A little confused about required fields

[tn77]

If I do a bare-bones PHP transaction with AIM, I pass the following:

"x_login" => $login,
"x_tran_key" => $trans,

// user stuff
"x_card_num" => $ccnum,
"x_exp_date" => $expire,
"x_card_code" => $cvv,

My question is about name, address, city, and state. I see that these fields exist...

x_first_name

x_last_name

x_address

x_city

x_state

x_zip

... but it seems like all of them are optional.

Even with the AVS settings, it seems only the zip and the address number (not the full address) are checked for validity. Is this right? 

If the cardholder is...

John Smith

123 Main Street

Somewhere, WY 98765...

What's to stop someone from using the card with all of this information being wrong?

So I have a few questions here:

- In virtual terminal settings, if I check "required", does that mean a value must be present, but it isn't actually matched for the sake of validity?

- If I use AVS, is it true that only the number within the address, the zip, and the extended zip can be matched?

- With AVS, I see that "N" rejection is checked, but currently I'm not passing Street and Zip; is that why all my transactions succeed?

- Is there any way to require all cardholder data (name, city, state) to match to get a successful authorization?

Thank you.

[TJPride]

Correct. There's really no point to trying to match on city, because there are so many possible variations. Same with most of the street address.

- Yes. Required doesn't necessarily equate to validated.

- Yes. See above.

- AVS is only applied to actual transactions. If you're processing test transactions (sandbox or test mode), nothing will happen because it never makes it to the credit card processor. You need a real card for a real match.

- No, and there's no point. All you'd get is a million rejections, and each one costs you 10 cents - it adds up.

[tn77]

Thanks for that, it appears to be as I suspected. My only other question/comment is a followup on the avs stuff: I'm in production, so should I assume the checkbox is ignored because I'm not requiring those fields?

[TJPride]

If you're in production AND live mode and the address field is still being ignored, then I would guess that could only be if you said the address field shouldn't be collected on the hosted form. Why would you care if you aren't collecting it, however?

[tn77]

I have my own account and I develop software for other people. I was just wondering why, on my account, "N" is checked but nothing is rejected. My assumption is just that I'm not requring Address or Zip fields.

So the answer "why I care" is just education, trying to figure out the best way to document the configuration for my other customers.

[TJPride]

Better test this theory to make sure. Allow those fields briefly and submit an incorrect address on a live mode transaction in a production account - see if it gets rejected. Then disallow them again and see if the same thing (minus address, of course) goes through.