booking train tickets

Hi there,
I am trying to book train tickets for my travels in india via the irctc.co.in website but it wont let me because my credit card is not issued in india.
is there anyway of getting around this and booking the tickets before i get to india.

i dont think your cc needs to be issued in india. But it should be a card valid internationally. check on that.

try the Axis gateway, this worked for me.

The following threads may help:
IRCTC reservation site: Make Payment....
E ticket
Booking trains from Australia

hey, maybe u can try www.yatra.com and see if they take your cc.

Just a note of thanks for the inspiration from "OceanTragic". After many unsuccessful attempts at booking the Hampi Express using the IRCTC website, I finally got my payment accepted using the AXIS gateway as "Ocean" recommended .

Perversely, my initial attempts using a Visa card with the Citi bank gateway were denied. Next I switched to my Amex card. The IRCTC site seems to be geared towards this card. And it worked. Once. All subsequent attempts when booking my return ticket with this card were denied .

Finally, after many notes to customer care without any response other than useless auto generated replies (with no followup), I came across this string perusing the many postings on the subject of train ticket woes and horrors. Ocean's recommendation to try Axis prompted to think "what the heck; one more try". And it just now worked. The ink is still drying on my e-ticket go figure, I cannot.

All this to say that perhaps some of the international bank gateways are sticky; Axis worked this time. Bottom line: thank you "Ocean" for giving me the spirit to try one more time.

FYI, I contacted my travel agent in Delhi who agreed to book my tickets with a 100% surcharge (about 50US$). I was just about to capitulate; I suppose many do after days/hours or being rejected by IRCTC.

Cheers and best of luck to the rest of you.

"Ocean"

It's "Mr Tragic" to you sonny.

Anyway, thanks for the mention but of course I got the tip from IndiaMike in the firfst place.

Booking trains should at least teach you two things:
1. It's India, there'll be hurdles but you can get over them
2. IndiaMike knows everything.