Signing up with a VPN is a good privacy-protecting start, but to save money and get the best possible service we suggest you follow these steps.
You’re looking to protect yourself on public Wi-Fi and/or spoof the location of your IP address, so you’ve just signed up with a VPN. Smart move. But what next? It’s tempting to just launch your provider’s app, hit ‚Connect‘ and get on with your new privacy-protected life. It’s quick, easy and hassle-free: what’s not to like? The trouble is that rushing into action with a new VPN could mean you miss crucial first steps that cost you money and compromise your security – and that’s just for starters. Here we’ll explain the five things to do in your first few moments with a new VPN, how to avoid common pitfalls, improve your privacy and get the most out of the service. Sign up with most VPNs and you’ll get an auto-renewing subscription, which essentially means the provider keeps taking your money for each new term until you tell it to stop. Companies use all kinds of tricks to keep this agreement going. Some hide any web ‚Cancel‘ option; others don’t allow online cancellations, forcing you to send an email. But the sneakiest tactic is to renew a subscription a few days before it expires, so anyone who leaves cancellations to the last minute will find they’re too late. To avoid all of this pain, go looking for any Auto-Renew or similar billing option just as soon as you sign up, and make sure it’s set up to suit your needs. Or if you’re on an app store trial, cancel it right away. You’ll still be able to use the trial until it expires, you just won’t be billed unless you explicitly sign up again. VPN websites often make all kinds of impressive claims about their advanced features and bullet-proof privacy technologies.
