Which Insurers Are Most Likely to Reject a Key Cover Claim?

If you've lost your keys or had them stolen, you probably immediately wonder if your insurance covers keys and, if so, will your claim be accepted or will it be denied? To help you understand the odds, around 90% of car key insurance claims are successful, but the odds are very low that you'll need to claim.

In order to understand how claims data varies by insurer, we gathered data from the Financial Conduct Authority's most recent study on General Insurance value measures. Keep this information in mind when it comes time to purchase a new insurance policy or renew, when deciding if the extra £10 to £25 is worth it for add-on key cover.

Average Key Cover Claims Data

According to FCA data, the average successful key cover claim in 2019 was around £250. These numbers reflect average numbers only—in actual fact, individual claims range from around £100 up to several hundreds of pounds, depending on the value of your keys and the coverage limit and terms of your policy.

Around 90% of key cover claims are accepted on average (up from 80% in 2018), but this statistic varies significantly from insurer to insurer.

Key Cover Claims Statistics

Which company rejects the most key cover claims?

Great Lakes Insurance has a history of the lowest motor add-on key cover claims acceptance rates. While they have improved and accepted 85% to 89.9% of claims in 2019 (meaning they rejected 10.1% to 15% of claims), they only accepted 40% to 44.9% of key cover claims in 2018 (rejecting 55.1% to 60% of claims)—the worst of the group. Back in 2017, esure had the worst key cover acceptance rate of 75% to 79.9%, while Great Lakes accepted 80% to 84.9% of claims.

The company most likely to accept a motor add-on key cover claim was Amtrust, which paid out of 95% to 100% of key claims in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Which company paid the most for key cover claims?

In 2018 and 2019, esure had the highest average payout on key claims, paying an average of £300 to £349 per claim. In 2017, esure paid an even higher range of £400 to £449 for the average key claim.

Ageas had the lowest key cover claim payout of £150 to £199 in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Is car key cover worth it?

Only 1.5% of motor add-on key cover policies were claimed upon in 2019 (down from 1.9% in 2018). Since motor add-on key cover has such a low claims frequency, policyholders are highly unlikely to use key cover. If key cover is included in your policy for no extra charge—great!—but if not then you may want to think twice before paying extra for cover that you're not likely to use, and that has relatively low risk/payouts if you do lose your keys or have them stolen.

One fact to consider is that any key cover that is included as standard on motor insurance policies often has a limit of around £300, which is enough for most people given the typical cost of a replacement car key and the average key cover claim of around £250. Paying for an add-on with a higher coverage limit of £1,000 to £1,500 may therefore be a waste of money. That said, those with very expensive keys might find a policy both comforting and valuable.

Also keep in mind that many car key cover policies won't pay for keys that you've lost or misplaced, they'll only pay for theft. And many companies require you to prove that the person is possession of your keys knows the location or identity of your car, in order for a key theft claim to be accepted. Check these important details in the policy wording. Before deciding if you should pay for key cover, you may want to find out how much it would cost to replace your car key if it's lost or stolen because the cost to replace your key can range from around £150 to over £400.

Why Are Key Cover Claims Rejected?

Motorists can take steps to increase the odds that their car key claim is accepted by understanding the terms of their policy and common exclusions. For example, motorists might have a car key theft claim denied if they can't prove that the person who stole the keys also knows how to find the insured car. There are typically a number of restrictions and exclusions with car key cover. Examples of what might NOT be covered by car key cover include:

For comparison sake, see our article on claim acceptance rates on home insurance.

Methodology

To get an idea of car key cover claims success, we gathered the most recently available FCA General Insurance value measures data, published September 2020 reflecting data for the year ending 31 August 2019. We pulled out data for key cover that is sold as on add on to motor insurance. This typically covers both car keys as well as home keys. For the charts, we averaged the low and high ends of the data bands to calculate a mid point average across claims frequencies and claims acceptance rates.

To figure out which firm is the underwriter behind your insurance provider, find your provider's name in the following table. Once you identify the underwriting firm, you can use the table above to find their claim statistics.

FAQs