What are the recommended AVS settings in Authorize.net? - Tue - Oct 4, 2011 - 1:05pm

Posted by Dawn Updated: Sep 2023 0 Comments Credit Card Processing
The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a tool designed by bankcard processors to assist in identifying potentially fraudulent credit card transactions. For every credit card authorization, AVS compares the billing address and ZIP code provided by the customer to the address and ZIP code on file at the card-issuing bank. AVS then returns a response code indicating the results of the comparison.

Ultimately, you can decide exactly which of the following cases you want to either be declined or approved transactions. With that said, we made some recommendations below regarding each of the scenarios that you can take into consideration.

General AVS Responses


1. Since ThunderTix requires that all billing address fields be entered in order to submit a ticket order, there is no need to check the first option (B) which would decline a card when any address fields are left blank.
2. If a customer enters the wrong billing address (the one they entered when checking out doesn't match the address on their credit card statement), the card will be declined. We recommend that this field (E) be checked to ensure that customers buying tickets on your site know the correct address for the card. 
3. If the customer's bank is doing maintenance or is offline at the time of purchase, the card would be declined if this option were checked. So as not to frustrate the buyer for something beyond their control, we recommend that you do not check this option (R).
4. International credit cards (G) - please refer to: How can I enable transactions for customers with International billing addresses?
5. If the address information for the cardholder is unavailable and you opt to reject this field, the customer's card will be declined for every purchase attempt. Since this can be frustrating to the buyer, we suggest that you leave this field (U) unchecked.
6. This is the same as 5 above -- if the U.S. card issuing bank does not support AVS, the customer's transaction will always be declined. In order to allow the purchase to happen, we suggest that you leave this field (S) unchecked.


Address & Zip Code Responses If you opted to check number 2 above, we need to determine what the system considers to be an AVS mismatch. If Option (N) is checked, Authorize.net will consider the address submitted 'incorrect' if the street address, zip code, and extended zip code all do not match the customer's credit card billing address.

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