Address verification service (AVS)

The card schemes’ Address Verification Service (AVS) allows card-not-present merchants to verify the cardholder's billing address with the card issuer to enhance security and prevent fraud. AVS is primarily used in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and issuers in these regions are required to support this service.

How the address verification works

The address verification process is initiated by the merchant during one of the following requests:

• Authorisation Request
• Account Verification Request
• Merchant Tokenisation Request

The merchant provides the billing address (street address and postal code) that the cardholder submitted during the purchase process. Mynt compares this address with the cardholder’s address stored in our system and returns a result code to the merchant, indicating whether the provided address matches the information on file.

Verification process

The verification is performed against the address information stored in Mynt’s database, which is set through the Create company or Update company API endpoints. Partners are responsible for ensuring that valid and up-to-date address information is provided for each customer.

The level of verification depends on the region and specific practices of the merchant:

• US Merchants: Both the full street address and zip code are verified. The verification process is case-sensitive, meaning that upper- and lowercase letters are treated differently.
• UK Merchants: Only the numerical values in the street address and postal code are verified (e.g., house number and postal code).

Address verification outcomes

After the verification, the authorisation response sent to the merchant will include one of the following outcomes:

1. Both Zip Code and Street Address Match
   
   1. Example:
      
      1. Merchant provided: 55 Test Street, AB1 2CD
      2. Mynt address: 55 Test Street, AB1 2CD
2. Zip Code Matches, but Street Address Doesn’t Match
   
   1. Example:
      
      1. Merchant provided: 55 Test Road, AB1 2CD
      2. Mynt address: 55 Test Street, AB1 2CD
3. Street Address Matches, but Zip Code Doesn’t Match
   
   1. Example:
      
      1. Merchant provided: 55 Test Street, AB3 4PD
      2. Mynt address: 55 Test Street, AB1 2CD
4. Neither Zip Code Nor Street Address Matches
   
   1. Example:
      
      1. Merchant provided: 55 Test Road, AB3 4PD
      2. Mynt address: 55 Test Street, AB1 2CD
5. Address Data Not Available for Verification
   
   1. Example:
      
      1. Merchant provided data: 55 Test Road, AB3 4PD
      2. Address data at Mynt: Not available

Impact on authorisation

It’s important to note that the address verification result does not directly affect the authorisation decision. A transaction can be approved or declined independently of the AVS result. The authorisation request may still be approved (with funds being blocked) even if the address verification fails. The result is passed back to the merchant, and the merchant is responsible for deciding whether to proceed with the transaction or cancel it based on the verification outcome.

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