Address Verification Service (AVS)
The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a service that validates whether the billing address provided during the checkout matches the address of the cardholder as stated in the Issuer's records.
AVS is one of the oldest methods of fraud prevention during the Card Not Present (CNP) transactions. Double-check if the acquiring connection you use supports this feature.
How does AVS work
During the checkout, the merchant can optionally capture the billing address of the Cardholder and create a record using the Customer API. Later, when the merchant would like to proceed to a payment, either using the checkout API or the ecom API, the customer_id must be used to refer to the record that was initially created.
Verifone will process the payment and share the billing details to the Acquirer, who will convey the results to the payment network and finally to the Issuer. The Issuer will validate the billing address provided by the merchant against their records and return an appropriate result. The Cardholder billing address and other details stay stored and can be reused multiple times until the merchant decides to delete them using the Delete Customer API. AVS can be combined with any type of Authorization, such as pre-authorization, Authorization, and Account Verification.
AVS results codes
The results of the AVS validation will be returned through the transaction response but also stored in the transaction object under the avs_result field. Different payment networks have different AVS result codes, but all are mapped to a unique behavior when using the Verifone API.
To facilitate the programming of different use cases, the available values will be alphabetic, their meaning is explained in the table below:
| Code | VISA | Mastercard | Discover | American Express | Cartes Bancaires | ABS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Street address matches, ZIP does not | Street address matches, ZIP does not | Address only Matches | Card member address only correct | Postal code and address fully match | Postal code and address not provided |
| B | Street address matches, but ZIP not verified | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Postal code and address partially match | Postal code and address match |
| C | Street address and ZIP not verified | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Postal code and address do not match | Postal code and address do not match |
| D | Street address and ZIP match (International Only) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name incorrect, postal code matches | Not performed | Not performed |
| E | AVS data is invalid or AVS is not allowed for this card type | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name incorrect, address and postal code match | — | — |
| F | Street address and postal code match (UK Only) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Street address matches, card member name does not match | — | — |
| G | Non-U.S. issuing bank does not support AVS | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | — | — |
| I | Address information not verified for international transaction | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | — | — |
| K | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name matches | — | — |
| L | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name and ZIP match | — | — |
| M | Street address and postal code match (International Only) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name, street address, and ZIP code match | — | — |
| N | Street address and ZIP code do not match | Street address and ZIP code do not match | Street address and ZIP code do not match | Street address and ZIP code do not match | — | — |
| O | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Card member name and street address match | — | — |
| P | Zip code matches, street address unverifiable due to incompatible formats (International Only) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | — | — |
| R | System unavailable, retry | System unavailable, retry | System unavailable, retry | System unavailable, retry | — | — |
| S | AVS not supported | AVS not supported | AVS not supported | AVS not supported | — | — |
| T | Not applicable | Not applicable | 9-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | Not applicable | — | — |
| U | Address information unavailable. Returned if the U.S. bank does not support non-U.S. AVS or if the AVS in a U.S. bank is not functioning properly. | Address information unavailable | Address information unavailable | Information unavailable | — | — |
| W | 9-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | 9-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | 9-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | 9-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | — | — |
| X | 9-Digit ZIP and street address match | 9-Digit ZIP and street address match | 9-Digit ZIP and street address match | Not applicable | — | — |
| Y | 5-Digit ZIP and street address match | 5-Digit ZIP and street address match | 5-Digit ZIP and street address match | Card member address and postal code are both correct | — | — |
| Z | 5-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | 5-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | 5-Digit ZIP matches, street address does not | Card member postal code only correct | — | — |
For more details, refer to the eCommerce API documentation.
What to do if the address does not match
When the AVS result returns as not or partial matching, it will be up to the merchant to decide how to move on. The result of the Authorization could be positive despite the mismatch of the billing address. If the transaction has been authorized, a merchant could decide to proceed with the order even though there is a risk or void the transaction removing any trace of risk. It is advised that AVS is combined with other fraud-preventing technologies such as 3-D Secure which offers stronger confidence when performed successfully.
AVS results in Transaction Reports
The AVS result of each transaction will also be visible on the Transaction Report from Verifone Central. Click on the transaction and browse to the details of this transaction, if the AVS feature was used, the response would appear under the "AVS Result" placeholder.
