Foreign Credit Card is acceptable for online train booking!

Hi all, i need to correct the misleading information in this forum about train ticket online booking. Foreign credit card IS ACCEPTABLE! I just booked the return train tickets between taipei and hualien on 28/12-31/12. Transactions went through successfully.

Last time when i found out from this forum that foreigner cant use CC to make payment, i had doubt on it, thus i called Taiwan tourism board in singapore and the person told me that it was wrong, that is the reason i try to pay by my HSBC cc.

I have booked a 20-seaters bus as the airport transport. Only cost me NTD1.8k per way. We got 10 ppl so is just 180NTD per pax per way. This is the cheapest i found so far. Will feedback on their service. If it%26#39;s good, i will share the contact with forumers.

I have booked a driver/tour guide for north east coast 1 day trip. the driver is a local who stays in Jiufen. He quoted me 700NTD for 10 hours trip(over 1 hour is fine). Will feedback on his service as well.

I chosed to stay in a minsu in hualien called 鍧愮湅浜戣捣. Will feedback on this minsu once i come back from taiwan.

Looking forward the new year countdown trip at taiwan with such big group of frens :)

Foreign Credit Card is acceptable for online train booking!

Now that is exciting news. Thanks for the update on online credit card purchasing of train tickets. The last time I talked to them (a couple of years ago, I think), they said they would work on changing the ';locally-issued card only'; policy; so glad to know that they have followed through.

Do you have any more details about how you went about it? Links, type of train, step-by-step procedures, etc.? Thank you!

Now only if the Alishan railway would follow in their footsteps!

Looking forward to your review of the other services as well.

Foreign Credit Card is acceptable for online train booking!

The ridiculous part is that i tried to call chinatrust(the one in charge of cc payment), the person told me can%26#39;t! luckily i din listen to him :)

One thing to take note is that i tried number format starts with an alphabet and 9 digits, it does not work. Guess they have algorithm to match against taiwan IC no. Also take note that chinese version booking page k book return tickets but english version only one way :(

Steps are:

1) purchase ticket using english version as usual - http://railway.hinet.net/net_eng.htm

2) go to cc payment page(on top left corner of the booking page - https:/鈥ndex.php

3) use same ID no and ref code to log in. Pls check the option 澶栫睄浜哄＋璜嬪嬀閬?濉叆璀风収铏熺⒓)

4) Confirm yr ticket type and amount.

5) Fill up CC details

6) Print out the receipt and collect it.

7) Can use this page to double confirm that payment is successful - https:/鈥ay_vw.php

8) Another option to confirm yr payment is go to http://railway.hinet.net/eoquery.htm to check your booking. It will show payment made by cc.

do we still need to collect the tickets in 3 days?

No! you can collect it by latest 30mins b4 the train.

thanks!! with ur help i have managed to book my hualien train tickets too but some trains were already full. I only need to print out the credit card receipt and the collection slip right?

Do u know if we can do the same thing for the HSR train tickets?

Yup, now to new year is peak season especially year-new where taiwanese is having 4 days holiday!

Ytd is the opeing day for booking 31st dec ticket, i woke up at 6am to book yet it is still fulled :(

Just bring the receipt and yr ID will do :)

I think HSR ticket is even easier to purchase.

Hm, tcs80, that%26#39;s what happened to me: I called TRA, was directed to call China Trust, got the same answer that he gave you---but I foolishly took his word for it, that%26#39;s the difference! :P

CC, no , u are not wrong. It used to be that the system would not take foreign credit card.I don%26#39;t know when they made the improvement but up until last year, when I tried to pay with a S%26#39;pore based card, it got rejected, many times.the Chinatrust receptionist was just not updated, that%26#39;s all.

Anyhow, there are other major changes to come commencing next year.It was in the Apple dailies today that collection deadline would be changed to 2 days instead of the existing 3 and tix would be available at the booth 12 days ahead instead of 10 ,also, online booking and payment would be extended to 11pm.All these to happen next year, which is soon.

Oh no.. I%26#39;m think I%26#39;m in trouble..

As I will only be taking the trains on 22nd December and I did not know that prepayment can now be done on the web, I wanted to wait till tomorrow to buy it.

I%26#39;ve now tried to book 1091 from TP to Hua Lien, 2079 from Hua Lien to Jiao si on 22nd Dec.. they are all SOLD OUT! Should i still try to go to the station to buy it?

Rafale, you could:

1.scroll down to see the various stops that the particular train is scheduled to stop, then, break the booking into 2 parts, eg, for TP-HL, one could book, TP-jiaoxi, then jiaoxi-HL or any other combinations.U see, for each stations, only certain quota of tix is released for booking so by booking in parts, u would have a higher chance of sucess.

2.Like I%26#39;ve mentioned beofre in prior post, wake up early n log on at 6am to catch the tix released from the previous night.

3.Choose trains other than the Taroko rail, as they are less popular.

22 is not on a weekend, so ur chances of getting ur choice is quite high, just keep trying.