Renfe in Spain and Verified by Visa

Verified for Visa exists and I use it on a daily basis (twice today) - the problem lies with your bank making the decision not to participate in this level of security.

I have a Chase card and have seen verified by visa come up on several of my recent purchases (although I haven't been required to enter the password). You may get redirected to it when you attempt to make your purchase through RENFE. That is how I first enrolled my card a few years ago. Regardless, call Chase and let them know you are going to make the RENFE purchase. After I enrolled in Verified by Visa, my transaction on RENFE was rejected again and the next day I got a fraud alert from Chase. Once I talked to them and they made the appropriate changes, my transaction went through ... but it took multiple attempts on RENFE before all the things worked.

Both renfe and verified by visa declined my capital one card. Capital one representative was baffled by both of these declines.
I had to go thru a 3rd party site and was able to get tickets at their discounted price. I can't remember what the site was though. Maybe Lola will read this and tell us as she is the one who told me how to get tickets.

The third party Kelly mentions must be either Petrabax of Rumbo.es. Both are Spanish travel agencies that sell Renfe tickets on-line and offer the discout (now Promo) prices, but add a handling fee (so they tickets are not quite as low as they would be on Renfe). I have bought from Rumbo.es (before I registered my card with Verified by Visa) and it was easy, although the website is only in Spanish. I know of others who have used Petrabax with no issues. with either one you get a printable ticket from Renfe. I don't know why Chase no longer uses the Verified by Visa system. I registered my Chase card several years ago, but haven't tried to use it on Renfe lately, so I don't know if the verification is still good. On Tripadvisor some people have reported success with their debit card on Renfe, without the VbV step. bottoom line is it is very frustrating and hit-or-miss.

I bumped into Verified by Visa again last week. It exists, but maybe not in the low security world of your bank.

If you have a recent VISA card by Chase Bank. We found today,(after 4 hours with about 9 different people, both with tech support and with Chase VISA) that Chase bank no longer does Verified by Visa.
We got on our Wells Fargo web site two months ago and put in a extra security pass word. So after trying 8 to 10 times buying tickets on RENFE with Chase people, we tried our Wells Fargo card and BAM! got the tickets. We had to pay a conversation cost of 3% but it was well worth it. So if you have a recent VISA card from Chase bank, don't waste your time trying to figure out how to verify it! They can't or wont help you.

I tried to use Capital One CC on Renfe while I had Capital One Fraud Dept on the phone a couple of weeks ago - it would not go through. I generally used the Cap 1 because of their policy of no fees. However, I ended up using a debit card (with verified by visa activated) from a credit union where I have a small account (not my main banking). I was concerned about using a debit card, which is why I used a mostly unused account. It only had the 1% charge by Visa, so was worth doing - easy - went through immediately. Both Chase and Capital 1 told me they no longer use Verified by Visa.