These days everyone travels with communication devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones. We want to be connected with people back home while we enjoy our vacations. Though these devices have made our life and travel easier, they have opened some new risks.

You find and connect your devices with free Wi-Fi at all places, right from airport lounges to hostels to coffee shops. But, you miss that these networks are not secure and are vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Any person (cybercriminal) using the same network can access unencrypted data transferred using this network. They can steal your credit card numbers, passwords, browser cookies, usernames, and other confidential information from your mobile apps and web browser.

Using a Virtual Private Network or VPN can help you in such situations. This tool provides privacy by making a private network from public Wi-Fi. In other words, you can hide all your online activities. It makes the information untraceable and restricts cybercriminals from accessing your personal information.

A VPN is not only helpful from the point of security. It also helps you by letting you access geo-restricted data, and you can also catch hold of some amazing travel deals. Let us find out more about the uses of VPN:

1. Bypass Censorship and Blocked Sites

The government often restricts websites within their countries. Even the most popular websites like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and apps like WhatsApp are blocked by many countries like China, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Middle East, Gulf countries, and several other Asian countries. If you are traveling to one such location, you will need a VPN.

A VPN can help you in such a situation by providing you access to these blocked websites. They reroute your connection through a server located in a different country or your home country. For example, if you are traveling to France from Australia, you can reroute your connection to a server located in Australia to avoid any geo-restriction by using VPN Australia.

You can also grab some excellent deals by changing server location while trying to book an accommodation or flight. A local server will always help you with the best deal.

2. Protect All Your Devices

Gone are the days when VPNs were only associated with organizations connecting their regional offices to their head offices via their laptops. It is no longer valid now, especially for people who travel frequently.

As mentioned above, you need to protect all your devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones. A good VPN will always offer dedicated Android and iOS apps for your smaller devices. Make sure that you install these apps on all your devices before you start traveling and connect with a VPN every time you use public Wi-Fi. Most VPNs subscriptions support multiple connections from a single account. So, there are no reasons that stop you from safeguarding yourself and your family.

3. Avoid Being Locked Out of  Your Bank Account

You would see that sometimes your debit or credit card is declined when you are traveling, and your account gets locked because they suspect it to be unusual. You can certainly inform your bank about your travel plans in advance, but it will not help you every time.

Undoubtedly, the bank has implemented this security feature for your protection, and you would feel good to know that the card was blocked while it was in the wrong hands. But, you do not want to go through this scenario when, in reality, you are using your card. Spending hours on hold with the customer care department will only add harassment to your vacations.

In such cases, using a VPN can save you from this annoyance. You can redirect your device IP to a server located in your home country and skip yourself from getting marked as “unusual activity.”

The same strategy applies to other financial institutions like PayPal. PayPal is fast in freezing accounts when you try to log in from a different country, and asking them to unblock you can take forever. Therefore, using a VPN can save you a lot of time.

Conclusion

Investing in a good VPN before traveling can be very beneficial for you. It can help you access geo-restricted content and your bank account and keep your personal information secure.