AVS (Address Verification System)
About AVS
Address Verification System (AVS) Checks are security measures used during credit card transactions to verify the billing address provided by the customer against the address on file with the card issuer.
Why Are AVS Checks Necessary?
- Fraud Prevention:
- AVS checks help reduce fraud by ensuring that the person making the purchase is the legitimate cardholder.
- Chargeback Reduction:
- By verifying the address, merchants can minimize the risk of chargebacks due to unauthorized transactions.
Who Performs AVS Checks?
AVS checks are done by Coinflow’s payment processors and card networks (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) during the transaction authorization process. Merchants can reach out to the Coinflow team to request to have AVS checks disabled on their merchant account.
When Is Address Collection Required?
Billing address collection is required when any of the following are enabled on your merchant account:
When both AVS and Chargeback Protection are disabled, you can process card payments without collecting billing address information. This simplifies the checkout experience for your customers.
Handling Saved Cards Without Address
When using saved card tokens for checkout, if the card was originally saved without address information and your account requires address verification, you will receive a 422 Address Required error. In this case, you can provide the address in the checkout request:
The address object in the example above contains placeholder values. Replace these with actual customer billing address information.
Checking If a Saved Card Has Address Information
When retrieving customer information via the API, each saved card includes a hasAddress boolean field indicating whether address information is stored with the card. This helps you determine if you need to collect address information for subsequent transactions.
When Should I Disable AVS Checks?
- 888 Error Codes: Merchants who believe they are seeing too many error code
888on credit card transactions can consider disabling AVS checks. - International Transactions: AVS checks can sometimes be less effective for international transactions, where address formats differ, so merchants might disable AVS to avoid unnecessary declines.
- Customer Experience: In some cases, AVS checks may decline legitimate transactions if there’s a slight mismatch in the billing address, leading to customer frustration.
- Simplified Checkout: If you want to reduce form fields and streamline the checkout experience, disabling AVS (when Chargeback Protection is also disabled) allows checkout without address collection.
The address passed to Coinflow must match the billing address for the card being used, otherwise, the payment will fail AVS checks.
Disabling AVS checks can increase the risk of fraud but may be needed to improve transaction approval rates in specific situations. Consult with the Coinflow team before requesting to turn off AVS checks.
Enabling or Disabling AVS
To change your AVS settings, contact the Coinflow integrations team. They will configure your merchant account based on your requirements and risk tolerance.
