MasterCard's 'Fare Free Mondays' Returns to London Next Week for Apple Pay Users

Ah yes. And Visa uses get the shaft.

How about doing it EVERY MONDAY from now on, instead of a virtuous "Aren't we wonderful!" promo month? If you are giving something kind, make it PERMANENT.

As Americans, we inherited much from our English forebears; including language, concepts of government and human rights, and the ability to be ungracious entitled ingrates. Thanks, England, for your many gifts!

"There's no way my fellow GeekWebGuides readers will be able to put a negative spin on something like this!"

I'm ashamed of my own naivety and stupidity.

How about doing it EVERY MONDAY from now on, instead of a virtuous "Aren't we wonderful!" promo month? If you are giving something kind, make it PERMANENT.

Uh, what? This is pretty generous - they're losing up to $120/person during each of these promotions. There's no way they could afford to make it permanent.

The aim of the promotion is to make customers try it and see how convenient it is. Once they realize how convenient it is, MasterCard hopes they'll keep doing it (without the financial incentive).

I guess they could have a permanent promotion of "The first 3 days that you use Apple Pay to commute, we'll reimburse you up to $40/day."

Why don't we get a "Free Gas Monday" here in the U.S.???

i am for the most part cash free, but always keep enough for tipping money and for the occasional transaction which requires cash only.

however, while i still pay my gardener and pool man with checks, i don't write a check for a carton of milk and a loaf of bread at the grocery store with the line is 5 people deep...

I didn't say I write checks for anyone. That seems like a huge waste of time. I pay everyone with credit card, Apple Pay, or Facebook cash. Depending on the grocery store, I use Apple Pay or credit card. Both are pretty quick. I get pissed off at anyone who stands there for a minute trying to count out bills and coins to pay for a carton of milk and loaf of bread (or anything else, for that matter.) Get a freaking card.

Its exactly the same, or worse here in london. Though I'd add this to the list for whenever it is used:
"Wooah, thats scary"

That's not true. I see people using contactless all the time and I've never heard anyone complain or be scared or think it's weird.
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Of course you have a choice... Find a different bank. I understand in the UK, most banks use Visa, but that shouldn't stop you from obtaining a MasterCard if you want one.

In the United States, only a few issuers support contactless payment cards, and I moved to a bank that offered them because that's what I wanted.

In terms of banks issuing MasterCard debit cards, I only know of one (Metro Bank) and it's a very small, fairly localised bank.

Despite the numbers of credit cards being high in the UK, the prevalent daily usage for things like travel are done from debit cards, overwhelmingly Visa over MasterCard.

It's really, really not as simple as finding a bank that issues MasterCard.
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Then London is perhaps different from the rest of the UK? When I show customers how to use contactless in the large (and very well known) retailer I work at, they are usually amazed at it, and I haven't had a single person complain about the security of it etc. In fact I see quite a lot of people using it on a daily basis.

I thought the UK had the highest usage of contactless in Europe?

No he's just totally wrong, I honestly do not recognise that at all, London is full of contactless payments and almost everywhere now does contactless and I see people using it daily. I've never heard anyone worry about security either.