Priceless

I initially posted this a couple of years ago and it has gone to Archive Heaven.. Good if you need it….

International Telex Verification

To use it, call the normal card authorization phone number (800) 228-1122 and hold for an agent.

Don’t press ANY selection for a destination or you will get trapped and eventually dumped. Just wait. I waited nearly three minutes. Your mileage may vary.

Once an agent comes on, state that you have an International Address to Verify.

The agent will request cardholder information and will ask for the address you have. They will also ask for your merchant number.

If the Issuing Bank is available at the time of the call, the Issuing Bank will be contacted by a telex operator.

If the Issuing Bank is NOT available or cannot be reached via phone, the telex operator will take down all appropriate information & contact the merchant/representative once the Issuing Bank has responded to the inquiry.

In this case, they stated that they would Telex the bank in Tasmania, Australia that served the customer I was verifying and return with a verification call within 24 hours. They did exactly that and confirmed the address.

This service is not for any particular provider or bank. If you are a merchant on the First Data Platform, which most of us are, you can use it now to verify those international orders you want to ship.

There is no cost to use this service.

If you use this and find that the verification info routine has changed or you find a new number, please comment this post for the benefit of others.