Moving abroad is exciting. Exploring new places, trying new things, and getting a taste of different cultures can add some spice to your life.
But being in a new country can also be difficult. Many experience loneliness and culture shock.
Whether you’ve relocated for study or work, a VPN is a welcome—nay, recommended— addition to your daily arsenal of technology to ease the transition and maximize your experience. Find out how.
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1. Stay connected to home
Staying in touch with your friends and family at home through Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be hard in countries that block these services. Luckily, a VPN can help provide access to social-media accounts and chat apps even if they are censored.
Give your friends a shout out from across the world and stay up to date with what’s happening back home. With a VPN, you don’t feel left out.
2. Protect your privacy
Are you worried about whether your online information is private? You should be! Unsecured internet connections expose your personal information to hackers, internet service providers, and local government agencies.
A VPN stands for virtual private network. VPNs work by encrypting your internet traffic and giving you a different IP address, so when you connect to a VPN server, no one can see what you’re doing or who you are.
An expat VPN is an essential tool for anyone studying, living, or traveling abroad, but it’s also great for anyone who’s even remotely concerned about securing their network connections.
3. Access your banking services
As a safety measure, many banks internationally will automatically block access to your accounts if there is a suspicion that someone else is attempting to gain access. An indication of fraudulent activity can include a login attempt from an unfamiliar location—especially if it is deemed from a high-risk or embargoed nation.
While using a VPN to access your accounts can, in some instances, be seen as suspicious by financial institutions, it is preferable to an unsecured connection in unfamiliar territory. By choosing the best VPN location near your home city, you’ll have a much better chance of staying connected to your accounts. Ideally, always log in from the same VPN location.
4. Blazing-fast speeds
No matter where you are, connection and transfer speeds are absolutely paramount to a smooth online experience. Using a VPN can limit interruptions to your schedule by helping to bypass ISP bandwidth throttling. Useful for when you need to maintain connection stability.
This is where protocols like ExpressVPN’s Lightway shine! Lightway protocol makes it faster for users to establish a VPN connection and is built for motion. In other words, it’s perfect for when you’re on the move!
5. Find cheaper flights and better deals
Certain companies calculate their online prices based on the user’s location. Shoppers in India will see different airfares from those in Sweden for the exact same flight. Using a VPN to browse and compare different prices from different VPN locations can lead to saving big bucks when it comes to traveling, which makes going home to visit friends and family that much easier.
Skeptical? Try it yourself. ExpressVPN found a staggering 2,000 USD difference in prices when connected to the VPN!
6. Enjoy entertainment and sports
Moving to a new country is hard enough. It’s even harder if you suddenly find that you’re unable to watch your favourite YouTube channels or Spotify podcasts because they’re unavailable in your region. A lot of us take content access for granted, until we’re blocked out by censorship or other restrictions. Luckily, a VPN can help provide access to the content you love—no matter where you are.
Further, if you can’t live without your favorite sports, a VPN will help keep you in the loop—safely and securely. Never miss another Premier League match, NFL game, NBA playoff showdown, or UFC match again.
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