Risk Rules and Card Checks

Learn how to verify the details buyers pass to protect against disputes and fraud.


When a payment is submitted to card issuers for authorization, Finix submits the included billing address and Card Verification Code (also referred to as CVC/CVV) data to card issuers to verify this information against the information the card issuer has on file for the cardholder.

  • For the address verification check (also referred to as AVS), the card issuer verifies if the postal code and billing address submitted by Finix matches what the card issuer has on file for the cardholder.
  • For the card verification code (CVC/CVV) check, the card issuer verifies if the security code submitted by Finix in the authorization or sale matches what the card issuer has on file for the cardholder.

Finix uses these checks (also called Risk Rules) and the data returned from card issuers to review and decline transactions that Finix is unable to verify successfully.

attention

Including an address when tokenizing a card can lower interchange on credit card transactions.

Review Verification Checks

To review an Address or Card Verification Code check, first create a $0 Authorization and then fetch the Payment Instrument that was used in the Authorization. The results of the Address and Card Verification Code check are available under the following fields:

  • address_verification
  • security_code_verification

For info on how to tokenize a card, see:

Address Verification (AVS) Checks

address_verification Description Transfer result if Address Verification is performed.
POSTAL_CODE_AND_STREET_MATCH postal_code and address match

Includes International cards
SUCCEEDED
POSTAL_CODE_MATCH postal_code matches, address doesn’t match or isn’t verified. SUCCEEDED
STREET_MATCH address matches, postal_code doesn’t match. SUCCEEDED
NO_MATCH address and postal_code don’t match. FAILED
NOT_SUPPORTED Address Verification isn’t supported by the card issuer. SUCCEEDED
NO_ADDRESS Address unavailable. SUCCEEDED
UNKNOWN General error from the card issuer or processor.

Address Verification check not performed.
SUCCEEDED

Card Verification Code (CVC/CVV) Checks

For newly tokenized cards, Card Verification Code is required. You can pass in Card Verification Code with the following field:

  • security_code

Finix reserves the right to modify Card Verification Check rules.

security_code_verification Description Transfer result if verification of the Card Verification Code is performed.
MATCHED Match SUCCEEDED
UNMATCHED No Match FAILED
UNKNOWN This code can come up due to the card issuer, Card Verification Code verification system, or when Card Verification Code isn’t provided. SUCCEEDED