Address Verification and Implications for non-US People
 

Has anyone here (non-US people) been frustrated with US companies that use Address Verification on credit cards when making online purchases and find out that their payment has been declined because they have an international address?

If so, share your experienes here.

Sometimes these companies are so inflexible that they don't even allow you to fax in both sides of your credit card and/or sign a letter authorizing the chrages. (They insist that everything be done electronically, and thus denying non-US customers a chance to make a purchase)

The practice of having a customer fax in both sides of their credit card/passport and letter authorizing the charges has been a common way in other countries.

Why is this in the Visa/MC forum?

Because Visa/MC doesn't allow merchants to electronically verify address information for international Visa/MC cards, but they do for US based cards.

I had it happen to me several times when I was living in Spain and tried to use my Spanish-based credit card. I was lucky that I also had a US based credit card on my parents' US address but it was a pain in the neck since I purposely kept very little money in my USA checking account and had to do a transfer whenever I wanted to pay a US$ denominated invoice

I have a US-based card, but I have been successful in the UK using it to top up my mobile phone. The automated system asks for all the numbers in my post code (which for the US, it's all numbers), and for any numbers in the street address. Works like a champ.