CapitalOne & SBB.ch

Despite claims that you don't even need to call in for travel anymore, each time I use our Capital One card to make purchases from home in advance of a trip, they shut my card down. I end up having to call in a few times to confirm purchases etc. I definitely have to try some of my purchases a few times before they go through. It's kind of a running joke at my house.

Sometimes I give up and use a Hawaiian Air card that doesn't charge fees.

They told me I didn't have to inform them about travel too. The strange part is I have been able to make purchases on Italian websites for the Vatican, colosseum, etc.

So, were you able to use the card on the ticket machines and online after calling caiptalone?

I have not, and a year and a half ago I spent a lot for group tickets, But I called ahead and told them who the payee was (RHB in this case) and the approximate amount.

I just purchased from sbb.ch yesterday on my Cap1. I constantly make foreign purchases so I usually don't call, and Cap1 usually just lets them go through. Yesterday the charge was blocked by Cap1, but they sent me a txt asking if it was legit and depending on my reply txt they would let the charge go through. I replied CONFIRM and just re-attempted the transaction, and it went through no problems.

I called and let them know where I was going. It still didn't work. Is your capitalone card a credit card or debit card?

Mastercard Credit

I just tried with my capital one credit card on sbb.ch with exact same issue :( I called them before purchasing and they told me it I should not have any issue. I called them again after card got declined and they are of no help. They say they don't see anything getting declined so it is not an issue at their end.
I ended up using another credit card with no issue at all. That is some real BS.
Now I am worried if i will have more issues when I reach there in Switzerland.

I was in Switzerland a few weeks ago and tried to use my Capital One card to buy train tickets from a machine and it would not allow me to do so without a PIN. I didn't have the PIN so I went to the sbb travel center and purchased the tuckets from a person.

I just returned from Switzerland last Saturday. Over the course of two weeks my Cap1 Visa was accepted everywhere, including in the SBB kiosk in Bern. It is, of course, a chip & signature. I had informed Cap1 via the web interface that we'd be out of the country & everything worked seamlessly.

I'm having the same problems trying to buy a Swiss Pass online.

Capitol One says it wasn't them that denied the charge but they denied
a charge a week and a half ago for my Austrian Alpine Club membership.

What's the point of having a charge card?

Haven't had a problem with my CapitalOne card, but this has happened to me and to travel companions several times before. This general problem of having a card declined/not work in a country or a specific business illustrates a lesson I learned the hard way: always travel with more than one card. I carry three credit cards and two debits from different banks. [Got stuck with no way to get cash in the Czech Republic several years ago--and my hotel was cash only. Really fun.] Since then, I've made sure I had multiple cards, now all chip-enabled, of different types. If one doesn't work for some reason, the next one will. Whatever they say, you'll have better luck if you let them know (can now do this online) of your travel in advance.

Several months ago I did a travel notification on the CapOne website and then bought some tickets on DB; No problem.

So I've called Capitol One and they said it wasn't declined on their end. I've tried a couple of times.
I just tried my Bank of America VISA and it was declined. If our airline tickets were not non-refundable
I'd be tempted to say to heck with Switzerland!

edit:
I called Bank of America and after a 20 minute hold I finally got some satisfaction and a pair of Swiss Passes!
I will say one thing about Capital One I never have to wait and they gave me 2500 miles for my troubles!