Booking train on SNCF problems

Use Capitaine Train. They don't add a mark-up to the ticket, show the full range of trains, and are less likely to have problems with overseas bank cards.

I bet that the website is right and the bank is wrong.

This is a regular problem that happens when people don't notify the credit card (number on the back of the card) that they are about to make a purchase in France of about $xxx BEFORE they start the transaction.

If they then call the bank it usually will say, "not us".

The credit card needs to be called first. It is much easier to fix than trying to get them to find where it hgas been flagged and clear it.

Advice: Use a different card and call them first then try.

Also - since you have cookies from the previous transaction attempt, clear the cookies.

You can try to get the flag taken off but it is not usually easy.

Easy solution is to use capitainetrain. More convoluted is to register your card with Visa Checkout, or the Mastercard equivalent. SNCF uses this credit card verification system.

OK-Thank you - I'll give it another try!

I LOVE Capitaine Train! Thank you for telling me about this site! It's so much more user friendly than SNCF. I took advice and called my credit card company to alert them, as an added precaution, and luckily I did, because the first time I submitted payment, my transaction was denied. I'm still having a problem getting the cheaper idTGV part of my trip to go through, and had to contact them directly. The "help" service on Capitaine is actually helpful )SNCF is so annoying.
Thank you again!
Kristine

Since SNCF requires an extra level of credit card security, such as Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, it does not accept most American credit cards, which usually don't have that. On the plus side, if you are able to book the "Prems" fare (if it has not sold out), then SNCF does accept PayPal payments for that fare type (only). Several European web sites have this credit card issue, and PayPal is the easiest solution, where available.

I think the sticking point is that American cards, at least all of ours, do not use the level "Secure Code". When we bought our SNCF tickets earlier this year, we were ready to use PayPal, which we set up an account specifically for this purpose, , but were not presented that option.

What did work fine was using our new Schwab debit cards, which are Pin and Chip. Both transactions went through without any problems. Although we were never presented the option for e-mail delivery of the tickets and had t retrieve them in France, which again went without any problems..

Glad it worked out. I also learned of capitainetrain from posters here and am grateful, too. Much more user friendly, simple to use. Likewise, for the same reasons I much prefer Italo over Trenitalia for Italian trains when the itinerary permits. Also, heed the advice (thanks again) about early purchase...the Paris to Colmar August travel tix I bought in April now cost double what we paid. On the other hand, I had to wait 90 days in advance before I could purchase our Dinan to CDG tix. Do rules vary by itinerary? Don't know but it pays to keep trying in my book. Safe travels!

If you ever want to learn more about worldwide train travel, go to www.seat61.com. We learned about capitraine from this website, ordered our tickets much cheaper than through a Rail Europe.