PortLox Ltd

By focusing our business in and around areas of South Wales such as Newport and Cardiff, this allows us to have a personal approach to interactions with our customers as you will speak directly to your personal emergency automotive locksmith who will then be arriving to assist you within 30 to 60 minutes.

You could contact your main dealer. This is the most expensive option you can choose. Your main dealer will not have a 24-hour emergency service, nor will they come to recover your car. You’ll have to have your car towed to them, at your expense. They are not likely to have a replacement key in stock, so they’ll have to order it in – and this can take 7-10 days. If you need transport in the meantime, you’ll need to borrow or hire a car. In short: recovery costs, hire car costs, keys cost, 7–10-day turnaround.

You could contact your insurance provider. Many insurance companies offer key cover as an add-on to your insurance policy. One of the clauses common to a lot of key cover policies is that they require customers to attach a specific key fob to their keys in case they are lost so that they can be potentially returned to the insurer if found. You would, in all likelihood, have to wait for 3 days before your insurer will classify your keys as ‘lost’ and put into action the process to get you a new set. And of course, any claim is likely to affect the following year’s premium. In short: potential recovery costs, potential hire car costs, increase in insurance premiums, 3–7-day turnaround.

You could contact breakdown services. This is a common option for a lot of people, as the breakdown services are generally quite quick to respond. The only problem with the likes of The AA, RAC, Green Flag and others is that they do not have the expertise nor the specialist equipment to deal with anything but the more basic auto locksmithing needs. And in many circumstances, they will actually call on a local auto locksmith to ultimately deal with the situation. In short: likely to be slow.

You could contact your local garage. This could end up being an expensive option due to most garages charging to use the diagnostic equipment. Garages may well not have the specialist key coding equipment on site that an auto locksmith carries. In short: potential recovery costs, potential hire car costs, expensive and slow.

You SHOULD contact an auto locksmith. This is usually the least expensive option, as a decent auto locksmith will have all the equipment to replace all types of keys. And as most offer a mobile service, they’ll be the quickest too. In short: auto locksmiths are usually well stocked with equipment, transponders, remotes and key blanks, which means they can usually serve all your needs in one visit.