Open 6:00 AM to 8:30 PM · No VAT added to any job
Opening a locked car starts from £80 with no VAT, using entry tools that leave the door, the lock and the glass as they were.
Call 07900 885231 first if the vehicle is blocking a road or a driveway, because the phone reaches Paul straight away and the form does not.
Send the details
A locksmith is the right call for a locked car. A child or an animal shut inside a vehicle is a different situation, and on a warm day it becomes dangerous in minutes rather than hours.
In that case ring 999 first and ask for the fire service or the police, then ring Paul afterwards if a key still has to be made. Nobody should wait for a locksmith to travel while a child or a dog is inside a closed vehicle.
Entry starts from £80 with no VAT. What moves the figure is where the keys are and whether a key has to be made once the door is open.
| Situation | What it costs | What happens on the visit |
|---|---|---|
| Keys locked inside the vehicle | From £80 | The vehicle is opened and the keys are handed back to you |
| Keys locked in the boot | From £80 | Entry is made through the cabin and the boot is released from inside |
| Keys lost rather than locked in | From £135 | The vehicle is opened and a new key is cut and programmed, which is a lost key job |
| Key snapped in the door lock | Quoted per job | The blade is extracted first, then the lock and the key are checked |
| Central locking has failed | Quoted per job | Entry is made, then the lock, the fob battery and the wiring are checked in that order |
The price is confirmed on the phone before Paul sets off, and no VAT is added to it.
Entry is a controlled job rather than a forced one, and it runs in three stages.
The make, the model and the lock type decide which tools come out. A modern vehicle with deadlocks is approached differently from an older one with a simple latch.
A protected wedge creates a few millimetres of space at the top of the door frame, spread across the frame rather than loaded onto the glass or the paint.
A long reach tool presses the button, lifts the pin or pulls the handle, which is the same movement you would make sitting in the seat.
Five situations make up most lockout calls, and all five are ordinary rather than unusual.
Most common
The door is pushed shut with the keys inside, usually while unloading shopping, tools or a child seat.
Very common
Hands full, boot closed, keys inside it. Entry is made through the cabin and the boot is released from there.
Common on newer cars
A keyless vehicle locks itself with the key still in the cabin, usually because the key was in a bag that got left behind.
Less common
The key is in your hand and the vehicle will not open, which points at the fob battery, the lock or the wiring rather than at the key.
Worth asking about
If another vehicle at the same address also needs a key or a spare, both are usually handled in one visit.
Four things are worth doing between the call and the van arriving, and the first two sometimes end the problem on their own.
Proof of ownership is checked before the vehicle is opened when it is parked away from the home address of the owner, so have a driving licence or the V5C to hand. The rule and the reason behind it are set out on the about Locked Out page.
A lockout sometimes turns into one of these jobs once the door is open.
A locked vehicle is opened anywhere inside 25 miles of Wigan.
Every other town inside the radius is on the areas we cover page.
These pages cover what to do first and why it keeps happening.
Opening a locked car with Locked Out starts from £80 with no VAT. If the keys turn out to be lost rather than inside, the job becomes a lost key replacement starting from £135.
No, entry is made with tools designed for the job, so the door, the lock and the glass are left as they were. Nothing is drilled and no glass is broken.
The opening itself is usually quick once Paul is at the vehicle. Most of the wait is travel time, which depends on where the vehicle is inside the 25 mile radius.
Yes, a keyless vehicle is opened the same way, and the key is then handed back to you rather than being deleted or replaced.
Yes, somebody has to be with the vehicle. Proof of ownership is checked before it is opened when the vehicle is parked away from the home address of the owner.
Yes, entry is made through the cabin and the boot is released from inside, so the boot lock itself is not touched.
That is a fault rather than a lockout. Start with the key battery, and if nothing changes the lock, the wiring and the key all need checking at the vehicle.
Breakdown cover often includes a lockout, so it is worth checking the policy first. What it does not include is making a key, which is where a locksmith is needed.
Keys Locked in the Car?
Call 07900 885231 and give the make, the model and where the vehicle is parked.