Address Verification Service (AVS) is an optional fraud-prevention tool offered by issuing banks whereby a cardholder's address is submitted as part of the transaction authorization. The AVS address is then compared to the address kept on file at the issuing bank. AVS checks whether the street number, street name and zip/postal code match. The issuing bank returns an AVS result code indicating whether the data was matched successfully. Regardless of the AVS result code returned, the credit card is authorized by the issuing bank.
