Santander Cycles is the self-service, bike-sharing scheme for short journeys in inner London. The official Santander Cycles app from Transport for London is the only app to send bike release codes straight to your smartphone. So you can skip past the docking station terminal and get on your bike quicker. Simply register with your bank card, and use the app to ‘Hire now’ from a nearby docking station. Follow the instructions to get your bike release code. Tap the code into the docking point and you’re good to go! You can also: • See up-to-the-minute information about which docking stations have bikes and spaces available • Plan a journey with an easy to follow map • Receive notifications – for example, summarising the cost at the end of your hire • View your recent journeys and charges • Save your favourite docking stations • Become a London Rider - complete challenges and hire cycles to earn entries into a weekly prize draw! Each bike release code is valid for 10 minutes at your chosen docking station. Please note the app doesn’t reserve bikes. If there are no bikes available at the docking station, don’t worry. Use the app to find a nearby docking station with bikes, and get another bike release code to use there. You won’t be charged until you use the release code. You must be 18 or over to hire a bike, and 14 or over to ride one. For full Santander Cycles terms and conditions, see tfl.gov.uk/santandercycles
Not for tourists
The app account requires a text message which won’t work for US phones. The stations won’t complete a rental with a US card. Wasted an hour
United StatesWorst public bike rental ever
First of all logging does not support iOS password manager. Address look up is not working because of internal mongo DB failure. Does not support Apple Pay or PayPal, and my credit card payment got rejected for no reason.
United StatesRegistration process is too difficult
Several improvements can be made to make the registration smoother. 1. Browser auto-fill 2. Sign up w Apple or Google 3. Reduce information collection such as home address. Is that really necessary? 4. Allow sign up without a UK phone number, that will make it more tourist friendly Otherwise the bikes are great and price is reasonable. Although all 3 bikes I rode had weak brakes in my experience.
United StatesExcellent
My wife and our friends enjoy going to major cities and moving about the city on rentable city bikes. Such a great way to see a city. We have done this in New York, Edinburgh, Chicago, and now, London. With Santander, we were not sure which pricing plan to choose. The standard 30 minute option for £1.65 was pleasing, however we went with 20 £ option for one month. We were only in the city for three days and we were unsure if we would actually hit the 20 pound value. After we canceled our subscription upon leaving, we were given a detailed receipt and a refund for £6.30 because we did not hit our 20 pound mark. we all thought this refund was above and beyond.
United StatesWorst app especially if you’re a tourist
My friends and I were visiting London and wanted to go biking.. yeah that didn’t happen. Firstly we couldn’t use the multi take out function and for some reason it only let us put one credit card per “code” and wouldn’t accept the same card even though it can easily pay for more?! so we basically dredged up all our cards and mind you we don’t carry that many cards and it charged us all a $1.5 fee but none of us were able to take out our bikes. We also never got that refunded despite giving up and not using any of the bikes. also my friend on the android app basically never got to the bike unlock page but it still took her money. absolutely do not trust this app if you need it in a pinch and have not used it before or give yourself an hour because we walked to 3 different stations to get an “available” bike and it just didn’t happen. Very unreliable. might as well just rent a bike in person.
United StatesHorrible app
The app simply does not allow you to use your membership when attempting to rent a bike, even when you’ve already paid for the membership
United StatesFrustrating for US visitors
Wasted 20 minutes trying to get this set up only to find after calling support the app won’t text us based numbers to verify your account - very very lame
United States
We’ve introduced a Day Pass. Unlimited single rides of up to 30 minutes within 24 hours for £3.
Subscribe our newsletter and get useful information every week.
Publisher's Other Apps
Other Travel Apps
Similar Apps