Originally Posted by
beemertoo
I'm so glad to find out this. I was trying to buy train tickets from London to Edinburgh with my USA credit card. It would not recognize it as valid. I called up my credit card company and they said there was no problem on their end. It must be the merchant. After seeing this post, I just had to reply and confirm that you were not imaging things. It happened to me too.
I have no doubt that my US credit cards will work in person once I arrive in the UK, so I'm guessing that it's website purchases that are the most problematic, if any. What surprises me is that the Megabus.com/UK website appears to be set up for accepting international payments (going so far as quoting prices in pounds, euros, and dollars), but experiences problems with certain card types.
So it appears that the best solution for now is to find someone in the UK to conduct the transaction (which you've done). Even with PayPal transaction fees, I'd still save money on the advance-purchased bus tickets versus paying the "walk up" fare once I arrive in the UK.
(Interestingly, Megabus.com/US continues to expand their presence in the US, offering FREE tickets on their east coast routes May 30-June 5.)