I wish to take credit card payments on my site. Do I need an SSL Certificate?
If you wish to accept credit card payments from your website, you have two options.
The first option is to use a third party payment provider, such as WorldPay who will process the card payments for you. They will also provide the secure server which will enable the information taken to be secure. If you have a small volume of transactions, then PayPal is a cheaper option. If you decide to use a third party payment provider, then you would not require an SSL certificate. With that said, some customers may be uncomfortable about entering other personal details without SSL, so you may still want an SSL certificate on your site for the order form, account login, etc.
The other option is to apply to the Bank to be a credit card merchant (unless you already are one). Your Bank may provide payment pages or you may accept details on your site using a secure connection (SSL) and then pass these on to the Bank. You could also use a third party such as WorldPay in connection with your Bank merchant account to take details from your customers.
All of our hosting plans have an SSL upgrade option for an additional £49.99 + VAT per year. This provides the installation of a 128 bit Comodo SSL certificate, plus the allocation of a dedicated IP address for your website.
