Note that information below is for Tone Tone Card Processing.  AnyOrder also supports Gateway credit card processing.

For: Levels 3 and Above

Address Verification is a service provided by credit card companies to help you identify potentially fraudulent cards.  Depending upon your processor, it may or may not be required.

If you are concerned about a card--or if the card is for a large purchase amount--it's probably a good idea to do an AVS check.  AnyOrder's internal touch tone credit card processing feature includes the ability to do an AVS check.  For the Gateway processing feature, it depends on your Gateway.

Your credit card processing center may allow you to do an AVS check before even requesting an authorization code.

When you do an AVS check, the processing center will provide you with an AVS Match Code, or they will let you know how well the address and zip code has matched: "exact match," "address match only," "zip code match only" or "no match" are some examples.

When the processing center does an AVS verification it is checking your version of the address with the customer's billing address on file with the credit card company.  Thus, when you use AVS checking, you want to make sure that the customer provides you with the address where their credit card bills are sent.  If the address is different from their billing address, the AVS check will always come out as a "No Match."

A "No Match" response doesn't mean the card is fraudulent.   It may mean that there has been a change in the customer's address--or you might have a typo in the address.  You may wish to call the customer and double check.  Though getting better, incomplete matches are fairly common.  Consequently, AVS is only a tool.

You still need to use your best judgment when it comes to accepting a card or not. If you don't have a signed credit card receipt, the onus is on you.  If a customer disputes a charge on their credit card bill, credit card companies will almost side with the customer.