Open A Locked Door With Credit Card – Is It That Easy?

Due to providing an emergency locksmith Edinburgh service, we see some sights when attending jobs where people are locked out.

We find that most people have a bash at opening their own doors, before biting the bullet and phoning a locksmith. Some people think they can open a locked door with credit card, or pick the lock open with a hair clip!

Listed Below is the 3 most common things we see when going out to job. The pros and cons of attempting each method will also be discussed.

1. kicking the door in:

Pros – if it works you don’t have call around for a locksmith and you will have saved yourself around £50 – £75 (depending on the time of the lockout and the locksmith prices of the company you call)

cons- you could break your leg or give yourself some other kind of injury. However If you do manage to kick the door in there’s a very high chance you will have damaged the frame of the door and the locks themselves. Therefore unless your a dab hand at DIY or you know someone who is you will need to pay a joiner to repair your door frame and possibly the door. You may also have to buy new locks and pay someone to install them. So as you can see this form of getting into your house could end up costing you hundreds of pounds!

2. picking the lock:

Pros – if it works you will probably feel great! Not to mention the money you’ll save on calling out an expert.

Cons – it doesn’t work!! I know most people have seen the movies where someone will put a paper clip in the lock, waggle it around for a few seconds and the door pops open. If only it did work this way life would be easy for locksmiths and thieves alike! the chances are you will just be wasting your time and if the picking object snaps in the lock you might need a new lock.

To pick a lock properly takes years of locksmith training and experience, and you need the right kind of lock picks. There are hundreds of different variations of picks which all serve a different purpose. However even with all these picks at their disposal a professional locksmith still might not be able to pick open your lock. So as you can see a paper clip just wont cut the mustard!

open a locked door with credit card

3. open a locked door with credit card

Pros – if you manage to pick open a locked door with credit card you won’t need to phone around for help and you’ll save yourself some money.

Cons – its highly unlikely it will work! I have been out to a few jobs where the customer has tried to open their door with a credit card and the broken card is still wedged in the door when I arrive. A credit card could work on an internal door in a house to open a basic latch or cupboard lock etc as these doors can be thin. However, the main reason it won’t work on a main door lock is that the credit card is neither flexible or long enough. When a locksmith try’s to ‘slip’ open a Yale type lock they use special card called ‘mica card’ which is around double the length of a credit card and so flexible it can fold totally back on itself. This type of card is needed because to get to the latch on a Yale type lock, the card needs to be flexible enough to bend around 2 corners and travel into the frame (up 4 four inches) to reach the latch of the lock.

I hope this little blog on how to  open a locked door with credit card and the other homemade lock opening techniques has enlightened you, and that it will save you time and money in the future if your locked out. Which if you are Alcatraz – Edinburgh locksmith is just a phone call away 24 hours a day!