Verify customer addresses
Last updated: August 20, 2025
The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a fraud prevention tool that issuers automatically apply to payments to verify that the customer is genuine.
Information
AVS is available in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States for the following card schemes:
- American Express
- Discover
- MasterCard
- Visa
During a payment's authorization stage, the AVS compares the billing address the customer provided during checkout with the address associated with the payment card. If the two values match, it indicates that the person performing the payment is the genuine cardholder.
Before using customer data, you can simulate different outcomes using AVS check testing.
You receive the result of AVS checks as AVS codes. AVS codes describe whether there was a full or partial match, or a mismatch.
An AVS mismatch occurs if the address supplied by the customer does not match the address that the bank or card scheme has on file for the payment card.
While a mismatch can indicate that the customer may not be legitimate, it should not be the only reason you cancel or decline a payment. In some instances, a genuine payment may still return an AVS mismatch. For example, if:
- The address can be written in multiple ways, especially if there are two numerical parts to a property, such as a flat within a block.
- The cardholder has changed address but has not informed their bank yet.
- The cardholder is located in a country where AVS is not available.
- The cardholder mistakenly enters their shipping address in the billing address field on the checkout page.
Similarly, an AVS match is not always a definitive indicator that the customer is legitimate, so do not use it as the only reason you approve a payment. Instead, use AVS results as one factor of your overall risk strategy to prevent chargeback fraud.
The Fraud Detection solution enables you to specify how much influence any given AVS result has over the final authorization decision. For example, if the street addresses match but the ZIP code or post codes do not, you may assess this a low-risk mismatch and choose to authorize the payment.
By leveraging AVS within your risk strategies, you can both protect your customers and more easily defend against fraudulent chargebacks.