1st Central Car Insurance

SomeBozo · 5 April 2009 at 7:38PM

Official MSE Insert:

If you've arrived from Google, our Car Insurance guide may be helpful.

Back to the original post...

Anyone heard of or a policy holder of 1st Central ?

http://www.1stcentralinsurance.com/

I have never heard of them but they appear on a price comparison site and gave me a cracking quote!

When I went to their own site they gave me an even better quote, a 70% saving on renewal from my current insurer.

Apart from one review I found (which basically said crappy claims handling - but look hard enough and every insurer gets some criticism) I can't find anything else about them!

Anyone?

Bozo

dacouch · 5 April 2009 at 8:03PM

The Policy Wording is ok, they are based in Gibralter, which is not the end of the world but should be noted.

Not sure what their claims are like though

FrannieP · 16 April 2009 at 10:03PM

I just got their certificate of motor insurance through, but it looks a bit basic compared to my certificate from last year.. which is a bit worrying.

I too therefore, would be interested to hear if anyone else has a policy with them and what their thoughts were.. thanks!

dacouch · 17 April 2009 at 12:19AM

The way the certificate is laid out and the wording of it is prescribed under UK Law, just because it is basic does not mean its a problem.

If you ever want to check whether you are insured you can always use this website which is the database where current policies are logged. Its the database the police use to check your cover https://www.askmid.co.uk

jvb_3 · 9 June 2009 at 7:08PM

Not only do 1st Central Insurance leave out cover generally considered standard, as ellissa points out, they are completely hopeless if you find yourself needing to make a claim as I found out recently. One of the most annoying things I found was that even when dealing with a claim you have no option other than to use their 0870 type numbers which you find yourself on hold for ages. This company seems to operate with no consideration to their customers. Never again will I fall for the cheap trick companies like this make by undercutting proper insurance companies on the comparison websites by a few pounds - I'd advise everybody to steer clear.

penguin74 · 13 June 2009 at 10:54AM

Im with 1st central and it took me a week of calling them to finally get thru to them to add another driver on to my policy.Im currently in the process of trying to buy a new car and so far have spent two days trying to call them to get a quote for the car i intend to buy.Constantly on hold,by the time i get thru the car may have been bought by someone else.I will def never use them again,yes it was cheap but i have probably spent more on phonecalls to their 0845 number :mad:

dacouch · 15 June 2009 at 11:46PM

Sorry Paul most UK Insurers are not based in Gibralter.

There are a few of the new companies that are based in Gibralter. The reasons are not solely to do with the Tax side. It is more to do with the Gibralter Government are a lot more lax on regulating Insurance companies and have much lower capital requirements than the UK. It is also far quicker to set an Insurance company up in Gribalter (Due to the laxer rulers).

It is because of the above that a lot of the smaller Insurers chose to be regulated in Gibralter.

UK customers are still covered by the FSCS but like I said I personally take the Gibralter base into account when placing business as the Insurer has less overseeing and has a much lower capital requirement (Liquid cash in the bank) than a UK based Insurer.

I believe they do not give DOCs to their customers

Tom1stCentral · 22 June 2009 at 4:43PM

Hi - I'm Tom - Head of Business Development at First Central Insurance Services.

I'd like to address some of the issues raised on this forum. I'd like to apologise to those customers who have been left waiting on the telephone - Our UK Service provider is currently in the process of recruiting and training more agents and as a result we are already seeing improvements in service.

I can confirm that our service provider has never used 0870 numbers -First Central uses an 0845 for our Claims Centre and this should be charged at local rate depending on your provider. As a result of these posts we have also conducted some research into this and there are actually a number of 'big names' who use the more expensive 0870 and 0871 numbers.

With regards to the Gibraltar posts - The insurer is based there, as is the insurance intermediary. I can confirm that the insurer is covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, adhering to EU Law. In fact there are a number of large 'brand name' insurers who operate from Gibraltar.

In addition, we are currently in the process of evaluating whether to include 'Driving Other Cars' as standard on policies.

Please contact me on this forum if you need me to clarify anything.

Kind regards,

Tom

dacouch · 22 June 2009 at 5:29PM

Which brand names are they Tom? Zenith...

Tom1stCentral · 23 June 2009 at 9:05AM

Hi dacouch,

I was thinking of organisations like Admiral (including Diamond and Elephant), Hastings and eCar.

Regards,

Tom

dacouch · 23 June 2009 at 9:18AM

Companies at the cheap and cheerful end of the market

1st Central Car Insurance

Comments

Categories

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