Portico Developer Guide
Address Verification Service (AVS)
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 | A | A | A | A |
| Neither address or zip code match | N | N | N | N |
| Retry — system unable to respond | R | R | R | R |
| AVS not supported | U | U | S | S |
| No data from Issuer/auth system | U | U | U | U |
| 9-digit zip code match, address does not match | Z | Z | W | W |
| 9-digit zip code and address match | Y | Y | X | X |
| 5-digit zip code and address match | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 5-digit zip code match, address does not match | Z | Z | Z | Z |
| Address and zip code match (UK only) | F | (N/A) | Y | Y |
| Address information not verified for International transaction | G | G | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Address matches, postal code does or request does not include postal code (international address) | A | A | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Address match, postal code not verified due to incompatible formats (international address) | B | B | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Address and postal code not verified due to incompatible formats (international address) | C | C | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Street address and postal code match (international address) | D | D | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Address information not verified for International transaction | I | I | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Street address and postal code matches | M | M | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Postal code match and street address not verified due to incompatible formats (international address) | P | P | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| AVS not requested | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unrecognized AVS code | ? | ? | ? | ? |