If you have ever dabbled your toes into any form of online retailing then there is a good chance you may have run across the word “charge-back”. For an online retailer, the very mention of the word can strike fear and garner up thoughts of dread. And you thought Voldemort was scary.
The stark reality is, if you don’t understand how chargebacks work and how to protect yourself against them, you might as well put a big FOR FREE sign on your store and let the looters in. Essentially, a chargeback happens when you as an online retailer are required to issue a credit back to the credit card holder’s account. The hard truth about that matter is that money is TAKEN from your account and given back to the person who may or may not have purchased from your store. While this may occur due to a number of reasons, most often chargebacks are triggered because someone finally realizes their credit card number was stolen. Scary I know, but the more you understand the process the more confident you will be.
For the consumer, the ability to initiate chargebacks is a good thing. If someone stole your wallet or managed to pilfer your credit card number and racked up a mountain of charges, the first thing you will do is call your American Express credit card and tell them that someone has made fraudulent charges. The hell starts for you as a retailer when VISA cancels all the transactions because the investigation did not work in your favor and debits your bank account for the chargeback amount. In the end the only winners are the thieves who stole the credit card numbers and the credit card holder. As the retailer you are out your merchandise, profit and your payment; sad but true.
If you are running a store that takes credit cards online then you must have a merchant processing system. These are the systems that take the credit card number supplied by your buyer and do the actual processing. Many people just getting their feet wet in online retailing do not realized that all the money they pay their credit card processing companies gets them little more then just that, credit card processing. All credit card processing does is make sure that the credit card number is valid and that there is enough money available for that person to make the purchase. Placing your trust solely in a credit card processing company can leave you wide open to fraudulent purchases that Will come back and deplete your profits, bottom lines, and inventory.
Now since we have demonized all merchant credit card processing companies out there lets talk about the good they do. Because, believe you me, they do provide vital data if you are savvy enough to interpret it.
What is this nugget of wisdom that can save you the headache of dealing with charge backs in your bright online retailing future? Well, folks, they should be your two best friends AVS (Address Verification System) and CVV2 (Card Verification Value). By now you are probably saying ironically to yourself, “Wow what a freaking revelation”. Granted, you have probably seen these terms before and have an understanding of the general purpose behind them; but believe it or not many new online retailers actually do not learn of their importance, as it relates to merchant processing and their online store until it is too late and they are staring at a $2000 chargeback resolution from PayPal that did not fall in their favor. Instead of going through the months of miserly, I went through and then the years of rebuilding my faith in online retail let me explain to you what should have been taught to me the very minute I was a proud owner of my very own merchant account.
The power of AVS and CVV2 are in the codes. Every credit card transaction that your website accepts and you are responsible for should have these codes attached to them. If they don’t you need to find them or send an email to someone who can point you in the right direction.
First, let’s take a look at the Address Verification Service. AVS (Address Verification System) is a measure to provide extra security in processing your customer’s credit card. It is an automated fraud-prevention program that verifies the credit card against the billing address on file with the card-issuing bank. AVS is useful in determining whether the person’s address on file at your online store matches the actual credit card billing address. The AVS code can also give you verifying degrees of matches, such as zip code match, or address matches but zip code doesn’t, and a few other possible combinations. This helps you to make a more informed decision as to whether the transaction is a legit one. Take a look at the Address Verification Service (AVS) Response Code Chart
It is important to understand that a transaction may be approved even if the address verification information or card verification does not match. AVS and CVV2 are designed to give the merchant additional information to raise the comfort level of the merchant before shipping products to their customer. It is up to the merchant to determine whether to supply goods based on the response. Some merchant account might allow you to change a few processing setting, fine tuning the way credit card processing works in your store.
Now since we have Address Verification Service all squared away lets take a look at the Card Verification Value code. You’ve probably run across the CVV2 code. It is practically unavoidable if you have ever purchased anything over the Internet. All things being equal, for someone to input the correct CVV2 code, that person must have had possession or be in possession of the physical credit card. CVV2 is an important security feature for credit card transactions on the Internet and over the phone. Take a look at the Card Verification Value (CVV2) Response Code Chart
Hopefully by understanding the AVS and CVV2 codes you can process your transactions with a little more confidence. Just because your merchant processor approved a transaction, this doesn’t always mean everything about the card was verified successfully.
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