A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a service that allows you to surf the internet anonymously by changing the IP address of your specific computer to one in an entirely different location.
Basically, if you happen to be located in a country where a lot of the internet is restricted, you’ll be able to get past these blocks and access whatever online content you want.
If you knew about VPNs already, then you probably already know how using it can get you past geo-restrictions put on certain websites by different countries around the world. But did you know that there are other ways to take full advantage of your VPN, aside from just unblocking restricted content?
Here are 5 ways a VPN can make your life better – which most people have never even heard of.
1. Get Super Cheap Flights
That’s right, you could be saving a ton of money on your next vacation destination! Airlines use something called Dynamic Pricing, which basically means that they look at where you are located, where you want to go, and what dates you’ve chosen, and decide what rate to charge you.
Let’s say you are flying from London, UK to the Maldives. An airline will look at this route and decide that it is most likely for a well-off person who is going on vacation. They will most likely charge more money for a flight like this, as it is for leisure.
They will also look at the dates you want to fly. If you happen to be located in the United States, and you are looking to fly for a few weeks in March (during Spring Break), they will raise the price because those dates are in-demand.
How a VPN can help:
You can use your VPN to jump to a different country and change how the airline profiles you. For example, if you are virtually flying from a country like Romania, where the average salary is lower, the airline will probably charge you less.
If you are flying to Jamaica for vacation, but your VPN moves your IP address to look as though you are already there, it might look like you are flying home, instead of to your vacation, which will come out cheaper. If you are flying in March but are virtually coming from a country whose Spring Break is in April, they will not raise the price because those dates are not in-demand for that country.
2. Get The Best Online Shopping Deals
Just like airlines, online shops often use dynamic pricing to determine how much you will pay. If you are located in more affluent countries, cities (even zipcodes sometimes), you are likely to be charged more money.
They also often have deals that are only for certain specific locations and do not apply to everyone around the world. The country you are living in might not be having a holiday sale, but somewhere else might be having a special promotion.
How a VPN can help:
You can use your VPN to jump to specific locations which might be looked at as less affluent than the area you live in, so you will enjoy the discounts as well. Also, if you know that in a certain country they are having a special sale for a holiday or promotion, you can take advantage of it by moving your virtual IP address to a server located within that country.
3. Watch All Of The Netflix Shows
Did you know that every country’s Netflix library is different from one another? A lot of content streamed on Netflix in the United States is blocked in the Netflix libraries of other countries.
And, although the US Netflix library is quite vast, there is even more incredible content to discover that is currently only available in other countries’ libraries that you would never have known about.
How a VPN can help:
With your VPN, you can jump to a server in a different country and get access to all of the shows, movies, documentaries, and more that it has to offer. In fact, some shows even have slightly different endings/versions depending on what country they are being streamed in.
4. Speed Up Your Internet Connection
Have you ever noticed that at certain times of the month your internet all of a sudden becomes very slow? Unless you happen to be in the middle of a mountain somewhere with a bad connection, this is probably the fault of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Let’s say you are trying to stream the new season of your favorite show which just came out on Netflix. This requires very high bandwidth to be used. If your ISP sees that you are about to stream your show, it can throttle that bandwidth causing your internet speed to slow down, leading to frustrating buffering and pixelated video.
ISP’s have also been known to throttle bandwidth, even if they are capable of handling the high volumes of traffic, just so that users stream less from their competitors. Due to the lack of competition when it comes to ISP’s, it’s easy for them to overcharge users for faster internet that didn’t have to be slowed down in the first place.
How a VPN can help:
If your ISP can’t see your data, it has no way to profile you and slow your internet connection automatically because you wanted to stream Youtube or Netflix.
Good VPNs never log your data, and so you remain completely anonymous while streaming, so you never have to worry about having your bandwidth throttle, no matter how much traffic the site you visit is getting.
5. Save On Your Monthly Subscriptions
A lot of our monthly expenses come from subscriptions to things like video and music streaming services, as well as design and editing platforms. You’ll be surprised, and probably a little upset, to find out that different countries pay different subscription prices around the world.
For example, a subscription to Netflix and Apple Music will cost you more money, on average, than what you would pay in the United Kingdom. But the same subscription in Russia will cost you a significantly lower amount.
The same goes for things like Microsoft Office. A subscription to the full Office Suite will cost you around $100 from the USA, around $87 from the UK, and around $75 from India. You get the same product, but you pay a price based on the overall affluence of the country you are located in.
How a VPN can help:
You can jump to a server located within a country where your subscription will cost you less money. Do some research before making the purchase and see what the costs look like in other countries. You can save yourself a significant amount of money just by making the jump to a cheaper place.
