Purchasing SNCF Tickets
 

Hi all,

I'm probably the last person to discover this, but just in case there are others:
SNCF does not accept charge cards other than those issued in France.

If you try to use a foreign card, you get a notice that says it was rejected by your bank.
That is not true. The computer doesn't contact the bank at all.

You can't use foreign credit cards over the phone, either.

You will have to go to www.raileurope.com, where you will be charge 50% more, OR
contact your hotel in France and ask if they will purchase your tickets for you.

((I))

Not true. I use my VISA debit card and AMEX quite successfully. There is also a PayPal option that works.

BREAKING NEWS

You can use PayPal at the German language site.
(Click the flag at the upper right to change languages.)

The trains and the ticket prices are the same.

((I))

<<SNCF does not accept charge cards other than those issued in France.>>

says who?

so why is my non-French Mastercard accepted?

I've used my US issued Amex.

That isn't true, Ira, I've used my Cap One Matercard fairly recently. I don't know what your bank is saying, there are always various stories on here about this issue. All I know is I got that message and called up Cap One and they admitted they had indeed blocked it. SO I told them to stop doing that (I had already told them about possible foreign charges a couple weeks before is why I was steamed), they said okay, and when I tried again after 24 hrs, it went through.

Not true. I used my Visa card, and was asked for the verification code from Visa, but otherwise had no problems.

Somewhat on a tangent: I sued my non chip credit card to purchase metro ticekts with no problem.

Inaccurate information such as this leads to confusion and frustration. Many people, including myself, regularly purchase tickets from the SNCF using US credit cards. Raileurope not only charges extravagant prices which can easily be avoided by purchasing tickets elsewhere, Raileurope's websites do not list all of the schedules and never list discount trains such as OUIGO or iDTGV trains. Raileurope should be avoided.

While it is true that some will experience difficulties using www.voyages-sncf.com, the main French Rail website, there are much better ways to purchase tickets than by using Raileurope. Here are two such places:

http://www.kelbillet.com/
http://www.capitainetrain.com/

You will have to go to www.raileurope.com, where you will be charge 50% more>

Misinformation - I did a random check for July 12 and found on RE some trains $103 (requiring a change of trains at Marsellies) for Paris to Nice and $192 on many trains

vs on SNCF site - lowest was 54 euros but that is a TGV-Nuit night train leaving at 21:26 - overnight train sleeping in seats - next lowest wads 122 euros - lots of those

so if RE is 50% or more as ira claims then the lowest RE fare should be 244 euros - yet many fares are $192 - you can see that is way way lower than 50%

Why do folks make these ridiculous claims without checking?

It is no where near 50% more and I found trains at $103 that were cheaper than any day connection on the SNCF site.

Well say something enough and others without investigating it themselves will say it is so.

What this has proven to me is to not throw the baby out with the bath water as Ira did but to check both voyages-sncf.com and www.raileurope.com to see which has the lowest fares and for teh times you want - RE can indeed be cheaper at times according to my quick search of Aug 12, 2013 Paris to Nice.

Interesting PalenQ. To start with, the 06h49 departure on that date is 66€ on the www.voyages-sncf.com site and $116 on Raileurope. Are you using the <i>new math</i> to tell us that $116 is actually cheaper than is 66€.

><<SNCF does not accept charge cards other than those issued in France.>>

says who?<

The agent at SNCF when I called to ask why I could not purchase tickets with 4 different cards.

The reason I placed a call to SNCF was that over a period of three days their computer kept saying that my charges had been rejected, even though the banks kept saying that there had been no queries from SNCF.

<I>Anyway,</i> if I'm wrong, it doesn't matter.

If I'm right, you can use PayPal via the German language site.

((I))

I have look at this problem carefully ira as you are not the only person who has had difficulty with online purchases. (The error is in stating that foreign cards are never accepted.)

There might be a third entity which is causing problems, SNCF's credit card batch processor. The batch processor is a behind the scenes link between SNCF's online sales and your credit card processor. If the problem is with SNCF's batch processor, who for whatever reason denies the charge, the SNCF could process the charge but your bank would never see it which seems many times to be the case.

You seem to have done all of the purchasing steps correctly but is your Visa card signed up for "Verified by Visa"? This is an extra step in the purchasing sequence that appears to be required by either the SNCF or its batch processor.

The last several groups of tickets I have purchased, all within the last few months, all when through the "Verified by Visa" steps. You might want to ask at your card issuing bank about signing up if you have not yet done so.

Interesting PalenQ. To start with, the 06h49 departure on that date is 66€ on the www.voyages-sncf.com site and $116 on Raileurope. Are you using the new math to tell us that $116 is actually cheaper than is 66€.>

No I am talking about the ridiculous saying that Re tickets "will be 50% or more expensive" always as understood and if you doube 66 euros you get 132 euros which you can see is way more than $116 but is equal to about $150 - not nearly double for the same train.

And if you saw that same date was not Rail Europe cheaper at $103 Paris to Nice with a change in Marseilles than most SNCF.com trains that day?

Just tired of folks repeating things they heard that are in no way true across the board as the OP indicated - maybe in some rather isolated examples.

I bought tickets last week on the www.voyages-sncf.com website with no problems, using my American bank-issued Master Card. It was totally in French, but I don't have problems with that.

Avoid Rail Europe. Avoid advice from Pal, who fancies himself some sort of train expert but who is nowhere near as cogent as Man in Seat 61 and others. Listen to Sarastro and The Man in Seat 61. There are at least a half dozen people who can give you better advice. You can easily buy train tickets on the SNCF site with an American credit card. I did it a couple of days ago with my U.S. Visa debit card.

The Verified by Visa thing is a new concept to me. I haven't had to do it yet, but it seems easy enough if it's necessary. I bought French train tickets last week with my VISA debit card without it or any other hassles.

I have been buying French train tickets for several years now using an Australian issued credit card - in fact I bought some just earlier this month.
I have never had my card denied nor have had to try several times for it to be accepted. This year I used a different card from the one I used last year. When the purchase was going through, I received an SMS on my cell phone from the issuer, and had to insert a code,

OK, so here's the full picture...

1) www.voyages-sncf.com SHOULD accept all credit cards. I have a UK card and it works fine on voyages-sncf.com. Always has. You cannot conclude it doesn't take non-French cards, just because your card fails. Nor from what you are told by staff. Renfe staff say the same thing, and Trenitalia staff used to do - it's just what telesales people often say, to get you off the phone.

2) Having said that, voyages-sncf has recently tightened up fraud checks on cards, and this is indeed generating a stream of 'my card didn't work on voyages-sncf' emails. And your card is much more likely to fail if it is non-European. But many non-European cards DO still work. Just try!

3) Raileurope.com (the North American RE) has been known to suppress the cheapest price levels for the US market. They also don't give you any seating options, whereas voyages-sncf.com does. So there are definite advantages in using voyages-sncf.com, or a site which sells at the same price as v-sncf.

Note that Raileurope.com (RE Incorporated) is not to be confused with Rail Europe LIMITED which is a separate UK organisation (raileurope.co.uk) charging similar prices to v-sncf.com, or Rail Europe 4A which is a third Rail Europe, serving the Australians, Asian, African S American markets with their raileurope-world.com and raileurope.com.au, .co.nz, etc websites. All three Rail Europe organisations are subsidiaries of SNCF French Railways.

THE SOLUTION: HOW TO BUY FRENCH TRAIN TICKETS AT CORRECT FRENCH PRICES...

4) You can buy French train tickets, or international tickets starting in France, at competing website www.capitainetrain.com. It's in French, but SO easy to use you won't notice (use Google's Chrome browser to automatically translate anything you don't understand).

Capitainetrain.com is a private website which links directly to the SNCF's ticketing system to sell tickets in competition with SNCF's own websites. They were allowed to do this after SNCF lost a court case about anti-competitive behaviour. They are the David to SNCF's Goliath.

5) Also make a note of www.loco2.com. This is a UK site, so it's in plain English, but it accepts any credit card and charges the same price at voyages-sncf.com, give or take a % or two lost in conversion to pounds. As long as you get a self-print ticket, it doesn't matter where you live.

6) Finally, iDTGVs deserve a special mention. iDTGV-branded TGVs are one or two special extra-cheap TGVs on a few key routes, not to be confused with the regular TGVs. iDTGVs are not sold at all on loco2 or any of the three Rail Europes, but DO appear on voyages-sncf.com and capitainetrain.com.

The problem with iDTGVs is that whichever site you use, payment for iDTGV tickets ALWAYS goes through iDTGV's OWN payment system, not the normal payment system of the site you are using. iDTGV's payment system is fussy, and rejects most non-French cards - I haven't had the opportunity to test my UK yet, though!

The solution is to go to www.idtgv.com and email their customer care department with the last 4 digits of you card number, asking for your card to be unblocked. Then you can book at www.idtgv.com.

After reading Seat61's very helpful notes and exploring Capitaine Train. I finally decided to try to buy my tickets for our trip in September on voyages-sncf. For one journey I used an AMEX card with no problems at at all and printed them out. For the second train trip I used an Andrews chip and pin card which I had registered with Verified by Visa. This also worked with no problems although I could not print out the tickets which were PREMS with no connections. ( I thought these might have been printable at home but did not happen..) So now I will have to see if I can extract the tickets from a kiosk when we are in France.

Very helpful information & analysis, man_in_seat61. Thank you. It will make purchasing train tickets in France a better experience.

Hey Saras,

> "Verified by Visa" <

Thank you for providing light instead of heat.

I shall check into that.

((I))

One can also use Paypal at the French language site for Belgium "Belgique".

Ticket prices are the same.

Thank you, Man, for a very helpful post.

>>>You seem to have done all of the purchasing steps correctly but is your Visa card signed up for "Verified by Visa"?<<<

Mastercard has something similar called SecureCode. Many online sites require these to make purchases. This is not the numbers on the back of your card. This is something you must contact your credit card and specifically set up with passwords, etc. You have to register this code.

http://www.mastercard.us/support/securecode.html

https://usa.visa.com/personal/security/vbv/index.jsp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure

I had to register my card for a US online purchase originally.

Raileurope should be avoided.>

Yet on the date I put in RE had the lowest fares for two trains - lower than the lowest fares on SNCF site except the overnight TGV train. Granted RE usually has higher prices and does not regularly list the deep discounts www.voyages-sncf.com does but like in the day I picked however they did have two trains cheaper than any on sncf.com - most other trains were higher but in NO case 50% higher which was my only debate here. Sarastro should do a current survey before giving out misinformation - the advice to check both sources cannot be criticized and is what the smart person would do IMO rather than just regurgitating the mantra RE is always a ripoff - always 50% or more higher when in fact you will find very few 50% higher for similar trains and conditions.

Even though Rail Europe sometimes offers fares that are similar to those found on the SNCF site, you will pay a substantial shipping and handling charge if you wish to have the ticket sent to you. The other delivery options offered are to retrieve the ticket at a self-service kiosk using a code RE provides, or print at home. They charge a booking fee when these methods are chosen.

business; KNOCK KNOCK
man in seat 61;Who's there?
business; OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING
man in seat 61;What is needed?
business: A site to compete with rail Europe usa for
simpletons so ziggypop can easily buy tickets.

Ira, I also recently got one of my cards verified by visa. The first couple of people I talked too had no idea what I wanted but finally they connected me with someone at Visa corporate that set it up.

business: A site to compete with rail Europe usa for
simpletons so ziggypop can easily buy tickets.>

already there - ACP Rail! Quebec.

okay, I just bought 2 more rail tickets from voyages-sncf.com just about an hour ago and had absolutely no problem whatsoever, using my American Capital One Mastercard. I had told them a few weeks ago I would be making online purchases from European countries, so don't block it, and they said fine. And it appears they actually did unblock it correctly, since it worked.

I don't have any special Verified by anything program that I know of, I think they have something similar for MC as Visa, but I have never done anything with that, and I wasn't asked for any special verification code or anything unusual. It was just like any online purchase, stick in the card info (number, expiration date and CCV) and hit purchase.

And I did get the confirmation email from SNCF a few minutes later so I know it went through okay.

Yikes, I need to buy tickets on the 6th and hoping I don't have some of these difficulties; have always used www.voyages-sncf.com in past with few glitches but sounds as though it's becoming more problematic.

Ira, you may have been wrong about the cause but the details of the answer are proving invaluable, well done.

Man thanks for the extra links, I've never had problems (being a Brit) with the SNCF site but back up options are always useful

Good debate everyone!

50% more than 66 is NOT 122, that's 100% more.

50% more than 66 is 99.

66 x 50% = 33. 33 + 66 = 99.

At 6:05 EDT today (July 6 in France), I went to voyages-sncf.com, and all went well until I tried to pay for my 5 tickets for Oct. 6 with my Cap One Visa; it was rejected even though I had called a few day ago, etc. So I immediately tried my AMEX, and it went through. Got good 1st class Prem fares, Paris-Avignon, 40 e. Interestingly, no where did it ask for my country so I didn't have to put in Antarctica or wherever.

So now, 1 journey purchased and printed; same drill next Fri., Avignon-Strasbourg and then to Paris 3 days later. Hope Amex works once again but very strange that Cap One did not; it has in past for me, and I see that others above have used it successfully. Does this necessarily mean that Cap One didn't unblock it correctly?

It never asks you for a country on voyages-sncf.com (unless you asked for something to be mailed to you), the people who keep talking about that are using a different website (tgv-europe.com) because they don't know French.

Who knows about Cap One, it is possible they didn't do their job because they did do that to me once (I had called them about the foreign charges, but it was blocked anyway, and when I called them back to inquire, they had gotten it and blocked it, they admitted). So they do mess that up sometimes.

I've heard Amex often works better, don't know why, as I would think they might block stuff, also, who knows, I was going to try them but they do have a 2.7 pct foreign exchange rate so I always try Cap One first.

I can't imagine why, but in theory, I wonder if somehow SNCF problems with blocking could be related to the Visa. I have a Cap One Mastercard, not Visa, and that just went through okay. However, I think there is the same thing on SNCF about those secured services with Visa or Mastercard (veritified by whatever, just different names), which is why I doubt that is the issue as I didn't do any special veritification process.

You might find out by calling Cap One, if they had blocked it, but at some point, you get tired of doing that, especially if another card words.

Hi g and c,

You can change the country by clicking on the flag at the upper right.

Germany and Belgium will let you pay with PayPal.

You can sign up for Paypal at https://www.paypal.com/home

((I))
Thanks for the kind words Bilbo

Yes, as long as Amex works, I will just give up on Cap 1 for trains. As you say, C, just too tiresome to keep trying that.

Ira, I will keep PayPal in mind. Good to know there's an a alternative to going to RailEurope! :(

Thanks, folks!

Two years ago the SNCF policy for purchases with foreign credit cards was to limit transactions to €150 per day and €300 per week. Not sure if that's still the case, but if it is, 5 tickets @ €40 would put you over the limit. However, it is interesting that the Amex transaction went through, so who knows?

I posted the policy here two years ago:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...edit-cards.cfm

As for SNCF not accepting Cap One cards, I used my Cap One Mastercard for two separate transactions earlier this year and it went right through with no special verification information required. One purchase was at voyages-sncf, and the other at the iDTGV site.

I'm thinking that www.capitainetrain.com would be a better alternative than Rail Europe if the SNCF sites don't work.

good suggestion. I didn't think about the total purchase amount being an issue, my purchase that went through fine was only around 40 euro. I think it is a mystery about Cap One cards, although perhaps there is an algorithm that would explain it including all these different factors (purchase amount, Visa or MC, maybe even exact type of Cap One card program, etc.). Actually I think you and I are some of the few who had no problems, and we both have Mastercards.

50% more than 66 is NOT 122, that's 100% more.

50% more than 66 is 99.

66 x 50% = 33. 33 + 66 = 99.>

Yes my fault on that but I actually saw on that sample day two trains to Nice from Paris that were CHEAPER than anything on sncf.com site except the night TGV train - so RE was the cheapest on daytime connections that day - cheaper! Always check both sources is just the intelligent thing to do. Just takes a minute and you may find a surprise like I did where the lowest daytime fares were on RailEurope and not sncf.com.