javafan1

Thanks MaineGG, reading your thread I can see that it is NOT clearly stated on their site, but was only contained in the email you eventually receieved from SNCF. Thats ok, we all get forgetful at times.

StCirq - Many, Many others are having problems with SNCF. Just read this thread and MaineGG's thread. With SNCF, perhaps it is a trust issue with new customers only. Maybe is a credit card/customer has used the site successfully in the past they are grandfathered for future purchases. Also, thanks for posting the fact that there is an abundance of US ex-pats living in Europe posting on this site. I would assume if you are living in Europe you would use Europe issued credit cards. That validates my previous assumptions.

DebitNM

I was just able to buy iDTGV tickets online using my Cap One Visa with absolutely no trouble. See my post:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-available.cfm

Jemimagold

I had the same problem booking a ticket on SBB using my Chase Mastercard. Despite calling Chase and having them "open" my card to making a purchase from SBB, my card got declined 4 times.

After much digging around, the problem seems to be that it was an online purchase and that my credit card was not "3D enrolled". The SBB sent me a screen shot of their system showing the 4 declines and next to each of them was the error code related to "Not 3D enrolled".

So, I went to http://www.mastercard.us/securecode.html to enroll my card and guess what? Chase is not an approved issuer (sigh) but now I know and won't beat my head against the wall trying to make online foreign purchases with my Chase cards.

DebitNM

What is SBB and 3D??

tasmax

For all of those who were taking cheap shots at Javafan, I had exactly the same experience and it had nothing to with my nor, I suspect his, intelligence or credit limits. Both of my Chase Visa cards were rejected. Called Chase only to find they had no record of any transaction, rejection or otherwise.

I found this forum and it was clear that Jemimagold was on to something, as when the transaction was being processed there was a logo indicating authentication by 3D Secure approach. Per Jemimagold's suggestion, I tried to enroll on Visa's site, but couldn't find any provision on Visa's site for accomplishing this

After much digging it turns out the issue is, in fact, with Visa's 3D secure. It is another layer of security that some sites, SNCF's obviously among them, use for security protection. You must contact the card issuing bank (e business department or something similar) and specifically request the card number be enabled for 3D Secure.

After finally getting connected to the proper person at Chase, it only took a moment for him to do whatever needed to be done and he stayed on the line with me while I successfully booked my TGV reservation. This was all within an hour after the rejection, so it wasn't necessary in this situation to wait another 24 hours.

Two additional notes: 1 If your transaction is rejected because your card isn't cleared for 3D Secure and you call Visa, Mastercard, etc, they will have no record of the transaction at all. It won't show up as a rejection because it didn't get beyond the 3D Secure server to the processor. 2. For the posters who were impugning Javafan's intelligence and the SNCF website's infallibility, maybe they can explain how SNCF can send my ticket to the correct email address, but can't recognize that same address to reset the password.

Andrew

For reference: I'm American, and I have successfully used my American credit cards twice in the last year and a half on the SNCF website (I chose delivery in France, then I chose the option to print my tickets out which worked successfully). Presumably they thought I was a new customer last year.

I did have a Chase Visa card rejected this year on my first attempt; my credit union Visa worked the second time without issue. Last year, I used my Amex card and it worked the very first time I tried to use it.

Judy

I am American and have been buying train tickets in France for years. I have had an experience where my Visa just would not go through (many calls to Visa to find no attempts ny sncf at charging) and then my American Express went right through. I'd used that same Visa card many times without a problem so know there are "glitches" with the French site.

My Amex card now has no currency conversion fee so I will be using that in the future

kybourbon

>>>maybe they can explain how SNCF can send my ticket to the correct email address, but can't recognize that same address to reset the password.<<<

Is your email address .net? Trenitalia's website won't send confirmations to .net, but do send other things.

Travelnut

Simplify buying train tickets for France:
https://www.capitainetrain.com/en

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/28/how...h-engineering/

tuscanlifeedit

Travelnut, I was just about to ask if the Capitainetrain.com site wasn't an easy fix for this type of problem. Thanks for your post.

I haven't done it for awhile, but I used to buy tickets for trains in France from the very nice guy at budgeteuropeantravel.com for a small surcharge. I wonder if he is still doing this...