Loosing your home or car keys is a hugely inconvenient and costly experience. But it seems it is an extremely common event. A recent survey showed that more than a third of us have lost our house or car keys at least once.

The survey, carried out by NOP World on behalf of Halifax General Insurance, showed that of the 35% of people that had lost their keys, 45% never regained them.

And from a security point of view the survey revealed a few worrying statistics - including the fact that of the people who had lost their keys, 23% had to break back into their own homes - while 29% climbed back into their house through an open window!

Despite crime prevention advice about not hiding keys outside your home and leaving them in an obvious place such as near doors and windows, when asked what measures they take to prevent themselves from becoming locked out, one in ten of us (11%) still claimed to keep a key in places such as under a mat or in the garage!

Thankfully, three quarters of us (74%) are more security conscious and leave a spare set of keys with friends, relatives or neighbours. Surprisingly 13% of those questioned do not have a spare set of keys.

In response to the survey, Halifax General Insurance has now re-designed the key fob that it issues free of charge to its customers as part of its exclusive key recovery service.

All Halifax home insurance customers are issued with a special key fob, which includes a unique code relating to the customers’ insurance policies.

If someone finds a bunch of keys with a Halifax Home Insurance key fob attached they are able to either ring the telephone number printed on it (0845 600 6001) or hand them in at any Halifax or Bank of Scotland branch, in return for a £10 reward.

The unique code on the key fob is then used to trace the customer or key owner and that person can then be contacted. The keys can either be posted back or can be collected from the local Halifax branch. The new style key fob is small, slim and has a brushed metal appearance.

Halifax general insurance also offers the following advice to homeowners:

• Never have anything containing your name and address attached to your keys.
• Never leave keys under doormats, on string through the letterbox, under a stone, on the top of a door/window frame etc. An opportunist thief may be watching!
• Never leave doors or windows open when you go out. If you can get in, so can a burglar.
• Always leave a spare set of keys with a trusted friend, neighbour or family member. Try to choose someone who lives close and spends a lot of time at home.
• Try not to keep all your keys on one key ring separate the front door and back door keys.