Just returned yesterday from a month in France. I bought all my train tickets (7 trips) ahead of time at home on the web, paid by credit card on-line and expected to picke tickets up at train stations as needed using the automatic ticket machines. Please be advised that these machines no longer accept foreign credit cards. This means you must go to the ticket counters to pick-up your prepaid tickets and the lines at busy stations such as all in Paris, CDG or any big city all always very long and slow. If for example you fly into CDG and have a tight train connection at the CDG station as I did, you will have to wait up to 45 minutes in line to get your pre-paid tickets.

Be sure to allow plenty of time at the station to get your tickets or if possible pick them up at a small town station somewhere in France if possible.

Hope this helps someone.

Larry J

Merci bien Larry . . .

Hope you had a great time in France. Just to clarify, are you using US-issued cards? I've never had a problem with my UK credit cards.

Thanks again : )

Hi Larry,

We'll be in Paris in a few weeks (traveling by train to Bruges and Amsterdam), and this is good to know, since we'll be buying our tickets online ahead of time. One question: Is there a specific ticket window to go to? Or will any ticket window do?

A good way to avoid lines at the train station tickets counters is to pick up your tickets from any one of the numerous SNCF boutiques around Paris. You can find a list of locations on their website. Of course that wouldn't do you much good if you were making a fast connection on your arrival day.

Thanks for the tip, Jody.

At many large French stations, some of the ticket counters are marked "Départ dans l'heure" which means Departure within the hour. You should only queue at these desks if you are buying or picking up tickets for a train that's leaving shortly.

Yeah, yeah . . . but does anyone know if US-issued plastic works at the Billeterie machines?

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_res...tiques_APV.htm

Otherwise it looks like the best bet is to print out one's ticket at your own printer : as long as the name matches up with your piece of ID, you're good.

Life's too short for standing in line.
Thanks!

Yeah, yeah . . . but does anyone know if US-issued plastic works at the Billeterie machines?

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_res...tiques_APV.htm

Otherwise it looks like the best bet is to print out one's ticket at your own printer : as long as the name matches up with your piece of ID, you're good.

Life's too short for standing in line.
Thanks!

I thought it was very difficult to find the list of SNCF boutiques, so here is the link to the page:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_res...?NumAdress=198

My US-issued CC would not work in the SNCF machines.

IN any case, it won't take you long to give it a try and find out before you go to the windows if there are long lines. I've never seen a wait at the automatic machines because they have so many of them.

I had the same problem. Neither of my credit cards worked and neither would either of my Visa check cards. All are US bank issued.

Also, most of the machines I tried to use only accepted euro coins.

Not that this is cost effective, but I ordered my tickets over the phone from SNCF and they arrived in the mail a week later.

Ron, would you tell how much extra this service cost? thank you.

Your credit cards weren't rejected because they are foreign. They were rejected because they don't have the chip on the front like virtually every card in Europe has at the moment. Those machines, in fact, say "Chip Cards Only." Since the US is practically the only country that hasn't upgraded to the chip-and-PIN system.

Brandon, this thread is 7 years old; we in the US were just becoming aware of the chip situation at that time.

This question of chip-and-pin cards in the US has nothing to do about awareness, at least not from the banker's side.

It has everything to do about the so-called swipe fees. Banks currently earn billions each year charging a per-transaction swipe fee to the merchants and they are in no hurry to throw away this cash cow.

Changing to chip and pin system could mean loss of much of those billions to the banks. If the current swipe fee reforms being proposed go through it may open up the US system for broader change.

J62, I was pointing out that at the time of the OP, this was "news"; it is not now. I was not referring to the back story as to why we don't have chip and pin cards here.

Evidently there is more than just the issue of the chip embedded in the card at these machines. Two or three years ago I found that American Express had a card that used the embedded chip in the credit card so I applied for and received this card. I think it was called "American Express Blue". I tried using this chip card in the machines and it did not work either. Fortunately there are still a few Metro stations that employ a live person and I can use my American credit card to renew my Navigo or buy RER train tickets. For long distance SNCF tickets I buy on-line and have the tickets mailed to my address in Paris or in the case of Prems I print my own ticket. Also more and more machines at the stations will now accept paper currency to buy tickets or renew Navigos.

Larry J

You can certainly buy some tickets (RER, Metro) with a chip free US credit card in a machine, but you can't do it in all of them.

See my recent trip report and follow up reports under the general titles: Paris and Beyond.

I think the French, by the way, call the chip a "puce" or "flea". So you can't use certain machines if your carte is "sans puce".

>>You can certainly buy some tickets (RER, Metro) with a chip free US credit card in a machine, but you can't do it in all of them.<<

Tell me what RER or Metro station machine I can buy tickets without a European chip embedded card. I live in Paris and the only way I have been able to buy tickets is from the station guichet (and there are few of them left these days) or with euro notes from some machines. It's pain not being able to use my American credit cards to renew my Navigo at the machines.

Larry J