Solving problems with IRCTC/Cleartrip registration

Phoned AMEX in Australia today and asked about Safe Key (Key Safe), very helpful person says 'never heard of it' and will call me back.

On the return call, helpful person tells me that Safe Key is currently only available in US, UK and Singapore.

However, it would seem likely that Safe Key will, at some time, reach the rest of the world, and even Australia.

Questions:

are IRCTC now only accepting AMEX cards with Safe Key ?

are any countries missing from the drop-down list ?

Thanks for spotting that. I will correct my post to save future confusion.

Not sure what is going to happen to non-Indian non-Safe Key Amex cards. If previous form is a pointer there is a risk that they will just be cut off stone dead by irctc.

There are only 19 countries including India listed on the drop-down list.

So the key here is that AMEX (or whoever) is looking for the zip code you set up the irctc account with, not your actual billing zip code. Of course, this may change again, as we had a lot of difficulty booking tix last night and spent a fair bit of time on the phone with the AMEX folks. They had had at least one other call regarding this issue and said they were going to flag it for their tech folks.

I don't think that the screen requesting the zip code is an Amex screen. If you look in the bottom right hand corner of the page it says

"Copyright 2012. - www.irctc.co.in . All rights reserved. Site best viewed in IE 5.5 and above"

Thanks Dave, all set for now, so that is a relief!

I just did another test booking from DLI to GZB. All worked OK as before, with only change being I had to select International option for my Amex Card. It accepted my normal 4 digit Australian postcode that I have used on all my other bookings just fine.

Maybe, the change only affects countries where Amex has implemented Safekey.

Anyway, thankfully all of my booking for my trip in October / November have already been made, but I still hope things don't change with the booking system in case I need to make some last minute changes.

Had a successful booking today using an Australian AMEX card and without 'Safe Key'.

Would appear that IRCTC have withdrawn the Safe Key requirement, it is possible that AMEX (Australia) did indeed contact IRCTC about the problem.

However, we can expect the 'Safe Key' requirement will return, but hopefully not until Safe Key has become more widely available .

I have been through the process approximately three weeks ago. I have an IRCTC user name, mobile verification code, email verification code, and OTP. Unfortunately the OTP does not work on IRCTC, and on cleartrip my postcode is rejected, I think that is because it is a UK postcode and made up of letters as well as numbers. I have tried resetting my password on IRCTC but it then asks for my all time favourite sports team as security, and as I have not provided this information I cannot answer the question. I have been sending IRCTC several emails a day but all I get is new mobile codes which are no help at all. I have sent screenshots of the problem but I am still sent the wrong information. Any idea how to get round this?

Elaine

The quickest way forward might be to phone irctc. 009111 393 40000 from the UK.

Calls from a BT line are about 29p per minute although you can find much cheaper ways to call India by Googling "Cheap calls to India". If you received Ticket# numbers from irctc earlier have them handy (all of them).

This worked for me and several other contributors to this thread.

Hello people,
Just want to vent! After months of trying I was able to set up an India rail account using an acquaintance's India mobile phone number. I then have spent several weeks trying to book tickets online using my Amex Card.
None of my transactions seem to go through. Today I called Amex to see what the problem was and they tell me that a transaction has actually gone through.
When I go to print my ticket on india rail it says all my transactions have failed!
What is one to to??
Why is a country with so many techies, have such a user unfriendly website?

Any help would be appreciated.
ps I tried calling India rail from Canada and I must be doing something wrong because I get a message that the number is incorrect.

Is there anyone out there who can help me?

thanks in advance

Have you read

http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...012-a-t165379/

and this

Solving problems with IRCTC/Cleartrip registration

Techies are inherently poor web designers. You probably knew that That is why we have UI Designers. Amex has worked for me flawlessly, but then I do not use intermediate sites like cleartrip.

yes I have.

Mallek7

I'm guessing that by India Rail you mean irctc. It's not possible to book online direct with Indian Railways.

The phone number for their Care Line from the US is 011 9111 393 40000. I think that it is the same from Canada.

In my experience irctc will occasionally charge your Amex card even though the ticketing transaction fails. My guess is that this is something to do with the interface between irctc and the railways booking system. When it has happened to me I have always had a refund to my Amex card within a few days.

Which internet browser are you using? There have been several reports of problems with Internet Explorer. Firefox works well for me and others have suggested that Chrome works ok.

What time of day are you trying to book. The system is shut between 23.30 and 00.30 Indian time and tends to be very busy from 08.00 Indian time as that is when the day's new releases occur. Not sure how that translates to wherever you are in Canada but it should be easy enough to look up.

In the last week there have been developments regarding "Safe Key", an enhanced security system introduced by Amex. There is a bit about it on this thread although so far no reports about how it is affecting Canada.

Solving problems with IRCTC/Cleartrip registration

Safekey has been operational in India & UK.