What is the Address Verification Service (AVS)?
AVS is built into the authorization process to help prevent fraudulent transactions. The numerical portion of a consumer’s address and the transaction data is matched against the address on file with the consumer’s credit card. A response code is sent back with the approval or decline indicating whether the numeric information matched that of the cardholder’s. This match (or mismatch) is provided to the merchant in order to make an informed decision regarding the status of the transaction. The use of AVS for businesses such as mail/telephone and Internet can result in lower discount rates, as well as a potential reduction in fraud. Its use is highly recommended.
A. AVS is a service offered by Visa U.S.A. and is built into the authorization process to help prevent fraudulent transactions. The numerical portion of a consumer’s address is sent along with the transaction data and is matched against the address that is registered with the consumer’s credit card. A response code is sent back with the approval or decline message that indicates whether the numeric information matched that of the cardholder’s. This match, or mismatch results in reporting provided to the merchant for the benefit of making an informed decision regarding the status of the transaction. The use of AVS for businesses such as mail/telephone and Internet can result in a processing savings as well as a potential reduction in unauthorized sales, therefore its use is highly recommended.
AVS is used in the fight against fraud. AVS, if enabled in your processing set up, will prompt you to key enter your customers address information during the sales process. AVS checks your customers address used for the purchase against the address used for their credit card billing statement. It is important to keep in mind that AVS is only an indicator of potential fraud given that there are many, valid reasons that a cardholders billing and shipping address information may not match. If AVS information does not match, accepting or declining a transaction is left entirely up to the merchant.
AVS is built into the authorization process to help prevent fraudulent transactions. The numerical portion of a consumer’s address and the transaction data is matched against the address on file with the consumer’s credit card. A response code is sent back with the approval or decline indicating whether the numeric information matched that of the cardholder’s. This match (or mismatch) is provided to the merchant in order to make an informed decision regarding the status of the transaction. The use of AVS for businesses such as mail/telephone and Internet can result in lower discount rates, as well as a potential reduction in fraud.
The process of validating a cardholder’s given address against the issuer’s records, to determine accuracy and deter fraud. This service is provided as part of a credit card authorization for mail order/telephone order transactions. A code is returned with the authorization result that indicates the level of accuracy of the address match and helps secure the most favorable interchange rates.
