Difficulty using credit card on snfc official site

I highly recommend Loco2! I've used it multiple times through our trips. And I've used both the app and the website with no issues.

My Canadian credit card worked fine yesterday on the site, I do acknowledge though that there are significant differences between the Canadian and American banking industries. When I do use my credit card for online European purchases such as train tickets, it's pretty common that you have to have a 'secure code' set up. I used Trainline several times on my phone last September while travelling in England. I really like the app.

Did you tell your credit card company you would be making a purchase in France?
If you didn't, they may have blocked it as suspicious. SNCF is a French website!

If not, try https://www.thetrainline.com/ or https://loco2.com/
Though trainline has reportedly added fees for non-European purchasers

The Trainline and LoC02 offer basically the same pricing as does the SNCF.

However, you might have better results using oui.sncf if you have your credit card registered with Verified by Visa. My US credit card is always accepted. If you have a Mastercard, register with SecureCode.

Usually you have to notify your credit card company that you will be using it for a purchase in another country or it will be blocked.

Thanks everyone. I will call my credit card company and try again. If all else fails I will use trainline or loco2 although trainline did not offer all of the trains that were on sncf site.

This may not be it, but when I tried to book tickets and had to enter dates of birth, I entered the US format mm/dd/yyyy instead of the European format dd/mm/yyyy and kept getting rejected. I used the chat also, and someone there set me straight.
Good luck!

I had the same problem in Germany and Austria last year and this year trying to book ferries in Spain and Italy. For trains I ended up using the trainline.com which had the exact same schedules and prices as the country's own train line website and had no problem with my credit card there.

Oh boy, here we go again. Caution - lots of misinformation posted posted above and yet more added below, by well-meaning folks who simply do not understand what this is about.

Yes, there could be other issues - banks suspecting fraud and blocking your transaction (common, garden variety issue, easily fixed by calling your bank and letting them know). That's probably not the issue you are running into - if you have tried calling your bank, and they say they are not declining the transaction - then read on.

Might be one website charges more or has bad service - it's a big world and a big internet, not everything is what you would like to expect. But that's probably not the primary issue you're running into.

You were probably directed to a different website because the main website appears to be using a technology that does not work with credit cards issued by American banks. Read on.

What you may be running in to is something called "3-D Secure" technology. This is a new security system used by some European websites. It is generally NOT compatible with US-issued credit cards. This system basically "short circuits" the transaction if it detects that your credit card is not set up to work with the system - and virtually all US credit cards are not set up to work, so the transaction never goes to your bank (so you bank never declines it, which means your bank has no way to "fix" this for you).

Here's one way to tell if you've run into this "3-D Secure" system: if your keeps failing (the website may or may not show some message about "3-D Secure" - if it does say that, stop trying, your card won't work), In any case, if the transaction is rejected, try calling your bank and - this part is important - ask them if they see the declined transaction. If they do not see any attempt to charge your card by that foreign website, then you have hit the "3-D Secure" system and your card simply will not work on that website, no matter what you or your bank does (you may have to pay using some other method, eg Paypal or by doing a wire transfer).

A few people claim they have had success with credit cards issued by American Express (unfortunately, most European websites do not accept American Express), I've heard one person who claimed their Visa card issues by Bank of America worked, but as a rule, it seems American credit cards just do not work with the "3-D Secure" system (and can not and will not be made to work with it, no matter what you do).

This "3-D Secure" system is a major problem for Americans trying to purchase things from European websites. It's not very well known (so you will see lots of well-intentioned but uninformed folks here and elsewhere posting nonsense suggesting it's a fraud protection system for you and all you need to do is let your bank know about the transaction). It seems to be getting rolled out to more and more European websites, so it will impact more unsuspecting Americans as time goes by.

For more about this problem, here are a couple other recent threads about it:

3-D Secure credit card payments - wha??? - Read this one first
Problems with Capital One? - More recent thread but with some misinformation posted in replies by people trying to be helpful but missing the point

Good luck.

Before you do anything else, I'd suggest trying the Trainline and Loco2 web sites suggested above.

I successfully bought TGV tickets on-line on the SNCF website on 22 February 2019. I called Chase Card Services before using my Visa card and told them the vendor and the estimated amount of the purchase The customer service agent made some notations/changes on his end and told me I was good to go. My transaction worked the very first time. Reading in a related forum that the OP also had a problem purchasing train tickets on the SNCF website, I went back and took a look at my transaction receipt (“Summary of your booking”) from SNCF and it states; “Processed in 3D Secure mode” but right next to it is a box with icons that state “Verified by Visa” (VBV) and “MasterCard Secure Code” (MCSC). So, I suspect that, in my case, 3D Secure recognized the approval by “Verified by Visa”. Perhaps the systems are now “talking” to each other? I would suggest contacting your credit card company and asking if your card is VBV or MCSC. This may be the key to the card not being rejected.

Thank you. I just called my credit card company and explained the situation. I’m not sure what she did but she said I was good to go. Again it did not work. I got frustrated and just booked on trainline. The transaction went through immediately. It was a very easy process. It looks like I paid 1 euro for booking fee but that was worth it!

I just called my credit card company and explained the situation. I’m not sure what she did but she said I was good to go. Again it did not work.

And that, right there, is the 3-D Secure problem.

The CS agents at most banks have never heard of it either, and don't understand what's happening any more than you do. They, like many folks, just assume it's a normal, fraud-detection trigger which is causing the bank to decline the transaction. So they flip the "allow suspected transactions to go through" switch. But the transaction never reaches your bank, because it is blocked by the 3-D Secure system, so your bank can't do a damn thing to make it work.

Few people know about this. Your bank's CS agents probably don't. Most people here on this forum don't.

The standard response to "the transaction failed" is to call your bank and alert them. Their standard response is "we will set your account to allow foreign transactions". If it really is blocked because of suspected fraud, that will fix it. But none of that will have any effect if the website uses the 3-D Secure system, because the transaction will never reach your bank. That's what's happening to you.

More of us will be learning about 3-D Secure problems as time goes by.

Thank you David for that valuable information. At least now I have a better understanding of the problem although I still don’t know how to fix it :). Sounds like it is an issue that banks need to work on. I took the easy way out and booked on Trainline.com. Am I correct in assuming that this is a problem only when making online purchases? I have used this same credit card ( capitol one visa) all over Europe in that past with no problems.

Am I correct in assuming that this is a problem only when making online purchases? I have used this same credit card ( capitol one visa) all over Europe in that past with no problems.

Yes, AFAIK that is (generally) correct. I, too, encountered the problem using (multiple) credit cards that I had used frequently and recently across Europe, but when trying to book something online using the same cards, it failed every time (and my banks insisted they were not blocking it, didn't even see a single attempted charge).

The "3-D Secure" system is used primarily by European websites. In-person charges in Europe do not use it (AFAIK) when the transaction is made by a human staffer. At automated (non-staffed) systems the same problem may occur - examples I've heard may also use this "3-D Secure" layer include gas pumps, toll booths, and train ticket machines, but only those that are automated/not attended.

This is still fairly obscure (credit card CS agents don't even know about it - so yeah, that's obscure). But I see people reporting it here with greater frequency, so the issue appears to be spreading. I have seen no evidence that American banks/credit card issuers are dealing with it (they seem oblivious). Once the problem reaches a certain magnitude, I assume they will need to respond, at a minimum by training their staff, and maybe hopefully by working out a technical solution.

Until then, expect a lot of people to tell you you're crazy, you should just call your bank again and they will surely fix it for you.

Current workarounds seem limited to using some other form of payment (Paypal, wire transfers), hope there's an alternate website for the same thing that doesn't use 3-D Secure, or getting lucky. Some credit cards may work OK, but I have a lot of credit cards (almost all of which are very big names, popular and in widespread use) and none of mine worked.

If you can use an alternate website that skips the whole 3-D Secure system - even if that's less-than-ideal or charges a bit more for the same thing - that's probably a decent option.

Expect to hear more about this whole 3-D Secure thing in the future. Good luck.

I bought tickets from Paris to Lyon last Sunday. I have both the Oui.sncf and Trainline apps downloaded on my phone. The sncf one didn’t work for me - no problems with the Trainline one! I didn’t need to call my bank - easy to use...

I always use the Oui.Sncf site to book tickets before heading overseas. I alert my bank and then use my card while here in the States. I find the best rates for tickets through the Oui site. I just get the e-ticket and say the country I am picking up the tickets in. I will not purchase tickets from the US Eurorail site because of the increased cost.