I really hate to admit this... but I found out recently that I was losing a significant number of sales at the very last second! I figured out the problem and I wondered if it had happened to any of you.

After getting emails from a customer in Canada, I found that I had a problem. No matter what I did to my form code and the script that handles the form, he kept getting rejected! The address info was correct, the card was his (not stolen) and there was nothing wrong with his credit.

The problem was the Address Verification System (AVS). Only credit cards issued by banks in the United States work with AVS. If your gateway software is set to reject transactions when there is an AVS error, you won't be able to accept any cards issued by non-US banks.

I discovered, after talking with customer service at ecx.com (my merchant account provider), that if *any* of the address mismatch conditions were selected as a reason to reject the transaction, *all* non-US credit cards would be rejected.

Why? Because none of them even respond to the AVS system. It can't ever get a match, so it always fails AVS. So, I turned all those settings "off".

If you have a real merchant account, especially if the secure gateway software is from Authorize.NET...log into the account and check your AVS settings - NOW. Decide for yourself if you want to do business with customers outside the US and set up the AVS appropriately.

Otherwise, you could be losing sales *after* your prospect has made the decison to buy from you! All your good marketing efforts, all your copy writing and advertising will have been wasted. Don't make this mistake!

Final Note: Your merchant receipt should show the results of the AVS check. When an AVS failure is indicated, it's best to contact the customer personally and verify the order. Do this as soon as you get the receipt.