Travelling with a VPN: banking, work and services from home
The problem with connecting from abroad
Travelling changes two things at once: the networks you use stop being yours, and your internet address becomes one from another country. Both have practical consequences.
The first is the usual one: hotel, airport and café wifi run by someone unknown.
The second is less obvious. Many services behave differently depending on where you connect from.
Banks and financial services
This is the most frequent case. Some banks block access or ask for extra verification when they detect a login from an unusual country. It is a reasonable security measure, but inconvenient when travelling.
Connecting to a server in your home country can avoid that block. Even so, two honest warnings: some banks also detect and block VPN addresses, and some consider their use a breach of terms. It is worth checking first.
The most sensible step is still telling your bank you are travelling. Boring, but it works better than any workaround.
Work and company tools
Some corporate tools restrict access by country. If your company allows it, a VPN avoids the problem. Ask first: in certain sectors, working around that restriction breaches internal policy.
Hotel and airport networks
Here the benefit is direct and unqualified: encrypting the path on a network shared with hundreds of strangers.
One practical detail: connect to the wifi first, accept the captive portal if there is one, and turn the VPN on afterwards. If you enable it first, the portal will not load and it will look like the network is broken.
Before you leave home
Install and test the app before travelling. In some countries app stores restrict downloading VPN apps, so arriving without it installed makes things harder.
And check the legal position at your destination: most countries permit their use, but a few restrict or ban them.