How are customers' credit cards protected when they use Virtual Terminal?

When a transaction is processed with Virtual Terminal, the card issuer verifies the customer's credit card and billing address to help prevent fraud.

Card Security Code

Card Security Code (CSC, also known by many other names, including CVV), is a security feature that helps protect against fraud. The CSC imprinted on a physical credit card proves the card is valid.

When a transaction is processed using Virtual Terminal, enter the credit card's CSC on the Virtual Terminal main page.

When the transaction data is entered, we send the CSC to the card issuer. They check it and return a response code, which Virtual Terminal displays. This code shows the status of the CSC check. For further information on the code descriptions see: What does Virtual Terminal do when a credit card can't be verified?

Address Verification System

Address Verification System (AVS) is another security feature that checks the billing address associated with the customer’s card. AVS compares the billing address on file at the cardholder’s issuing bank against the billing address entered in Virtual Terminal. If the addresses don’t match, the transaction is declined.

Note: AVS is mainly available for US-based cards, with limited international support.

When all of the transaction data is entered in Virtual Terminal, and the transaction is processed, we send the billing data to the card issuer, who performs the AVS match. The card issuer sends the match results in a response code, which Virtual Terminal displays. The code shows which part of the entered customer's billing address AVS matched.

If you only want to accept transactions that pass the AVS match test, process Authorizations first and then capture the transactions separately based on the response. For AVS response code descriptions, see What does Virtual Terminal do when a customer’s address can’t be verified?