Still no luck and I've been trying most of the day! I've tried booking in French. I've tried pretending I live in France. I've tried booking on the sncf.com website. I've tried everything and nothing seems to be allowing me to finalize my booking with a payment. Help!

Hi Ronael
I had a similar problem once, and it was because the credit card I was trying to use was due to expire before the date that I was planning to travel.
Have you tried using a diferent credit card with a longer expiry date?
Di

Even if you wait until you arrive in France, iDTGV tickets are only sold through the internet so you will want to resolve the problem now. SNCF service windows do not sell iDTGV tickets. Additionally, ticket prices increase as seat availability decreases.

I suggest you contact your credit card issuing bank and ask them to explain the what has happen. They can outline the details of your transaction rejection and hopefully offer a solution.

I've never had any problem using a credit card to book SNCF trains online, and I have American credit cards. It is not that. I think I usually use a Capital One Mastercard because it has no foreign transaction fee. They always accept that, I think this is perhaps your card's problem, as I have never had such a problem and I've bought lots of tickets online. It doesn't have anything to do with where you live, they don't even know where I live, no reason to if you aren't requesting tickets be mailed to you, which wouldn't make sense if you were in the US, as they won't do it.

I just use www.voyages-sncf.com, and I've bought regular tickets, TGV tickets and IdTGV tickets.

I bought a prem ticket from Paris to Dijon using the website Christina mentioned two nights ago. I had previously called my cc - Capital One - to alert them to a foreign charge. The transaction went through with no problem and I printed out my tickets....

All of the above makes perfect sense, still doesn't work though - I'm trying to use a visa cc. I've contacted my bank and they have said that the train ticketing server hasn't even made a connection with the banks server. I've tried using two different cards, both with a long expiry date, both are 'refused'. I live in Australia - and have read on other forums that because there are agents eg railplus (much more expensive!!) in Australia, it is hard for we Australians to prebuy the cheaper internet tickets. All I want to do is book/pay and print off the internet. The tickets I need are for travel around the 14 January 2010 - the IDTGV website states that tickets can be purchased in advance. I'm within the purchase dates/times. I've now realized that I might have to wait a couple more days before I can try on the sncf website. Still should be able to book on IDTGV now. Half the time I think that the banks don't understand their own products. Sarastro, I think you're right, this does need to be sorted before we go. Would be terrible to get there and not be able to book anything.

Ronael - I've purchased successfully from Australia using www.voyages-sncf with credit card (mastercard, not visa - although I can't see why that would make any difference).

Today I was doing some checking on prices for next year for my travels, and using 13 Jan 2010 as my date, just to get a guide on prices. For Eurostar all was OK, but for TGV I couldn't get prices displayed for that date, so ended up using November dates instead.

But if you can see a price, I can't see why you wouldn't be able to book . . . that's a real puzzle!!!

Have you looked at www.seat61.com - he may have some suggestion to offer.

My only other suggestion would be to delete history and cookies from your temp internet files - just in case that makes a difference? Go to Tools then Delete Browsing History. This has worked for me in the past for other unsolvable computer/internet mysteries; goodness knows why, but worth a try at least.

Please keep us posted . . . cheers, Di

Ronael,

I just checked www.tgv-europe.com and found booking open for Paris-Nice iDTGVs on 14 January. To match your circumstances, I chose Australia as my country of residence. I only did a dummy booking, but I was given the option of printing my ticket. Because I chose Australia, everything was in English.

All of this is true, and I have been able to do all of this - only when I type in all of my credit card details to pay (I've tried more than once with three different cards!) the website thinks for a bit then comes up with the same message - your transaction has been refused. Do you think I'm being blocked because we live in Australia? Perhaps it's something to do with my computer?

No way. It's something else. . .

Have you notified your card company you will be charging internationally? They might block without your prior permission. I'd call the VISA company.

I bought online tgv tickets for that route 2 years ago. I was refused at first, but my problem was solved after I called credit card company and told them I was using a card for an international purchase. They had been holding up the purchase. It went through after that--I think I also printed out the tickets. Good luck.

The iDTGV site says that tickets may be purchased up to 6 months in advance; however, knowing that PREM tickets can only be purchased 3 months in advance and now knowing that the SNCF has not attempted to complete your purchase (information provided by your bank) perhaps we can assume that iDTGV tickets may not be processed earlier than 3 months before departure.

As today, the 14th, is now 3 months (it is not a 90 day window as some often write) before your planned January 14th departure, try the transaction once again and see if it works.

This is far-fetched, but could it be because you are putting in false information? I think you said you were claiming you lived in France but then giving them an Australian CC number (which is identifiable, I think, by some digit code I don't know). Maybe for security reasons they won't accept that, although someone with such a card certainly could be living in France, so that does seem unlikely.

They never ask me where I live anyway when I buy idTGV tickets, I just buy them on www.voyages-sncf.com. All they ask in payment info and your email address (if it is self- printable, which idTGV tickets are). But it clearly is not that, other people have bought them in Australia.

If you've tried several cards, it is very weird, as maybe your cards automatically don't allow charges from abroad, or something so they know immediately it is not allowed. You have entered the security code correctly, I presume, also, of course.

I think the idea of trying again now that it is only 3 months before is a good one, also.

I live in the US, and in September, I successfully purchased and printed TGV PREM tickets, in two separate transactions, for a trip from CDG Airport to Montpellier, and a return trip from Avignon TGV back to CDG. This was done on www.voyages-sncf.com.

But I do recall having assorted strange problems with the site, although I can no longer remember the details. Some of these may, or may not, have had something to do with my use of the Mozilla browser (I went back to Internet Explorer). In one case, the site behaved differently on my wife's computer than it did on mine, and in another case, a problem I was having disappeared when I closed and reloaded my browser. www.voyages-sncf.com does seem to be a sensitive and somewhat flaky site.

I also recall (which is why I'm posting this) that on at least one occasion, when I had done something wrong, it simply refreshed the screen I was on without giving any error comment. It essentially did nothing, without telling me why. Again, I'm afraid I don't remember the exact circumstances, but that is of course the source of your frustration. Whatever the reason it is not accepting your card, the site is not bothering to reveal it to you. Very frustrating.

PREM tickets are non-refundable, and are for a specific train only. As a result, they don't have to be "validated" (composté) before boarding. I expected the train conductor to use some device to scan the square 2-D barcode on the ticket, but this was not done on either trip. On the way down, the conductor stared at the tickets for a while, as if he'd never seen one like it before, but then he said "bon", and handed it back to me. On the return trip, the conductor glanced at the tickets, and punched a small round hole in them.

My experience has been tha the browser can make a difference. Try another. I have not always been able to print tickets and the kiosks at the train station generally do not accept US issued credit cards.... the window and a real person has always worked easily

Thank you all for your help and advice - my story is a very long one. In the end solved only by one very lengthy phonecall to TGV in the UK. Don't get me started on how I got their number.........
The lovely English TGV lady told me that Australian credit cards are not accepted on any of the TGV/sncf train websites in Europe at the moment. This is a recent thing because of several breaches of security & fraud attempts. All very well for some - what happens for any poor Australians in Europe wanting to book tickets online to travel on trains with their Aussie visa cards? Ridiculous. If only TGV & IDTGV were visa verified, it would save all of the trouble that I have just encountered. It would also allow we Australians the same luxury of being able to access cheaper tickets. We are being totally ripped off by travel agents here. $160 tickets in FRANCE/UK = approx $500 tickets here (family of 4).
Something that I did learn from the phonecall is that the only way an Australian can take advantage of cheaper PREMS fares is to have a friend living in the UK/FRANCE, with a UK/French ccard and mailbox. Get them to buy the tickets under your name etc, take delivery of them and then pass them on. CRAZY??? I know, but successful - I JUST DID IT! Thank goodness for my long lost school pal, now living in London.
I now can't believe that I've just wasted DAYS trying to work it all out. Not to mention a trip to the bank today with a 'please explain attitude'. TGV should have a web notice that explains all of the above and they should also reply to emails & queries regardless of who/where customers come from.
Agreed, some websites do state that you must be French or British to take advantage of cheaper fares. But others don't. The frustration of being told that my bank has 'refused' or 'not accepted' my transaction.....they blamed the bank, when it wasn't the bank - it was TGV themselves!
Thanks again everyone. I'm hoping that anyone else experiencing the same probs finds this.

At least you had a friend to get the tickets. How very odd, that TGV is banning all Australian credit cards. I have heard of a bank or issuer not allowing their cards to be used in entire countries (like Spain, I have heard that one) due to fraud problems, but never the reverse issue. There must have been an awful lot of fraud. I agree they should have a warning about such things when it is a blanket refusal for all cards from a country, but they don't have very good error messages on SNCF.

As for them responding to every email and query from folks in the world who ask questions about their website and SNCF -- would be nice, but I don't actually blame them that they can't staff up for that. Tons of folks just can't read and follow directions on booking tickets even when there is nothing wrong with the website nor SNCF -- they post on Fodors a lot.

I know what you mean Christina. Thanks

Thanks for that warning, Ronael. I hope they get that little problem sorted before I need to make my next booking! We found that a number of places refused to take our Aussie credit cards last August/September in UK & Europe . . . perhaps that was the same problem.
Does anyone know if you can pay sncf with paypal? I guess that may be another solution.
Happy travels, Di

No you can't. Credit card only.
Truely, if you're from Oz, the only way you can get your mittens on some cheaper tickets for the train is by knowing a friend who'll do the booking/pay for it and the take delivery of the ticket in either France or the UK.
I'm hoping it changes too, before we go.
Nothing more frustrating than actually being able to honestly pay for something and not being allowed to! It's a strange concept really.

Maybe it's some sort of French concept.

But as I said, it works fine in the US, so it's not limited to France and the UK.

Thanks, Ronael. Once again, it seems that we innocents are made to suffer for the actions of a few criminal minds... Di

Does anyone know if you can book these online cheaper tickets from Canada using a Canadian Visa? I'd really like to know the easy way rather than what poor Ronael went through!

Thanks
Tansay

Tansay,

I haven't read any reports from Canadian Fodorites saying that they couldn't book tickets on www.tgv-europe.com.

However, if you were to try to book tickets on the Trenitalia site for train travel in Italy, you would be unsuccessful. The site rejects all North American credit cards. (The cards are accepted in Italian stations.)

I'm now experiencing the same problem with Spanish trains! Rail Europe with that damn rip off....the eurail pass!!! I hate it. Loathe in fact! All we want to do now is look into/book a night train from Madrid to Lisbon - apparently you need a eurail pass specific to Spain Portugal to even get a look in - anyone with any luck in getting reasonably priced tickets on the overnight train direct from the train station...love to hear from you.

Can you book TGV Europe with an American Express card?

Yes, www.tgv-europe.com accepts American Express cards.

Tim - I may not use my American Express card anymore. I just found out that they charge a 2.7% foreign transaction fee. I am sure TGV Europe is considered a foreign transaction, right?

However, some good news! I just found out that I can open a Charles Schwab checking and get a Visa debit card that charges no foreign transaction fees and no atm withdrawal fees either!

Yes, booking a ticket on the tgv-europe site would be considered a foreign transaction.

Having a debit card issued by Charles Schwab will certainly save you from having to pay fees for ATM withdrawals.

I just have the exact some problem. I think if there is one iDTGV journey (for example one journey in a return trip), it will show error. I use my Singapore and Indonesia cards (I tried 5 cards, 1 visa and 4 mastercard), and all produce error.

So, what I did just now is I purchased TGV for both journey legs. The price (luckily) is the same. But the time is different, I have to take the return train 2 hours early from Paris