1st Central Car Insurance

Jane_23

I chose 1st Central Car Insurance after they appeared as the cheapest quote on Compare the Market. However, my experience has been extremely disappointing and concerning.

Approximately one week after purchasing the policy, I was asked to provide multiple documents for verification, with a warning that failure to do so by a set deadline would result in cancellation and a £50 charge. I promptly submitted the requested documents, only to be told they were unable to open them and I needed to resend everything again.

During this process, I came across a similar case online where a customer was charged a significant fee due to incorrect information on their policy. This prompted me to review my own account, where I discovered that the recorded date of when I purchased my car was incorrect. I do not recall entering this incorrectly myself.

Due to this, and concerns about potential charges, I decided to cancel my policy within the 14-day cooling-off period (on day 12). Attempting to contact the company was extremely difficult. The webchat service involved long delays and queues, and when I called, I was repeatedly placed on hold for extended periods before the call was ultimately disconnected. This significantly delayed my ability to cancel.

Eventually, I was able to cancel within the cooling-off period. However, I was informed that I would not be refunded the £25 I had already paid, as it was considered a non-refundable arrangement fee. I found this particularly frustrating, especially given the confusion within the terms and conditions, which refer both to the policy start date and the purchase date when describing the cooling-off period.

Overall, I found the process unclear, unnecessarily stressful, and poorly handled. While the initial quote was competitive, my experience suggests a lack of transparency and customer service. I have been driving for 12 years and have never previously been asked for this level of documentation, nor encountered such difficulty when trying to cancel a policy.

I would advise others to proceed with caution and carefully review their policy details. I am sharing this experience in the hope that it helps others avoid similar issues.

TadleyBaggie

So, not a scam then.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6671296/1st-central-car-insurance-scam

So you guesstimated some values and then clicked a declaration stating that all the information is true and accurate?

The additional premiums charged for those providing false information often seems excessive but its somewhat a rod for your own back when if you can't remember something you decide to guess rather than go and check. That said, the alternative of potentially having a claim refused because of the wrong information or significantly reduced settlement as most insurers only do these checks at claim stage not point of purchase.

The law requires them to allow you to cancel, the law doesnt require them to give you a free of charge way to cancel it (though charges would have to be proportionate to the costs incurred). After the cooling off period technically they dont have to allow you to cancel though in practice all insurers will allow you to cancel Motor

HillStreetBlues

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024600#Comment_82024600

Seems so often these days it's always someone else's fault rather taking ownership of the mistake.

Bendo

I used them, no issues other than they won't cover the Model Y I've just bought. But on the plus side will waive the £10 cancellation fee so not too fussed.

Jane_23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024600#Comment_82024600

Actually, a scam is a dishonest scheme or practice intended to mislead people.

To break it down for you, in this context, the concerning part is the impression that 1st central is advertising low premiums to attract customers, then relying on technicalities or loopholes in the policy wording to significantly increase charges later. Rather than being transparent about the true cost from the outset.

I have also come across a number of similar accounts from others who appear to have had the same experience, which is why I have raised this point.

Of course, if anyone still wishes to use the company that’s entirely their choice. The post was made to stop others going through a similar experience. Have a nice day!

Jane_23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024607#Comment_82024607

You’ve clearly misunderstood my comments and made an incorrect assumption. At no point did I make any errors when entering my details, all of the information inputted into compare the market was correct.

The issue appears to have arisen on the insurers side, where the date I purchased my car has been recorded incorrectly within their system. That is not something I entered incorrectly, just to make the distinction.

The reason I identified the problem was because I came across someone else’s post describing a very similar experience, which prompted me to check my details. Without that, I likely wouldn’t have spotted it. Because as I explained above, all my details were correct on compare the market.

MyRealNameToo

Aggregators typically do circa 45,000 quotes per day, needless to say it's all straight through processing not people rekeying data from one system to another. Like any system bugs can exist but it's relatively rare and typically happens with more edge cases than a simple date field that applies to all of the millions of quotes per month. You get more issues with remapping, where the aggregator gives 10 options but the seller only has 6 options and so transformation is required but a date is a date so no transformation required.

What is vastly more common is people can't remember the exact date they bought a vehicle and so rather than going away and finding the paperwork to check they guestimate it. For most insurers its probably close enough, for the likes of these guys if its out at all they will pull you up on it.

If you are instead alleging that you put in, for example, 1/1/2026 but the policy docs have 3/5/2025 then you should also log the complaint to the aggregator given they are typically the ones owning the interface with the seller and are likely to be the ones that converted the date.

daveyjp

Comparison sites are a first inital sift of options. When you go into the actual insurance provider you have to check everything as comparison sites don't ask every question, but all the answers are there to be checked and changed if incorrect.

Having just renewed my insurance the actual site I bought from had a number of incorrect details from the comparison site. Annual mileage, vehicle value, details of a claim, insurance excess were all missing or incorrect. They were all minor changes and didn't change the premium.

jimjames

The issue appears to have arisen on the insurers side, where the date I purchased my car has been recorded incorrectly within their system. That is not something I entered incorrectly, just to make the distinction.

In my experience these numbers are automatically generated - purchase date usually by the last V5C date that is available for them to get. It's then up to you to check those are the correct details that they've generated. Some companies might not make that easy. Admiral are normally pretty good but I missed that date when I was doing quotes.

Batsandstats

better to know now than after a claim….