What is AVS?
AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It is a tool used to verify that the numerical street address and/or zip code of a cardholder matches the billing information that is on file with the credit card’s issuing bank. It is used primarily to eliminate credit card fraud. It is used with only card-not-present transactions. The one negative with this system is that it can occasionally give a false negative. Perhaps the cardholder moved recently and forgot to update their new address with their card issuing bank. Or perhaps the bank representative created a typo when entering the cardholder’s billing address into their banking system. The merchant could advise the cardholder to contact their bank in the event of an address verification decline. Another option is a manual override by the merchant to override the address verification decline. Thankfully, these occurrences are rare.
Decrease your Fraud Liability and Processing Fees
Address Verification Service is a system that some businesses choose to use. Because it decreases fraud, it also decreases a business’s credit card processing fees. AVS can be set up to verify the address and zip code for every transaction that a business key enters or different variations. There are a lot of customizable options with AVS so that it fits the needs of every business. The system can either reject a transaction that doesn’t match or notify the business of the mismatch while still allowing the transaction. This is known as AVS Bypass. Some business owners think that if the AVS matches they are immune to fraud. This is not true. This only means that the billing address matches the credit card provided. To truly be immune to fraud, the business would also need to ship their products to the verified billing address with a signature required upon delivery. Shipping products to a separate shipping address offers no protection.
PayJunction and AVS Credit Card Processing
A card processing system that has the helpful AVS system built-in is PayJunction. This system decreases a business’s credit card processing fees and the amount of fraud accrued by a business. In addition, since the fraud liability shift that occurred in October 2015, the amount of fraud that is affecting online or phone order businesses is steadily increasing. Therefore, an Address Verification Service could protect a business from fraud losses, chargebacks, unnecessary fines, and/or eventual merchant account closure. Learn more about PayJunction’s system and how it can protect against fraud with the AVS system and other important features. Also, learn more about all the custom settings that the system is able to offer.
AVS credit card processing
