Ever fumbled around with the Boris bike booking system wishing there was another way? Well, now there is. You can book and pay for your rented London bicycle using an iPhone or Android application. And up to 10 minutes in advance too.

Having switched sponsor to Santander in February, the bike rental scheme now has a new free application that not only plans routes between cycle docking stations and shows how many bikes and spaces there are at each, it allows you to hire one from within the app.

You won't have to faff around with the station's payment systems - which we've found to be fiddly and sometimes faulty in the past - or dig around in your pocket for your credit cards or wallet. Instead, you just tap the hire button on the app for your chosen location and you have up to 10 minutes to collect the bike reserved for you.

The Santander Cycles app enables users to pay for 24-hour or yearly rental subscriptions (£2 and £90 respectively). It will then automatically charge your account for the length of ride - free for 30 minutes, £2 for each extra half an hour.

You can also keep track of your recent journeys and charges.

"The new Santander Cycles App will make finding and hiring a bike in our great capital city even more of a doddle," said Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

"The App is packed full of handy new features and is part and parcel of our plans to take the cycle hire scheme to the next level and encourage more people on to two wheels."