Address Verification Service (AVS)

The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a credit card fraud prevention system developed to assist merchants by verifying the address of American customers. By submitting the credit card billing address and the corresponding ZIP code with the authorization request, payment processing systems which use AVS can compare existing records with the order. If the billing address and the ZIP code in the card issuer's records matches the billing address and the ZIP code submitted, a degree of certainty is created for the merchant that the person using the card for the order is who they claim to be. Ideally, this reduces the number of customer disputes and chargebacks for the merchant, especially since it could prove difficult to reacquire shipped merchandise.

not all financial institutions use AVS.

AVS result codes are not to be confused with authorization response codes which are issued by an Acquirer and indicate whether there are available funds in the account. AVS compares the billing address and the ZIP code submitted with an authorization request with the card issuer's address records. An AVS result code is returned to indicate if the submitted data matches the stored data. For example:

0

Both street address and ZIP code match

1

Street address matches, but ZIP code does not

2

ZIP code matches, but street address does not

3

Neither street address nor ZIP code match

4

AVS result not available

Related tasks

• Configure accepted AVS result codes

Related reference

• Service-specific AVS result codes and payments common AVS codes