Can't book train with US Credit Card? Help!

Have you tried Captain Train? I believe this site accepts US credit cards, and when I searched, I found the specific train you're looking for.

I think the bank should be able to take the charge off your card since the company refuses to issue any tickets. I just bought several train tickets for May through the Rick Steves Raileurope site on this webpage and it was easy & problem free.

I used Captain Train a few weeks ago with a US card. Works just fine.

Thanks you so much Lane, Donald & Valerie!

SNCF does seem to reject American cards often. Captain Train is an excellent workaround and much more user-friendly.

(although I can't understand why, if SNCF rejected your card, your company is seeing an equivalent charge! that is not good!)

Yes, your credit card company may see a charge, but it's a "pending" charge and more than likely will not clear your account. Only THEN can you dispute the charge with your CC company...but it won't likely get that far.

Not sure what happened in this particular case. But just so a wrong impression isn't left about buying tickets on sncf site. I have purchased tickets from the sncf site several times using my regular Visa credit card with no problem. I'm guessing there was some other aspect of this we are not hearing - perhaps using a Discover card, or...????

Bob - you were able to purchase with a US credit card? It was a Chase Visa and the Voyages employee that we spoke to on the phone said that we could not buy tickets with a US credit card. ~April

Bahn.de worked great for me. I booked Amsterdam to Munich and Munich to Venice on their website with no problems.

I think you can register your card with "Verified by Visa" or Mastercard's equivalent to buy on the TGV site. But, why bother when Capitainetrain does not make you jump through that hoop.

Curious - is it an American cc only thing? I've bought a few times with scnf but had no problem with my Canadian card...

Don't know how much info this will add to the discussion, but. Last year about this time we purchased online from sncf using our new Schwab chip-and-pin debit card. We opened that account for, among other reasons, finding out in anticipation of buying these tickets that our CapOne Mastercard would not work because it could not be set up with that card verification program. That Schwab card also worked just fine for getting our tickets out of the kiosks, and for purchasing local tickets in France.

I, too, have been able to purchase tickets with my credit card from SNCF in the past, but sometimes it took several tries with different cards. I've recently purchased my tickets from Captaintrain and had no problem with my US Visa card. Their site is very user friendly and, with their app on my phone, I have easy access to my reservations.

On using an US credit card to book a discount ticket the 92 days out type of ticket, I have used bahn.de for Paris to Frankfurt. Another time was Duisburg to Amsterdam....worked fine, transaction went through, no problems. Never used SNCF.

I have been able to buy some tickets with my U.S. issued CC, and been denied as you were on others. I was successful in using CaptainTrain when SNCF did not accept my card. Now I try Captain Train first.

Within the last month I have booked tickets on both SNCF and Capitaintrain using my Chase VISA. But I HAD notified Chase that I would be "traveling" in France, even though I was actually sitting at my home computer.

I recently bought tickets through Captaintrain for the first time (no problem with American CC of course), and wondered why anyone would use any other site.

I booked my train trips last year through Captain Train using my Capital One Visa Card 60 to 90 days in advance of travel for the best price.
Mike

I think it mught be an american thing too nicole, as i ahve used my canadain cc on snfc a few times no problem.