How CVV and Zip Code verification works

Security Measures We Take at Direct Ordering 

When a customer chooses to pay by credit, Direct Ordering requires four pieces of information in an effort to help prevent credit card fraud. To ensure a high level of transaction security, we collect:

1. Credit Card Number

2. Expiration Date

3. CVV Code

4. Zip Code 

Submitting CVV Codes and Zip Codes to credit card processors allows them to perform CVV (Card Verification Value) and AVS (Address Verification System) checks. These checks are actually separate from approving the card itself, which merely assures the card has sufficient funds.

That is, while a credit card processor may approve a credit card number and expiration date, they may tell us that either the CVV or AVS (or both) checks failed. This is an indication of 2 possible scenarios:

1. The customer entered the CVV or zip code incorrectly by accident.

2. The customer may be using a stolen credit card number and doesn't know the CVV or Zip Code at all.

How does Credit Card rejection look to the customer? 

Since it's impossible for us to know which above scenario is occurring, for your protection, we assume the worst. As a result, we reject the transaction (even if the card itself was approved) and reload the checkout page with one or more error messages, asking the customer to correct the CVV and/or billing zip code and resubmit the transaction. 

If the card had indeed been approved by the credit card processor for the original transaction amount, we void the approved authorization, which may show up in the customer's online credit card portal as a "pending" transaction. These voided authorizations typically disappear in 3-5 business days and will ultimately never hit your customer's credit card statement. Though note they may affect your customer's available credit until they disappear. 

If the customer enters the CVV or zip code incorrectly multiple times before getting it right, they may see multiple pending authorizations in their online credit card portal, all of which should disappear after 3-5 business days.

Preventing Fraud

This extra layer of security helps to prevent credit card fraud because it requires the customers to have all four pieces of information associated with their card (card number, expiration, CVV, and zip code) instead of just the card number and expiration date (which are the two items easiest to steal). While these pending authorizations may be a nuisance to your customers, we feel it's important to do whatever we can to help prevent credit card fraud. It's ultimately in both the customer's and restaurant's best interest that we take these added security measures.