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Why is my credit card declining with an (AVS) message?
Why is my credit card declining with an (AVS) message?

How to handle Address Verification failures

Kingsley Burns avatar
Written by Kingsley Burns
Updated over a week ago

What does the Address Verification System (AVS) error mean?

Our payment system verifies the billing address for all payments made with U.S.-issued credit cards, and displays this error if the address doesn't match what the card issuer has on file.

The address check is performed by your bank or credit card issuer, not by our payment processor.

A red AVS decline message means that your bank did not verify the billing address entered for that card.

Did the charge go through?

If you see a Declined (AVS) error, the charge was NOT successful, and will need to be re-tried after the address is corrected. (Even though your bank may have approved the charge, our payment processor cancels the transaction because the address did not match.)

You may see a pending transaction listed on your credit card company's website, and they may place a temporary hold on the transaction amount, which should drop off within 1-3 days.

Every time you re-attempt the charge, your card issuer will place another temporary hold on the card. It is best to check the things below and call your card issuer before trying the transaction again.


Things to check:

1. Make sure you entered the same address your credit card company mails statements to.

You can edit the address on a saved credit card by opening the AutoPay Settings screen.

2. Verify the address is set up correctly with your credit card company

Sometimes the bank or credit card issuer may have an old or incorrect address entered in their system.

If you moved recently, updating a mailing address will ensure credit card statements reach the new address, but the billing information for the card may not be automatically changed.

The cardholder will need to contact the card issuer to make sure the billing address used for verification is up-to-date.


3. If the billing address is a P.O. BOX, contact the card issuer

P.O. Boxes can often cause issues if they are set up incorrectly in the bank's Address Verification system. 

It’s considered a best practice for the bank to truncate the “P.O. Box” and simply verify the numbers provided. But not all issuers do that, which results in mismatches of “123” and “POB,” for instance.

To fix these errors, the cardholder will need to contact the bank or credit card company and verify that the billing address is entered correctly for verification purposes.

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