GovHK online services generally accept credit cards (Visa and MasterCard) and PPS payment.

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Your credit card or PPS information is captured by the payment service provider (e.g. EPSCO or a credit card acquiring bank). GovHK and the Government bureau or department that offers the GovHK online service cannot access such information.

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The screen that prompts you to select payment method provides a Transaction Reference Number (TRN), with which you could check the status of your payment if you encounter any problems during the payment process. Individual service provides an online function for you to enquire about the status of your payment. Alternatively, you can contact the Help Desk of the service for assistance. Please ensure that your first payment has not been effected before proceeding to make a second attempt.

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After completing an online service, you should print and retain the acknowledgement page, which contains key information about the transaction or a reference number that would allow you to check the transaction status with the relevant Government bureau or department when necessary.

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When you make online PPS payments, you will need to input both your PPS account number and your PPS Internet password for each payment. Please visit the PPS website to find out  how to register for a PPS Internet password, as well as details on browser compatibility and other technical information.

• PPS website ( http://www.ppshk.com/hkt/revamp2/English/main.html )

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At present, only Visa and MasterCard are accepted for credit card payment on GovHK online services. Some Visa card and MasterCard issuers do not support online payment, i.e. they issue credit cards mainly for retail transactions where merchants can check the physical card. Thus if your Visa or MasterCard is not accepted for a GovHK online service, please check with your credit card issuers to ascertain if they support online payment.

On the other hand, both Visa and MasterCard offer additional security programs to give their cardholders extra protection when they make online payments. There is a possibility that your card issuer would decline your online payment request if you have not registered for these security programs. Please contact your card issuer for the registration. More details are also available from the Visa and MasterCard websites.

• Verified by Visa authentication service ( http://www.visa-asia.com/ap/hk/en_US/cardholders/security/vbv.shtml ) (VbV)
• MasterCard SecureCode ( http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/securecode/index.html )

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There is generally no system requirement. But if you have registered for Visa and MasterCard's security programs (i.e. Verified by Visa (VbV) and MasterCard SecureCode), you may need to enable your browser to accept cookies from your credit card issuer's website.  You are advised to check with your credit card issuer if they have imposed any other specific system requirements.

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The GovHK payment system makes use of certificates issued by the Hongkong Post and your browser cannot recognise these certificates. Please visit the following page to download and install the Hongkong Post Root CA Certificates:

• Hongkong Post Root CA Certificates ( http://www.hongkongpost.gov.hk/product/download/root/index.html )

If the problem persists after installing the Hongkong Post Root CA Certificates, please report the problem to the GovHK Help Desk at 183 5500 or email to enquiry@1835500.gov.hk ( mailto:enquiry@1835500.gov.hk ).

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If the payment is paid by PPS, the department would normally issue a refund cheque to you. If the payment is made by Credit Card online, normally, refund can only be made to the Credit Card account that was used for the payment. Please note that if your credit card account has been cancelled when the refund is made, some card issuing banks may charge you for an administration fee before you can get back the money. It is not possible for the Government to check whether your credit card account is still active before making the refund because the Government does not know your credit card number.

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Currently, not all credit card issuing banks have participated in VbV or MasterCard SecureCode. Some issuing banks may also enable VbV or MasterCard SecureCode selectively, e.g. only for payment above a certain amount. In addition, some of the online services may not enable VbV or MasterCard SecureCode at certain situations due to different reasons.

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PPS has updated the system requirements with effect from 15 October 2009. Users who do not have TLS (Transport Layer Security) enabled in the browser or Java software would not be able to pay with PPS. Please check and update the settings of your browser and Java software according to the system requirements set out in the PPS website ( http://www.ppshk.com/hkt/revamp2/English/sys_req_sysConfig.html ). 

Please note that you may need to restart your browser for the new settings to be effective.

If your browser does not have TLS enabled, you may get the following error message after choosing PPS payment:

Error message in Internet Explorer:

Error message in Firefox:

 If TLS is enabled in your browser but not in Java, you may still be able to access the PPS payment gateway. However, after you input your Account Name and password, you would see the error message below.

After pressing the “OK” button, you would see the PPS Account Name and password page again but would not be able to proceed with payment.  You may cancel the payment, change the settings in Java, re-start your browser and then retry.  You may also switch to pay by credit card.

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