Halifax Clarity Card Zip Codes

Kred wrote: »

Thank you for all your replies and Halifax have finally responded.
Apparently they as a Company do not support any transactions that require a Zip code which I find very surprising given this is an enhanced security measure!
Spoke to the Halifax credit card customer complaint team and they have confirmed this is company policy and no plans to change it.

It shouldn't really surprise you - how could it possibly make your transaction more secure? You don't have a Zip code. To be honest it sounds like a US domestic process and it shouldn't be enforced on non-US cards used in the US. No UK issuer will support Zip Code checking - in fact it's likely no issuer outside North America will.

All that said, the retailer and its processor will not be checking the value you give because they would have no idea what Zip code area you live in (even if you did). They will simply forward the value to your issuer for checking as part of an authorisation request, but your issuer will simply discard the Zip code information when they receive it because it's meaningless to them.

UK issuers use something similar called AVS (Address Verification Service) for card-not-present transactions which uses the numerics from house number and post code.

Possibly the best way forward is to do as suggested by others here and make up a 5 digit number. It might need to be a valid Zip code (just in case there is any up-front checking) but, from what I have read in previous posts, it seems you might get away with anything.

Just to add, AVS (as mentioned above) is not just a UK thing and is what would have been used to verify the ZIP code. It matches up the numerics from the house number (if applicable) and the postcode/zip code. I'm guessing that to get past the ZIP code requirement it would be best to use leading zeroes, so if the numerics from your post code were 2 and 3, you might find 00023 works, as this would equate to a value of 23 which would match what your card issuer would be expecting to receive.

Migster wrote: »

Just to add, AVS (as mentioned above) is not just a UK thing and is what would have been used to verify the ZIP code. It matches up the numerics from the house number (if applicable) and the postcode/zip code. I'm guessing that to get past the ZIP code requirement it would be best to use leading zeroes, so if the numerics from your post code were 2 and 3, you might find 00023 works, as this would equate to a value of 23 which would match what your card issuer would be expecting to receive.

An additional issue dropping out of the use of AVS/ZIP checking is possibly that UK issuers may not perform said service in the card-present environment and so will not care what info is provided - as others seem to have indicated.

PS doesn't AVS use the house number numerics any more?

Ben8282 wrote: »

I was just thinking that Canadian post codes are in a format identical to UK postcodes so the problem must be happening with Canadian issued cards as well...

The link in post #9 above gives advice for Canadian Mastercard holders. Others suggest the same method might work for UK postcodes.

What is your proposed solution to the problem? What do you want Halifax to actually do about it?

The solution is to raise awareness of the problem and to publish an approved workaround, like digits from postcode plus zeroes, or a made up zip code. Halifax Clarity is a travel card and should provide guidance to its customers who might encounter the zip code requirement.