anyone got 1st central car insurance?

Alan_Hill

michael1983l wrote: »

The accident repair center called me to say it had been written off in their eyes, called 1st centeral got through almost immidiatley after the spiel about different phone numbers. Told me an engineer would asses the condition of the vehicle and that they would give me an offer within the week.

Thats my 4th contact now and mostly at peak times and have not witnessed any of the problems being stated in this thread. I will let you know if they give me a decent valuation or if they try and spank me.

Lucky you is all I have to say.

Alan_Hill

For all of those of you having problems I have a couple of tip bits for you;

Directs claims handling line; 08451949965

They also have a 3rd company involved with there work load who deal with claim they are called Motorcare and the number is 01489794256

Good luck

michael1983l

Don't bother using these clowns, my car was said to cost more to repair than it was actually worth by the accident repair center over a week ago. Since then I have been awaiting a 1st Centeral Engineer to make a report to confirm this. Every time I call it will be done by the end of the day, the end of the day comes and it has still not been done. Been promised 3 times now.

This company is exactly what everyone says here, absolutely useless. No doubt they will eventually decide it is a write off and offer me a fraction of its value.

buzzmonkey

bloody joke and really fuming now, after being told by the garage last week that they reckon the car would be a write off and 1st central would contact me (they didn't) the garage then phoned me today to say the work has been completed and my car was ready to pick up, and guess what, i haven;t been able to contact 1st central for over a week again. useless!

dacouch

If 1st Central are messing you about with your written off car, have a read of this from the Ombudsman which 1st Central are bound by even though they are from Gibralter.

15. loss of use and courtesy cars

Usually the policyholder is entitled to a courtesy car only where the policy specifically provides for it. Even where the policy does provide for a courtesy car, this will usually be in limited circumstances (for example, whilst repairs are carried out by a repairer approved by the insurer) that do not apply where a vehicle is "written-off". This often comes as a surprise and disappointment to the policyholder.

Usually we only award the policyholder compensation for loss of use of the vehicle where the insurer unreasonably delays, or wrongly declines, the claim. Exceptionally, we may say that the insurer should compensate the policyholder for loss of use where:

the insurer’s overall presentation of the policy gave the consumer a legitimate expectation that a courtesy car (or compensation for loss of use) would be provided; or
the claim was badly administered (for example, the insurer initially took the car to be repaired, delayed several weeks and then decided it was a "write-off" after all).
Where we consider it fair for the insurer to compensate the policyholder for loss of use:

If the policyholder hired a car for this period, we might require the insurer to refund the hire-car charges (plus interest).
If the policyholder did not hire a car, we might require the insurer to pay compensation for other reasonable transport expenses incurred plus inconvenience caused by lack of a car.
If we award compensation for inconvenience caused by lack of a car, we tend to award around £10 per day, if it had a material effect on the policyholder, and depending on the individual circumstances – for example, whether the policyholder had "free" access to another vehicle, availability of public transport etc.

Also read the whole link as it has the Ombudsman's rules for written off vehicles which will be helpful.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#15

Wumpus_2

I'm another one who got suckered into paying for a year's fully comprehensive insurance through this bunch of sharks.
I wish I'd never found them on Confused.com

You never really know just how good an insurance company is until you need to make a claim. Well, I'm finding out the hard way that 1st Central are useless, arrogant, unco-operative, uncommunicative and unsympathetic.

I was involved in an accident in January when another car skidded out of a junction in front of me. Clearly not my fault. My car is still roadworthy, but was deemed beyond economic repair.

1st Central say I can claim off my own insurance, and get a payout of a few hundred pounds, less my excess. I'd get an accident history, although fortunately I have protected NCD.
But if I do that they insist on taking away my car, which I am still using.
Other companies offer the option to buy the car back at the salvage value (they established this at £25). Not First Central.
There's no option of a settlement in lieu of repair.
My car isn't worth a lot, but I need it for work and it is used every single day.

The sum under discussion (minus excess) is not enough to buy a comparable replacement. They haven't mentioned anything yet about recovering my excess from the other party. I think they simply can't be bothered to deal with customers.

They are making no attempt to contact the other party's insurer and establish liability.
Isn't that exactly what an insurer is supposed to do?
They've advised me to do that myself!

To make an even bigger mockery of the whole situation, I even bought the legal expenses cover too!

Oh, and why do they take (usually) about 2 weeks to reply to any of my emails?
And when they do, why don't they simply answer the question I asked, instead of re-iterating something completely irrelevant all over again?

michael1983l

I have just written an email to their director and claims handlers, pointing out that they are in direct contravention of at least 2 Financial Services Authority minimum requirments. I can't imagine that it will do any good but I will be making a formal complaint about this shower of !!!!!. They should have their license revoked as they are clearly bandits, who break the rules on a whim.

michael1983l

After a bit of posturing and a discussion with the manager I have eventually got a decision on my car. They have made me a reasonable offer and they have appologised for the length of time this has taken. I will see once I have finished dealing with them what my opinion is. But after speaking with somebody with the motivation to actually help me out, things seem to have moved along much more smoothly.

dacouch

michael1983l wrote: »

After a bit of posturing and a discussion with the manager I have eventually got a decision on my car. They have made me a reasonable offer and they have appologised for the length of time this has taken. I will see once I have finished dealing with them what my opinion is. But after speaking with somebody with the motivation to actually help me out, things seem to have moved along much more smoothly.

Good news, although I would have thought you would have learnt your lessons about counting your chickens with 1st Central, you have to get the cheque out of them yet...

Are you aware they will deduct any remaining instalments for the rest of your insurance period from your claims settlement and then cancel your policy eg when you buy a replacement car you will need to arrange an entire new policy with either 1st Central or a new insurer

michael1983l

dacouch wrote: »

Good news, although I would have thought you would have learnt your lessons about counting your chickens with 1st Central, you have to get the cheque out of them yet...

Are you aware they will deduct any remaining instalments for the rest of your insurance period from your claims settlement and then cancel your policy eg when you buy a replacement car you will need to arrange an entire new policy with either 1st Central or a new insurer

fully aware yes.