This whole entire business is in dire need of a major disruption - it's ridiculous and takes an Einstein to even figure out the charges. That said...<p>1. I read a thread on here a while back (<3months) talking about address verification and why NOT to do it. You'll have to do your own search - but I'm reasonably confident that it was related to 37signals in some way.<p>2. CVV verification reduces your fraud levels and it is a MUST have for web transactions, IMO, but you'll need to check with your merchant account to see if it also reduces your charges per transaction. I'm thinking that the CVV verification does reduce it. Why wouldn't you need this on a recurring transaction? Presumably, the recurring transaction already has done the verification??? The way it's processed isn't really a new transaction, but a recurring. If you do a new purchase, even with same company, I think you'll be asked for CVV again. I honestly don't know, but I bet it has something to do with this. Never have done recurring transactions before, but someone here will be able to answer.<p>Why void the authorization? Again, this stuff is all relatively cryptic to me, but I thought the purpose of the auth was to at some point actually charge? The gas station I use always charges .01 - I see it on my account before the actual charge goes through. I'm sure they are just verifying the CC info is accurate. I don't think they void it though. Anything wrong with authorizing the entire purchase amount you expect to charge, and then just process it at the appropriate time? For sure, the auth is good for more than the "one work day" you outlined above.<p>Myself, I've always wondered about the authorization transaction. I thought that I got charged some fee just for doing that, then another fee to run it. I'm probably wrong on that, but I was so confused by how I got charged and what percentages that I did the absolute minimum necessary. Customer has a rewards card? Great, we charge you extra for that! Amex is the worst with charge backs. Sorry...you've brought back some bad memories! :-)<p>EDIT: Here, I did the search I mentioned above. <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1953137" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1953137</a>