KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It can cost you extra to be an American when you travel overseas. That’s the finding of a study by NordVPN, which showed prices increased as much 70% for rental cars or hotel rooms when they were being booked from a computer in the United States.
“So, automatically, when they see a consumer from the US, they recognize that they most likely will be willing to spend more money on their holiday destination,” said Gerald Kasulis, head of business operations for Nord Security, the parent company of NordVPN.
NordVPN, a virtual private network company, checked hotel and rental car prices booked from an IP address inside the United States, then cleared all the cookies on the computer and conducted the exact same search using a VPN, which disguised the American IP address and allowed them to choose another country as the location.
By doing that, they saved $512 booking a car for a week through Enterprise. The VPN showed them as being in the United Kingdom. They saved $976 on a weekly hotel room rate in France, just by switching the IP address on their VPN to France.
Kasulis said those are just two examples of dozens of savings they discovered.
Travel expert Raimee Iacofono, who provides travel tips on Instagram and Tik Tok, said she has also had success saving money when booking with a VPN.
“I was able to save like $400 on my rental car by saying I was in Japan when I booked a car in Europe,” said Iacofono, who is based in California.
Iacofono said she has had no luck saving money on airfare when booking international flights, but a VPN did make a difference when she booked a flight on a local airline in another country.
“I used my VPN to say I was in New Zealand and I booked a flight within New Zealand and I was able to get $40-$50 off the flight price,” she said.
The other benefit of using a VPN while travelling is for streaming shows from sites like HBO or Netflix, who often won’t let you stream when you’re outside of the United States.
VPNs can even come in handy if you don’t travel internationally. One user told FOX4 Problem Solvers he saved money by using his VPN to change the state he’s living in when ordering items online. For example, some items from American stores can cost less if you are purchasing them with a Mississippi IP address rather than a Missouri or Kansas IP address.
Is a VPN worth the price? NordVPN costs about $60 a year. The company does have competitors who charge less. You can also purchase a VPN for a single month, which can cost as little as $10. In the end, it depends on how much you travel and how much work you’re willing to dedicate to searching for a good price.
How to avoid price surges when traveling overseas
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