Ride the London Underground for free with this Apple Pay promotion

If you're planning a trip to the United Kingdom, downloading Apple Pay is a stellar idea. Over 250,000 British retail locations use it (including Topshop, Boots and Starbucks, just to name a few), and tapping your iPhone at the register is infinitely easier than trying to dig your wallet out. Now Apple and Mastercard are offering up another incentive to try out its electronic payment system: free public transportation in London.

For the next three consecutive Mondays (November 30, December 7 and December 14) Apple Pay users who have linked their account to a Mastercard can get free travel on the Underground, buses, trams, the DLR, London Underground and most National Rail trains in London for free. Each user will be refunded for up to £27.90 ($42) in transportation costs for travel on the four Mondays that are included in the offer. (The promotion began on Monday, November 23).

Mark Barnett, the president of Mastercard UK and Ireland said:

"Now that Apple Pay has arrived we want to encourage travelers on London’s transport network to try it out and give them another convenient option to pay for their travel. What better way to do this, than to offer MasterCard customers using Apple Pay the chance to travel for free over the next four consecutive Mondays.”

This is an easy way to save a chunk of change, since single journey tickets around the notoriously expensive city can start at around $7 (although they are discounted to about $3.50 if you use a contactless payment system – like, say, Apple Pay – or an Oyster card).

Apple Pay is also available at dozens of retail locations in the United States too, and it's free to use.