hello, trying to buy tix Paris to Bordeaux on both TGV site and IDGTV site. Called my CC companies. Have read previous posts. CC rejected on all sites. Tried both Cap 1 and other visa card. i realize i will have to wait 24 hours as i have used up my 3 tries on IDGTV site. any ideas? thanks

also tried sncf in france without luck????

I know this is very frustrating. Have you tried calling them? I know there is an English number, if you don't speak French, - however this past May my daughter was not ever able to get in touch with anyone in customer service so be prepared. She tried emailing as well and no resolution.

It seems many people here have problems and as well, there are many successes. I have no advice other than to try to call. Good luck!

One of the problems with the Fodor's forum is a poster's country is not easily confirmed. If you are Australian, there have been many reports of the iDTGV and other SNCF websites not your accepting bookings.

If you are from the USA, there have been many successes for those booking on the www.idtgv.com website and only occasional problems using www.tgv-europe.com or www.voyages-sncf.com website.

What has your bank told you about the attempts? Does your purchase exceed to 150€ limit? Have you cleared all of your browser's cookies and emptied its temp directories after each attempt? There is a lot of necessary information you have not yet provided which could assist in helping you.

Many different observations are noted regarding this issue. I had my share a year ago. If you read enough thread on this subject, there are quite many different suspected reasons why transactions "may" be failing. I think only the inner core of the SNCF web site admin knows the real limitations. For rest of us, it requires collective observations to guess what is going on.

#1. You bank rejecting oversea transactions. You seem to have done homework on this subject.

If you bank says (after rejection) that there was not even a request for authorization to authorize/reject, then #1 is definitely not the reason. (some people think this is the only reason for rejection)

#2. SNCF tagged your account as compromised. This is when the 24hr wait is useful. If not, you are waiting in vain.

#3. Per transaction/per week EURO value limit. I, along others, got hit by this glass ceiling. I could buy cheap PREM fares. Then when I tried to buy 1st class Thalys fare, I got rejected. But when I immediately went back to get 2nd class Thalys tickets (note lower EURO value), the transaction went through even though I did not even wait one minutes since the rejection at SNCF. Some had success with the EURO value I had problem while others have problem buying even the cheapest PREM/iDTGV tickets.

#4. Credit card. I think several people reported success with AMEX but not Visa or Mastercard.

Okay, this doesn't solve credit card acceptance problems, but I would like to say that I always book through www.voyages-sncf.com because it proposes ALL possible trains, whether or not they are TGV, idTGV or just Intercités. I would not want to jump around various sites looking for trains when one site has them all.

I am Australian and have successfully booked via voyages-sncf.com The one time I did have problems with my credit card not accepting was clarified via contacting SNCF client services by Twitter (which I did in French). They quickly explained the issue and what I needed to do the following time (sorry can't recall what it was) They advised me about waiting the 24 hours before reattempting. They also were kind enough to invite me to recontact should I have any problems 24 hours later. I have suggested to others to contact them via Twitter and all have been very happy with service.

thank you for all your replies. I am in the U.S., the amount was 86E so not over much I think. I tried idtgv.com, tgv-europe.com and voyages-sncf.com. by the french site i meant the latter which is in french (i can read enough to order tickets). my cc company said no transaction was attempted so was denied at the source. both cards i have used are visa. guess i will try again tomorrow. grrrr