Personal Finance
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5 mins read
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July 02, 2021
What is a Billing Address?
Your guide to understanding what a billing address is, how it’s used, and why it’s important to know the difference between a billing, residential, and shipping address.
If you’ve ever
and used a
, chances are you’ve been asked to provide a billing address or zip code. But what is a billing address?
Simply put, it’s the address to which companies send paper bills and bank statements. It is used to verify the authorization of a form of payment, such as a credit or debit card.
Is the Billing Address Where You Live?
The billing address can be where you live, but it can also be a P.O. box. Often, it’s easier to align your residential address with your billing address so that the relevant forms, bills, statements, and other documents reach you.
If your billing address is the same as your residential address, you do need to remember to change your billing address when you move. If you don’t, important documents could get sent to your prior address instead.
In order to change your billing address, simply call the number on the back of your credit card and request a billing address change. You can also change your billing address online or write up your new address and mail it to your credit card provider. What is a Billing Address Used For?
As your billing address is used to verify and authorize your payments, it is used in preventing identity theft as most merchants will require you to provide a zip code in your billing address. So, if a thief steals your wallet and attempts to use your
, the payment could be stopped by the request for a zip code associated with the card, which a thief hopefully won’t have.
Other purchases may ask for your full billing address, not just your zip code, and put the
you enter into the
. If the addresses don’t match, this is another indication that there may be an issue of identity theft on hand, as the billing address entered was incorrect.
What Does a Billing Address Look Like?
A billing address looks just like a street or residential address with a street number and name followed by a city, state, and zip code, along with the specific unit you inhabit if you live in an apartment or condominium complex.
Is Billing Address the Same as Shipping Address?
Your billing address
may
be the same as your shipping address, though this is not necessary. In general, your shipping address is where you would prefer to receive packages. For many, that could be an office address. In that case, if you don’t want to receive payment-related documentation at your office, your billing and shipping addresses would be different.
Similarly, if you are traveling and are expecting an important package, your shipping address may change for a period of time to the location you are traveling to so that you can receive your delivery.
You can find your billing address by contacting your credit card company directly or by going online to verify what address you provided at the time of opening your
. That way, you can directly see if your billing address is the address at which you would like to receive packages, making it the same as your shipping address, or if it’s another address, like a residential address or a P.O. box you may have access to.
Ultimately, it’s important to know your billing address, because if you are unable to verify it when making purchases, you risk your
or debit card being paused for fear of identity theft. Moreover, it’s essential to change your billing address if you are moving and will no longer have access to the address you’ve originally registered.
While you may not opt for paper mail through your credit card company, it is nevertheless important that your billing address matches up in the Address Verification System to prevent theft from occurring.
