AVS Testing

Overview

The Address Verification Service (AVS) is an additional security tool that checks that the information provided by the cardholder matches the registered address and postcode on their banking records. The check is conducted by the issuing bank and is supported for cards that are issued within the UK, USA and Canada. It is considered an added security measure and can prevent fraudulent activity on your account.

The AVS performs two checks on the customer's address:

  • billing.address.line_1: verifies that the values provided in line_1 of the billing address parameter, match the numeric values of the cardholder's address recorded on the issuing bank's system.
  • billing.address.postcode: verifies that the numerical values provided in the postcode parameter, match the numeric values of the cardholder's postcode recorded on the issuing bank's system.

The AVS check response will be returned in the check object in the avs_line1 and avs_postcode fields. The response will either be matched, not_matched, not_checked or not_provided.


Request and response values

The below table details what values to include in your request to test the different responses:

RequestResponse
"line_1":"152 Aldgate Drive""avs_line1":"matched"
"post_code":"E1 7RT""avs_postcode":"matched"
"line_1":"72 Aldgate Drive""avs_line1":"not_matched"
"post_code":"EW1 9HG""avs_postcode":"not_matched"
"line_1":"46 Aldgate Drive""avs_line1":"not_checked"
"post_code":"E8 4GT""avs_postcode":"not_checked"
"line_1":"""avs_line1":"not_provided"
"post_code":"""avs_postcode":"not_provided"

Postcode validation

It is important to note that there is validation required on the postcode fields that you pass through within the request message.

UK postcodes must be between 6 and 8 characters long, including spaces. The postcode field can be in one of the following formats:

  • TN NTT
  • TNT NTT
  • TTNN NTT