Address verification service: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Security measure in credit card processing}}

{{for|verification of postal addresses see|Postal Address Verification}}

{{RefimproveMore citations needed|date=December 2009}}

VerificationAn system'''address usedverification toservice''' verify('''AVS''') theis addressa ofservice aprovided personby claimingmajor credit card processors to ownenable amerchants to [[Credit card hijacking|authenticate ownership of a credit or debit card]].<ref name=":0"used />by Thea systemcustomer. willAVS checkis thedone billingas addresspart of the merchant's request for authorization in a non-face-to-face credit card transaction. The credit card company or issuing bank automatically checks the billing address provided by the usercustomer withto the merchant against the billing address onin fileits atrecords, and reports back to the creditmerchant cardwho companyhas the ultimate responsibility to determine whether or not to go ahead with a transaction. TheAVS can be used in addition to other security features forof thea credit card, such includeas the [[Card Security Code|CVV2]] number.

In countries where AVS is not available, aby merchantall incredit acard non-face-to-faceproviders, transactionand cannot verifyin aall customer’scountries. ''bonaIt fides''is bygenerally confirmingnot theiravailable billingfor orforeign deliverycredit addresscards; againstthat datais, cards issued in thea creditcountry cardother provider’sthan records.<refwhere name=":0">{{citeit web|title=Addressis Verificationbeing Systemused. (AVS) |url=http://virtualtrak.blogspot.com/2007/03/address-verification-system-avs.htmlis |publisher=VirtualTrakavailable technologies|accessdate=Septemberin 7,a 2011}}</ref>number AVSof verifiescountries, thatincluding the billingUnited addressStates, ofCanada, and the creditUnited orKingdom. [[debit card]] matchesThough the addresschecks thatcan wasvary givenbetween bycard the customer. Howevercompanies, AVS onlytypically verifies only the numeric portionportions of thea cardholder's billing address, resulting in certain anomalies like apartment numbers, which can cause false declines. However, this is reported to be a rare occurrence.{{cncitation needed|date=September 2020}} For example, if the address is 101 Main Street, Highland, CA 92346, in the United States, AVS will check ''101'' and ''92346''. Cardholders may receive false negatives, or partial declines for AVS from [[Electronic commerce|e-commerce]] verification systems, which may require manual overrides, voice authorization, or reprogramming of the AVS entries by the card issuing bank. Credit card AVS does not determine deliverability of an address.

AVS verifies only the numeric portions of a cardholder's billing address. For example, if the address is 101 Main Street, Highland, CA 92346, in the United States, AVS will check ''101'' and ''92346''. Cardholders may receive false negatives, or partial declines for AVS from [[Electronic commerce|e-commerce]] verification systems, which may require manual overrides, voice authorization, or reprogramming of the AVS entries by the card issuing bank.

==AVS support==

AVS is a service to combat fraudulent activity for noncard-face-tonot-facepresent transactions by cross-referencing the address provided by a cardholder's addressto a informationmerchant with the card issuer's records.<ref>{{cite web|title=Glossary A, AVS|url=http://www.elect-mer.com/glossary-a.html|publisher=Electronic Merchant Systems|accessdate=April 27, 2011}}</ref> AVS is widely supportedoffered by [[Visa Inc.|Visa]], [[MasterCard]], [[Discover Card|Discover]] and [[American Express]] in the USUnited States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Cardholders with a bank that does not support AVS may receive an error from Internetonline stores due to the lack of dataverification.

Besides the automated verification, some banks do provide merchants with a manual verification system. Usually this is done for foreign credit card accounts as the AVS only works in the same country. This facility helps the merchants to prevent fraud arising from other countries. The merchant's bank calls the customer's banksbank (or sendsends a [[fax]] for banks that request them). Some countries like [[Denmark]] however prevent banks from verifying customer data.

==AVS response codes==

Following a request from a merchant for an address verification, the credit card processor sends an AVS response code back to the merchant indicating the degree of address matching. The meaning of the codes vary between credit card processors. Merchants can use the AVS code to determine whether to accept or reject a credit card transaction.

==Address Verification Service (AVS) codes==

{| class="wikitable sortable"

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|Street address matches, ZIP does not

|Street address matches, ZIP does not

|Street address matches, ZIP does not

|Address only Matches

|Street address matches, ZIP does not

|Address and ZIP match

|-

| B

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|5-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not

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<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chasepaymentech.com/address_verification_service.html|title=Address Verification Service (AVS) Response Codes {{!}} Chase Merchant Services|website=www.chasepaymentech.com|language=en|access-date=2017-08-17}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/api/AVSResponseCodes/|title=AVS, CVV2, and payment advice response codes - PayPal Developer|website=developer.paypal.com|language=en|access-date=2017-08-17|archive-date=2017-08-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818090444/https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/api/AVSResponseCodes/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://developer.cybersource.com/library/documentation/dev_guides/Secure_Acceptance_Hosted_Checkout/html/Topics/AVS_Codes.htm|title=AVS Codes|website=developer.cybersource.com|language=en|access-date=2021-06-07|archive-date=2021-06-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607212929/https://developer.cybersource.com/library/documentation/dev_guides/Secure_Acceptance_Hosted_Checkout/html/Topics/AVS_Codes.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Declines due to Address Verification System===

"Declined due to AVS mismatch", the authorization code, along with the hold on the authorized funds, will remain on the customer's card until the issuing bank havehas it expire (typically 7 daydays for all business types except hotels and car rentals that can have up to 30 days). As a result, the held funds may be subtracted from the customer's available balance, and an online statement may reflect the authorization request which might be mistaken for an actual charge. Most card issuing banks will remove authorizations within 1–25–7 days if they are not claimed for settlement.{{Citation needed|reason=Says who?|date=January 2017}}

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Credit card terminology]]

[[Category:Electronic funds transfer]]

{{Bank-stub}}

[[Category:Credit card terminology]]

[[Category:Electronic funds transfer]]