First2Protect: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 694 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-04-10 to 2026-09-23. TrustScore 4.9 from 7,772 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is First2Protect legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that support is unhelpful, accounting for 35% of the 57 identified complaints. Issues with the account or app are the second most common concern, cited in 28% of complaints. Some users also mention that support is unreachable, making up 16% of the issues, while difficulties with cancellation represent 10% of the complaints.
How to reach First2Protect
These are the contact details First2Protect publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-24 — phone 01392 849750, email [email protected], address 1st Floor, Keble House, Southernhay Gardens, Exeter, EX1 1NT, GB.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2020-10-05, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-22. Trustpilot ranks it 4 of 44 in Home Insurance Agency. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-24 and found 44 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Companies House: FIRST2PROTECT LIMITED (no. 09014795), active, incorporated 2014 (12.3 years); next accounts due 2026-09-30, last accounts filed 2025-10-06, 1 registered charge. 3 current officers (16 on record historically), 2 resignations in the last 24 months; 11 filings in the last 12 months (71 filings on record). official record — public register facts, not an indicator of wrongdoing; officer changes are routine in many company structures. Live Companies House status as of 2026-09-23.
Forum footprint: 0 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count.
Elsewhere: 2.6★ on Google (0 reviews)
TrustScore over time
4.9 → 4.9 across 15 census measurements since 2026-08-12. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-12 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-08-15 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-08-18 (92%, 1.6d) · 2026-08-21 (100%, 1.7d) · 2026-08-24 (96%, 1.7d) · 2026-08-27 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-08-30 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-05 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-08 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-11 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-14 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-17 (97%, 1.5d) · 2026-09-20 (97%, 1.5d) · 2026-09-24 (100%, 1.5d).
Severity: 16% of this company’s 57 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In October 2023, 33% of 12 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in July 2024, 43% of 14.
Counted from October 2023 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 1.8 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (228 reviews record both dates).
Ombudsman outcomes
The Financial Ombudsman Service has published 54 decisions naming this firm, of which 46.3% were upheld in the customer’s favour (21 upheld, 4 partly upheld, 29 not upheld).
Covers decisions dated 2013-04-30 to 2025-06-24, by the acceptance-deadline date the Ombudsman publishes — not the date the complaint was decided.
Official published outcomes from the Financial Ombudsman Service, not our analysis. Uphold rates reflect the cases that reached the ombudsman, not all complaints. source.
What their policy promises
complaint process: highest standards of service
“First2Protect strives to provide you with the highest standards of service at all times”
complaint process: John Charcol Customer Care team
“should you wish to make a complaint, please contact the John Charcol Customer Care team”
complaint process: free of charge
“you have a statutory right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is a service free of charge to consumers”
complaint process: six months
“you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) within six months from the date that you received a final response to your complaint.”
Quoted verbatim from the company’s own published policy (source page); complaint counts are census classifications. As of 2026-09-12.
Policy-page monitoring
We monitor this company’s published policy page for changes. No changes have been detected since we started watching on 2026-09-01.
Automated change detection on the company’s own published policy page — a record of when the page changed, not a judgement on what changed.
Measured reply time: across 269 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.9 days — the company profile reports an average of 1 days.
Reply quality: of 269 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 52% engaged with the specific problem and 32% were generic templates.
Review provenance: 195 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.72★, while 446 organic (uninvited) reviews average 4.92★.
21% of its 593 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 35% of this company’s complaints vs a 28% median across 148 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 3,103 of this company’s 7,772 Trustpilot reviews (40%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about First2Protect?
Support unhelpful
20 reports · 35% of complaintssteady“portal, which offered no way whatever for me to pay for the next year's insurance.”
The company replied on 2025-11-17: “Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re sorry to hear that the process of renewing your insurance took longer than expected and caused frustration. Your feedback is very important to us, and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I was told I would be charged a £25 late fee on a £22 insurance payment.”
The company replied on 2025-09-22: “Thank you so much for sharing your feedback after your call with Joel. I’m really sorry for any frustration caused by the Premium Credit fee, I understand how disappointing it can feel when fees seem…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Activated the plan without my consent and started sending emails together with a supposed insurance financier that e we didn’t opt in for.”
The company replied on 2026-08-20: “Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience and understand your frustration. We appreciate the concerns you've raised regarding the activation of the policy and the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to escalate.
Account/app problems
16 reports · 28% of complaintsfalling“portal, which offered no way whatever for me to pay for the next year's insurance.”
The company replied on 2025-11-17: “Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re sorry to hear that the process of renewing your insurance took longer than expected and caused frustration. Your feedback is very important to us, and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It's impossible to log onto "my account".”
The company replied on 2026-09-21: “Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear that parts of the process did not meet your expectations, particularly regarding receiving your policy documents, accessing your account and making…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
“no activation emails are being received, so how am I supposed to get to my quote or see cover?”
The company replied on 2026-08-10: “We're sorry to hear you experienced difficulties accessing your online account and viewing your quote documents. We understand how frustrating this must have been. Since raising this with us, we've…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
Support unreachable
9 reports · 16% of complaintssteady“Sent out emails. No response instead more emails about me going to be debited”
The company replied on 2026-08-26: “We're sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. The insurance quotation was originally generated and the policy issued by Legal for Landlords as part of your enquiries…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
“I have never been directly contacted by anyone to discuss the policy for 5 years.”
The company replied on 2026-08-24: “We're sorry to hear this has been your experience. While you may not have been contacted directly to discuss your policy, we have continued to provide policy documentation and renewal communications…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
“You have not, so I am still waiting to hear from you.”
The company replied on 2026-08-10: “We're sorry to hear you were concerned about not receiving your renewal confirmation. We've checked your policy and can confirm that your renewal has been completed successfully. Your policy…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
Hard to cancel
6 reports · 10% of complaintsrising since 2026-04“they already deducted £80 from us. We called back and ask them if we could change and they said they can’t as the payment has alrdy been processed.”
The company replied on 2025-08-20: “Thanks for your review. Please could you call us on 01392 849750 to give us some further detail to enable us to look into these allegations. We have also requested further detail through the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I was put through to Wesley who pretended like he could not hear me on the phone when I stated I wished to cancel my policy.”
The company replied on 2026-06-29: “We’re sorry to hear that you felt pressured during your interaction with us, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. We’ve carefully reviewed the call transcript. It shows the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
“Their website, of course, doesn't offer this option; you have to call Monday through Friday.”
The company replied on 2026-01-07: “Thank you for taking the time yesterday to discuss your recent experience with our service. We’re sorry that it did not meet the usual high standard we aim to provide, and we’re pleased that the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
Overcharging
6 reports · 10% of complaintssteady“they already deducted £80 from us. We called back and ask them if we could change and they said they can’t as the payment has alrdy been processed.”
The company replied on 2025-08-20: “Thanks for your review. Please could you call us on 01392 849750 to give us some further detail to enable us to look into these allegations. We have also requested further detail through the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I was told I would be charged a £25 late fee on a £22 insurance payment.”
The company replied on 2025-09-22: “Thank you so much for sharing your feedback after your call with Joel. I’m really sorry for any frustration caused by the Premium Credit fee, I understand how disappointing it can feel when fees seem…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“the quoted premium was also greatly inflated compared to competative quotes”
The company replied on 2025-06-10: “Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I'm truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet expectations. We strive to ensure that all quotes accurately reflect the details…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Misleading pricing
5 reports · 9% of complaintsrising since 2026-04“the quoted premium was also greatly inflated compared to competative quotes”
The company replied on 2025-06-10: “Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I'm truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet expectations. We strive to ensure that all quotes accurately reflect the details…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“they`ve changed the prices of quotes after couple of days, adding add-ons”
The company replied on 2026-09-09: “We're sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your experience. We take customer feedback seriously and would like to provide some additional context. Your original policy had an annual premium…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
“First2Protect’s monthly option would total £355.05 with 29.20% APR, making it around £148 more than Allianz direct monthly.”
The company replied on 2026-06-08: “We’re sorry you feel this way. To clarify, the quoted premium of £309.78 relates to the cost if paid annually in a single payment. While the indicative APR on instalments is 29.02%, the option…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-24.