Bahn.com credit card issues

I've never had this problem, and in the past I've used a Chase Visa card to buy the tickets.

I'm not sure where you are getting 98€, unless you are talking about a "non-refundable", SparPreis ticket for 2 people. A full fare ticket for 2, online or at the station, would cost 218,80€.

yea its the non-refundable one, its on the website.

Its weird, I cant figure it out and i cant get anyone from bahn.com to respond to me

So at the station for 2 it would be 218? Thats what is is on OBB, I guess I could always try through them, although if I can get it for 98 that'd be a whole lot cooler.

Most likely your credit card company/bank is blocking all foreign charges in an attempt to limit fraudulent charges. Call your bank and ask them to temporarily unblock your card for charges in Germany. You'll want to do this for any credit or ATM/debit cards you plan to use while overseas. A lot of cards let you unblock your card using their web site rather than calling.

Yea, weird, but I already tried that, Chase confirmed they aren't seeing any transaction attempts or blocking anything

I sometimes run into this so I try a different card. Usually works.

If you do go to www.oebb.com, they now require you to register the card with Visa Checkout and get a 3-digit PIN to use when making purchases.
https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/visa-checkout.html?country=US&locale=en-US

You can also now buy Deutsche Bahn tickets at the same price as at the DB website at www.capitaintrain.com.

That entire trip, Berlin>Dresden>Prague, is entirely outside of Austria. Why do you think you'll find tickets on OeBB.

Actually, for purchases 92 days out, I see fares on the Bahn website as low as 58€ for two people, first class. Of course, that won't help if you can't get them to take your credit card.

Just a thought, but is your Chase card one of those with no "fees" for foreign transactions?

Yes, it is, no foreign transaction fees, would that have something to do it? Like, no foreign transactions fees because you cant use it outside the US haha.

Im wondering if it has something to do with this new Visa verify 3d thing, bahn.com is flashing a screen about that and it looks like oebb uses it too.

And I'v been looking at Captain Train, they seem like a good outfit, are they reputable? Although, I cant do the Austrian trains through them.

It looks to me like this is due to Verify by Visa, a program that Chase apparently does not participate in. Im not sure how to circumvent it, I've never heard or run into this and it's a little ridiculous. Would this cause me problems with this card once I'm over there as well or is it just for online purchases?

Verify by Visa is only for on-line purchases. I believe it is just a matter of registering the card at Verify by Visa, nothing to do with who issues the card. But again, Captaintrain's credit card procedures are not as stringent as many national rail sites, and tickets are the same price. Try them.

Americans often have a difficult time buying online from the Spanish train system, Renfe. Most use paypal rather than credit cards. I used a Verified by Visa card & had no problems.

Yes, it is, no foreign transaction fees, would that have something to
do it?

I've been expecting something like this. Your bank (in this case Chase) has to pay the "Network" (Visa, M/C, Cirrus, Plus, et al) a 1% fee to handle the transaction in Europe and convert the currency (or they pay roughly ½% and pay the Network in euro). In the past, this has not been a problem because they also collected a 4% (?) Interchange fee from the merchant's bank (which was, of course, passed on the the merchant). The EU recently lowered what the banks can collect in Interchange fees for credit cards to something like 3/10%, so now, if they don't charge you for the transaction, they lose money. I've been expecting these "fee free" cards to go away.

You might want to try a non-fee-free card and see if that works.

I question the above analysis. We obtained a Mastercard from Capital One in 2010. No foreign transaction fee. All of our purchases abroad (and that includes 10 currencies in 14 countries) have always converted within pennies of that day's exchange rate applied to the local currency -making this less expensive than pulling cash from an ATM (which the network puts about a 1/2 of 1% mark-up on), and that does not even consider our 1.25% cashback. This was in effect before the EU passed those new rules, and it did not change.

I believe the bigger issue is that some of these web sites require that the card is in the Visa Verified of Mastercard Secure programs, which not all, banks off that additional security. As we will be needing to purchase Renfe tix next spring, I plan on calling CapOne before then to see how this can be handled by them.

I've run into this issue before, not with train tickets but with airfare. Tried two credit cards, both were declined. It turned out they were flagged as suspicious activity by the card issuers. When I recently purchased train tickets from Berlin to Hamburg, I actually ended up paying with PayPal, and it worked great.

Hey everyone,

So, I think I know what is going on. In Europe a lot of the vendors have changed over to Visa 3d, which you have to get a password tied to your credit card, and they haven't rolled this out here yet, so it kicks you out. Ive been on the phone with Chase 3 times now.

The paypal idea worked! At least for the German leg of the trip... I dont believe oebb takes paypal and that's kicking me out as well.

I appreciate everyone's input, pretty stressful, if anyone else knows anything, please, let me know. I have never heard of this Visa 3d thing.

I question the above analysis.

I think you are naive. You're talking about 2010; this is 2016. The change was effective in 2015. If your bank is only collecting 3/10th% in transfer fees and they are paying 5/10th% to the network, they are losing money every time you make a purchase (especially if they give you 1½% cash back). Do you really believe banks are going to lose money forever? Sooner or later, they're going to get it from somewhere, and the only somewhere is you.

These are as reported on my statements. Is my word good enough, or is it necessary for me to post the screen shots of the statements along with scans of the receipts showing the original amount (including train and airline tickets online this summer)? If what you are saying happens in the future, as it has been reported here that this is not yet in effect and there are issues, so be it - but it is not yet happening. The above has been through 2016, not "talking about 2010; this is 2016."