Clueless about Address Verification

address verification service, cardholder address

[split]

I'm modifying the web site of a retail store, so that they can sell a few items on-line. They currently accept credit cards in the store with a card-swipe machine, and occasionally manually key in a credit-card transaction for phone orders.

I have set up an account with Mal's to collect credit-card transactions. We hope to process them manually through their merchant account (it's through a local bank).

We want to check the ship-to address against the cardholder's address. Can they get this from the
payment bank using their regular merchant account, or must they set up a payment gateway with address verification? I have read that AVS doesn't check the whole address anyway.

As I see it, the card-swipe machine only verifies that the account is good, it doesn't supply the cardholder's address. Is it possible to get the actual cardholder address from the CC company?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

[Conard]

That would all depend on the company that is handling the CC transactions.
Some of them will prompt for address (number) and zip code (number) on card not present transactions.
Any time a transaction is hand entered into the terminal a first prompt appears asking if the card is present or not. If it is not, then it will ask for the address information above.

[split]

Thanks, Conard.
What I'm reading about AVS doesn't give me much confidence. I did find these numbers on another forum:

Visa 800-847-2750
MC 800-622-7747
AMEX 800-528-2121
DISC 800-347-1111
I guess you can give them a CC number and find out who is the issuing bank, then try to get the bank to verify the billing address.

Has anyone used this method?

[Corey Bryant]

I'm modifying the web site of a retail store, so that they can sell a few items on-line. They currently accept credit cards in the store with a card-swipe machine, and occasionally manually key in a credit-card transaction for phone orders.
I have set up an account with Mal's to collect credit-card transactions. We hope to process them manually through their merchant account (it's through a local bank).

Be careful with this. You probably have a brick and mortar account (swiped). Keying in transactions might psh the discount rate up on that transaction to around 4%. And it also might be against your merchant account agreement as well.

As I see it, the card-swipe machine only verifies that the account is good, it doesn't supply the cardholder's address. Is it possible to get the actual cardholder address from the CC company?

Usually you can do this thru your merchant account provider. AVS is very archaic but it is the first tool in detecting fraud.

The numbers you listed for MC and Visa will get you the issuing bank. Due to privacy laws most will not give you the addresses / confirm them

-Corey

[fraud master]

"Due to privacy laws most will not give you the addresses / confirm them "

That is definitely incorrect. Some small credit unions will give you problems and the biggest bank who wont do address verifications is Sun Trust but there are ways to get around it.

NAP (name address and phone) verifications work great. As the other guy above suggested just call and get the issuing banks # then call the bank to verify. Just explain you are a merchant calling for name, address and phone verification. AVS is a good tool to factor in fraud review however NEVER rely solely on it. AVS goes through the processor (Visa and MC), not the issuing bank. Many times when people move and change their address, their bank fails to update it with Visa. So while they may provide you the billing address on file with their bank, the info can still fail the AVS check.

[Corey Bryant]

Yes there are ways to get around it - that is why I said most. Some will & some won't. But I won't say or anything since that is immoral and unethical

-Corey

[fraud master]

what is immoral or unethical about merchants verifying account info?

[fraud master]

the way around it i use is conference calling the cardholder. banks who say they will not verify the address, usually if you 3 way call them with the cardholder on the line and explain if they will not verify the account info you will have to cancel the order, they will comply since the cardholder is their customer and usually they want to keep him or her happy. i wasn't talking about anything unethical.

[Corey Bryant]

But see that is where I would draw the line. They should ask for information - like social security number to verify me as the cardholder. The merchant does not need to know this.

I'll let the sale go and find another shop

-Corey

[topguy29]

Have you contacted your merchant account processor? If I have any questions, they help me with this. I would never think of conferencing in my customer on a three-way call to verify their identity. They would provide way too much information.

I also usually ship only to the billing address. This does seem to help quite a bit.

[fraud master]

when it comes to fraud review u have to be agressive, simple as that. if the cardholder is not comfortable with validating his indentity on a 3 way call than he doesn't have to. no one is forcing him/her. im not sure what kind of companys you all work for but the company i work for is an outsource provider to sites like zales.com and when dealing with an order for a 10k diamond ring shipping to an apt in NYC, inconveniencing the cardholder is worth the risk of a 10k chargeback.