Information for Customers - Guidance for New Customers

We've registered - what happens next? | Software installation | Payments prior to completion of Autopay arrangement | Billing & payments system | Keep us updated

We've registered - what happens next?

Once you have decided to become a Tradelink customer and submitted your Registration Form, it will take three working days to process your registration. We will then contact you and arrange to deliver to you the following items:

• The appropriate Tradelink software along with a reference manual and installation instructions.
  
  
• The Personal ID-Cert(s), issued by Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited, to the authorised message signatory you have nominated.
  

Once you have done the software installation, you are almost ready to start using Tradelink's service, but first you need to check that your company's name and contact details are shown correctly on your Customer Profile, as this information will be used by us for all communication and billing purposes.

Software installation

The Customer Kit includes a Reference Manual which contains full details of how to install and set up your Tradelink software. You can either do the installation immediately, following these instructions, or wait until you have attended a Tradelink training course covering software installation. Training is strongly recommended as the hands-on experience you receive will save you time and help you avoid the risk of mistakes.

If you have NOT booked an installation training course, it is still not too late to do so - click for full details of courses available and how to enrol.

Alternatively, if you prefer to not to do the installation yourself, Tradelink can provide an on-site installation service at a competitive price (please refer to the current Price List for details).

If for any reason you need to re-install the software once you have already used it to send Tradelink messages, you need to be sure that the appropriate UDR/UAR numbers are reset.

Payments prior to completion of Autopay arrangement

Normally you will receive an electronic statement, showing all fees and charges due, at whatever frequency you specified on registration (in most cases, monthly or fortnightly). Tradelink will collect this amount automatically from your account two working days later by Autopay. However, since it normally takes around four weeks to complete the Autopay arrangements with your bank, it is likely you will need to settle the first one or more statements, depending on billing frequency, by cash or cheque.

You should make such payments directly to Tradelink's bank account with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), Account No. 567-778360-001. Cheques should be made payable to Tradelink Electronic Commerce Limited. When you have done this, please fax a copy of the pay-in slip to Tradelink at 2506 0388, quoting your company name and CETS ID, and marked for the attention of Customer Service Department. Please allow two bank working days for Tradelink to update your payment record. To ensure uninterrupted use of Tradelink's service, please make payment within two days of receiving your statement. Tradelink cannot accept responsibility for any late lodgment penalty or other consequence arising from transactions being rejected due to delays in the payment being cleared, and which therefore cannot be submitted to Government at the due time.

Once the Autopay arrangement is ready, you will see the following entry on your next statement:AUTOPAY BANK ACCOUNT: [your account no.] HK$ [amount] ON [date]. This indicates that the amount shown will be debited automatically and you no longer need to settle by cash or cheque.

Billing & payments system

When you become a Tradelink customer, our electronic billing system assigns you an Account Limit (70% of your deposit amount) and a Service Limit (Full deposit amount). Thus, if your deposit is HK$2,400, your Account Limit will be HK$1,680 and your Service Limit will be HK$2,400. Should you reach your Account Limit before the end of your normal billing cycle, a statement will be automatically generated and sent to you, then the amount collected by Direct Debit two working days later. In the meantime you will be able to continue sending transactions.

However, if you should reach your Service Limit before payment has been received, you will not be able to continue using Tradelink's service until the account has been settled, and any further transactions will be rejected with the error message 'Exceed Service Limit' or 'Service Limit Check Failed'. To enable the Account Limit to be reset, you can settle the outstanding payment by direct deposit of the amount into Tradelink's bank account, following the same procedure as for 'Payments prior to completion of the autopay arrangement' above.

Keep us updated

It is important that when any changes take place to your company information that Tradelink be advised as soon as possible, otherwise it could result to unnecessary delays or even rejection of your transactions.

It is particularly important that you advise us of any change to your company's Registration Authoriser, as his/her approval is needed when, for example, when you need to add or delete message signatories. If we have no record that the Authoriser has changed, the request cannot be handled until Tradelink is able to verify the authenticity of the new Authoriser.