TGV SNCF trains for US Travelers Don't Accept US CC
 

Most people posting on Fodors travelling in Europe live in Europe, so this post is ONLY for US travellors to Europe....

After having no real problems with Trentalia.com for Italy train tickets and SBB.CH for Switzerland tickets, I have given up on Voyages-sncf.com and EGV-Europe.com for US based tickets. I tried different credit cards, I tried different browsers including Chrome,deleteing cookies, I tried informing CC banks, etc. ... Nothing worked. I finally gave up and called RailEurope.com. I ended up paying 30 dollars more in total for 4 tickets for RE, but it more than makes up for the week long frustration trying to book the tickets at the actual France train sites. RE gave me an eTicket number that I can use at the Paris Gare-Lyon station to pick up my tickets, so now I can move on to other planning.

i.e Dont bother booking at RailEurope.com websites, since their posted ticket prices online are bogus, especially for groups larger than 2 people. If you try to book the lowest rate you can get a "Problem detected, we will call in in 48 hours, but dont book tickets anywhere else until we call you" , message. So, just call them and wait an hour or two until they can answer and help you. I know it sucks but, again, nothing worked for me at the France train sites after many, many failed attempts.,

My thesis is that my total tickets exceed the 300 weekly euro max and the 150 daily euro max, so I was effectively blocked from using the the home France train sites.

>>>Most people posting on Fodors travelling in Europe live in Europe<<

Oh really?? - that's certainly not my opinion. How did you determine that most people are European??

My Cap One & Morgan Stanley US swipe cards work find for me. Sometimes there is a glitch & I've had to wait 1 day after being "rejected" the first time.

Stu Dudley

It seems some people are successful using US credit cards on the Sncf website. Did you try purchasing the ticket on the Swiss website?

If you exceed the daily or monthly maximum charges allowed by SNCF, of course your transaction will be rejected. It has nothing to do with US credit cards not being accepted. It has to do with SNCF rules that are clearly stated regarding the use of foreign credit cards.

It seems you are aware of these rules, so why were you surprised that your transaction was rejected when you tried to exceed the maximums?

Well, instead of rushing over to Rail Europe to buy overpriced tickets, you should have called SNCF. They have an English-speaking service; it's been posted here many times. You messed up on the maximum daily limit at your bank -duh.

And no, most people on this site aren't European. Maybe 5% or so are.

What is SNCF's phone number...????

This "old person" just Friday charged my 2 TGV tickets on my credit card. $50 apiece, they were. Of course, I called the CC bank prior to clicking "confirm" to assure their security wouldn't block it; bank's customer service person said, 'we've noted it', I said I'm clicking confirm right now, and she said ' it just came thru'. Confirmed.

Far less problem than I had feared. About as easy as an Amazon purchase. When done right.

>>> StuDudley - Oh really?? - that's certainly not my opinion. How did you determine that most people are European?? <<<

Probably overstated, but but it certainly muddies the water determining who is having success and who isn't with purchases when this is not clearly stated.

>>>> StCirq - And no, most people on this site aren't European. Maybe 5% or so are. <<<

How do you know this? Sounds like pure speculation on your part. My guess is it is much, much higher than this.

>>> MaineGG - It has nothing to do with US credit cards not being accepted. It has to do with SNCF rules that are clearly stated regarding the use of foreign credit cards. <<<

Where is the policy of maximums and foreign (US) credit cards not being accepted "clearly stated" on their sites? Please post these links to their policies so we ALL can benefit. All I have seen so far is speculation and interpretations.

>>> StCirq - Well, instead of rushing over to Rail Europe to buy overpriced tickets, you should have called SNCF. They have an English-speaking service; it's been posted here many times. You messed up on the maximum daily limit at your bank -duh.

This was not rushing over to RailEurope. Everyone knows they overcharge, duh (your so smart). But I was trying to buy tickets that total 304e. According to other posters who speculate on daily and weekly maximum, this purchase exceeds the limits. So unless I break up into many separate purchase over days and possibly have my family sitting in another train or train car, then I cannot use the France sites, period.

As for the US based RailEurope travel agency. They are open 7 days a week, take your call(after waiting on hold forever), answer questions, etc... That was worth 7 dollars per ticket over PREM for me.

"Payment was Rejected" was all I got from SNCF and TGV. Hmm, could be the bank(I call the bank), could be the limit(I'll try ticket roulette), could be the ticket price category is sold out for a block of seats together, could be France web usability designers suck...

Oh I made my Italy and Swiss purchases with no problem on Trentalia and SBB.ch. Nice websites... One day the France train companies will catch up to their superiors I hope.

So why didn't you use the Swiss site to purchase your France tickets?

I tried using SBB.ch and their prices were $200+ higher than SNCF, TGV, or even RailEurope for the direct route I was trying to book. SBB.ch has much less route selections (4 vs 10 on TGV ) based on the results returned from my searches for morning travel. Great for Swiss departures though.

i've been buying SNCF tickets online for years, and except for an occasional, temporary glitch, it works fine.

I think the vast majority of posters live in USA.

I purchased my idTGV ticket online. I am Canadain. It was hard, and it took me about a week. I had to email their help line a few times, they always got back to me within two days. Part of issue is once your card has been rejected for any reason the site puts a 24 hr block on it. So you have to stop making attempts with same card. Also as noted, make sure your bank / credit card company is aware that you are doing foreign transactions,, they block them otherwise.
idTGV finally said they would could see my attempts to purchase and that normally their computer booking system does not accept Canadian cards but that they would make sure it was set to accept my card ending in XXXX if I attempted again. They did and I did. It worked. I got two first class tickets from Paris to Nice for 40 euros each. Good deal!

I am from New York, not Europe. I have purchased tickets via the SNCF site for the TGV over the years several times without any trouble whatsoever.

Javafun....seems to me that you should either not take trains or perhaps just stick to renting a car if you feel thst the SNCF site is so inferior to Rail Europe or other agencies that allow you to buy train tickets.. The vast majority of people that have posted here over the years, including myself since 2000, have little to no difficulty purchasing a ticket.

Just bought 500 euros worth of tickets a few weeks ago through SNCF. Worked fine.

Either your credit card company denied the charge or there was a "hiccup" during your transaction, so SCNF placed a 24 hour hold on it.

Love SNCF. Much better than RENFE (Spain) which tends to timeout and take a few times for a transaction to go through.

My credit cards were not the issue. The charges did not even hit the banks. No authorization attempts were recorded by the banks. I tried other cards as well. One possiblility I did not eliminate is if there are not 4 seats available together at the desired rate, your attempt is rejected. Maybe if I had tried 2 + 2 tickets, it would have worked. Again, pure speculation. But even when I finally booked with RE, the agent was not able to confirm 4 tickets together. He had to book 2 + 2 tickets. Plus cost was over the 150e/300e supposed limits. So could be that too.

Bottom line, when the same result happens over and over again, even after waiting 24 hours, it is not a 'Hiccup'. The website should provide more detail on why payment was rejected, especially since I know NO authorization attempts were recorded by my bank.

I am no alone with this experience. Just google SNCF and Payment was Rejected and you can follow many other people having this same problem.

>>>I tried using SBB.ch and their prices were $200+ higher than SNCF, <<<

What was the route? I've never noticed sbb charging more than surrounding countries although their prices are in CHF. I just compared Paris/Geneva on both SCNF and SBB and don't see any difference in price except for euro/chf or any difference in schedules. Usually RailEurope doesn't have most of the train choices that each country's website lists.

Trenitalia requires certain browsers, but will also block you after a couple of unsuccessful attempts.

SNCF's website says you can make 3 purchases a day for a total of 860€.
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/leisure/...t_en_ligne_uk/

The prices are the same between SBB and SNCF, the difference is SBB only showed 4 morning trains, SNCF showed 10 morning trains with different connections, even after changing SBB preferences to show alternate routes. Hence, if I went with SBB I had to choose the non-PREM fare route at the higher fare.

Sorry for the OP's difficulties. I've heard of others with the same troubles. I've never experienced them myself, however. Every transaction went through on the first try, and simply printed my tickets at home and packed them for my trip.

>>>> StCirq - And no, most people on this site aren't European. Maybe 5% or so are. <<<

How do you know this? Sounds like pure speculation on your part. My guess is it is much, much higher than this.

I know this because I've been posting here for about 15 years and know who's from where. There are in fact probably more American expats living in Europe who post here than actual Europeans. There are also Ozzies, Kiwis, and folks from other continents. But the vast, vast majority are Americans.

What's truly "speculative"....beyond that, actually, as in just plain wrong, is a blanket statement that SNCF doesn't accept American credit cards. I have purchased more than 100 tickets online from SNCF using Amex and Visa, both US-issued cards, many times for amounts of more than 500 euro. Many others have done so, too. The problem isn't SNCF, it lies with you, or at worst perhaps some glitch in the system at the time you tried to use it.

>Where is the policy of maximums and foreign (US) credit cards not being accepted "clearly stated" on their sites? Please post these links to their policies so we ALL can benefit. All I have seen so far is speculation and interpretations.

See my previous thread:

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