Processing AVS Requests

Address Verification Service may be used with or without an authorization request.

• AVS with an Authorization Request. MO/TO and eCommerce merchant account users can process AVS requests just as they process authorizations, either in real time or in a batch using a terminal or a PC. Real-time authorization requests are used typically for transactions where the customer waits for a response online. Batch authorizations are used for transactions where there is no immediate need for a response. The process of transaction authorization and address verification goes through the following stages:
  
  1. A consumer places an order in a card-not-present environment.
     
  2. The merchant confirms the order information, including the merchandise description, price, card account number, card expiration date and shipping address. The merchant now requests that the customer provides a new piece of information - his or her billing address (the billing address is where the cardholder receives his or her card statements).
     
  3. The merchant enters the provided billing address information into its authorization request, along with the rest of the transaction information. Both requests are sent to the merchant's payment processing provider who sends them on to Visa or MasterCard.
     
  4. The Credit Card Association (Visa or MasterCard) then sends the requests on to the card issuer who makes separate decisions on each request. The card issuer compares the provided billing address to the one it has on file for its cardholder. It then returns both the authorization and the address verification responses through the same channel. The address verification response consists of a single-digit code which the merchant's credit card processing provider may change to make it easier to understand.
     
• AVS without an Authorization Request. In some cases merchants can send an address verification request without a transaction authorization request. Such situations may arise when:
  
  • Merchants want to verify a customer's billing address before a transaction authorization is requested.
    
  • An earlier transaction authorization request has received an approval but an AVS request has received a "Try again later" response.