How Locksmith100 works

Who runs Locksmith100

Locksmith100 is a UK business that does no locksmith work itself and takes no share of the price you pay a locksmith. The operator's legal name and registered address are published here and in the privacy notice at launch.

It covers auto (car) locksmiths in the West Midlands only, for now.

What it does

• Lists the auto locksmiths covering each town and neighbourhood, with the ones we have verified first and clearly marked.
• Sends one request to the verified locksmiths who cover your postcode district; up to 3 reply, each with a price and when they can come, and you choose one or none.
• For "Right now" jobs, alerts every matched locksmith at once and keeps the request open for replies for 15 minutes; same-day jobs stay open for 3 hours.
• Shows local facts for each area: postcode districts, nearby places and police.uk vehicle crime figures.
• Publishes help guides for common problems: keys locked in, lost keys, a fob that won't work, a key that won't turn.

What it doesn't do

• It is not a locksmith and doesn't send anyone itself. It doesn't set the locksmiths' prices or guarantee arrival times.
• It doesn't list call-centre networks: they are screened out when listings are imported and when a locksmith applies.
• It doesn't sell places in the results: there are no sponsored listings, and nobody can pay to move up.
• It doesn't copy reviews or ratings from anywhere else, and doesn't show stars for businesses it hasn't verified.
• It doesn't pass your details to more than 3 locksmiths, and never sells them.
• It doesn't cover home or business lockouts yet: car keys and car locks only.

How locksmiths are verified

Before a locksmith can reply to anyone, we check, ourselves:

• Photo ID: Passport or driving licence, matched to a selfie on a video call.
• Public liability insurance: At least £1m cover, certificate in date.
• Basic DBS certificate: Issued in the last 3 years.
• Test call: We call as a customer and check the price and manner.
• MLA membership (optional): Recorded when held; shown as a badge.

A locksmith who passes is "verified" (shown in green). We recheck insurance when the policy renews and make test calls at random; if a check fails, they lose green until it's fixed, paid member or not. Businesses we have only listed are marked "Not verified" and don't receive requests. More in what green means.

How locksmiths are ranked

From the 6 locksmiths nearest the car, in this order. Nobody can pay to move up, and there are no sponsored places. The full rules are in how we rank.

1. Those with a phone number, so you can reach them.
2. For urgent jobs, those open now (by their Google hours, or 24/7 on their own website), then hours unknown, then closed.
3. Then reviews weighed by how many there are: everyone starts as if they had 25 reviews at 4.0 stars, so 266 reviews at 4.7 rank above 10 at 5.0. Car key specialists get a small lead for car jobs.
4. Locksmiths too close to call take turns between searches; distance settles the rest.

Prices, and who pays

Drivers pay Locksmith100 nothing. You pay the locksmith you choose, directly, the price they gave you before coming out.

We don't show typical prices: most local locksmiths don't publish them, and the make, model, key type, time of day and distance all change the price. Where a locksmith publishes prices on their own website, we show those on their card, with a link to the page.

Locksmiths pay us. Verified members pay £29 a month before VAT (founding members get the first 3 months free), and spend credits to reply to a request: 10 to 15 credits depending on the job, plus 4 for a "Right now" job, at £1 a credit before VAT. Credits come back automatically for fake or unreachable requests.

Reviews

Reviews come only from drivers who contacted the locksmith through Locksmith100, and every one is checked for signs of being fake. Locksmiths can reply once, but can't edit, hide or remove a review. The reviews policy explains the checks and when a review comes down.

Where it works

The West Midlands: 18 towns and neighbourhoods across the 7 boroughs of Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Coventry. See every area and every service.

Where our facts come from

• Crime figures: data.police.uk, recorded crime within one mile of each place's centre over twelve months.
• Listings of businesses we haven't verified: Google Maps, Companies House, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), the business's own website and our own calls. Never Checkatrade, Yell or other directories.
• Travel times: estimates from straight-line distance, always shown as roughly.
• Reply times: our own figure, the median of a locksmith's last 20 replies, shown once they have 5.

Contact

Our contact email is published here at launch.

Locksmiths: see for locksmiths. The small print: terms for drivers, terms for locksmiths, privacy.