Anyone has any luck with renfe.com?

I have bought 4 of 5 legs of our Spain travels on Renfe.com. But first I bought from rumbo.es, a travel agent which will charge a small handling fee, but is more likely to accept your US credit card. They provide Renfe printable tickets. There are detailed instructions for buying from Renfe on the Tripadvisor Madrid forum. but basically, what you need to do is register your card with Verified by Visa, AND call your bank ahead of time to authorize the transaction. I have heard that some Visa cards don't work no matter what. Some say Bank of America cards do not work. I used my Chase Visa which has no FTE's so that was good. If after doing all that you still can't get through on Renfe, try rumbo.es.

Thanks! Not quite there yet :) renfe.com has a lot of deals, sometimes 60% off for adult fare, more for senior, child etc. The problem is I can't pass the payment page. I wonder if there is any U.S. credit card work with them. I am not worried about the deal I am missing. I am more worried if there won't be any sleeper tickets left for the date I need.

I have purchased tickets on two or three times. There are several postings here on the site about the process. Apparently you have followed them. It seems as though I was on the Spanish version, having frist read the English version. When I did get to the time to purchase, I created a registered name, etc., on the Spanish side, then provided the credit (debit) card information (Visa, Bank America) and purchased the tickets. On the second time, I typed in the registration information and had no difficulty. This was back in 2010, Spring and Fall. Have not attempeted to purchase since then. Good Luck.

I have been making my successful purchases this spring, within the last few weeks. I found it worked better if I did not "log in" although I registered. I kept getting an error message if I tried to log in. The process went most smoothly if I used the
Spanish website, went directly to "purchase tickets " (compra billettes) and went from there. You will have to enter your passport number, etc. but you already know that. Once you enter your credit card details and hit "purchase" the next screen should come from Verified by Visa, asking you to enter your password. Do you get an error message instead?

I followed everything tripadvisor and seat61 said about buying tickets from renfe.com, used the Spanish website, created an account and logged in. I used a capital one card. Tried several times. It all came back with an error message, said they can't verify the card user or something. I called Capital one. They didn't even see anyone attempt to charge me.

But did you register your card with verified by Visa? That seems to be the key. Or you might try rumbo.es. They run it through Renfe and you get the Web fare if it is available. You get printable tickets from Renfe, just as if you have purchased on the Renfe site. You do pay a small handling charge but it is worth it if you get the Web or other discount. They also respond to e-mail (but not in the middle of the night).

It is a master card. I don't think I have any visa card :(

There is some kiind of registration system for Mastercards as well---someone on Tripadvisor mentioned it. It's worth a try.

My Capital One master card didn't work, but my Citi master card worked!!! Neither of them was registered with MasterCard SecureCode program before. (I tried to register them last night and failed) But somehow when I used my Citi master card to pay, the MasterCard SecureCode window pop up, asking for some more information, and it just worked. Both tripadvisor and seat61 said about buying from renfe.com: "if one failed, try a different time, try a different PC, try a different credit card ......" they won't kidding. Thanks to all!

Everyone else's success stories gave me confidence that I, too, would be able to purchase tickets on the Renfe website. I was prepared. I followed the instructions on Tripadvisor and Seat61 to the T. I was persistent. I tried numerous times over the course of 3 days and during different times in the day and night. Was I successful? NO!!! The entire process was extremely frustrating. I have a Chase Visa credit card and also a Chase Visa debit card (both are Verified by Visa). Both were declined. I called and spoke with Chase 4 times, and each time the rep I spoke with claimed to release the hold on my account. One rep even waited on the phone with me while I tried to complete the transaction, but he said he wasn't seeing the transaction on his end. I also tried to contact Petrabax, but never received a response from them. I then decided to do what a few others resorted to, which was to purchase 2 preferente tickets from rumbo.es. This purchase was also initially declined, but it took just 1 call to release the hold for the transaction to go through. Although I spent an additional $10 EUR ($14 USD) for 2 tickets, it was well worth it to finally have confirmed tickets in my possession...and I saved $135 over RailEurope's fares! BTW, rumbo does offer estrella and web fares. I am just happy that I don't have to deal with the Renfe website anymore!!! Good luck to everyone else!

I was able to buy from renfe.com earlier this year once I disabled the pop-up blockers on my computer. Apparently, once you verify everything, they hand you off to a third party to complete the transaction but that site is a pop-up and if you block pop-ups, your transaction comes to a halt.