How does address verification work?
The customer enters a billing address at checkout. The provider sends the street address and postal code with the authorization request, and the issuer compares them with the address it holds for the card. It returns a code that says whether the street, the postal code, both or neither matched, or that the check was not supported. Stripe’s documentation describes it in the same way: when the postal code and billing street address are collected, the issuer performs an address check against the billing address on file.
Why does it matter?
A full match is a sign that the person paying knows the cardholder’s details, and a mismatch on a high-value order shipped to a different address is a classic fraud pattern. But the check only helps where issuers support it. As an illustrative example: an international store that declines every payment without a full address match blocks 8% of its orders from countries where issuers do not run the check, most of them genuine customers.
What are the limits?
Stripe notes that address checks can fail for legitimate payments, for example when a customer mistypes the address or has moved without telling the issuer. Formats differ between countries, and digital goods sellers often do not collect an address at all. Address verification is a useful signal in fraud screening, not a decision on its own.
Where does Omno use it?
Address verification is performed by the issuer and reported through the connected PSP that processes the payment. Omno’s routing-decision log records the response code for each attempt, and Omno’s risk controls, such as card blocking, customer groups and customer verification levels, work alongside the PSP’s own fraud checks.