Allured by the promise of lower monthly prices, I tried to buy a YouTube Premium membership using my VPN connection in 2024. However, this massively backfired. I could purchase a subscription in the end, but not for the lower initial cost.
What Happened When I Tried Buying a Subscription for Cheaper?
I tried using a VPN to buy a subscription in a different country since I live in Denmark, which has one of the world’s most expensive YouTube Premium membership prices. This is partially because of the high cost of living in general, but also due to a heavy 25% sales tax added to many goods and services.
After changing my VPN to Argentina, I tried entering my card details again. However, the payment failed each time. The same problem happened when I tried changing my VPN location to another country.
I’ve struggled to make other purchases while connected to a VPN, too. For example, I tried changing my location to Finland when buying Finnair flight tickets. However, my payment was similarly blocked each time.
Was I Able to Buy the Service in the End?
Eventually, I could subscribe to YouTube Premium—but only after I disabled my VPN and agreed to pay Danish prices. My card payment went through without issues after disconnecting, and I could enjoy the world’s second-priciest YouTube Premium subscription fee (behind Switzerland).
Though frankly, I didn’t mind paying the full price. I find YouTube’s ads incredibly annoying, so I think that YouTube Premium is worth the money (despite its price increases). More than anything else, this was a simple experiment to see if I could potentially buy it for less.
Are There Any Fixes for This Issue?
I don’t think so, in this case. YouTube has clamped down on subscriptions via VPN, and users who had already been using this trick have received messages saying that their membership was canceled. Even if my payment had gone through, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep the subscription for very long.
The only other solution I could have tried was using a mobile-only bank card with a different currency. However, my non-Danish cards are either in US dollars, British pounds, or euros; any potential saved costs would’ve been minimal at best and not worth the hassle.
Thus, I believe this would only work if I used another service completely, as it’s hit or miss whether you get access. Perhaps using an alternative VPN might have worked, but I doubt it.
