After 5 hours on the phone with the Norwegian Train Company, Visa, and Chase, my friends finally had their tickets to Oslo from Bergen...and I still needed to get mine on a separate transaction since we were meeting up the next day. Simple, right? I had already smiled and cheered and hung up with my local banker who'd made international calls and security center calls and phone tag calls and the like for hours...and then my card was denied for the second transaction...so I was figuratively still stuck in Bergen until further notice. Pissing my family off because they had to give me card info to make a transaction, I suggest you follow these instructions because you'll probably want to avoid being up the creek without a paddle...even if you like rafting.
Here's the run-down (I think) on how to avoid disaster when booking your NSB train tickets online:
What I think happened is that the NSB site uses a system like Paypal called PayEx. My guess is the company has a TON of anti-fraud security which include:
1) If a card is denied for any reason, it cannot be accepted for future transaction attempts.
2) A card can only be used once (who knows if this is once ever or once every month or what? I literally tried for nearly a week before it came to my 5 hour phonecall(s))
SO...my suggestions are the following:
The people at NSB are great, just make sure you have a good phone/Skype* connection when you call
(*Skype is almost always cheaper than your phone plan to call internationally)
1A) If you have multiple legs that you have to book separately online, Call NSB* and explain to them, all of your trips and legs of trips and people and seat types and everything so they can get it all on one transaction to be sent to your email address for payment within 24 hours. Otherwise, you'll have multiple transactions and it will likely require multiple distinct cards (they'll tell you your bank is causing the problem and the bank will say it's them and it's actually probably neither but it is their mediator).
(*the website says that it costs more to book by phone, but it doesn't)
1B) If your trip is straightforward and you only have roundtrips or a one-way trip that is/are exactly the same for everyone in your party, then hit up the website: nsb.no (there's a link for "English" at the top of the page).
2) BEFORE YOU INPUT YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO. ON THE LINK THEY SENT TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS CALL YOUR CARD COMPANY. NSB prefers American Express (first company I've ever heard this from) or Visa (I think they also accept Diners??) but whatever your card is, I don't care if you travel constantly around the world and you use your international awesome-card...it is possible it will STILL be denied (I wouldn't be writing this if it didn't happen to me).
3) Be sure to have the card company clear you for the transaction (the exact amount will be given in Norwegian Krone so you can get the approximate amount in your currency at this conversion website or any of your choosing). The transaction will be from NSB.NO. Give them a few minutes to be sure your card is activated for this transaction, because if my experience is any indication, you'll probably only get one shot.
4) NOW you can put in your info as normal and hope for the *visa verification* screen to pop up and accept your transaction, bringing you to a ticket confirmation page that automatically sends your receipt to the email you provided either on the website or on the phone.
If this doesn't work...I'm at a loss.
If you need another transaction, repeat steps 1-4 (with a different card).
Good luck avoiding disaster! And happy train-riding!
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