Losing your car keys on holiday is an expensive nightmare – especially when a replacement key costs an average of £372, rising to as much as £530 for some makes and models.

With this in mind, leading breakdown provider Start Rescue has these five tips for keeping your keys safe at the seaside and preventing crime:

1. Keep your keys dry
2. Hide your keys
3. Clip keys inside a backpack or pocket
4. Add a security tracker tag
5. Use a Faraday pouch

“We’ve recently had claims for keys lost on beaches in the sand, keys falling out of pockets into the sea when boarding boats, and even keys dropping down a drain,” says Lee Puffett, Managing Director of Start Rescue.

As soon as you’ve locked your car, you should put the keys in a waterproof bag or pocket in a backpack. Many bags have zipped pockets with a hook that attaches to your keys and keeps them safe.

You can hide keys inside clothing with an internal pocket. Lots of beach clothes now incorporate this feature, but beware of going into the water with your keys – always keep them dry.

If your car is parked close to where you are on the beach, a ‘Faraday’ pouch will prevent keyless theft by blocking the fob’s signal being intercepted by criminals.

Fitting a security tracker tag will let you find your keys’ approximate location even if they become buried under sand, and these tags are cheap and easy to fit.

“We see lots of unpredictable lost key issues, so it saves customers a great deal of time and money to check their keys are secure immediately after they lock their cars,” adds Lee.