Risk Manager Payment FAQ

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What do the sections in the Risk Manager payment card mean?

Here is the payment card info you will see displayed in Risk Manager. 

What is a Billing/Shipping mismatch?

A billing shipping mismatch usually happens when the postal code entered by the buyer on an online payment card information form does not match the postal code for the shipping address entered on the form.

Here are the different possibilities that can cause billing/shipping mismatches in Risk Manager:

Key:

Shipping form postal code: Customer manually enters the shipping postal code in a form on the website. 

Payment information form postal code: Customer manually enters the payment information, including the postal code attached to their card. This postal code is identical to what the bank has on file for the card. 

Billing same as shipping: Customer can check this optional checkbox that is (sometimes) shown on some eCommerce websites.

Billing info form postal code: Customer manually enters their billing postal code in a form on the website.

Why does my payment say “match” on the website but not in Risk Manager?

When Risk Manager is analyzing online payments, it looks at two specific forms: the shipping form and the payment card information form. Risk Manager does not take into account the information filled in the billing form. This can sometimes cause a discrepancy between what Square views as a mismatch and what an eCommerce business would view as a mismatch.

To enter information in the billing form, sometimes a customer is given the option to select the “billing is same as shipping” checkbox. If the customer:

Checks the checkbox to say that shipping and billing match.

• In this case, if the postal code on the customer payment card matches the shipping postal code, then Risk Manager will show a match.

• If the customer enters a different postal code on the payment information form than on the shipping information form, Risk Manager will show a billing/shipping mismatch, even if the customer checks “shipping and billing match.”

Does not select the checkbox and manually enters their information.

• If a customer does not click the checkbox and manually enters a postal code in the shipping form that matches the postal code in the payment information form, then Risk Manager will show a match, even if the postal code they enter in the billing form is different.

• If the customer does not click the checkbox, and manually enters matching postal codes in the billing and shipping form, but the postal code is different than in the payment information form, then Risk Manager will show a mismatch, even though the eCommerce website might say “match.”

Why does Risk Manager not check the postal code in the billing address form?

Risk Manager does not rely on the billing address form for several reasons, the most important being that the billing postal code entered on the payment information form is a better indicator of potential fraud. Whether or not a website has a separate billing form is dependent on the checkout experience of each website. 

While we do not use the billing address form to calculate risk match/mismatch, you can still see that information as appears in the customer details card. 

What is an AVS mismatch? 

An AVS match occurs if the customer-entered postal code for their billing address matches the postal code that the bank has on file.

However, Square uses the postal code in the payment information form as the billing postal code (instead of the billing form). We then compare that information to what the bank has on file. If it does not match, then Risk Manager displays an AVS mismatch.

Here are the different possibilities that can cause AVS mismatches in Risk Manager: