Problems with IRCTC booking system today? (8th August 2010)

I'm in the middle of booking tickets for our October/November trip across India. I had a few problems with the payment gateway initially but thought I had them sorted.

Went to book NDLS - Secunderabad today and found that the system seems to have changed somewhat. Now they want a verification code - one of these funny looking graphic numbers and letters - before you get to enter payment details. Sometimes this just didn't turn up and a "refresh image" didn't work either. When I did get through I found that Axis Payment Gateway now does not accept overseas cards.

In the end I turned to Cleartrip and managed to get it through.

Anyone know what is going on?

Same is happening to me. A few weeks back Axis was completely vanished but came back after a few days. I got an e-mail from irctc stating that there had been a technical problem.

And now Axis is no longer accepting International cards. Citi seems to be the only paygate accepting International cards but they keep on rejecting my card. Don't know if this is temporary or permanent but I think I'll have a look at cleartrip as well.

Even I faced problem in paying through IRCTC normal website. After filing up everything including the verification code when I hit go then it used to show plan my trip page instead of the payment gateway page. After facing problems for some time I used their Beta version (The link is on their home page below the login window)which worked fine with Axis payment gateway.

Ronak.

I tried the new Beta too but didn't work either.

Just made the booking on cleartrip. Amazing how well this works.

On my PC, the beta version doesn't work at all (operating system Linux, browser Mozilla).

In two months, the Commonwealth Games begin and all payment gateways of the national railways intentionally decline international credit cards! Who awarded the Games to India's capital?

I just tried every gateway there is and although the transaction goes through when it returns to IRCTC, there is always an error. If this had happened when I was just starting this trip, I would have given up!

Clearview doing good business over this.

When I was using the Axis payment gateway the other day, a message immediately popped up after I had entered the credit card details and had clicked on the "buy" button. The content of the message: "International Cards are not allowed; Please try only Domestic Cards".

Regarding the other payment gateways, the transaction process continued after I had entered the credit card details and had clicked on the "buy" button. I was even directed to the website of the bank having issued my credit card and I was asked for the SecureCode. In the end, however, the transaction was not completed and I got error messages which were far-fetched and pulled down by the hair. I've posted them in another thread: Indian TRAIN

The following link, I think, suggests as well that they currently decline all international credit cards for online bookings with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation: https://www.irctc.co.in/payment.html .

IRCTC is making me mad too
Today i used Cleartrip.com for a first time and that was fast and easy!

Let's start a cleartrip fanclub !!

All in all, I've made good experience with www.cleartrip.com as well. People have also reported problems with cleartrip when trying to pay with a credit card, however.

Others recommend www.makemytrip.com or www.travelguru.com .


@ shahronakm:

Today the beta version also works on my PC.

However, when I'm trying to pay with my international credit card, I'm facing the same problems.

Might it have worked fine in your case as you used a domestic credit card?

Yes I did use a domestic credit card. Problem in accepting International credit cards needs to be sorted out. Otherwise the Beta version is much faster.

Ronak.

Made my first train reservation last night!

It's probably posted somewhere on this forum but I missed it - apparently you can only book starting at 8:00 am Indian time on the first day the tickets go on sale - 90 days prior to your date.

It also took me a while to figure out that 90 days means 90 days LOL. I was thinking three months (i.e. August 11 for a November 11 departure) but that's not the case.

And I had a glitch with American Express. I had called them a couple of days ago to alert them that I will be making online purchases on India Railways, and I was assured that there would be no problem. Not! The first time I tried to purchase, it didn't go through, and Amex sent me an email to call them re: suspicious activity on my account. After I cleared it with them, I was able to start all over and purchase my ticket.

Hope I don't run into the same problem when I buy my next ticket tonight!

Do the 3rd party websites (cleartrip or makemytrip) charge a "service fee" for booking train tickets and if so, how much is it?

Nattusbs

My e-ticket by cleartrip lists the following service charges:

IRCTC Service Fee: Rs. 20.00
Cleartrip Service Fee: Rs. 20.00
Transaction Fee: 1.8 %

Yatra.com. charges as shown in the photo but the transaction fee is not given as a %