Address Verification Service (AVS)

Address Verification Service (AVS) is a fraud prevention system used to verify that card payments are authorised by the original cardholders and protect business owners from chargeback claims.

Currently, AVS is only available for cards issued in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
When a customer from any of these countries attempts to pay you, AVS compares the billing address they provide at the point of payment with what their card issuer has on file. If there's a complete match, the payment is successful, and you receive your payment.

AVS is currently only available for Paystack businesses in Nigeria. All Nigeria-based businesses who are enabled for international transactions on Paystack automatically have access to AVS, except a small handful of businesses in the following relatively high-risk business categories:

• Betting, gaming & lotteries

• Cigar stores

• Inboard and outbound telemarketing

• Sale of pharmaceutical products

• Telecommunication services

• Financial services and quasi-merchants

• Security brokers

• Insurance sales

• Real estate agents

• Travels and tours

Can customers outside the US, UK, and Canada pay me?

Yes, if you're enabled for international payments on Paystack, customers from anywhere in the world can pay you, not only those from the USA, UK, and Canada. AVS only improves success rates in those countries by providing an alternative transaction authentication method.

Is AVS enabled for all international customers?

AVS is enabled for cards issued in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

There are about three additional countries in the world which support AVS authorisation, but the AVS technology is not as robustly rolled out in those countries, so we decided to err on the side of a robust integration and provide AVS authorization for those countries where AVS works reliably.

We find that most international transactions come from the US, UK, and Canada, so you're well covered. As AVS matures and works reliably for cards issued in more countries, we will enable it for Paystack businesses.