Address Verification Service (AVS)

Address Verification Service (AVS) verifies the personal address provided by a customer at the time of a credit card transaction.

For cardholders, AVS compares the submitted street address and ZIP code with the values on file at the cardholder’s bank. The response includes values for AVSADDR and AVSZIP: Y, N, or X for the match status of the customer’s street address and ZIP code. Y = match, N = no match, X = cardholder’s bank does not support AVS. The AVS result is for advice only. Banks do not decline transactions based on the AVS result—the merchant makes the decision to approve or decline a transaction. AVS is supported by most US banks and some international banks.

AVS checks only for a street number match, not a street name match, so 123 Main Street returns the same response as 123 Elm Street.

The International AVS response (IAVS) indicates whether AVS response is international (Y), USA (N), or cannot be determined (X). Client version 3.06 or later is required.

AVS Results

Any of the following results can appear in the AVS Street Match and AVS zip match field on the Transaction Details page.

Result Code

Definition

Y

Information submitted matches information on file with cardholder's bank.

N

Information submitted does not match information on file with the cardholder's bank.

X

Cardholder's bank does not support AVS checking for this information.