Locked out
Keys locked in the car: what to do, and what it should cost
A car lockout is a different trade from a house lockout, with different prices and different risks. Free options first, and the one situation where you break the window.
Car lockouts get lumped in with house lockouts constantly. They are a different trade, a different skill set and a different price, and treating them the same is how people end up paying for damage they did not need.
Is a child, a vulnerable adult or an animal shut inside? Call 999 right now. Do not read the rest of this page, do not wait for a locksmith, do not try to be clever. A car heats up dangerously fast in sun, and slowly but just as dangerously in cold.
Be aware that emergency services will prioritise speed over your paintwork — they may break a window. That is the correct decision and you should not argue with it. A window is a few hundred pounds. Say clearly on the call who is inside and how long they have been there.
Everything below assumes the car is empty and you are safe.
The free options, in order
1. The spare key
Obvious, and skipped constantly in the moment. Where is it? Home, a partner, a parent, the office drawer, a jacket. A taxi to fetch it is almost always cheaper than a callout, and always cheaper than damage.
2. Your breakdown cover — check before you pay anyone
This is the big one. AA, RAC, Green Flag and the rest routinely cover lockouts, and a great many people pay a locksmith while holding a membership that would have done it for nothing.
And check the places cover hides:
- Your bank account. Packaged current accounts frequently include breakdown cover.
- Your car insurance. Often an add-on you ticked years ago and forgot.
- A new or leased car. Manufacturer roadside assistance usually runs for the first few years.
- Your credit card benefits.
Five minutes checking beats a hundred pounds. Do it before you ring anybody.
3. The dealer or manufacturer
For a newer car, the manufacturer can often supply a key cut and coded to the vehicle identification number. Slower, sometimes expensive, but the right route for some high-security systems.
Some manufacturers with a connected app can unlock the car remotely if you have the account set up. Worth thirty seconds in the app.
What an auto locksmith costs
If none of the above works, an auto locksmith is the specialist. They are a distinct trade from a house locksmith — different tools, different training.
Reported UK figures, as ranges rather than quotes:
| Situation | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Opening a locked car, normal working hours | roughly £80–£150 |
| Evening, overnight, weekend | commonly 20–50% above the daytime rate |
| Key cutting and programming | considerably more, depending on the key |
Three things drive the number: the car, the key technology, and the hour. A modern car with a coded transponder key and rolling-code immobiliser is a very different job from a fifteen-year-old runabout.
Prices checked 27 August 2026 and they move. Get your own figure in writing.
The question to ask on the phone
Same sentence that protects you in every trade:
“What is the total, including callout, labour, parts and VAT — and can you text me that figure before you set off?”
Then two more that are specific to cars:
- “Can you open it without damage?” A competent auto locksmith opens most cars non-destructively. If someone’s first suggestion is to force a door or break glass on an empty car, ring somebody else.
- “Do you work on my make and model?” Some marques and some key systems need specific equipment. Better to find out on the phone than on the kerb.
Verifying who you are calling
The same problem as house locksmiths, for the same reason: locksmithing is not a licensed trade in the United Kingdom. No qualification is legally required and no register must be joined.
The Master Locksmiths Association runs an auto locksmith directory, and its members are vetted and inspected. Search the MLA’s own site for the company name — never trust a badge on the company’s own page.
Everything in how to check a locksmith is genuine applies here without modification.
What not to do
Do not break the window on an empty car. People talk themselves into it at 2am. On a modern vehicle you are looking at the glass, the trim, sometimes the door mechanism, and glass fragments through the interior — often more than the locksmith would have cost, and now the car is not weatherproof either.
Do not let a stranger who “knows a trick” have a go. A slim jim or a coat hanger on a modern door meets airbag wiring, side-impact sensors and electronic locking. Damage there is expensive and sometimes unsafe.
Do not force a boot or a window seal. Same reasoning.
Do not leave the car somewhere it will be ticketed or towed while you sort this out, if you can help it. Check the parking restrictions on the sign before you settle in to wait — a lockout plus a penalty notice is a bad night.
If it is late and the car is safely parked
Ask the honest question: do you need the car now, or in the morning?
If the car is legally parked and safe where it is, and you can get home another way, a booked daytime appointment removes the entire night premium. See getting home after the last train on our sister site.
The thing to do this week
Get a spare key and put it somewhere that is not the car.
Modern coded keys are not cheap to have cut, which is exactly why people put it off — and exactly why the lockout costs so much when it happens. The spare is almost always cheaper than one emergency callout.
And while you are at it, find out whether you already have breakdown cover, and save that number in your phone. Most people discover they had it about an hour after paying somebody else.