anyone got 1st central car insurance?

davongs

Truly a horrible little company that should be avoided.


They try to find sneaky ways of charging you for silly things - I won't go into details but they were very sneaky and unpleasant after I signed up. They don't even do it in a nice way and come across like debt collectors, even when you've done everything they asked for.


I threatened to take them to the FCA and they started being all nice with me. TIP: if you are having genuine trouble with this company and are not being naiive or stupid (ie where they are treating you unfairly and you're not at fault) then contact their Director in charge of complaints - Daniel Thompson.


I paid £200 just to buy myself out of this policy and moved to a decent insurer because they treated me so badly from the moment I signed up, that I dread to think how they would treat me if I actually had to make a claim.


Yuk the thought of this company makes my stomach turn! I can picture some greedy scrooge running this business with no care for anyone in the world except himself. A truly expensive mistake.

quango11

Steer clear!!!!!!!!

ripplyuk

Aren't all car insurers just as bad? Could anyone recommend one that's reputable?

I went with 1st Central this year. I just have the feeling that all car insurance is a nightmare if anything goes wrong so might as well go with someone cheap.

Have to say, I've not had much bother getting through to them on the phone. When I rang recently wanting them to send me a printed copy of the policy documents, they first said there would be a £30 charge! I explained I could not read the policy on the ipad and they then agreed to send them out to me for free, which they did.

After reading all this, I'm not looking forward to dealing with them if I have an accident.

My last insurer, Budget, wanted to charge me £75 for cancelling. Seems a lot of them add in all these extra fees.

ritzyb

I'm glad I decided to get some reviews of 1st central insurance as I was tempted to take out their car insurance. After reading all of the bad reviews, I think I have dodged a bullet. Thanks guy's.

ulas

Avoid the company, they are horrible, I insured a car with them and have lots of problems. The company has put through multiple polices for my car. When I checked my bank statement I realised that I have paid for 1 policy in full and they have been collecting money for over 4 other policies by direct debit for the same car!!!! I received lots of confusing emails from them and waisted a lot of money on phone calls. It would have been already cheaper with the highest quote received for the car in first place. The worst customer service ever, I've been transferred many times to different people and told there is everything ok with the policy and being charged more and more from my bank account. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY. Save yourself the hassle as everything goes wrong with them and it might be done deliberately. Worst insurer ever.

Ruben24

I want to make an official complain about a company car insurance: 1st Central Insurance. The company insists that they are going to cancel my policy as I did not provide them with visa entry or official documentation that I was issued with when I moved to the UK. I am from Poland and being in EU such documents do not exist. I am confused as to why they are asking only me for these documents when my husband Spanish nationality was not asked to do that. I believe this is a type of discrimination towards me and a good opportunity for the company to charge me a cancellation fee of £75, despite the fact that it was explained to them that Poland is in EU, we do not need visa and it is quite hard to provide such documents from 10 years when I arrived to this country. I strongly believe it is a scam especially that the company did not want to give me a reference number for my complaint and I was ignored and transferred to a different department.
At the end, after my long research, I found my old ticket from 10 years when I arrived to UK and I was still refused and they are quite adamant in cancelling our policy. It is not the first time I am having a car insurance, but it is the first time that I have been treating this way and I have come across with such procedures.

Quentin

Ruben24 wrote: »

I want to make an official complain about a company car insurance: 1st Central Insurance. ......

This is not the place to do it.


Their complaints procedure will be set out in the policy docs.


But do whatever you can to get this cancellation reversed, as a cancelled policy remains on your record for evermore meaning you have a restricted group of insurers to use in future as most won't quote anyone with a cancellation.

Ruben24

Quentin wrote: »

This is not the place to do it.


Their complaints procedure will be set out in the policy docs.


But do whatever you can to get this cancellation reversed, as a cancelled policy remains on your record for evermore meaning you have a restricted group of insurers to use in future as most won't quote anyone with a cancellation.

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Hi Quentin, thanks for your reply. Currently I put my complain through and will do everything to have my policy back and receive a compensation as what they are doing is illegal and unacceptable!

David_InsDef

Hi Ruben24 - have they cancelled your policy yet or have they given you a date on which they are going to do so?

It's unusual that an insurance company would ask for sight of this documentation - have they indicated why they need / want it? It may be that they are trying to establish that you are who you say you are - in which case there may be other methods of doing this - e.g. copy drivers licence etc.

REgards

David

Quentin

Ruben24 wrote: »

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Hi Quentin, thanks for your reply. Currently I put my complain through and will do everything to have my policy back and receive a compensation as what they are doing is illegal and unacceptable!

The problem is that a complaint can take a long time to conclude (if you are unhappy with their reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can then escalate to the FOS - at no charge to you - for their adjudication), and can mean the cancellation will have taken place and you have to get cover elsewhere, which could be very expensive.


So best at this stage to try and reach a manager to explain to you what this is all about (still let your complaint go through their system).


If this is a misunderstanding it will be much easier to resolve this (eg by supplying alternative id etc) prior to the cover being cancelled!