anyone got 1st central car insurance? 5 May 2009 at 9:06PM edited 4 February 2014 at 7:02PM in Insurance & Life Assurance 477 replies 319.5K views

ellissa

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Hi all

Just a warning really...

..please be aware that we've just been advised 1st central car insurance policies do not give drivers 3rd party cover on other cars even if they have fully comp policies and are over 25.

As far as I'm aware this is standard on most policies but we nearly got caught out when we called them back to double check the policy we'd just purchased. You can't pay extra fo it either!

Hope nobody gets caught out! We've just cancelled within the 14 day cooling off period - just hope they promptly refund the premium that we paid in full! Fingers crossed!
Ells

Tom1stCentral

Hi Ellissa,

I’m Tom – Head of Business Development at First Central Insurance Services. I’m sorry to hear you had to cancel your policy with 1st Central.

As an organisation we are very keen to hear our customers view and opinions. We noticed your recent post and as a result of your comments and other customer feedback we are now in the process of evaluating whether this can be included with our private car policies as standard.

I will keep this thread updated with any developments.

Kind regards,

Tom

dacouch

Thanks for your post Tom, if you cannot offer the driving other cars it would be fairer to your customers and save you the hassle of people cancelling if you pointed this out at the point of sale. It also does not mention this in your FAQs

Tom1stCentral

Hi dacouch - Thanks for your comments. We'll take these on board and make sure we include them as part of our upcoming Product Review.

jvb_3

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.

Tom1stCentral

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

I'd like to address 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.

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

Kind regards,

Tom

dacouch

Tom could you post a geographical number eg 0207 as when people ring an 0870 or 0844 from most mobile phones (Which a lot of people tend to use) they cost between 5p and 30p a minute. If you post a geographical number they can ring from a mobile for a much lower price and often its included in their free minutes (Most 0845 / 0870 are not included)

ejs10

ellissa wrote: »

Hi all

Just a warning really...

..please be aware that we've just been advised 1st central car insurance policies do not give drivers 3rd party cover on other cars even if they have fully comp policies and are over 25.

As far as I'm aware this is standard on most policies but we nearly got caught out when we called them back to double check the policy we'd just purchased. You can't pay extra fo it either!

Hope nobody gets caught out! We've just cancelled within the 14 day cooling off period - just hope they promptly refund the premium that we paid in full! Fingers crossed!
Ells

Tom im just looking at Ist central at the moment and dont seem to be able to find anything in the policy about the above... just wondered if you had updated your insurance policy to give users the option to drive other cars coverd on 3rd party?

dacouch

I doubt it, otherwise he would have posted up here and put a note on the website making a big song and dance that they now include it

johnk

They should at least make it clear like Zurich Connect does that "if you are looking for this thirdparty cover, our policy is not for you".

Companies with hidden GotU exclusions should always be avoided.

dacouch

They are a registered in Gibralter which normally puts me off an Insurer