purchase of train ticket

I tried to purchase train ticket from www.thetrainline.com and www.qjump.co.uk. But these 2 operators do not accept credit card with billing address out of UK. I was told that should buy the ticket through telesales (phone no. 44 8704 11 11 11), tried to call since Tuesday, the line is not working. Any other recommendation? Thanks

if possible book trough one of the train companies, I believe tranline charge £2 for Credit card transactions.

You could try National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950.

Use the Fast Ticket option, and type in any UK post code. It doesn't matter which one, as I have learnt on another thread of this branch.

I didn't think you can phone 0845 numbers outside the UK. 0870 numbers might be the same. Does anyone know?

I'd suggest going with Istvan's suggestion if possible. Can't see why you shouldn't be able to use a credit card with billing address outside the UK. When do you run in to problems?

Unless things have changed recently you REGISTER using a UK postcode but then change your address to match the CC you are going to use to do the booking with

BTW Qjump & thetrainline are the same company

#5 is right.

I'm in Australia and recently purchased tickets with GNER using the fast ticket option where you will collect the tickets from the train maching on the day. It's a pain and takes some fiddling around but can be done. Use a UK postcode (such as from a hotel where you are staying) to register. When you get through to the section where you have to enter credit card details, there is an option somewhere to change your details (I think it was a box on the top right of screen but I could be wrong). Once you have entered the correct billing details you should be then able to complete the transaction. If you are still having trouble, do a search on the trip advisor london forum as there are a number of posts about this that give better step by step instructions.

the problem I had is the system requires me to enter a UK postcode, the system will run a UK address search. anyway, I tried again today by entering one of my UK friend's address (though it's different from my credit card address), managed to buy ticket. Thanks so much for the kind advice. appreciate it very much! :)

Bad news. The visitor-friendly folks at trainline/qjump have now "enhanced" their site so that it not only blocks overseas registration addresses, it also blocks overseas billing addresses for credit cards. That is not easy to get around by the "type in any UK postcode trick" because an incorrect billing address means the payment will be rejected by many card issuers.
The trainline customer service centre is outsourced to some nice but poorly informed folks in India whose only recommendation is to buy the ticket at the station on the day (for 3 times the price and at the risk of getting no seat!)

After days of complaining and emailing and phoning, the kind folks at advice@passengerfocus.org.uk (the UK's public watchdog for train services gave me the international telesales number for the train company I needed to use. For First Great Western it is +44 1752 675 646 but other companies may have other numbers. Still gets rerouted to India and it takes an age to book BUT they offer the same prices and tickets as on the website AND they accept overseas credit cards.

Wonder how many people give up and hire a gaz-guzzling car instead......?

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<hr>Bad news. The visitor-friendly folks at trainline/qjump have now "enhanced" their site so that it not only blocks overseas registration addresses, it also blocks overseas billing addresses for credit cards. That is not easy to get around by the "type in any UK postcode trick" because an incorrect billing address means the payment will be rejected by many card issuers. <hr></blockquote>

I understand that Virgin Trains still accept payment by overseas-registered credit cards. And note that ALL train companies sell virtually all the tickets offered by other companies (apart from a small number of special promotions and on-line discounts that some companies offer only through their own websites, and these would not be available from Trainline anyway).

Otherwise, try telling your card company that you want your bills sent to your holiday address in the UK. Changing your billing address should take minutes; then the payment should be accepted; then you change it back again!

Calling numbers starting 0870 and 0845 (probably 08 in general, in fact) from abroad seems to be problematic. You could always try the Say No To 0870 website to search for a standard landline number to call (0870 numbers are more expensive than landlines to call, so people object to having to use them). For example, they suggest 01925 671729 (or +44 1925 671729) as an alternative for TheTrainLine. This actually seems to belong to First ScotRail - I'm not sure how that works... although as other people have mentioned you should be able to buy any standard ticket from any train company.

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<hr>Changing your billing address should take minutes<hr></blockquote>

I think should is the operative word here. One of my credit cards will only accept written and signed (i.e. posted) authorization to change the billing address (even then they had managed to lose my signature on record so they couldn't verify the authorization letter - it took several weeks to sort out in the end). Even Egg, where you can change the address online, doesn't seem to action the change immediately - I tried changing to my new address then making a payment soon afterwards, but the company I had paid had to call me and query the payment because the systems were still showing my old address on the credit card.

I work for a credit card company - the billing address is a key part of their security checking so if you change it fairly often within a short time, you do risk having the card limit frozen while they check the changes are genuine. (It makes sense because credit card frauds are usually found by customers checking their monthly statements)

Tried Virgin Trains - they have this silly mandatory UK postcode check thing as well for registration. No free format address input can be done. Couldn't be bothered checking further.

The folks at passenger focus say they are already monitoring complaints about the unfriendly train ticket websites rejecting overseas customers. Their email address is advice@passengerfocus.org.uk
The more emails they get, the more pressure they will put on the train companies to offer a fair service to all.

By the way, isn't it illegal under EU law to restrict services this way? Surely the EU requires that all EU citizens be treated equally for commercial services and pricing. Doesn't help those of us living outside the EU but I'd love to see these idiots prosecuted!

Did some more searching. Overseas customers can book online through a site called http://www.acprailnet.com/britrail

Checked the prices - they don't offer all the various cheap options and the standard class tickets are more expensive than the ones a UK resident can get on trainline.co.uk . The first class price is about the same - not that that's much comfort.