At a glance
Successful Viva Payments transactions where the card-issuer country differs from the customer billing country. Strong fraud signal individually, but legitimate at low rates (travelling customers, expats, gift purchases). The shape of the mismatch profile (which country pairs) is more interesting than the absolute count.
| What it counts | COUNT(transactions WHERE StatusId = F AND BillingDetails.Country != CardCountry). BIN-derived card country (CardCountry) compared against customer-supplied billing country. |
| API endpoint | /api/transactions joining BillingDetails.Country and CardCountry. |
| Currency | Currency-neutral (count + percentage view). |
| Refunds / disputes | Excluded (only successful captures). |
| Failed payments | Excluded. |
| Why it matters | Mismatch transactions historically have 3, 5× higher chargeback rate than matched. A spike often precedes a fraud wave. The card pairs with viv_chargeback_rate for downstream impact. |
| Channels | Online card-not-present only. POS card-present always matches (terminal location = card location for in-store). |
| 3DS treatment | Mismatch transactions are far more likely to hit 3DS challenge under PSD2; the issuer’s own risk engine catches them. |
| Time window | 7D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | >5% of total transactions, OR +50% relative spike vs prior week. |
| Roles | owner, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Viva Payments data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A Greek-headquartered consumer-goods brand on Smart Checkout. 7-day window 26 Apr 26 to 02 May 26.| Pattern | Count | Common cause | Risk class |
|---|---|---|---|
| GR billing, GR card | 3,210 | Domestic | Low |
| DE billing, DE card | 480 | Domestic | Low |
| GR billing, GB card | 92 | Greek expat / UK-issued card holder in Greece | Medium |
| GR billing, US card | 84 | American customer holidaying / buying gifts to GR | Medium |
| DE billing, RO card | 38 | Romanian working in Germany, RO card | Low (legitimate) |
| FR billing, NG card | 12 | French address but Nigerian-issued card | High (often fraud) |
| GB billing, RU card | 6 | UK address but Russian card, sanctions-flagged BIN | High |
| Total mismatches | 232 | ||
| Total transactions | 4,610 | ||
| Mismatch rate | 5.0% | At alert threshold |
- 5% mismatch rate is the alert threshold. Below 3% is normal (legitimate travelers, expats). Above 5% suggests fraud testing or a campaign mismatch (your shipping policy is letting through high-risk geographies).
- The country pair matters more than the count. GR-billing + GB-card is benign; FR-billing + NG-card is high-risk. Open the table view to see which pairs are accumulating.
- Sanctions-flagged BINs (RU, IR, KP, SY, BY) should be near-zero. If they’re appearing, your SCA / risk filter is letting them through. Review Viva’s Risk dashboard configuration.
- 3DS challenge is likely on mismatches. Most of these will have hit a 3DS challenge from the issuer; the customer completed it (which is why they’re in this card, only successful transactions). Issuer-completed 3DS provides liability shift, you’re protected from chargeback for fraud claims, but not for “item not received” claims.
- POS captures don’t appear here. Card-present at terminal = same country by definition (the card is physically at the terminal location).
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Card vs Customer Country Mismatch |
|---|---|
viv_chargeback_rate | Mismatched transactions chargeback at 3, 5× the rate of matched. |
viv_dispute_rate | Same, in-flight disputes. |
viv_threedsecure_abandon_rate | Mismatched transactions get 3DS challenge more often; abandon rates higher. |
viva_decline_rate | Mismatched transactions decline more often (issuer fraud filter). |
viva_revenue_by_country | The country breakdown that this card cross-references. |
Stripe stripe_card_vs_billing_country_mismatch | Cross-PSP same-archetype card. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Viva Payments Dashboard: viva.com/business/account/login. Closest comparable view:Viva Business → Risk → Cross-border / Mismatch report (where Risk module enabled)Other relevant views:
- Risk overview: composite fraud risk with mismatch as one factor.
- Disputes view: downstream impact when mismatches resolve to chargebacks.
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Country resolution fallback | Either | We resolve customer country from BillingDetails.Country first, then card-issuer; the Risk view sometimes uses a third source (IP geolocation). |
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Athens vs UTC. |
| Definition of “match” | Either | We compare ISO 2-letter codes exactly. Some Viva views accept regional groupings (e.g. UK = GB but historically GB-N for Northern Ireland is sometimes a separate flag). |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
viva_card_country_mismatch ↔ Stripe equivalent | Often differ | Different merchant on different rails sees different fraud-shape. Stripe may carry your premium / Amex; Viva your domestic + IRIS. |