claims centres in London - you'll be lucky if someone asnwers the phone in less than 15 minutes and as for HSBC....

dacouch · 11 September 2009 at 12:22PM

Advising people to worry about the claims service when you need to use it is odd advice as that is the sole reason you buy insurance

Insurers register in Gibralter for three reasons its quicker than the UK, they need a much lower solvency level, the costs / regulation are lower.

jacobsdaduk · 15 September 2009 at 3:48PM

dacouch wrote: »

Advising people to worry about the claims service when you need to use it is odd advice as that is the sole reason you buy insurance.

Sole reason? :rotfl:You don't seriously believe that, do you?

I'm sure if you carried out a survey most people would say that the sole reason they buy insurance as because it's a legal requirement or to protect their investment. Premium is the deciding factor on who they buy it from. Claims service probably comes in last.

How do you know what the claims service is going to be like, until you make a claim?

dacouch · 15 September 2009 at 4:52PM

I work as a broker and can assure you that buying Insurance solely on price has cost a lot of people a lot of money in the long run. Part of my job is to recommen a policy to a customer that offers a good balance between cover, claims service and price.

The MSE Insurance forum is littered with people who have major problems often due to them buying Insurance on price alone.

A car is normally the second most expensive purchase for the average person / family so it is very short sited to buy cover for your second most expensive asset on price alone.

Good money saving advice is not always about buying the cheapest possible of anything, as the cheapest can often cost more in the long run.

Good luck with the buying Insurance on price alone

BenL · 15 September 2009 at 5:19PM

Do you think you might move address in the term of the cover or change car? Some of the smaller companies have higher charges for midterm adjustments and additional fees to pay.

Something to check whilst looking through the t's & c's

jacobsdaduk · 16 September 2009 at 9:39AM

dacouch wrote: »

I work as a broker and can assure you that buying Insurance solely on price has cost a lot of people a lot of money in the long run. Part of my job is to recommen a policy to a customer that offers a good balance between cover, claims service and price.

The MSE Insurance forum is littered with people who have major problems often due to them buying Insurance on price alone.

A car is normally the second most expensive purchase for the average person / family so it is very short sited to buy cover for your second most expensive asset on price alone.

Good money saving advice is not always about buying the cheapest possible of anything, as the cheapest can often cost more in the long run.

Good luck with the buying Insurance on price alone

A naturally biased view from a broker who I would expect is finding it very hard to compete against online comparisons companies and insurers like Aviva now going direct to your customers.

First central insurance (car) - any experiences?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free