AVS Checks Can Fail. Here’s Why They Aren’t Always Reliable.
It can be frustrating to see an AVS check kill a sale you’re pretty sure was legitimate. After all, every false positive means a disappointed customer and lost revenue.
The truth, though, is that valid transactions can fail an AVS check for perfectly innocent reasons. Anything from a customer recently moving to a simple typo during checkout can trigger a false decline.
In this chapter, let’s discuss why AVS checks commonly fail. That way, you can fine-tune your settings and prevent legitimate sales from falling through the cracks.
There are a bunch of edge cases that can cause an AVS check to fail outright, or to return with a false positive or negative. Some common stumbling blocks include:
Recent Moves
A customer that has recently moved may have simply not gotten around to updating their billing information with their issuer. This is common; people often prioritize updating their information with more front-of-mind services and can forget about the address tied to a specific credit card.
Remember that an AVS check compares the submitted address to the one on file with the issuer. So, this discrepancy will result in a mismatch, even for a perfectly legitimate customer.
Different Billing & Shipping Addresses
It’s common for customers to ship purchases to an address other than their billing address. For example, their workplace, a PO box, or a gift recipient’s home.
For merchants, however, a mismatch between a buyer’s billing and shipping addresses is commonly seen as a red flag. If this is combined with a partial AVS match (e.g. the zip code matches but the street address does not), it can increase the perceived risk of the transaction and can result in a false decline.
Business Cards With Corporate Addresses
An employee making a purchase with a corporate credit card may run into issues if the card is registered to a central office address.
If they are working from home, from a different branch office, or are traveling on the company’s behalf and need to order something to their hotel, they’ll probably enter their current location’s address. And, the AVS check will fail because it does not match the headquarters’ address on file with the issuer.
International Transactions
AVS is not universally supported, and many financial institutions outside of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom do not use it. If a check is run on a card from a non-supported issuer, the check will return a code indicating that the service is not supported or that address information is unavailable.
If you sell internationally, you must configure AVS rules to account for this. Otherwise, you risk automatically declining a large volume of legitimate orders simply because they can’t pass an AVS check.
Data Entry Errors
Simple human error is a primary cause of AVS mismatches. For instance, a customer might mistype a digit in their street number or zip code, or accidentally use an old address that was stored by their browser’s autofill feature.
Because AVS only verifies the numbers in an address, even a small typo in the street number or zip code can result in a partial or full mismatch.
Luckily, these points of failure aren’t inevitable, and there are several effective tactics you can deploy to recover good sales. Consider:
Implementing Clear Address Field Labels
Instead of using a generic “Address” label, be explicit. Use distinct fields for “Shipping Address” and “Billing Address.” Additionally, for the billing address field, you can consider including an explanation such as, “Your billing address must exactly match your card’s registered address” so that there is no confusion as to which address a customer should use.
Integrating Auto-Formatting Tools
An address auto-completion or validation tool can suggest standardized, verified addresses when users type in their billing and shipping addresses at checkout. This ensures that the numeric components (street number and zip code) in the billing address are formatted correctly, increasing the likelihood of a successful AVS match.
Explaining Why You Need a Billing Address
Build trust and encourage accuracy by briefly explaining why you need the billing address. A simple message like, “We verify your billing address with your bank to protect you from fraud” can be effective at framing the request as a necessary security step that benefits the customer.
Providing Prompt Customer Service
When an AVS check fails, avoid displaying a generic error message. Instead, provide a path to resolution, like a link to a customer service live chat or a direct phone number. This allows you to recover potentially lost sales from frustrated but legitimate customers.
