When customers enter their Billing Addresses, Bellame’s merchant system electronically sends the information to the issuing credit card company. The credit card company sends back two main pieces of information.
- Accept or Decline if money is available for the transaction.
- YES or NO on the Billing Address being an “Exact Match” as to what they have on file. An Exact Match of the billing address on file is sometimes challenging to understand. Here are a few examples:
- 123 Maiden Lane, California is what the customer typed in, but the credit card company has 123 Maiden Ln, California. The slight difference on Ln vs Lane will cause the credit card company to report back a NO on billing address matching.
- The customer typed in 4567 E. Main St., Oregon, but the credit card company has 4567 East Main St., Oregon.The customer typed in 4567 E. Main St. Oregon, but the credit card company has 4567 East Main St. Oregon. As you may have noted, spelling out EAST is what the credit card company has on file, so the E. Main St. caused the credit card company to report back a NO on matching billing address.
So, if you’re getting an error or decline with an AVS message, it's your credit card company providing that information back to BELLAME. Please look carefully at the Billing Address used and make sure it matches exactly what the issuing credit card company has on file.