Train tickets in advance with US funds

You need to let your credit card company that you will be making a purchase from England. If they don’t know that you are making a purchase, they will decline it thinking it’s fraud.

My colleague and I both could not purchase through GWR this year, trying a few different card. This is typical of many European web sites using "3D" approval systems, aka Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode. Try our US-based agent to see whether you can buy now at a similar price: https://ricksteves.mytraintravel.com/.

It's not unusual for there to be difficulties running US cards with a number of the train operating companies -- for what ever reason.

Since all TOCs sell all tickets I normally just make my purchases through Virgin Trains, which aims to handle international sales smoothly and generally better than all the other TOCs -- https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/

Try www.loco2.com

THANKS!! Loco2.com is the ticket - easy straightforward and found the appropriate discounts for "Groupsave" & "Return". The RS site didn't have options for the discounts so tickets were more expensive.

It is the “verified by visa” issue. Simply call your provider (Chase) prior to your purchases, and they will go through without a hitch.

You may have used a US credit card, but you paid in local currency.

I've had that issue a number of times especially with National Express. Sometimes even contacting the credit card companies failed to resolve it. I discovered that using Paypal instantly worked with the same credit card selected. That has worked more than once for me. Have you given Paypal a try?

We DID contact our Credit Card. They said they APPROVED the transaction. We notified them of travel to England - Plus this is a card my husband uses for international travel all the time (normal charging history).

We have heard numerous reports regarding the various European train companies’ websites ( Bahn..de, OeBB, Trenitalia, Renfe, and several of the UK rail companies) rejecting US Visa cards. The solution is usually to use a reputable agent such as trainline.eu or loco2.

Or you can use an American Express Card. That has worked for me in each case.

I had a similar problem when I tried to buy Grand Central Rail tickets online from York to London. And I had just successfully purchased tickets on another rail company a couple days previous. So I downloaded their ap to my phone and it worked perfectly. Might be worth a try. I can't print out a ticket, but I have an e-ticket on my phone.

The problem is not just Verified by Visa, which US credit card holders can get. It's 3-D Secure, which US credit cards do not use, but which is required by some European train websites. If a website requires 3-D Secure, your card will not work, and your credit card company will not even see the transaction (so, they didn't even get a chance to accept or reject it).

I think I read here that sometimes Amex will work with 3-D Secure, but I'm not sure about that.

I think its a problem regarding verification issue. You can first contact with US Visa chase card and tell them about your booking then they will verify it you will be successfully booking tickets. Because sometimes there is verification issue by them, they are sometimes unable to see your bookings, and simple with one call you can resolve this issue.