I’ve been trying to book an intercity train on Trenitalia’s website, but I keep getting a message that says,
“The purchase was not successful. No charge was made....”. I called the bank; they said my credit card was not charged, nor was there any request to charge it. Any ideas why this would happen and how to solve the problem? I did not use a log in to purchase the ticket.
I thought about trying Italiarail website instead. Does it have booking fees and is it a safe website?
Try www.trainline.eu instead. No extra fees as far as I know. I have booked on Trenitalia's website before without problems, but some people do seem to have issues.
You may need a Secure Code Visa or Mastercard, where you have a PIN you have to enter during the transaction. Also, try American Express if you have it.
Lastly, you can buy through www.trainline.eu. Same price and ticket, but less stringent credit card vetting.
Thank you Sam and Andrew. I will try the Trenitalia Eu website. If that doesn’t work I’ll try the other resolution.
Do you think if I purchased the ticket using a computer instead of a tablet it might make a difference? Also, will I have that problem using my CC when I go there?
I tried two different CC’s to no avail. Maybe the Eu site will work.
Thank you.
The Trenitalia website also has a Paypal option - but they do use DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) by default. That means they charge you an unnecessary surcharge to "convert" the euros to dollars. You can turn this off, though, on each credit card you register with Paypal (in case you have a card with no foreign transaction fees - use that card with Paypal and turn off the DCC and you won't get charged the extra fee).
That is www.traineline.eu, not trenitalia. Credit cards work fine over there, it is an issue with on-line credit card transcation security that many of the banks have instituted in Europe. Also the extra credit card fees that American cards often come with to cover their rewards, and double and triple miles rewards programs.
The www.trainline.eu site or my American Express Card are the only ways I have been able to purchase tickets on Trenitalia.
Thank you all! I had success using www.trainline.eu.
I appreciate all your input!
My Capital One Mastercard has worked on trenitalia.com for years...until this year. Finally used my Amex and it went straight through to confirmation no problems. Go Figure.
I just bought my train tickets today on Trenitalia's website using my Capital One Visa and had no trouble at all. It came up Verified by Visa and went right through and my ticket confirmation and tickets were e-mailed to me within minutes.
When I encountered that problem a few years back, my credit card company suggested removing my middle initial from the card. That apparently solved the problem, as it hasn't reoccurred since I got the new card. As you may have noticed, many Italian payment sites only have fields for a first and a last name. Not including the middle initial, trying to force it into one of those two fields or omitting it entirely evidently created a mismatch that didn't allow my transactions to go through.
Frank, thank you for that recommendation.
