
You’ve done all the work of getting yourself to your new country, wrestled all those pesky details to the ground, and now you’re ready to enjoy getting acquainted with your new home.
You fire up your newly connected internet, and decide to check your bank balance back in your home country — and you can’t connect. Your bank won’t let you access the website. What’s going on?
It’s your IP address. . . your bank recognizes that someone’s trying to log in from Panama, or France, or Ecuador, or Malaysia and they block you.
You, my new expat friend, need a VPN.
Just before my trip to Panama, I got myself a VPN (virtual private network) so I could access all the US websites I normally do business with. Many shopping and banking websites only allow access from users within their own country, and I wanted to be able to go online to check my balances, etc.
I also wanted to be able to use Google Voice, since that’s the phone number I use for my business.
There are lots of reasons businesses block browsers from outside the country. Some involve security, some deal with laws governing commerce, some are just arbitrary restrictions — but all can complicate your life when you’re traveling or living abroad.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution.
Sign up for a VPN service. It has some great benefits for expats and travelers and it also protects your data from snooping — great if you’re online in a public place.
Think of a VPN as a virtual tunnel between your computer and the internet router. The provider routes your internet requests through its servers, and most give you a choice of servers in different countries.
If you choose a US server, it generates a US IP (internet protocol) address. This means, when you log into your bank’s website, or Amazon, or any other site in the US that might block browsers from another country, it looks like you’re in the US.
A good VPN can help you get around the restrictions of what some travelers call the “great firewall of China,” which blocks social media sites, among others.
Essentially, though, a VPN simply allows you to access the sites you’re used to doing business with in your home country.
And, best of all, it lets you do so in private. No need to worry about bad-guy snoopers if you’re using public wifi. The VPN encrypts all your traffic.
Which VPN Should You Choose?
First, look for recommendations and reviews of VPNs with a strong presence in your home country. You want one that’s US-centric, or England-centric, or Canada-centric, because it will do a better job of helping you get through to websites back home.
(Hint: If you’re already living overseas, check with other expats. They can point you to a service that does a great job where you are.)
Here are a few that I’ve found.
VPN4All
This is the one I currently use. They offered me a free trial subscription so I could write about their service, and after reading their website I agreed. They provided the information I needed to set it up, so I disabled the VPN I had been using and installed theirs.
“VPN Made Simple” is their website tagline, and I’ve found that to be true.
The process to download and install the application was straighforward and uncomplicated. Once installed, I took a look at the interface.
Here’s one immediate difference between VPN4All and other VPNs I’ve tried: choosing the IP server to connect to is as simple as checking a dropdown box.
Here’s another difference: this one allows you to connect to P2P networks. Most don’t. (If you’re a P2P user, you know what I’m talking about.)
Get more information about VPN4All here.
VyprVPN
Claiming to be the world’s fastest VPN, VyprVPN (aff) will give you a secure virtual network connection on your computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) as well as your iPhone or Android phone. No limits on uploads or downloads, and available in a Basic version, starting as low as $4.98 for the first month. After that, it’s $9.95/month. Or go with the Pro version ($12.95/month after the first month). They offer a 3-day free trial.
Choose from servers in over 70 countries, including the US, Australia, Netherlands, France, UK, Germany, Singapore and Thailand.
They also have apps for all your devices.
Personal, fast and secure VPN — find out more.
Pure VPN
PureVPN offers a trial account for $2.50. If you go for a two-year plan, pricing starts at only $2.87/month. There’s a money-back guarantee during the first 7 days.
Hide My Ass
Yes, I kid you not, that’s its name. They pretty much refer to themselves as “HMA.” Anyway, HMA offers a 30-day guarantee. Sign up for 12 months at a monthly fee of $7.99, or $95.88 annually. They point out that they don’t have any bandwidth limitations and you’re not restricted to a single server.
They have servers in 190 locations, and you can use them on any platform.
Strong VPN
Strong has several different plans, with prices starting at $69.99/year for the annual plan. Their service looks a bit more complicated than some of the others, but they get rave reviews for their customer support. They seem to do an especially good job getting around the firewalls in China.
Overplay
Overplay offers two services: SmartDNS and SmartDNS plus VPN.
SmartDNS mainly helps you with your entertainment needs, allowing you to stream US TV programming abroad, for example. If you sign up for their VPS plan, you get SmartDNS as well.
They don’t keep traffic logs, and their servers are located in 50 countries. A 12-month plan that includes DNS is $99.95.
Witopia
Witopia’s VPS plans start at $3.06/month, but you need to sign up for three years to get that price.They offer a 30-day guarantee.
There are many other VPN services, and you should be able to find one that meets your needs without any difficulty. Get more information about VPNs for tablets and phones.
Do you already use a VPN? Which one, and what do you like/dislike most about it? Let us know in the comments.
This article was updated on April 24, 2018. All information is accurate at time of publication.
VPN4ALL is a superior VPN provider, especially for foreign travel. They have a unique Anchor IP feature that allows me to choose a specific IP for the duration of my trip. Sites (like PayPal) can actually suspend or block your account if you try to login from multiple IPs in a short period of time. Plus they have a free trial period to check it out. http://www.vpn4all.com.
Thanks, Ryan. I’ll take a look at them.
I’ve been using VyperVPN since we moved to Panama. It’s an add on service of $5 or so from the main service we have with the company Giganews (for Usenet). There are 2 servers in the US, and some in the UK, France, and somewhere in the far east too. I loved them until I started having problems watching some our favorite tv shows via local US sites (like hulu). The speed wasn’t enough to keep the videos streaming smoothly. I’m not sure if it’s on our end or if a lot of people are on the servers, slowing the service. We do have high speed internet with CableOnda though.
Do you ever use your VPN for video streaming? How are your phone calls using Google Voice with the VPN?
I’ve not tried to use it yet for video streaming, although I’ll be checking that out when we move in a few months. 🙂
When I was in Panama, I did use it with Google Voice with no problems. Calls were good quality.
Does anyone know if you wuold still be able to use things like Netflix then overseas through VPN? As it is now, they block foreign IP’s, but I guess with something like this, it wouldn’t, right?
Hi Marianne, how are you? haven’t heard from you in a while 🙂
Yes, with a VPN you should be able to use streaming Netflix, hulu, etc. while overseas as long as you’re set up with a US IP address.
As far as I know, there are only a few providers left that can deal with Netflix. I use Nordvpn, and it works great, just to note u need to check which server to connect to for you to stream Netflix, you can do so by going to their website
I have been using HideMyAss for over 2 years now and I love it! I tried quite a few other providers, but I always go back to HMA 🙂
Hello –
My husband and I are planning to move to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam for a year in November. We need to get online to access our American bank accounts, email and we would like to have access to American TV and be able to surf the internet as needed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Which VPN would you suggest we use? Thank you!
There are plenty of good VPNs out there. I personally use VPN4All. I was also quite happy with EarthVPN when they gave me a trial subscription to check out and review. HMA is also very popular. (Note that these are affiliate links — if you select one of these VPNs from my link, I’ll earn a small commission but you don’t pay a penny more.)
What I particularly like about VPN4All and EarthVPN is they do not keep logs of your activity — makes your browsing more private, because they can’t provide information they don’t have.
I currently use Securitales since it convinced me with its free trial. I don’t have to worry about switiching ports since the proxy service does it for me. (personally I don’t care enough to use Netflix or Hulu, though BBC would be nice sometimes I admit) It is a bit on the pricey side. But hey that’s cheaper than a plane ticket to get back to the States 😛
I reading this post for the first time and I am wondering if it is still updated info. I’m looking for interesting information to post on my facebook page for expats. Can you let me know if this is updated?
Yes, the information is up to date.
Thanks!
Before I travelled to Shanghai last year I signed up to VPN.ac. This guide shows which providers’ websites are blocked in China: http://www.bestvpnz.com/best-vpn-for-china/
When traveling overseas, I was not able to stream BBC iplayer so decided to choose one of the VPN service providers. Had difficulties with a few providers so decided to keep on looking when came across nordvpn. Highly recommended if streaming restricted content such as US Netflix is your priority. http://nordvpn.com/bestdeal
True. Some streaming services – Netflix in particular – have gotten more sophisticated at spotting traffic through VPNs, and some VPN services are better than others at getting through.