1st Central Car Insurance

James1687

I have been a customer of 1st Central for approx 6 months and until now I never really had a problem with them - however I have never needed to contact them.....

When I took out my insurance a few weeks later I had a call saying I needed to set up a direct debit again as there was a problem with the internal systems - hey no problems in doing that!

Everything was fine until last week when I needed to change my vehicle to the one I had purchased that day.

I was told I could not change anything on my policy due to an error with the system I had a "shell record" - I asked what this shell record was! -I was told that it could not be opened or ammended by anyone.....

I had to cancel my car insurance 6 months in having made no claims - ultimately loosing half a years no claims.....

Unhappy with this I asked for someone to call me back to discuss this..... never happened.

Then 5 days after I cancelled my insurance a direct debit for over £110 came out!

I called 1st Central and was told I need to talk to finance.... After speaking to a lady called "Jo" she promised me a call back after she had sorted it - quoting 15 minutes.....

5 hours later I called back and "Jo" and the rest of the finance team had gone home!

Trying again the next day I managed to speak to "Jo" who had no explanation as to why she did not calll me back...

A supervisor then called and said he would release a years no claims and action my refund on the direct debit that should have not come out. Today almost 7 days on..... I'm still waiting....

Mickey Mouse Insurer.

I am now with Churchill..... who are also much cheaper...

Good luck with any issues you are having with these monkeys....

Quentin

wrack wrote: »

Yes, 1st central have giving me seven days to respond to their letter, if they do not hear from me in writing then they will assume that i do not want to go to court and they will payout. Im certainly not going to accept to go to court and cover costs, i assumed adding legal expenses to my policy covered me for this.

You were wrong about how "legal expenses" work. (Not just with 1st central).

The legal expenses add on is usually just to provide assistance to recover uninsured losses. The catch is that they will only fund your use if they believe you have a good chance of winning. Thus if they are telling you you must pay your own court costs if you want this to go to court (and they intend paying out to the third party) that they don't think you will win in court, and will be wasting your money pursuing this.

froggy27_2

unfortunately I have to agree with some of you.. 1st central have been really bad... my accident happened in france in December...def not my fault as the car was nicely parked etc... 1st Central never did a thing despite telling me they were contacting the French side.. i was away so couldn't check regularly..but now I'm back and I have been pushing them non stop..and they've just contacted the French side.. meanwhile my renewal is now due, because of the claim not settled, my NCB has gone down dramatically and to renew would cost me double or more. So not sure what to do now...

Quentin

You can go elsewhere at renewal - explain to your chosen insurer about the outstanding claim, and get them to agree that should you get your NCD reinstated when (if!) the matter is resolved they will amend your premium and refund any overpayment.

At least you will be away from this shower!

wrack

Quentin wrote: »

You were wrong about how "legal expenses" work. (Not just with 1st central).

The legal expenses add on is usually just to provide assistance to recover uninsured losses. The catch is that they will only fund your use if they believe you have a good chance of winning. Thus if they are telling you you must pay your own court costs if you want this to go to court (and they intend paying out to the third party) that they don't think you will win in court, and will be wasting your money pursuing this.

Thanks for pointing that out. I cannot come to a conclusion how this company can ponce around for so long and accept that i am liable simply because of a statement from the third party and partner. No one has assessed damage to my vehicle. I was always under the impression since passing my test all those moons ago that if, i or someone hits a vehicle at the rear then i or that person is to blame, driving without due care and attention springs to mind. I am still awaiting my call to be returned, we are now clearly past their seven day deadline and yet i have not heard from them. I most certainly will not be calling them again. I have made the decision that from now on i will never use a company again that does not have a well known name regardless of how much it costs me.

Ajay10054

I Just called to renew my car insurance with these guys. After nearly 30 minutes, got through, only to meet a salesgirl who had obviously swallowed the whole dictionary this morning!
She insisted on going through EVERY offer, term and condition - for items such as legal expenses cover (which I did not want) and would not continue the conversation unless I allowed her to read her script in total (25 minutes).
Reading some other forum posts here, it seems that I know why she had to read it all out - 1st Centrals' "small print' must have been getting them into trouble recently. If you listen to the WHOLE patter you realise that, unless to take on all of their (very expensive) 'bolt ons', they can charge you loads of money - or do absolutely nothing at all, depending on your circumstances - if you are unfortunate enough to have a claim.

I will not be renewing with these cowboys! Avoid!

scheming_gypsy

I've just taken a policy out with them even after reading parts of this thread. My renewal had shot up by £200 and even online they were £200 more which is £150 more than they were when i got a quote at the beginning of July. 1st Central were at the price i should be paying so i bit the bullet and went for it; fortunately my car isn't worth a lot so i'm only insured because i have to be

Rosco676

Ok. here goes :mad:
I bought a new car and picking it up tomorrow. I phoned 1st Central to get my policy moved to my new car as it was due to end in September and didnt want to lose my no claims. I gave the guy on the phone my policy number and he couldnt find any record, so i gave him my address details, again couldnt find any record. He took my car reg number. then put me on hold. came back 5 min later and told me that they changed computer systems in March and it deleted a lot of customers details/policies, me being one of them. He told me they sent a letter to me which he seen on the system, to say the policy had been cancelled. I can guarentee i never received it as i would have been on the phone straight away. Ends up ive had no insurance since MARCH. (Which i was oblivious too) No letter, No email and No phone call from them. I use my car every day and obviusly dont drive without insurance due to the fine/points you get wihtout it. Luckly ive never been pulled over by police.
I came home from work and phoned them again. This time i got 2 different stories.
I was told that i hadnt been paying the monnthly payments and that was the reason it was cancelled in DECEMBER. they told me i hadnt set up a Direct Debit. Total LIE as the company set a DD up not the customer. i was then put on hold for 5 min again.
agent came back but this time i could hear someone telling her what to say. I was told this time that i was only covered in October 2010 as i had only paid the deposit and nothing else.
Turns out that i hadnt paid monthly installments (after checking my bank statements) but not my fault as the company set up the DD and not the customer.I supplied them the correct details when i set the account up as i recieved a DD guarentee. I could not believe what i was being told.
3 different stories in one day. Really angry and would never recommend this company. not even to my worst enemy.
Im taking this to the ombusman first thing tomorrow morning. :mad:

scheming_gypsy

the ombudsman will probably ask why you didn't notice that you weren't paying your insurance premium.

although you haven't paid for a service you didn't receive

dandavies7

If you’re thinking of using this insurance company, I suggest you don’t. Here are some of (not all) of my experiences with them in 2011; Long Call Waiting, Bad Customer Services and No claim Bonus (NCB) .
They’ve got a special department set-up for this (NCB). They insured me based on my NCB of 6 years. After I’ve paid the initial deposit as well as 2 months insurance, they kept writing to me threatening to cancel my insurance unless I provided proof of the NCB. I have no problem with this. However, why didn’t they ask for the NCB earlier? Following this, I called them as I had only just seen the letters. The advisor spoke rudely and said she would ensure that my insurance is cancelled. She asked for the details of my previous car insurance. I asked her to wait for 30 seconds whilst I got the details (what if I hadn’t kept them as they were old documents from almost 2 years ago). Despite the fact that I was waiting on the phone for a long while before reaching her, she said she couldn’t wait 30 seconds for me. I pleaded with her and retrieved the details within about 15 seconds. She called the insurer whilst I waited patiently on the line. She came back and said they said my NBC was for 5 years and she was going to charge me extra immediately or cancel my car insurance. She disregarded the fact that I insured with the company almost 2 years ago hence, the NCB should now be 6 or 7 years. I tried explaining to her but she would not listen but was adamant and told me she will only go by what the previous insurer told her. She kept on threatening and I ended up paying the extra charge to keep the insurance going as I had to use the car the next day. I asked her for a receipt to be sent to me but she said they don’t provide such receipts.