1st Central Car Insurance

Dilamo

Keep well clear off this dodgy company. I just want to notify my change of address and was hit with £87 Admin fee. A total RIp Off! The customer service guy advised me that, if I dont pay the amount I had to cancel the insurance.Infact I moved within same Post code area so there is no excuse for moving to a risky post code either.

Dilamo

Warning!!!
Keep well clear off this dodgy company. I just want to notify my change of address and was hit with £87 Admin fee. A total RIp Off! The customer service guy advised me that, if I dont pay the amount I had to cancel the insurance.Infact I moved within same Post code area so there is no excuse for moving to a risky post code either.

SomethingWitty_2

I was very suspicious of First Central I must be honest, I received limited information when I took out the policy, and all this "based in Gibraltar, Guernsey, etc" that appeared in their small print put me off.

I must say I have been happy with them. I don't whether it is because they are a smaller team but I have found them much, much better than my previous insurer (endsleigh) in terms of customer services. I was on hold longer than I would have liked, and I did not like having to send proof of my no claims to them (which was difficult given that endsliegh, my previous insurer, failed to send me this without prompting) - but once this was done I was happy with the service I received

The excess on my windscreen claim (fully comp) was higher than I would have liked at £80 but this was sorted within the day at my place of work.

I have just cancelled my policy with them as I have a new car and they couldn't match the best deal. They have promised to refund the money straight away and sent out a proof of no claims to me immediately, with no fuss.

So whilst I never had to make a claim every time I have spoken with them they have always known what I'm talking about, been very savvy, and I;ve been happy with them.

I'm only leaving them because of cost really.

Just my tuppence worth.

Also I was insured to drive courtesy cars etc

jaycie

We signed up for this Car Insurance last night, paid the deposit and there were problems straight away as an error message came up after the bank security checks so at that point didn't know if we had sorted out the insurance or not.

O/H rang them (this was 9pm last night) and they said that our deposit had been taken, but they were having problems with setting up the direct debit and that somone would phone us in the morning.
At this point we had no e-mail to confirm anything.

This morning rang to find out what was going on as still not had any kind of e-mail from them only to find the insurance was going to start 12days earlier than we had put on the application and the girl said you will have to cancel it as it is illegal to have two insurances at the same time so we cancelled it and they kept £30.00 of our £34 deposit. At the same time during this call she e-mailed the documents.

wrack

Just been doing some reading(though im a year to late) regarding this company.
For what it's worth i have spent the last agonizing year with this company.

First problem is "contact" it is going to cost you if you have to call, apparently their preferred communication is by email even though they have my landline and mobile numbers. I have pointed out on many occasions that i am the customer and my preference is by landline though they ignore that fact.

I was in an accident last year and i am 100% this was not my fault. The third party that hit my vehicle( at the rear) had his partner with him and according to scottish law she can be a witness if i choose to take up their insurance offer of going to court.
How has my insurance company handled this? simple, they have emailed me and informed that they see no favourable outcome to myself and i have seven days to respond. I have legal expenses covered on my policy along with proteced ncb. They have also stated i must cover costs? so basicly it has taking this company over ten month's and not once did they contact me keeping me up to date and only did i find out what was happening when i had to call them.
From the email i have received, i read it as a statement that says " hey mate were sorry, but we have taking your cash for twelve months and there's naff all we can do to help you.
The laughable part is, i have received my renewal and it is nearly double, this is of course not taking into account the accident as payout has not been processed. Going to the usual comparsion sites for the same vehicle i have 1st central can give me a policy for half the cost of the renewal they have sent and that is declaring i was in an accident and saying i was at fault, strange isn't it?


One thing is for sure, their recent renewal will be used as a rag.

It's been said before in previous posts, Stay Well Clear!

Sometimes the cheaper option is not always the best.

Quentin

Why haven't you claimed directly off the third party?

If you are certain that liability won't be disputed, respond that you want to withdraw your claim, and proceed with your claim against the third party. (Though if the third party insurers want to go to court to settle liability, then there may be more to the story??)

wrack

Quentin wrote: »

Why haven't you claimed directly off the third party?

If you are certain that liability won't be disputed, respond that you want to withdraw your claim, and proceed with your claim against the third party. (Though if the third party insurers want to go to court to settle liability, then there may be more to the story??)

It's a real long story but i will try and keep it brief.
I was friends at the time with the other party, because my car was old and although i wasn't at fault i did say that i wasn't bothered about the damage to my car as i was going for a new one within a couple of month's. I had said that because i valued friendship. Yes i know it sounds stupid but at the time i never gave it deep thought. I have received documentation with statements and to be honest the only part that is truthful is the date and time of the incident.

I have just this minute called 1st central to speak to the "negotiator" but was informed he was out of office and they would "email" him, God what happened to the days you could call and speak to someone who took some pride in their work.
During the last ten month's of calls to 1st central i have had people agreeing with me on certain things ie:being hit at the rear, its clearly not my fault. Having a partner as a witness ie: would they actually say their partner was to blame?

1st central have basically stated, and have accepted themselves, that due to there being a "so called" witness there will be no favorable outcome on my side.

Yes there is a lot more to this but i feel this is not the place to discuss in great detail, my only reason for posting was to add support to the OP.

I will add though, because of the stupid limited time(7 days which gives me not enough time to be posting letters to receive response etc) 1st central have laid out on this after having ten month's plus to get things in motion, i will be writing a letter to the third parties insurer, 1st central and of course the ombudsman.

Quentin

So is the problem now that your insurers are faced with a claim from the third party for their damage?

If so, you normally have to agree to your insurer dealing with a claim in any way they want to.

Mr_Brownstone

If you are insured with 1st Central and ever have an accident then you can be sure they wont pay out to the other party. They act as correspondance only for insurers and CHO's. Despite being ABI GTA they disregard the guidelines and never respond to letters or emails!!

micktagg

:T! After reading some of these posts after I had bought Insurance from 1st Central I was a little dismayed. However how wrong can you be!!
1. Crashed car in accident on Sunday evening 01/05/2011 needed to be towed away by Police recovery.
2. Contacted 1st Central accident report hotline same evening, took about 10 minutes to answer phone.
3. Bank Holiday Monday.
3. Authorised repairer collected car from recovery company on Tuesday morning.
4. Wednesday morning 1st Central approved £5,000 of repairs and repairer delivered to my wifes place of work a 2011 registered courtesy car.
How good does this company need to be? I can only assume it is the surly British character that only complains and never congratulates. Absolutely cheap and I am very cheerfull!!!