I clicked on to the Official "Vatican Museums Ticket Office at RickSteves' website to purchase tickets for the Vatican museum ( this link: https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do). I went through the process of filling out the information an entering my credit card and received a message that the transaction could not be completed. I tried again and even used my wife's credit card and received the same response. I tried a different time also with the same result. Just as an aside we have an excellent credit history. Just wondering if anyone has had this issue or have any advice? Our credit cards have the "chip" in it so wondering if that may be could be an issue. I would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks,
CJL
Posted by
Tucson
4163 posts
Were the tickets priced in €? If so, did you tell your CC provider that you would be making an online purchase in Italy in €?
Neither of my credit unions will approve overseas transactions in foreign currencies without me telling them in advance. I have them make it possible for a specific time period and try to get as many of my reservations done as I can during that time.
And of course you need to inform both your CC and debit/ATM card providers of where you will be and when so that your cards aren't blocked while you are there. This is the link to all things monetary on this RS website in case you haven't seen it yet.
Posted by
OP
13 posts
Thanks for your response. So I found out what happend. The Verified by Visa folks were blocking the transaction. I needed to call my visa card and ask for the "Verified by Visa" people to let them know that I wanted the transaction to go through. I love the security but there was no notice back to me or the Visa card that the Verified By Visa" team were blocking this transaction. I needed to "google' the term "operation not complete" and found out what to do.
CJL
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Thanks for the follow up. There are suddenly a lot of threads about credit cards not working on various European websites, so your tip may help others.
Posted by
824 posts
I have also had problems such as this in the past. It was explained to me that credit card processors in Europe use a different "verification" organization/system that those used in the USA (VeriSign being one of the largest). In effect, your card is not registered in their verification system so it is being rejected.
If PayPal is a payment option, I would create a PayPal account and try using it. One advantage to PayPal is the lack of a foreign transaction fee. I found that PayPal used a very competitive exchange rate when billing my credit card in US dollars.
If you don't want to go the PayPal route, you could call the vendor direct and make your purchase(s) over the phone. I know this can be a hassle due to the time-zone difference but it may be the only way to resolve the issue.
A really cheap way to call overseas is by using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service such as Skype or Google (Gmail). You can usually call Europe for 3 or 4 cents a minute... BTW - this capability comes in really handy when you're overseas and want to make a call back to the states.