I have a question regarding declined transactions. First let me note all of my fraud-prevention settings are disabled (AVS and Card Code Verification are both disabled.)

1) I notice that an abnormally high number of international customers have their credit card declined. The Transaction Status almost always indicates that the card was declined by the issuing bank. However upon failure of this transaction, I refer the customer to PayPal where the customer most likely uses the same card to make the purchase through PayPal - and it almost always succeeds. Is there any information available about why an overseas card would be declined when processed through Authorize.net but not through PayPal?

2) I notice that some local customers (US-based) also have their credit card declined, and the transaction status also indicates that the card was declined by the issuing bank. I understand that sometimes a card is declined for valid reasons, but I worry that maybe there's something that can be done to reduce the number of declined cards. All information I read on this forum always points to AVS settings, but as I mentioned those settings are definitely disabled. In these cases, I'm seeing Address Verification Status which shows both a Street Address Match and Zip Code Match.

• Since my AVS rejection settings are disabled, I'm assuming that since it's showing Address Verification Status (showing 1/3, 2/3, and sometimes even 3/3 address match), Authorize.net still receives/requests address information about the cardholder and performs the matching process - even when the transaction is declined by the issuing bank. Is this correct?
• I'm under the impression that the only way Authorize.net could receive the cardholders address information would be through a successful transaction. If the card is declined by the issuing bank, how does Authorize.net still receive the address information and perform the match? It seems redundant and a bit confusing.
• Does Authorize.net actually send any address information (or any info other than Card Number and Expiration Date) through to the payment processor which could result in the transaction being declined by the issuing bank?

Thank you for your assistance.