Card Verification Value (CVV) or Card Validation Code (CVC)

Often represented as CVV2/CVC2, this safety feature provides consumers with added credit card transaction security by requiring additional three or four non-embossed numbers that are only located on the actual credit card. CVV2/CVC2 processing does not affect whether the charge is approved, but it does reduce credit card fraud when the physical card isn’t available to swipe through an MSR device (e.g., as with telephone orders) – so rates are often impacted. Visa refers to this as CVV2 (three digit code on back of card), MasterCard calls this CVC2 by (three digit code on back of card), and American Express calls this (four digit code on front of card).