AVS (Address Verification Service)

AVS (Address Verification Service) compares the billing address a customer types at checkout against the address the issuer has on file for that card. It's a fraud check for online, card-not-present payments: a fraudster with a stolen card number often doesn't know the real cardholder's address.

How AVS works

The merchant sends the numeric parts of the billing address — typically the street number and the postal/ZIP code — to the issuer along with the authorization request. The issuer returns a code describing the match: full match, partial match (ZIP only, or street only), or no match. In Stripe, the results appear on the charge as payment_method_details.card.checks.address_line1_check and address_postal_code_check, each pass, fail, or unavailable.

AVS is primarily supported by issuers in the US, Canada, and the UK. Cards from other regions frequently return unavailable, so a missing AVS result isn't itself a fraud signal.

Why it matters

• Layered defense — AVS pairs with the CVC/CVV check so a stolen number that lacks both the address and the code is easy to reject.
• Interchange qualification — passing AVS can qualify some card-not-present transactions for lower interchange rates.
• Decision input — a full match, a ZIP-only match, and a no-match each feed differently into a fraud tool's risk score.

Handling the result

A no-match doesn't force a decline — the issuer may still authorize the payment, and the merchant decides whether to accept it. Blocking every AVS mismatch outright will reject legitimate customers who mistype an address or whose bank has a stale record, so most teams treat AVS as one weighted signal rather than a hard gate. Overly strict rules are a common cause of a declined payment for a real buyer.