Barclaycard and the Mayor of London have launched an initiative whereby you can donate a penny to London charities every time you use your contactless payment card on the capital's transport services.

Penny for London is possible thanks to Barclaycard's proprietary contactless payment system which enables contactless micro-donations. Passengers feeling charitable just need to register to take part and a preset amount, from 1p to 10p, will be pooled into their account for each journey.

At the end of each month, the accumulated amount will be transferred to Penny for London scheme as long as it is 49p or over. If not, that will roll over to the next month.

The small donations are taken for each London transport journey, including on tubes, buses and trams. National Rail services that are able to take contactless payments to pay for travel also apply.

READ: Over 375,000 passengers use contactless payments on London Tube in a week

Givers can also track how much their donations will be on the Penny for London website and even cap the amount. There will also be a dedicated mobile application.

All Visa and Mastercard contactless cardholders can opt-in on the Penny for London website or app.

"We’ve worked closely with the Mayor’s Fund for London over the past year to bring this fantastic initiative to life. In a world-first, we designed this new contactless payment system to make the process of giving to charity as quick and easy as possible," said Philip McHugh, CEO of Barclaycard Business Solutions.

"We hope all of London will get behind the Penny for London scheme as these small donations will help make a big change to young people’s lives."