Picnic. Anmeldelser 

Not even 1 start, some one shoul do something, they took my money without providing nay insurace documents. They told me that I need to wait a month for them(till the last day when my current insurace end) How is this possible???!!! Taking money and not even sending a single confirmation email? After I spoke with customer support, they took 25£ of my money as fee. Why ar this SCAMMS legal?

I arranged a car insurance policy with this company this morning, set to begin on 5 September 2026. Within hours, due to horrendous customer service, I attempted to cancel via their online system - well within any reasonable cooling-off period, and before the policy had even come into effect.

Their system falsely told me I could not cancel until the policy start date itself. This is not only inconvenient but actively misleading, and appears designed to obstruct customers from exercising their statutory cancellation rights.

Despite the policy not yet being active, the full premium had already been taken from my credit card. I have now had to formally demand a refund and written confirmation of cancellation, and have made clear that I will escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service and, if necessary, the small claims court if this isn't resolved promptly.

Holding a customer's money hostage for a contract that hasn't even started, while blocking their ability to cancel, is a shocking way to treat new customers. I'd strongly encourage anyone considering this insurer to think twice. They have also told me they will deduct £25 for doing absolutely nothing.

If you're reading this before signing up: check how easy it actually is to cancel before you hand over your card details. Also, don't bother emailing them anything as they tell you that they cannot respond to you - incredible!

Appalling. Provided full and accurate information during quote. 2 weeks later received an email saying they weren’t accepting my NCD, despite full confirmation from existing insurer, and applying a £190 additional charge. Called the service line who refused to cancel my policy or raise a complaint.
Avoid.

Horrendous waste of my time!! 3 weeks after taking out the policy they email me saying they need to do validation checks on my policy. I'm on the phone to them for 20 minutes going round in circles asking me what my job is what industry I'm in etc. Each time I answer they put me on hold for 5 minutes then they come back asking for examples of daily tasks I do in my job. what the hell has this got to do with car insurance, no other insurance company ever asks this stuff ! I just cancelled there and then this company is a joke. making it as difficult as possible to get a valid insurance, I bet they do this hoping that so many people just don't bother and end up paying fro insurance that isn't actually valid!

Do not use this company. They are an absolute disgrace and borderline dishonest. They provide a quote you agree it, they then phone you to validate your insurance then increase it by 50%. They do this outside of the cooling off period.
DO NOT USE

What an awful company! Tried to set up a new policy and it kept rejecting our bank details, we have had an account with same bank for 30 years and never had a problem setting up a policy before. Phoned customer service explained the problem kept getting told you need to check your bank details with your bank, advised the details are correct, got told off for not listening to her then got cut off! Think we dodged a bullet here and happily set up a policy with esure instead!!

Can't bill a credit card, after hours "No, I don't want this overpriced extra." "Nor this one."

im going to buy this insurance for my car but reading shocking reviews dnt know why im not going to buy from this insurance company thanks

Very disappointing experience with Picnic/First Central.

My premium was substantially increased after they carried out validation checks after the policy had already started. When I decided I didn't want to continue, I attempted to cancel online on the 14th day of the policy, while still within the cooling-off period.

However, Picnic had placed my policy into a locked state, which meant the normal online cancellation facility was unavailable. I was unable to complete the cancellation and contacted them again the following day. I was then told I would face fees for cancelling.

I complained, but Picnic maintained the charges. Their final response actually acknowledged that their validation process had locked my policy and made online cancellation unavailable.

When the policy was eventually cancelled, they retained £100 in fees – a £50 arrangement fee and £50 cancellation fee.

The whole experience was unnecessarily stressful and time-consuming. I don't think a customer should be financially disadvantaged because the insurer's own system prevents them from cancelling when they try to do so.

I've now referred the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Based on my experience, I would not use Picnic again.

Deliberately enters incorrect information
Something simple like car value was incorrect, although it was initially correct on comparison site. When you attempt to change this small error, they wanted £30.

When you contact them via chat, they then say details dont match and end the conversation. Waste of time.

After receiving quote and filling everything in, when making payment they say they cant cover you. How unprofessional.

Used confused.com to get the quote took me a while reading through everything and filling out all of the details, finally made my decision to purchase they offer they quoted me, put in the bank details ect clicked purchase to be put onto a loading page for it to the say, Unfortunately, " based on the details you have entered, we are unable to offer you a policy online or over the phone. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused." complete waste of time ! why bother quoting in the first place ! Also i have completely clean license and never had a policy cancelled.

I took out a policy with Picnic Insurance for £575 but decided to cancel it 1 day later, 24 days before the policy is due to start. I was surprised to find that I wouldn't receive a full refund and would still be left around £25 out of pocket.

What I find particularly misleading is the wording in their FAQ. It states that if you cancel within the first 14 days, they "may keep the arrangement fee." In reality, they did keep the fee in my case. If that's their standard practice, then the wording should be clearer and simply say "we will keep the arrangement fee" rather than "may."

I've had car insurance with several other insurers over the years and haven't experienced cancellation terms like this. It left me feeling disappointed and misled, especially as I cancelled well before I needed the policy. I will be reporting Picnic to the ombudsman and in addition trying to reclaim the full amount from my bank.

One of the worst company and customer service. I had a phone call for an hour and trying to robbed me by changing the policy. Never do with this, you will regrets.

Got to be one of the worst ever car insurance company, i will never ever use these again and i will make sure that every one i know will never use these , they say they are cheeper than others and then slap charges on you for mistakes they make ffs

Terrible company, customer service non existent ,chat host was that useless we cancelled the policy and got charged £25 ,for the privilege
Wanted a simply change and it was like pulling teeth , keep away from this company

This is the worst insurance company. They say it's online-only, but their online portal never works. I'm trying to make a payment; it never works. I tried different cards; nothing works. I was on the phone, but I didn't receive any help. Never use this insurer. They are a joke.

Tried to get insurance from this company. Tried for a couple of hours over two days. System kept bringing up the wrong car. So I entered details manually, but it was changed back at the end. Tried speaking to someone, was told wait time of 10 minutes. After 40 minutes I was timed out. So I set up insurance with the parent company, first central. Exactly the same set up pages, exact same policy, but more expensive. But it stored correct car details, what I could not do with picnic. A ploy so you have to pay more? Or just teething problems? Just very frustrating.