VM Payment Methods & SSL

[jk15060]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I am a bit confused as to when I must install the SSL certificate so that customers can enter in their Personal information and credit card numbers directly on the website.  My client offers Visa, MC, and PayPal as payment methods.  Do I need Authorize.net or some other Payment Gateway to do this?  Sorry for the very basic question, but I have never configured VM before now.

The website is using Joomla 2.5.11 and VM 2.0.20b although I have a notice to upgrade VM and it shows 2.0.20a as the latest version, which is a bit confusing.

I did find the sticky note about how to configure PayPal payments, so would the Payment Gateway extension do the trick for credit card purchases?

Forgive the elementary question.  Just point me to the documentation and I'm there.

[Maxim Pishnyak]

I had a link under my left feet https://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=114525.msg342709#new

[jk15060]

Thank you for the link, Maxim!  After looking over the thread you sent, it may be best to NOT capture credit card numbers on the client website, but hand it over to someone who does this all the time.  Perhaps it's less hassle and more secure to pass the credit card info elsewhere.  MadeForJoomla extension (plugin) looks promising.  I would never enter personal information online without the HTTPS, but that's just me. 

Would the combination of the Authorize.net plugin and SSL prevent me from having to self-certify?  Seems like with the plugin, those folks need to ensure PCI compliance.  True statement or do we both have to be in compliance?  Tricky business.  And I also assume the compliance is needed because of credit card information. True or false?  Time to do a bit more reading on this prior to opening up the shop.

Again, can't thank you enough for the reply and link!

[Maxim Pishnyak]

You're welcome!

One real case https://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=113995