With the credit card system tight, security is a must. This becomes the responsibility of the company that provides you with the credit card to ensure proper security. This end has been achieved through an Address Verification System. Though this system is yet not available in all the countries, it has the potential. This system verifies your billing address and compares it with the address provided to the card company.
There is not just one thing to keep the credit card safe. There are other features as well. Card Security Code and expiry date on the back of the card are the other tools that can avoid scam and will help you to get the better security with the card. One must make sure that he not only verifies address, but also uses the other two features to ensure the credibility of the credit card.
Like all other man made systems, address verification system can falter. It does so when there is a conflict the data and the program’s intelligence. In such rare cases, there has to be a manual alternative to the system.
Manual verification is also important in the cases where the Address Verification System falters due to the extra digits in the address of the card holder. The address verification system may not necessarily consider these digits and when it does this, an inconsistency pops and it becomes extremely necessary to do the manual verifications.
Address verification system has yet to go world wide. It is only available in a few countries and the problem is that you may want to purchase something from an online store that is located in such a country and might want the address verification. The data not being available with the store, you are often rejected. This problem is being solved and a manual verification system is being provided for the people who have foreign cards as the system only verifies the address within that specific country.
The cards can also be declined if there are verification errors. When this happens the funds that are attached to the transaction are put on hold and the amount that is shown during such period is the amount that remains after subtracting the amount on hold. This can cause inconvenience and the card holder might get into some trouble with his other transactions.
One must understand that the address verification system is not a fool proof system and it needs the cooperation of both the merchant and the card holder. It is still a work in progress and it is not used world wide, but it has the potential and the features to become a world wide system.
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