Trenitalia Website Problems

I booked online today with Trenitalia and had the same trouble. I typed in my name as it appears on my credit card and got the "payment denied" message. I then typed in just my first and last name and it worked. Hope this helps.

I was able to book one transaction and when I tried another several times it came back "Payment Denied". I tried 2 credit cards and the same thing. I just don't understand if I completed a transaction five minutes earlier. I guess I will keep trying.

You may want to contact Visa and AmEx. Sometimes when you attempt to make an 'unusual' purchase which you don't typically make, your card provider may block the purchase for fear that your card has been stolen. Call the company and see if this is the case. (This happened to me and they immediately rectified the block) Good Luck

Yes, definitely call the credit card company. That exact thing happened to me, and when I called the CC company they said they had blocked it because it was an unusual charge.

I tried to buy tickets online about 2 days ago from trenitalia. That night I had a phone call from the fraud department of my credit card company wanting to know if I knew about the activity on my card. I said yes and had them authorize me to use the card overseas even though we don't leave for a few more days. When I went through the online purchase process again last night, I originally got an error message and a notice to check my email and the international summary order in the customer area of their website to see if the transaction had gone through. Neither one showed the transaction had gone through until about 12 hours later--I had an email this morning saying that the purchase had gone through. Good luck!

So I called my CC company and they authorized the charge and I finally made it past the CC screen, but now I'm getting a message that translates into "Denied authorization - the customer and disabilitato state - not successful Purchase, No I debit carried out" and I got an e-mail saying "Dear Customer, We inform you of the disablement of your account for security reasons"

Has anyone had this happen?

I tried for about 6 weeks with constant failures, even after contacting my credit card company. I sent emails to Trenitalia and they called me from Italy 3 or 4 times, but were never able to get it to work. Finally, it was too late snd I bought the tickets from at the machine at the train station without a bit of a problem. They were always very nice on the phone and apolgetic...it seems that there are MANY problems with their system. Some people get through without any trouble and others suffer from constant frustration. I'm an advance planner, so I found it nerve wracking to wait and buy once in Italy, but it worked out just fine.

I've been trying for weeks and always get the "denied" message--no matter what card I use. The problem is not with our card issuers (although I was able to make two purchases in late March and got a call from the Fraud Department) just to make sure I was making the charges. Anyway, I gave up and decided to use the Fast Ticket machines when I arrive in Rome. Last year I booked more than 100 tickets through the Trenitalia site and didn't have any problems. Oh, well. Fortunately, there are lots of trains running.

I've been having the same problem. I was able to buy a group of tickets ONCE last week and then after that I'd always get "The Payment has been denied" when I tried to buy tickets for another leg of our trip. This morning I tried with another credit card and it went through with no problem so I was beginning to think the problem was with the 1st CC until I logged on to buy more tickets for the last leg of our trip and got the same ol' line. Both CC companies say there is no problem on their ends.

I had trouble too, but keep trying. It could be your credit card, but more than likely it is the lovely Italian website....I picked up tickets at the self-service kiosks at both the Milan and Rome train stations without incident.

PS watch your bags closely at the self-serve kiosks - I was approached by several people I would call "suspicious" offering to help me with my tickets. Say "No, grazie" in a loud voice, they'll usually leave you alone.

I had the same issues, so I booked a leg on Italiarail.com and got our tickets in 2 days. I talked to a live person in the U.S. who answered all of my questions. I wanted to get these tickets and was not too concerned about upcharges or shipping-I just needed peace of mind!!

My story is similar to the many replies on this thread. Just one twist that seems to be worse. I tried to use my credit card twice and each time it was denied. I guessed that the problem might be the "strange" charge so while still online I called my card company. They confirmed that they had denied it and agreed to approve it. I clicked submit one more time and this time the charge went through but also I got an email saying that my accound had been disabled. So now I've been charged but have no voucher for the tickets.

Does anyone have any idea how to contact them. I tried to call the phone number on the website and found that it only accepts calls from within Italy. I found a fax and sent a letter but have gotten no reply. The curious thing is that the email saying that my account is suspended says to call the same phone number to get it reinstated. Too bad I don't have an international number I can call.

Ideas?

IT'S YOUR MIDDLE INITIAL! I've had this problem several times .. most recently booking tickets on Alitalia for a flight between Milan and Naples.

Basically, in the Italian database there is not a separate field for your middle initial. While American credit cards all use the initial as an extra measure of security.

I was able to immediately resolve this problem by calling my credit cards companies (American Express) and another debit card and having my middle initial removed.

I know it's probably too late for those who have posted in this chain but I found a way around the credit card issue. After four attempts using 3 different cards, I called MasterCard. They said it's not their problem - they could see that they hadn't blocked anything. So then I changed the browser Privacy settings (Tools, Internet Options, Privacy tab) to the next to lowest setting. I then went back and was able to complete 2 purchases with no problem. I hope this works for others becasue this is hugely frustrating and time-consuming. Good luck!

Thanks to Carla! I just spent an entire afternoon trying to book tickets between Venezia and Ljubljana on the Trenitalia web site. When I FINALLY made it to the credit card page, it told me that my purchase was temporarily suspended. When I looked for more information it told me that because I had tried unsuccessfully to purchase the tickets at least twice, my account would be suspended for 15 minutes. I was never able to get things going again and finally checked this board.

I went to ItaliaRail.com and had the tickets purchased in less than 5 minutes. I think that the Trenitalia web site just isn't very user friendly.

Thanks again!

I was having the same problems. I changed my privacy settings and it worked now!

But it cost me $40 more than it would have if I had been able to book when I forst tried 2 weeks ago. Grrr.

Thanks for the tip on the privacy settings, I'll try that.

Katie, why did you have to pay $40 more????

The times I originally wanted to book were no longer available and i had to pick another time for 2 of my legs, both of which were more expensive.

This problem is Trenitalia's. It is not your credit card company, nor the settings on your browser. I have used Explorer and Firefox, with settings wide open and popups allowed, and every other combination. I have used three different credit cards and I get variations of all the problems mentioned above. My credit card company has told me that they haven't even received anything from Trenitalia, and that they are not blocking a thing. It is really too bad because for several years Trenitalia worked, but not very well, and only on Explorer, but if you were lucky you could actually choose your seats by clicking on the icons. Now they have eliminated that, but it doesn't matter because you can't use their site anyway. They seem to be working on it, because in the last few days I have had my account blocked but they add a form you can fill out to have it unblocked. So there is a bit of movement there, but not enough yet. I don't blame them. They're probably on break with their 4th espressi

I am having the same problem. I have been trying to book reservations for travel from Florence to Naples later in June, with the same "payment denied" error message. I have checked with Visa as well as the bank supporting my Visa and they have had the same problem. Unfortunately, no luck, either with the phone number. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FYI - when my husband and I were in Italy last summer we had no problem booking our trains as we went. We usually jsut booked the next leg of our trip before we left the station or popped into one of the AmEx office Rick mentions in his book. Only one time did we have to leave a little later htan we wanted...but hey we were on vacation and rolled with it :)

I experienced the same problem using Trenitalia's website. I finally gave up, made a list of the dates and trains I wanted to take, and went directly to Trenitalia @ FCO and bought all of my tickets at once just as I arrived. The first train request, for 4 days later, was sold out, but I got the next train which left 30 minutes later.

On a different online forum, someone indicated that they had some success calling the following number:
39 06 43 24 31 00 (after first diaing, of course, 011). I haven't tried it but you might give it a shot. Let us all know if it gets you anywhere. Good luck!

Misery enjoys company. Today I tried six times to purchase some first class tickets for a May trip. Like you, I used two different credit cards. What a waste of time. I did everything correctly...first notified my credit card companies and I allowed for cookies & pop-ups. I received my seat assignments from Trenitalia, but the Bank website just denied my card no matter how I entered my name.

I might try using a travel agent, such as the concierge service offered by Context Travel. (www.contexttravel.com). Or, I might just wait til I get there. Good luck and remember to travel lightly...

If you have a Visa.. TRY USING THEIR VIRTUAL CARD NUMBERS! I tried this after several unsuccessful tries, and it worked.

What are "virtual visa Numbers"?

There is a trenitalia agent in Boston who told me that the problem is that since there is so much fraud and identity theft in the US trenitalia has stopped accepting US based credit cards online.

I have had the same problem.Thought it was to do with the 'verified by visa part of it'.When I rang the National bank here about 3 times before I finally got a satisfactory answer, that it wasnt my card.It was a system problem.They said Nationals card doesnt work on that site.When I suggested using another bank's card she said she wouldnt recommend that.Then she discretely muttered that she couldnt say much and the word 'investigated' was somewhere in there.Go figure.

The TrenItalia site is very inconsistent - sometimes it will accept US credit cards; others times it will not. I buy my tickets at the Station for my next "location."

The TrenItalia Travel Help Center number is +39-06-6847 5475. (From the US, you would dial 00 11 39 06 6847 5475) Ask for an English speaking Operator and they will try and assist you. Here's the same info from the "Help" section of their website: http://www.trenitalia.com/en/area_clienti/call_center/index.html

I've spoken to them a few times as I've bought tickets for incoming friends and relatives using my US banked, Capitol One Mastercard. I purchased MANY tickets and had to call a few times to "override" TrenItalia issues. Again, it's not your cards - it's their website and security measures. And frankly, they are inconsistently applied. You can use the same card 10 times and it will not work... but on #11 it might??

They will also "suspend" your ability to buy tickets if you use multiple credit cards on their site, or purchase TOO MANY tickets - Happened to me as we had 5 couples visiting in less than 30 days and I bought all their tickets online - until TrenItalia locked me out for three weeks!

So if you can wait, buy your tickets once you get here...

Ciao,
Ron

I tried several times to buy tickets online in June 2008 and got the same "payment denied" message. When I contacted my credit card company, they told me that they had not blocked it, and had not even recorded an attempted charge, indicating that Trenitalia did not even submit the charge. I have tried repeatedly on my home and work computers with no luck. I may have to wait until I get to Italy to buy tickets, but as I am going to Venice I imagine it will be difficult to get to the train station to purchase tickets ahead of time, as I am going to stay by the Piazza San Marco. Has anyone had better luck?

I had been facing this same issue for the past nearly a month. Then I opened an account using my Yahoo ID and used a Non US card, and it worked. So its true that US cards definately dont work anymore, atleast now in 2008. I had also called up the cust service number and the gentleman confirmed that US cards will not work at all. This is not an issue with the banks / CC companies, its a trenitalia website issue, so dont sweat too much with your bank

I had the same experience. I was denied with a US card but no problems with a UK card.

I have also run into the 'payment denied' issue. I tried calling the Trenitalia call center, but got a recording that they do not accept calls from unidentified foreign numbers. I guess that applied to me!

Quite frustrating! I have known which train I want

So how does an American obtain a "non US credit card" legally? Is it possible?

Credit card problems still in effect, so purchase when you arrive in Italy. Do it as soon as you can, and you may still be able to get an "Amica" fare at 20 per cent off. If they're still available, they can be purchased up to midnight the day before travel.

Please advise if it is still possible to purchase tickets in Italy with American Credit Cards. I too got the denied message, and I used two cards much to my regret. We are leving in 11 days so I will need to buy my tickets at FCO.
I tried to post a question to Trentitalia customer suggestions/complaints but discovered that an address was required. There is a drop down for country and the one country that i could not find in the drop down is the USA. It appears that at least on line they do not wish to do business with Americans. Will I need to have euros to make these purchases or will US credit cards work at the kiosks/windows.

Thanks April

My northern friends,

It's not a problem with US cards only, because I'm Brazilian and passing by the same problem with my Brazilian cards. I think any international card has this problem, or at least non-EU cards.
I've bought several trenitalia tickets in the past years, with no problem.
Today, I tried to buy a ticket, but the system refused my first card. I called Mastercard, here in Brasil, and they said there was no attempt to charge my card. So I tried with my Visa, and it worked fine...
Well, after buying my first ticket with the Visa card, I tried to buy another one and... it was denied. I tried again, and it was blocked. I created a new account: no sollution.
Well, at least I could buy the ticket for my first trip there, using the Amica discount (since it has to be bought at least 24h in advance). I'll try to buy the other ticket I need in Italy, since I'll have a couple of days in Rome until the date of this second side-trip.
I hope they fix it, for the next years. Searching at internet, I found that this problem comes from 2002 at least...

I have same problem last week.Finally, I found the reason in the website www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp… and then write the email to [email protected] to request reactivate my account.

The website seems not friendly enough for tourist to read but they somehow provide the information if you have patient to find it out. Funny thing is some information will be gone few days later if you try to find again.

e.g: Reasons for user disabling of their purchase guide section.

They actually listed they limit twice mistake on typing on password or less than two credit card for one user and you cannot use same credit card at another user id(this meant you'd better not try to create another user account)

I have tried to open the cookies function, disable pop-up blocker and even turn off the anti-virus. These all not work for me and I did purchase the ticket on line successfully before these change on my computer.

Goods news to me is that they reply my email and reactive my user account within 12hrs and allow me to use more than two credit cards to purchase on-line. (It works for Visa and Master) My credit cards are issued in Taiwan. There is one thing to be careful with. Please try to buy all the tickets in one time. I used Visa and it gone through succesfully, but once i came back to purchase after half hour later for another ticket, it blocked my visa card and then I tried my master card and it succeed. I am not so sure for the third time if it works or not but I now know where I can request to reactivate my user account.

Wish you all luck..It's a big saver if you purchase Amica fare in advance.

All the best.

I was told that when your on their site. Your really in India. Cool huh ?? Why not, when I call any company. I seem to end up there, or in that area ...hehe

FYI-UPDATE
I will save everyone some time. I called Trenitalia and spoke with a representative.

You CANNOT book tickets through the website from US. It is only for Italy customers.

They will NOT accept US credit cards. You have three choices, go through their site, and there are a list of vendors you can use. Link pasted here. http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=6fa4f6f7199ca110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

Or the day before your trip do the Postoclick, 24 hours in advance.

Or wait until you get there and buy at train station.

Good Luck

I wasted the better part of a day trying to make a train reservation on the Trenitalia website only to find my credit card was denied. I finally got through to the Trenitalia call center in Italy. I was told it is a known problem is with their website rejecting international credit cards -- and I have no choice but to purchase tickets when I arrive in Italy. I also called the Italian tourist board in NYC and they told me that Trenitalia has been aware of this problem for some time -- and unfortunately they have made no progress. Meanwhile, for international travellers, this means losing out on discounts, special promotions and lots of added inconvenience. Lots of complaints have been posted, but there seems to be little anyone can do.

i'm having the same problems! i've tried both visa and master card to no avail. keep on getting payment denied as I tried to purchase tix from rome to florence. judging from previous posts, trenitalia has been having these problems for many years!

Ahhhh!!!! This is really lame. So we all get to pay full fare instead of taking advantage of a 20% discount for being an avid planner.

Do you think I can have my friend in France by the tickets on his credit card and put them in my name?

I know this is a old post but I just want to share my experience on tickets purchase on Trenitalia website. Like many others, I have tried all of my non-italia credit cards and none of them worked. I even called Fraud department but could not find any payment denied attempts.

I called the trenitalia customer service several times ... I got connected only once and after 20 mins of discussion (taking my name, trip details,etc I had to repeat my answers many times though, understood that english not their native language), the representative told me that there are no tickets available and just hung up. I checked online, but still able to see seats available.

I even requested my hotel to book tickets for me, but they politely said they cannot book for others.

I changed browsers, cleared the cache, tried to book from work, reserved via postoclick and tried to buy next day, NONE worked.

FINALLY, I wanted to try the virtual account number before buying tickets as soon as I land in Italy. Hurray! it did WORKED this time. I was able to book train tickets online by using a virtual credit card number (from citi) and saved 23 Euros !!!

I hope they will fix this one day, at least in the near future.

buona fortuna !!!

Lonekid...I assume this was the Citibank Mastercard virtual number? Obviously, Trenitalia's cc processors don't have that series of numbers programmed for rejection.....what a superb solution you've uncovered!
The big question is....does anyone other than Citibank Mastercard offer virtual cc numbers?

Yes, an old post but timely. If anyone is trying to buy tickets for Italy ahead of time, check the price on Trenitalia, and then go to Rail Europe and see what it is there for the same route. The last couple of days (or maybe longer but I just learned of this) Rail Europe has been selling tickets for Italy at the same price (or very close) as Trenitalia. With free shipping for a "limited time"---so who knows how long that will last.

I'm no fan of Rail Europe, but this seems to be an exception to their usual markup.

I can't find anything to indicate whether or not train ticket prices go up the closer it is to departure date. We are going from Rome to Venice on April 11, and I don't know if I should buy tickets online before we go or not. I saw the problems with using the trenitalia site so would appreciate advice. Thanks!

Peter, this is very old discussion -- nearly three years. Am credit cards are routine reject and have been for a long time. Buy 'em when you get there.

Ok, RailEurope was out for me as was most of the other options. I was trying to book 4 tickets on the Eurostar from Rome to Naples and back for a trip to Capri in May and Trenitalia's price was 280 Euro total in 1st class for 4 roundtrip, RailEurope was 550 Euro (as was every travel agent I called). Waiting to buy them in Rome when we arrived would negate the 30 day advance price and make them about 400 Euros. Again unfair! FINALLY A SOLUTION TODAY! If you have an American Express card, simply call or E-mail the American Express Travel office in Rome and they will be happy to purchase them on the Trenitalia website directly for you using your AMEX card and E-mail you back the ticketless E-tickets with NOT EXTRA FEES!!! WOW! I got the tickets within 24 hours of asking and only paid the advertised 280 Euro price! THANK YOU AMERICAN EXPRESS! Shame on you RailEurope! Good Luck to anyone in the same situation!

Thats pretty cool, who did you email at the Amex office in Rome?

I'd love to know who this is?

The problem is with Trenitalia. You are probably not going to able to book with a credit card from the US. We had this issue last year, so it's not new. However, you can use your credit card at one of the machines at a station in Italy with no problem. We printed out the itinerary with train numbers, etc. from the website before we left home, had those in hand, and easily bought all our tickets at one time in Rome. There were a lot of "helpful people" around that we had to be careful of, but it was easy to buy the tickets. The first screen has a choice for
English. Just be sure to get all of the tickets from the machine. Each segment of the trip will have a separate ticket. We liked using the machines over going to the counter because we didn't have the language translation issue.

To the people with Aamerican Express card, I managed to get my tickets by speaking with their train booking specialist at the Milan office (info on the website). As I remember his name was Mr. Francesco. He knew very little english, but he suggested me to email him my payment info and the exact details of the train tickets within Italy at the following email id: [email protected]. He emailed me the reserved tickets the very next day at the 30% discount rates.
Hope this helps someone. Good Luck.

It's Volcano Week, so I decided to book e-tickets for the train (Rome-Turino) in advance before flying to Italy (I hope!) this weekend; TrenItalia did ALL THE BAD THINGS DESCRIBED HERE! Rejected 2 different cards that my card company said were fine; they didn't even see the rejected transaction on their computer. Soo....I went on the "Raileurope.com" site, and just...bought tickets. More expensive, I'm sure, (plus they nail on extra charges), and now I have to sweat getting "overnight delivery" by the time I leave (no e-tix now), but the weird thing was, their timetable showed WAY more departures than Trenitalia's own site. Had the Trenitalia site worked, I would've been stuck with a very inconvenient time. Now let's hope I really did order real tickets via RailEurope. Since they deal heavily with agents, hopefully they are the real deal. "Stop making sense."

Just posting the link to one site which I found extremely interesting. It explains everything there is to know about trenitalia.com. It also explains why the credit cards, and which ones, are getting denied.

http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#How%20to%20use%20Trenitalia.com

Just booked 2 tickets today through the Trenitalia site for mid August and had no problems at all. I received a confirmation email within 1 minute with my PNR number and the details of the transit. I live in Canada and used my regular CC with no prior notification to my CC company. Also chose the self service option, which is really the only one available outside of Italy from what I can tell. This works out fine since our hotel is 15 minutes away from the train station and we have a week and a half prior to go and pre-print our tickets at a self-serve kiosk.

Kirk,

You should try to purchase another ticket. My first attemp worked fine too, but because I never really expected it to work, I did not bother to reserve all my tickets/trips. Big OOPS!. Couldn't get it to work no matter what. Finally had my wife set a new account and use her card. We are from Canada too!

Actually - it is specifically that Trenitalia has a problem with USA credit cards. I was in the travel biz for decades - and had that happen to me as recently as ... well ... today.

It IS because they fear fraud.

My personal issue - is that when you call they tell you to purchase from Rail Europe - which is MUCH MUCH higher ... ugh

IF it helps - here is Trenitalia's phone
(011) 39 06 68475475
you can beat the "cost per minute" call system by using Skype - it works for some reason at 2 cents per minute woo hoo

I tried booking using my Capital One card and got denied twice. Tried again last night using my Bank of America visa and the transaction cleared! didn't even notify B of A ahead of time. I'd say keep trying, can't hurt....

I am another frustrated tourist trying to buy train tickets at trenitalia. I also got the "Payment Denied" message a few times. It seems that the website works at random (including for prices and seat availability). I will a)have my husband try to get from the UK, b)try the Citibank virtual number, c) if none of them work, then, I guess I will have to get them at italiarail.com (US$ 45 extra)... wish me luck!

What we tried (did not work):
1. US issued Citibank Visa / Mastercard, Chase Visa, Amex
2. Citibank virtual numbers (Visa and Mastercard)
3. Called the credit card companies
4. Contacted Amex travel office in Rome and they said they only take walk-ins even if you have a Posto click PRN from trenitalia.

What worked:
1. Used a relative's overseas visa credit card. Tried first time with an older username. Did not work. Tried another time with a new username and it worked.

So, we finally got the faster train (Rome - Florence, Florence - Venice) tickets at meno30 prices (30% discount off base price).

Like most posters have said, if one is not interested in getting discounts and OK with traveling on a slower train, you can always purchase tickets in Italy.

Not sure if one can have a B&B purchase the tickets for you but worth a try.

After several attempts to books tickets on Ternitalia with every card we owned, I called India and asked a family member to books tickets for me. They were able to book immediately while I was on hold. I still cannot understand Why US cards would not work.

Hi there, I had the same problem (I also had the same problem in Spain). I was using Chase World Mastercard and also tried a Chase Visa debit. When I called Chase ar the number on the back of the Mastercard, it immediately gave me the option to talk to someone about a declined charge. When I did, they saw the attempt from Trenitalia (actually, their processor). I explained it was valid and they cleared the account and had me try again while they were on - to success. Of course, Trenitalia's site requires you to rebuild your cart again, but such is life. So I do not believe it is Trenitalia (or their credit processor that they hand off to to actually process the card) blocking US cards; it's something about how they're charging that seems to tweak the US card providers. Happy Travels!

This is nearly a five year old posting so most of the above discussion is out date.