Do you wonder how a quality VPN can save a lot of money if you are an online shopaholic? To satisfy your curiosity, let’s go through this article.
A quality VPN can cost you a few bucks. But, It can bring more money! How? You may not even think of it. Yes, You can invest 50/60 USD -100 USD on a quality VPN service. But, It can help you to save hundreds of USD in a year in another way. However, It only applies to a good quality VPN service.
Before learning how a VPN can save your money while purchasing digital goods, you should learn about price discrimination.
Table of Contents
What is Price Discrimination?
When a provider offers similar or same services or goods in different prices in different markets, it is called price discrimination. It is a micro-economic pricing strategy. If we look around carefully, we can see a lot of examples. G-suite, Microsoft 365 for Business often offers different pricing for specific market places. For example, G-Suite is very cheap in Indian market when pricing in most other places are higher. Microsoft 365 for Business offers services at cheap rate in Bangladesh. You also can see a lot of streaming services offer same services in different places. But, The pricing is different.
However, If the price is higher due to VAT and TAX, it is not Price Discrimination. It only occurs when provider offers different pricing on different markets for their own purpose.
How a VPN can Help You to Overcome Price Discrimination and Save Your Money Online?
Now, Let’s go to the main point. If you have an active VPN subscription, you actually can save your money while shopping online if you can use some tricks. For example, You want to purchase a game. The provider is offering cheaper prices in the UK when USA and Australian consumers are seeing a higher price tag. The game key has no geo-restriction. In this case, You can simply use a VPN and connect to a UK server. Then, Visit the game store and buy the product.
The above one is just an example. But, You can find a lot of situations when a VPN can prevent you from spending extra money online. Here, are a few cases when you can get a product/service specially digital goods at cheap rate by using a VPN.
1. Save Money in Software Subscription Using VPN
As, TechClassy.COM is all about software and technology, It is the first thing I want to show. You can save a decent amount each year by using a VPN service. There are many software providers who have different pricing and discounts for different regions. Some of them have geo-restriction. But, Many of these subscriptions can be activated anywhere in the world. If we look at the Microsoft 365 Subscription (Former Office 365), the price for the Home plan (up to 6 users) in the USA is $99.99. But, In Bangladesh, It is just 6,499.00 BDT per year which is equivalent to 76.69 USD. Similarly, You can see different pricing in Adobe Creative Clouds subscriptions in many parts of the world.
2. Subscription for Your Business
You may need Microsoft 365 or Google’s G-Suite for your business. They have different pricing on different regions. If you look at the gsuite pricing in India, it starts at $125 INR which is equivalent to 1.65 USD. But, In USA, the pricing starts at $6/Mo.
3. VPN Can Save Your Money While Purchasing Games or Game Subscriptions
In many cases, Discounts on games on Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic Games, etc. vary in regions to regions. If you have a VPN, you have the chance to save extra money. In some cases, their membership plans come with different pricing in different regions. It also opens the opportunity to save a few bucks yearly. For example, the pricing for EA Games Origin Access Basic in the USA is $29.99/Year. But, In India, it is just 1990 INR/Year which is equivalent to 26.49 USD/Year.
4. Save on Youtube Premium and Other Streaming Services
Most people prefer having a streaming subscription. Especially, If we talk about YouTube premium, it can be an amazing thing. It unlocks the ability to watch ad free videos, play in the background, and get access to the exclusive contents. Recently, Youtube has increased its pricing. But, In some locations like India, it is extremely cheap. The YouTube Premium (Formerly known as YouTube Red) pricing in USA is $11.99/Mo. But, In India, It is just 129 INR per Month which is equivalent to $1.71. If you can access Indian YouTube by using a proper VPN, it may help you to save in your subscription.
5. Car Rentals
This is another case where a VPN may help you to save a few buck. Same car rental costs for same place from different countries may vary. For example, you want to rent a car in New York. The price from UK, Australia, India may vary.
6. Hotel Booking
In some cases, Users from different countries may see different hotel costs. If you have VPN, you can try it out by yourself. So, There are chances that you will get opportunity to save your money.
7. Flight Tickets
It doesn’t happen most of the time. But, Sometimes, Flight ticker price also may vary for different regions. In this case, A VPN can help you to see if you can get a cheaper flight ticket from a different region or not.
A few Restrictions and Solutions:
Things are not that easy as you think. In some cases, you can easily save money using a VPN. But, Sometimes, There are some restrictions that you will have to overcome by using simple trick. And also, there are some extremely tough restrictions which is almost impossible to overcome. In this part of article, you will learn about a few of them with possible solutions.
Bypass Tracking:
Usually, A website of app track you in several ways. It uses your IP address, sets tracking cookies in web browser, uses your location and device information, etc. So, There is chance that you may not find different regional contents even after using a VPN as the website can already identify you with these information and some complex algorithm. In this case, You should use a different web browser or clear the app/browser cache and data. It will help you to bypass geo-restrictions. However, Make sure you are using a VPN that has proper DNS leak protection.
Payment Method Issue and Solution:
It is very possible that you have found the cheapest price on your desired product in a different location. Your VPN has just helped you properly. But, Your hope may go away when you see the website is demanding a payment method from that specific country. In this case, you have two options. You should have a valid payment method in that country. Or you can try to use a valid address with postal code but use your existing payment method. Having a valid address may sometimes work.
Block Location Access:
Sometimes, You may get caught by your location. So, If location is optional, you should block the location access for that website or app.
Verify Region Restriction before Purchasing Game or Software Key:
Geo-restriction in software and game activation is a very common thing. Some keys/licenses only work on the specific location and some work globally. So, Before purchasing anything, you should see this information carefully.
Top Recommended VPNs:
Now, The real question comes. Which VPN should you choose? You definitely can choose from these budget-friendly VPN services. However, I have made a list for you that may help you to save money while purchasing digital goods or services.
1. Surfshark VPN – Amazing Performance
The Surfshark VPN has a lot of features and excellent capability. It is best for performance and considered as one of the best industry-leading VPNs. Though, It doesn’t have so many server locations. But, If you purely need performance especially while streaming, it is the best solution at this price.
2. PureVPN – Cost Effective and Has Server in Many Locations
PureVPN is a budget-friendly VPN service that you may choose if you need to unlock a lot of locations around the world. In addition, its performance is better and has the capability to give a good streaming experience.
3. Ivacy VPN – Great Performance
Like Surfshark, Ivacy VPN comes with great VPN performance at a cheap price. It has similar features like PureVPN and Surfshark VPN. But, The number of server locations is limited like Surfshark.
4. NordVPN
If pricing is not a matter, NordVPN can be an amazing option. Overall, It is one of the best VPNs out there. To get the industry-leading VPN experience with NordVPN, you will have to spend a better amount but that completely worth it.
This article has explains how a VPN can help to save money in your online shopping and to overcome price discrimination. If you have any opinion or question, feel free to comment.
