Over the past few decades, banking has become so much easier and faster. We can make all our transactions online, transfer money between accounts and more.

Whether we are trading in our cryptocurrencies or traditional money from our bank accounts, it’s all at the touch of a button.

And where once we used our desktop computers and laptops to make these banking activities online, now we can also use our mobiles. It’s ridiculously easy.

Unfortunately, it’s also become easy for cybercriminals to hack into our online activity, steal our data and use it for their own purposes. When it comes to online banking, the last thing you want a criminal to get hold of is your banking credentials and password.

While most financial institutions, including platforms accepting cryptocurrency, add layer upon layer of security at their end to safeguard customers (and themselves), there is usually an open door for the hacker at the other end – the personal devices you use at home.

Only by using a VPN can you be really sure you are keeping you and your family secure.

A VPN – virtual private network – is a brilliant way to protect all your online activities. It makes it almost impossible for a cybercriminal to crack into what you are doing online, steal your information or upload harmful software to snoop on you even more.

While we recommend a VPN for online banking and cryptocurrency banking, it is a must for any home. Here are the key benefits.

Mask your identity and internet activity

The VPN hides your IP address (think of it as your digital identifier code), and reroutes all your online activity through one of its thousands of worldwide servers. Without knowing who, or where you are, a cybercriminal has a pretty tough start.

Things step up another significant level, however, since the VPN also encrypts all the data you send online, making it ridiculous for any criminal even to consider trying to crack it.

Any of your online activity should be kept to yourself, but your online banking especially since it gives the cybercriminal access to your accounts and card details. Before you know it, your accounts have been emptied as someone, perhaps someone on the other side of the world has gone on a spending spree at your expense.

Hide your physical location

There are several key reasons you might like to pretend you are somewhere else while online. If you travel abroad, you can get around any local internet censorship because your VPN can make it look like you are anywhere else in the world. With servers in countries across the globe, you can appear to be in Chicago one minute and Sydney the next.

You might also like to pretend to be somewhere else to access content that may be restricted in your country – useful if you wish to stream something that’s limited to a certain geographic audience, like a sporting event. Talking of streaming, torrenting used to be full of hacking dangers, but those are also eliminated with a VPN.

Protect yourself on the go

We mentioned earlier in this article that many of us now use our mobiles to do our online banking and cryptocurrency trading or payments. When you order a VPN service, you can install it on multiple devices, including your mobile, so that you are protected while you are out and about.

Every time you log into a public WiFi network in a café, pub or airport, for example, you might be exposing yourself to hackers because security may not be as tight as it should be. The VPN will have you covered, rerouting your activity and encrypting it.

So, if you wish to move some money between your bank accounts, transfer cash to a friend or move some cryptocurrency, you can do so without being worried about snoops.

Browsing speed

As if all the benefits we’ve already mentioned were not compelling enough, there is also surfing speed to consider. The VPN companies invest considerable sums in making their worldwide network of servers as fast as possible, as well as being as secure as Fort Knox. You might even notice it’s faster than your usual browsing experience.

So there you have it, a sound argument for using a VPN and making your online activity safe – important at all times, but critical when it comes to your online banking and cryptocurrency activities, where large sums can attract hackers.