Debit Card Payments Rejected over Telephone by Companies Using an Address Checker

InsideInsurance

As others have said, the auto population of the address comes from the Royal Mail PAF files. These are updated monthly but many companies update their systems much less frequently. Our new place was added to the PAF files back in April and last month American Express still couldnt find our address so they appear to update less than quarterly.

Delayed PAF updates only really causes a problem with new builds or with postcode changes.

I still cannot see where Experian fit into the picture. They have nothing to do with AVS or postcode lookups. They do offer their own ID checker service but this is totally independent to card transactions. Of cause a company may do an Experian ID check and without a certain level of match they may not be willing to proceed but that wouldnt be a declined card payment.

JWhite wrote: »

By the way, just to clarify, my address at my bank is held as Names on the account (joint account but they said this would not cause a conflict with payments if the payment is being taken in a single name), House No., Street Name, Town, Post Code and this is exactly what I gave the insurance company.

I am curious about the above. Are you saying your account is in joint names and the other person(s) dont live at the same address? If this is the case who is the primary/ first named account holder?

I'm not sure how AVS works when there is more than one account holder with differing addresses. I wouldnt be surprised if it only worked for the primary address. A simple way to check, if they are different address, is to try the currency card using the primary address and see if it then goes through.

JWhite wrote: »

When I checked with the bank they looked at the payment they were trying to take and said that the address coming through to the bank did not match the address they were holding and so rejected the payment. They would not tell me what address it was that was coming through, just that there was an incompatibility but refused to give me any further detail as it was against data protection

Challenge your bank. Data Protection Act protects the personal data of private individuals, who's data is it they are protecting if it is on your account and your transaction!!

Leodogger

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As others have said, the auto population of the address comes from the Royal Mail PAF files. These are updated monthly but many companies update their systems much less frequently. Our new place was added to the PAF files back in April and last month American Express still couldnt find our address so they appear to update less than quarterly.

Delayed PAF updates only really causes a problem with new builds or with postcode changes.

I still cannot see where Experian fit into the picture. They have nothing to do with AVS or postcode lookups. They do offer their own ID checker service but this is totally independent to card transactions. Of cause a company may do an Experian ID check and without a certain level of match they may not be willing to proceed but that wouldnt be a declined card payment.



I am curious about the above. Are you saying your account is in joint names and the other person(s) dont live at the same address? If this is the case who is the primary/ first named account holder?

I'm not sure how AVS works when there is more than one account holder with differing addresses. I wouldnt be surprised if it only worked for the primary address. A simple way to check, if they are different address, is to try the currency card using the primary address and see if it then goes through.



Challenge your bank. Data Protection Act protects the personal data of private individuals, who's data is it they are protecting if it is on your account and your transaction!!

I did challenge the bank and they said it must be the companies inputting the address as there is nothing with the account and it wouldn't cause a problem me paying for something just in my name only even if the account is joint and in any event my name is the first held on the account showing on the statements. The bank account is in joint names and we both live at the same address. As I said, I have used my debit card hundreds of times before over the phone before we moved here and never had a problem. I had an account with Experian and thought they may provide credit history to any financial / insurance companies I use but they hold it on my old address as I don't know as i said who is responsible for updating my address information with Experian and I don't know as I say if the address checker automatically checks with credit rating agencies before allowing a payment to be processed for a purchase. I have bought car insurance regularly using this debit card and did so just this last February with a new insurance company and used my debit card to make the payment as I always pay in full upfront and didn't have a problem.

I just can't figure out what the problem is, it has only happened with the last twice I have tried to pay for financial / insurance services ????

welshbookworm

Could they be putting the letter O in where it should be a zero?
Or a I instead of a One?
or the other way round?

Leodogger

welshbookworm wrote: »

Could they be putting the letter O in where it should be a zero?
Or a I instead of a One?
or the other way round?

Well that is a possibility. I have had a response from the PAF Board who set up the postcode finder on Royal Mail and they said they have checked the address on Royal Mail and it is correct but they are going to make further investigations into what could have gone wrong. Someone somewhere has inputted our address incorrectly when we moved here and we have to sort it or continue to be unable to use the debit card to make purchases over the phone with an address checker being used.

Hazzanet

welshbookworm wrote: »

Could they be putting the letter O in where it should be a zero?
Or a I instead of a One?
or the other way round?

I had this, my postcode ends 0XX (zero, letter letter) but the bank had it as OXX (O for Oscar, letter letter) and that caused me no end of bother.

Leodogger

Hazzanet wrote: »

I had this, my postcode ends 0XX (zero, letter letter) but the bank had it as OXX (O for Oscar, letter letter) and that caused me no end of bother.

You may be right then, I will have to ask them when they come back to check as it might easily be overlooked I guess

InsideInsurance

JWhite wrote: »

I don't know as i said who is responsible for updating my address information with Experian and I don't know as I say if the address checker automatically checks with credit rating agencies before allowing a payment to be processed for a purchase. I have bought car insurance regularly using this debit card and did so just this last February with a new insurance company and used my debit card to make the payment as I always pay in full upfront and didn't have a problem.

I just can't figure out what the problem is, it has only happened with the last twice I have tried to pay for financial / insurance services ????

Address with Experian is updated predominately by those financial institutes that you hold products with.

AVS checks do not go to the CRAs for validation. Its a simple check between the merchant and the bank.

Financial institutes tend to be one of the most concerned about fraud and so tend to use the highest settings on security. Many others will take a bit of a risk by not doing AVS checks or ignoring its results on the basis that it isnt a perfect system and the loss of business from fraud may be less than the loss of business from reject AVS checks.

The time when I implemented AVS and 3D secure for a client they saw a very notable increase in failed payments and abandoned orders. Of cause its debatable if these were all fraudulent people being blocked by the new technology or regular customers being put off by it/ the checkers not working.

Leodogger

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Address with Experian is updated predominately by those financial institutes that you hold products with.

AVS checks do not go to the CRAs for validation. Its a simple check between the merchant and the bank.

Financial institutes tend to be one of the most concerned about fraud and so tend to use the highest settings on security. Many others will take a bit of a risk by not doing AVS checks or ignoring its results on the basis that it isnt a perfect system and the loss of business from fraud may be less than the loss of business from reject AVS checks.

The time when I implemented AVS and 3D secure for a client they saw a very notable increase in failed payments and abandoned orders. Of cause its debatable if these were all fraudulent people being blocked by the new technology or regular customers being put off by it/ the checkers not working.

That last paragraph sums up what happened to me when I tried to apply for a currency card, the payment for the application (cost of the card) kept failing so they took it manually but of course when I tried to transfer funds from my bank to the currency card the transfer payments kept failing and I was at the point, after half a dozen very long phone calls to try to sort out the problem, of cancelling the account altogether. It was only at this point when they had also received my bank statement and the address still didn't work, that they agreed to lift the security address checker setting off the account to allow the payments through. I can imagine that a lot of business is lost because of this.

InsideInsurance

JWhite wrote: »

I can imagine that a lot of business is lost because of this.

Certainly some is, its mainly an issue with flats or people with both house numbers and names but who drop the number when its free entry address field.

3D Secure was a bigger problem with people not remembering their password and not bothering go through the retrieval process or not trusting what this box was etc - it was a good few years ago when it was still uncommon.

Leodogger

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Certainly some is, its mainly an issue with flats or people with both house numbers and names but who drop the number when its free entry address field.

3D Secure was a bigger problem with people not remembering their password and not bothering go through the retrieval process or not trusting what this box was etc - it was a good few years ago when it was still uncommon.

Will companies still be able to offer for me to pay by manually inputting the address for services and products where they would normally use an address checker ?

This seemed to work when I purchased the currency card as it was the only way the payment would work but do all other companies offer the same alternative if the address code checker doesn't process the payment ?