|
The
Importance of Matching Your Billing Address to Your Credit Card
Every
year the risk of fraud and identity theft increases
costing merchants, credit card processing companies, and customers
millions of dollars. What can you do to personally reduce these
risks? Besides keeping your credit cards secure so to prevent
theft, please make sure all of your information is correct and
up to date. Whenever you sign up for a credit card it is mandatory
that you are given a billing address. This is the address where
your credit card statements are sent. This billing address information
is then kept on data bases at the credit card company
you signed up for and the issuing bank
for security purposes. If someone were to steal your credit card,
or the information, numbers and expiration date on the card, and
tried to purchase something on the internet and submitted their
address instead of your billing address, it would come up as a
no match and alert the merchant. Return
Credit Card
Processing at a Physical Location
On the back of your credit card there is a strip which contains
your billing address information. Each time you use your card
in a physical location, such as a mall or gas station, your card
is run through a credit card terminal which reads the strip and
processes it through an address verification system. This information
is digitally sent first to the credit card company
you are using, such as MasterCard and Visa, which compares the
billing address information on the strip to a data base for a
match, and then the information is further verified by comparing
it the data base at the bank where the card was
issued. Your address information should match perfectly. The only
time it wouldn't match is when you may have moved and the new
billing address has not been put into the system yet, or an indiviudal
is trying to pass a bogus card. Return
Credit Card
Processing By Phone or Shopping Cart On the Internet
Obiviously, when someone uses a credit card to purchase
by phone or by shopping cart on the internet, the merchant can
not run your card through a credit card terminal. Merchants have
to collect the information from the customer at the time of the
purchase either by writing it down when on the phone, or by a
secure shopping cart. Once this is done the merchant will input
the billing address information into the terminal manually. The
information put into the terminal are the numbers of the card
holder's address and the zip code. Some processing companies may
require a 3 digit security code on the back of your card as well.
Once this is done the information
goes first to the credit card company, such as
Visa and MasterCard, and then to the issuing bank.
If everything matches there is an approval code displayed and
the transaction is processed. If the address does not match the
screen will inform the merchant, but will not process the transaction.
Instead it is left up to the merchant to decide if he wishs to
continue with the transaction or to cancell it. It is done this
way because there is a greater risk that the card has been stolen
and is being used illegally. If the merchant continues with the
unmatched address transaction he will be charged a higher transaction
fee due to the credit card processing company's higher risk for
fraud. Return
Your
Billing Address Is A Security Measure to Protect You
From time to time I receive
an order from a customer whose credit card does not match their
billing address. I will alert the customer either by phone or
email and will get a reply that the address sent to me is the
correct one. While this may be true, everyone should be concerned
when informed that their billing address does not match their
credit card because it increases your risk of fraud. Remember,
your billing address is a security measure as well, it is not
just an address to send credit card statements. Return
What
to Do When Your Credit Card and Billing Address
Don't Match
If you are ever alerted to the fact that your billing address
does not match your credit card there are several ways to determine
why and get it corrected. First, I will list the two least common
reasons why your billing address doesn't match, and then I'll
list the two most common reasons. Return
The
Two Least Commmon Reasons Why Your Billing Address Doesn't
Match |
| 1.
You have recently moved and did not take the time to update
your records with the credit card company
and the issuing bank. |
| 2.
You have recently moved and you did update your
records, but they haven't been entered into the data bases
yet at the credit card company and the
issuing bank. |
The
Two Most Common Reasons Why Your Billing Address Doesn't
Match |
| 1.
The numbers of the credit card holder's address and zip code
match at the credit card company,
but not the issuing bank. (Wrong numbers
of address and, or, zip code) |
| 2.
The numbers of the credit card holder's address and zip code
match at the issuing bank,
but not at the credit card company. (Wrong
address numbers and, or, zip code) |
To find out where
the error, or errors may be and correct them, you can call the
issuing bank at the toll free phone number on
the back of your credit card. To verify your information at the
credit card company, you can contact them by
their toll free number.
|
