Solving problems with IRCTC/Cleartrip registration

If you are looking for tickets at the end of this month you may run up against problems even if you have a functioning account and the right credit card as the window has already been open for about 9 weeks. if you can't get an account working your best bet might be Foreign Tourist Quota when you get to India but this is only available in limited numbers on a small proportion of trains. The Indian railways website will tell you if a train has any FTQ availability.

Have you tried phoning IRCTC to get things moving? This worked for me a couple of months back. I think that the number is quoted in one of my posts earlier in this thread.

EDIT Number is +91 11-39340000.

Thanks for posting this. I used it and am waiting to hear from IRCTC. Also congratulations for getting all the tickets you needed!

I have a question for you or anyone who successfully booked tickets through IRCTC and paid with Amex. I definitely know my card works as I used it to buy tickets on Makemytrip, before they required the synching with IRCTC. Unfortunately, when I try to pay on IRCTC it keeps getting declined and I wonder if it has to do with the address not matching. Needless to say I have made my address in IRCTC match exactly my billing address in the US. But at the time of putting in the credit card info (see attached screenshot), I am not 100 percent sure where to put address, city, state, country. Logically they should be in the order I just listed them. But the way they got laid out is confusing.(I have called Amex and everything is fine on their end, and IRCTC, surprisingly, can't help me with this). Also if anyone has any feedback about Amex card getting declined on IRCTC I'd really appreciate it.

I use LastPass which can populate those fields, so I'm not sure what was what as I didn't enter them manually, though it does look confusing when I look at where I would enter them manually in your screenshot. I tried to go through the process just now to get to that page and see where LastPass put the fields, but the IRCTC system won't let me get that far because I've already made my allotted 10 trips this month... Hopefully someone else can chime in and help you out. Incidentally, I've heard that the IRCTC site only took 6 digit zip codes (and so for the US, we would put a zero in front of our zip), but it took 5 digits just fine for me for each of my transactions.

I tried to sign up,all I got was,that my email address was already in use.
I have 35 days to go when I can book my first ticket.HELP

I would use the "forgot password" link then, and see if you get an email with a new temporary password or a resent link. Alternately, you could sign up again using a different email address, but be prepared for the Mobile SMS key code as referenced above (you will need to contact support and have them send you Mobile SMS key code to your email address in order to activate the IRCTC account).

Good Luck, homerus.

Resign up I should have said.
Last year I paid with Maestro,visa Mastercard,has that also changed?

All's well that ends well...

Yes, you will no longer be able to use anything except an American Express card when booking directly with the IRCTC. If you are able to get a 3rd party Partner site to connect with the IRCTC, then you should be able to use Visa/Mastercard also.

Getting the 3rd party Partner sites (like Cleartrip.com or Makemytrip.com) to connect with the IRCTC takes nearly an act of God. I was able to do it through 5% persistence (30 emails and 5 calls), but 95% luck, I believe. The process took a few weeks.

Best suggestion for you, is to try to get the password reset on your existing (old) account, and use/borrow an Amex card to make the train purchases.

Thanks fl4ian,I have a bad feeling that this is going to be a pain in the butt.
Going for a cigar and a stiff drink

Cheers,Homerus.

Make that 2 stiff drinks.
Homerus.

I think you're right. Have one for me, will ya? It's only noon here, yet.

hey fl4ian, thanks anyway. If I get a mobile OTP from IRCTC it will be thanks to you and your detailed email you posted hours ago. I am still trying to pay on IRCTC though. I never used LastPass but I thought I'd give it a try after you mentioned it. Do you remember filling out the address info the first time you paid with Amex on the IRCTC form that I showed in my post? OR LastPass was already remembering the address info from a different website where you filled in the past? If you don't remember it's ok. When I tried it, it was not populating the fields correctly, that's why I was wondering how you filled it out the first time.

In LastPass, I have a credit card profile created with all the credit card details and billing address. I used the Fill Forms function in LastPass when I came to that credit card screen in your screenshot, and it auto-populated all the proper fields. The IRCTC site doesn't hold any memory of credit card details, so every transaction, I just clicked on Fill Forms through LastPass.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. That's what I did, but I will give it another try later. Hopefully, it'll work. Thanks again.

mmmmmm....
I have an existing account with IRCTC and I also have an account with Cleartrip. I have been successfully booking tickets with these accounts for approximately three years. I am loath to go through setting up new accounts from scratch so I've emailed both Cleartrip and IRCTC for clarification.
Meanwhile, any pointers on what to do in this particular scenario will be welcome.