Just bought tickets on the site two three nights ago. My card is issued by RBC in Canada and it asked for the Verified by Visa information. First time I’ve ever had that happen, but it worked fine…. well fine once I made sure I had enough available credit on my card.

Others have posted about using renfe recently with no problems. However, lot’s of folks have posted with problems using North American debit and credit cards on a variety of European travel sites. My experience has been that if a card doesn’t work the first time, it will probably never work on-line on that site. The card probably will be accepted at the ticket window or even at the kiosk in the station — although some kiosks require European “smart” credit cards with the chip in them. I’ve also had the experience that if one card is denied on an overseas site, it probably won’t accept any other cards for that transaction.

I’ve never successfully used a debit card on a European website.

Thanks for the responses. I got a call today (at my home number, so I just got the message from my parents) that the loss prevention center from my bank called. I’m gonna call them back tomorrow (they’ve already closed for the day, grr, some people have class and work!) so I am guessing the reason my card didn’t work was due to some kind of “hold” because it’s a foreign website. Anyways, I used this card all throughout Italy last year and didn’t have any problems, so hopefully this can be resolved quickly and I’ll be able to purchase. Already missed out on the Web fares though, hopefully some Estrella fares are available.

Just as a follow-up, it was an issue with my bank- they block all overseas charges or charges from a foreign web site for security reasons. They lifted the block and I was able to buy the tickets a few minutes ago, so all set. Missed on on the Web fare but did manage to get the Estrella fare, so happy to get 40% off. Thanks for the info, everyone!

oldlady, just as a little piece of info, I used my debit card and it did go through.