Mastercard gifts Apple Pay users with free London travel

For Londoners, nearly nothing is as depressing as taking the Tube first thing on a freezing Monday morning.

So, if you don’t live in London and have an Android phone, feel free to swear under your breath about those gits who live in London getting all the good stuff.

More specifically, MasterCard will refund daily fares to customers who use Apple Pay for the public transportation network in London.

The only slight disappointment is that the Thames Clipper boat service isn’t included – sadly, a couple of cheeky Hop Stuff craft beers on the boat home after work isn’t an option.

Under the promotion announced by MasterCard, Apple Pay users in London will be offered free public transit on four Mondays – November 23, November 30, December 7, and December 14. Your cash will take anything up to 28 days to be refunded, but with the maximum spend of £27.90 per day covering Zones 1-9 and beyond, there’s the opportunity to go on some epic London-based adventures. For the next four Mondays (including today), Mastercard is offering free travel across London’s Tube, trains, buses and the DLR for all riders using Apple Pay.

With the cost of travel in the capital among the most expensive in the world’s major cities, this is a deal worth checking out, especially if you’ve not given Apple Pay a whirl yet.

Mark Barnett, MasterCard UK&I president, highlights that Transport for London’s (TfL) move in 2014 to allow users to pay via contactless devices and cards on London Underground proved to be a “phenomenal catalyst” for the growing popularity of contactless payments in the United Kingdom.