The Address Verification Service is a system that verifies the personal address and billing information provided by a customer at the time of the transaction against the information the credit card Issuer has on file. AVS enhances fraud protection and must be present on keyed transactions to receive the best Interchange rates.

Some Issuers decline the sale if the AVS data does not match; however, most Issuers approve the sale and it is up to the merchant to make a decision to go forward with the sale based upon the AVS response code. It is strongly recommended that the merchant ask the cardholder for another form of payment if the AVS data does not match ("N" AVS response).

A POS system may develop logic to reject a transaction when the AVS data does not match. For example, if a mismatch response is received, the application may generate a CreditReversal for the original CreditSale or CreditAuth and prompt for another form of payment. Generating a CreditReversal is recommended since the original authorization was approved even though the AVS data did not match.

AVS data submitted as part of a transaction requesting a token, e.g., CreditAccountVerify, is completely independent from any other transaction using that token. Subsequent transactions using the token may or may not need AVS data depending on the transaction characteristics.

Portico only supports AVS for US and Canadian addresses.

The following table outlines the AVS Response Codes that may be returned by Portico:

Application Service	Visa	Discover/JCB	Mastercard	AMEX
Address matches, zip code does not (partial match)	A	A	A	A
Neither address nor zip code match	N	N	N	N
Retry — system unavailable or indeterminate outcome	R	R	R	R
Unable to verify or information unavailable	U	U	S U	S U
Postal code matches, address does not (partial match)	Z	Z	W	W
Address and postal code match (full match)	Y	Y	X (9 digit zip) Y (5 digit zip)	X (9 digit zip) Y (5 digit zip)
Postal code matches, address does not (partial match)	Z	Z	Z	Z
Address and zip code match (UK only)	(N/A)	(N/A)	Y	Y
Address information not verified for International transaction. Issuer is not an AVS participant, or issuer did not return an AVS result.	(N/A)	G	(N/A)	(N/A)
Address matches, postal code does not (partial match) (International address)	A	A	(N/A)	(N/A)
Address match, postal code not verified due to incompatible formats (international address)	(N/A)	B	(N/A)	(N/A)
Address and postal code not verified due to incompatible formats (international address)	(N/A)	C	(N/A)	(N/A)
Street address and postal code match (international address)	(N/A)	D	(N/A)	(N/A)
Address information not verified for International transaction	(N/A)	I	(N/A)	(N/A)
Postal code match and street address not verified due to incompatible formats (international address)	Z	P	(N/A)	(N/A)
AVS not requested	0	0	0	0
Unrecognized AVS code	?	?	?	?