A VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and it is essential for guarding your online privacy by making your location and traffic anonymous. It mainly grants you your own private connection to the internet.
For instance a hacker could access all the sites you visit by hacking the Wi-Fi network that you are connected to (yes public WiFi networks are not entirely secure). Using a VPN, you are protected from such because your VPN encrypts all the data you send over the internet.
Even though someone manages to steal your data, they wouldn’t be able to understand it or decrypt it.
But far from protection, a VPN does a whole lot more than keeping your data safe. VPNs can save you money.
With online stores and global shipping, buying anything is possible. What's more, using VPNs you can get better shopping deals, rental prices and flight fees, simply by changing your location. Is that even possible? You'll find out in a bit!
You can try a quick exercise by changing your location in your favorite online store to another country entirely. You may notice differences like lower shipping fees or even a sale going on in the country.
There is absolutely nothing illegal about using the technological advantages of a VPN to save money, it is completely lawful. The differences in prices in most countries are done purposely due to the country’s economic capacity and the origin country of the product or service you are trying to purchase.
In this article, you will learn how to save money using VPN in a step by step process. So let’s get started!
Online shopping has become increasingly popular since its inception. The guilty pleasure of a ton of fashion and technology lovers and there may be a little amount of luck needed to hit the jackpot when shopping online with VPN.
If you want to know if saving money using VPN is as effective as it sounds, there’s only one way to find out, try it!
Its heartbreaking to find out that online stores do not treat all their customers the same. As it is, if you are shopping for clothes in an online store, changing your location can make a huge difference, you can get a country where a sale is going on and save up some money from your shopping budget.
You can also get a country where the prices are cheaper due to income rate or maybe you can order products directly from the country where products are made. All these are ways a can VPN help you save money.
There are several subscription services that enable users to leverage cloud platforms. You are no longer required to start and complete your work on a single computer or go through the stress of transferring files from one computer to the other.
For instance, Microsoft office 365 allows such convenience to users. Of course the cost of this hassle free work environment comes with a catch - "a subscription fee". We discovered that prices largely depend on the country that you are in. Using a secure VPN, you can get to pay cheaper rates by connecting to the server of a country that offers such and enjoy immense savings.
This trick is not only limited to Microsoft office 365 but also use this for subscription services like Spotify and a bunch of other platforms. In the US, Spotify costs about $9.99 whereas you will have to pay higher than that in a European country. By merely changing your server to the US, you are well on your way to saving some extra dollars to fuel your other obsessions.
Are you an Apple subscriber? We bring you good tidings. Changing your location to India will reduce your cost to only $1.43 for a monthly subscription which is less than half of what you may pay for the USA and UK.
In some countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, calls from social media like WhatsApp, Viber, Skype are blocked because the telecom industries make little profit from. As you know, these platforms allow the public to make calls for a little fraction of their data.
It can easily become a huge problem when you travel to such countries. But by using a Virtual Private Network, you can bypass these rules to make long distance calls (video or voice) under strong protection covers.
Due to simultaneous encryption of data, the speed of a VPN may be reduced. However you can prevent this encounter by using a paid VPN service. Trust the pay is worth it when you consider the high costs of making international calls.
The first thing you should know when reserving a room in a hotel is that hotels change their prices according to the location. First you need to know the best sites for booking hotels online you can try sites like Kayak, Trivago, Booking.com or Last Minute.Com.
If you book a hotel in America from Canada, chances are the prices will be more expensive than if you book them from a country in Africa. You would want to search for countries that offer discounts for the same hotel you intend to reserve a room in - a low income country, or maybe the country that the hotel is located in.
In fact, a research in 2012 showed that more expensive options are offered to Mac users.
Using this method of saving requires patience as you may search several countries before getting a good deal. Unless you are staying for one night, when you multiply the money you save a night by the duration of your stay, you will discover that you will save up quite a lot of money. It may be enough money to extend your trip by some days.
There are various car rental companies on the internet, instead of comparing the differences in price between all these companies; we’ve got a better trick for you “use a VPN”. You simply pick a reliable car rental website, search for your desired car, and input the number of days you want to rent the car, note down the price.
Next use your VPN to change your IP address then search for the same car with the same number of days and enjoy the differences in prices. You're welcome!
This strategy was applied when someone in Japan demonstrated that renting a car in Japan from a particular website was $66 more expensive than renting it using a VPN that changed the server location to the US, and this is not for a luxury car.
We know what you are thinking and yes you can save hundreds of dollars when renting a luxury car simply by changing your current location. Note, the US is just one country, you should try a couple more countries to make sure you get the best prices. Renting cars just got better!
VPN is great for securing your data while ensuring that you are protected virtually but I am sure you also noticed that most of the money saving methods listed above are a great way to save for a vacation. I mean when you combine making reservations with cheaper flight fees and lower call rates internationally. All that is left is backing your backpack!
While packing, do not forget to bring your VPN along as it is as important as your flight ticket. Some countries restrict access to some websites that you may be used to in your home country. And yes we all know that leaving your phone at home when on vacation rule can get exhausting.
Think about it, when you are ready for some screen time, you can use your VPN to change your IP address so your device will assume you are still at home. You can also take advantage of the primary function of VPN by encrypting your data while connecting to a Wi-Fi network in another country, you never can tell if people are lurking to gain access to your emails and card details as tourists may be the targets in some countries.
In addition, depending on the country you go to, the use of social media free calls will save you some charges so that you can stock up on your souvenirs to bring back home. VPNs are handy in planning for a vacation to get you that holiday experience that you truly deserve.
Find our step by step guide to achieving much savings with VPNs. We will use saving money on flights as an example but you can use this method for just about anything you do online. The steps are easy to follow but you will need to change location a few times to compare various prices.
You can try using anyone of the following VPNs to start your money saving journey: We highly recommend NordVPN, IPVanish, Surfshark, CyberGhost and Private internet Access.
Try booking a flight from your location: Next step is to check the initial price from your location. You can use Google to search find my location to make sure you are not yet connected and that your current location is reflected.
When you are assured you are indeed browsing from your location, go ahead to try booking a flight to any country of your choice. You can browse through prices to check for the cheapest prices within a particular date. You should note down the price on a piece of paper or memorize it.
Clear the cookies from your browser: In case you are wondering why this step is important, we will help you understand. Websites can easily track your location using cookies.
Cookies are messages that web servers pass to your browsers as you surf the internet creating a record of your activities online. These cookies store your browsing history and detect when you search for the price of something several times without purchasing it.
Your travel website can notice this and increase the price the next time you search. This usually incites a psychologically response as you assume that the next time you access the website, the price would keep on getting higher.
This is how consumers are cajoled into making buying decisions. Alongside clearing cookies, also make sure your GPS tracking is turned off. You can clear the cookies from your browser in the settings section. After deleting all the cookies from your browser, you should close and open the browser.
Change your location using your VPN: With your VPN connected, change your IP address to a server in a different country. Here is where having VPN software that can change your location to a variety of countries becomes important.
You should also consider some certain properties while picking the country whose server you can set your IP address to. You can pick a low income country like India, you can also try selecting the origin country of an airline.
For example the origin country for Emirate Airline is Dubai and it is possible that the flight rates from Dubai will be cheaper because of home country advantage.
Check your location with Google: After changing your location you can use Google find my location to confirm that Google reads that you are in a different country.
VPNs are offered in both free and paid versions. The free versions will offer you a variety of services like user protection and access to different country servers or streaming sites in rare occasions.
But as it is with freebies, there may be unwanted toolbars and ads that may distract or annoy you and you may not be able to use a VPN service to the fullest capacity.
Some other free VPNs will even ask for your data and hand it to third party companies the next minute. This is why we strongly advise against using them. However there are a few Free VPNs in our good books. But will we choose paid services over them? Certainly!
These VPNS include: Windscribe, ProtonVPN, TunnelBear and Hotspot Shield. Free VPN also works across several devices including windows, Mac, tablets and smartphones.
But you may need to work with a paid version if you want to access all the services a VPN provides. Paid versions vary in prices but a lot of services offer a monthly subscription for $3 or less e.g NordVPN.
In today’s world it is more likely that one has more than one device for internet surfing such as a laptop, tablet, IOS or android powered mobile phone. As much as we live in a connected world, our devices are pretty much connected. Everything is connected to these devices from smart TVs to home security cameras.
A VPN will ensure that these devices are protected from intruders but it will be more effective when you use it with multiple devices at the same time. To achieve this, you need a VPN provider that allows multiple connections. Some good recommendations include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, IPVanish and VyprVPN. All of these are paid VPN services.
You can download the software version for your laptop from the VPN server official site or install their native apps on your phone and enjoy multiple protected connections.
A VPN is an excellent tool for saving money on flight costs. While flight comparison websites may be helpful, VPNs offer a much easier trick. With flight comparison websites, you are being offered ticket prices based on your location and these prices are a reflection of the current rate in the local market.
So the next time you are planning a trip and about to purchase your flight ticket, before you ever finalize your arrangements, be sure you are connected to a VPN. Try accessing the booking website from several locations and get a comparison! You'll see how your location affects your pricing.
A great trick to help you enjoy substantial savings is switching to a location in a country with lower income. Also, if you are aware of a promotion going on in another country, by all means ride on the coattails of such countries using your VPN to get mouthwatering discounts.
As much as using such technological methods to get the lowest fees for flights and other things seem like a recipe for trouble, you can be rest assured that there is nothing wrong with this practice. Travel sites and airline sites purposely quote different prices depending on your region.
In reality VPNs are currently lawful to use in lots of countries, including the US. Some VPN encrypt your connection to the internet, camouflage your IP address and prevent unwanted tracking of your virtual existence.
It is up to the user to use this service to perform legal acts, and also to find out if it is legal in the user country. Because depending on the country, government agencies may fine the VP service provider and the user for using an unauthorized VPN.
