.Italo & Trenitalia will not accept my credit card

How old are you? Have you ever used this card for an international purchase? Is it CREDIT or DEBIT? Has it been declined elsewhere in the last two years? What is your credit limit, roughly? Where are you located? Have you ever placed a Travel Notification on one of your credit cards?

If you haven't used the card overseas before than you need to notify the Credit Card company so they know that the charge is legitimate.

Call the credit card company and tell them you will be making international purchases and also tell them the dates you will be out of the country. Ask if the card is free for international transaction fees because those will mount up overseas.

Many European vendors now require cards to be 3D Secure:

https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/3d-credit-card-security/amp/

I ran into the same problem when trying to book train tickets in France last fall. Our group found that we had to go through Trainline.com, although I'm sure there are other outlets as well; that was just the website that one of the members of our group found. I just went straight there for all my train tickets needed for Italy this month. They also have a handy app with all your tickets purchased.

Have you tried to download the app and buy from the app? Just an idea. Good luck.

Apparently not all Italian train tickets are available on Trainline for later dates. I just searched for tickets for Sept 5 and a message popped up stating "You’re a bit early. Tickets for this journey haven't been released yet. Please modify your dates or check again at a later date."

Trenitalia for sure can not sell tickets past June 9 until the revised train schedule is published on June 10. It is a law in Italy

Not it's not. Trenitalia has been selling tickets for high speed trains running after June 10 since March. Nobody had arrested the CEO for breaking your law (trenitalia's food on the other hand...)

Today you can get tickets of all Trenitalia's high speed trains and most locals up to September 17. As long as you use the official Trenitalia.com site.

Feel free to promote a private re-seller you like so much, but do not make "laws" up to make other "give up on them". People would end up paying more getting tickets through Trainline. For obvious reasons Trainline can't sell trenitalia's tickets before Trenitalia. Not before and not at a lower price.

@Melrogro - I noticed the Rome to Salerno fast-trains were not discounted yet but most other fast-train routes were. Apparently not all of September is yet up for sale. When I checked an hour ago, it appeared a lot of September was posted with discounted tickets. The tickets for France were a real checkerboard of what is for sale and what isn’t in August. But there are a lot of fire-sale tickets for French routes on sale now on The Trainline.
I would check back because something could change shortly ( even tomorrow) and you might be able to buy them.

@Dario. You apparently did not know in March that Trenitalia has an agreement with The Trainline to access Trenitalia’s computers so sales of the tickets are based on Trenitalia’s own train schedules and ticket pricing You previously wrote that Trainline could be running a “scam.”
Whatever Trainline does, it does with the permission and acquiescence of Trenitalia- the Italian government’s own train company. And Trenitalia keeps contracting with Trainline. If you think there is something nefarious going on, perhaps you should report it to the appropriate Italian authorities.
The editor of “The Man in Seat 61,” Mark Smith, has endorsed The Trainline for buying train tickets—as has Rick Steves.

I had a very positive experience with Trainline in 2020. I normally buy tickets directly from Trenitalia or Italo, but there was a brief period in late 2019 when booking Trenitalia was difficult for Americans—-they changed their registration system and my previous registration, used since 2013, was no longer valid. At the time they were requiring an Italian residence address to register. Many people just used their hotel in Italy or whatever, but we booked apartments and that got complicated. So for our planned trip to Puglia, Bologna and Venice in March 2020, I booked tickets on Italo for the locations they served, and used Trainline for the Trenitalia tickets in Basilicata and Puglia.

Of course we had to cancel the trip. Italo provided vouchers for future travel for the value of our canceled tickets. Trenitalia, by contrast, is had a complicated system for claiming a refund of covid-canceled trips, all in Italian on the website, with refund by wire transfer into one’s bank account—-not easy for Americans. But Trainline immediately refunded the canceled trips to my credit card.

Now Trenitalia is easier to use, so I book directly with them. But I have continued to use Trainline for booking trains in France, on the few occasions when we have ventured into that country.

As mentioned in the previous reply, I'd also suggest registering an account with Trainline as I've always had good luck with ticket purchases there. They sell tickets for both rail lines in Italy (and many others).

I've always found their customer service to be very responsive, so if they have an issue with your VISA card, it should be very easy to get that sorted.

Good luck!

@ kenko: there is no law as you wrote. It is simply a wrong information provided to current and future readers. Trenitalia has started selling those tickets months ago without breaking any 'law". Period.
Trainline sells not protected connections without warning its customers. Imho a scam because of lack of transparency
They can't sell trenitalia's tickets before Trenitalia, they sell an IOU without warning its customers. Imho a scam because of lack of transparency.
They make passengers who have never used a train learn Italian stations names only when they are in Italy, an awful service to its customers.

Trenitalia, I was able to use my regular credit union card. Italo caused that card and one other to get denied and locked for fraudulent activity. Called both cards, got them unlocked and registered for international use and they still wouldn't process. Ended up using a Chase card that went through without a problem

One other thought......

Visa used to have a program called Verified by Visa which made online transactions easier. I'm not sure if that program is still active? They may have updated it to something newer?

You might check with your card issuer to see if they have any insight on why your card isn't being accepted.