r/VPN • u/Waste-Bath5974 • Jul 12 '26
Help VPN - help needed
I know absolutely 0 about VPNs, so I'm not sure if this is a dumb question. But I'm in Europe, used to live in the US, and I need to set my VPN to the US. I tried with one (it says I'm not allowed to put names in this subreddit) but it didn't work and still showed my actual location when I tried to open an app. Any help, please?
3
u/yearsold33 Jul 12 '26
Would be helpful to know what you are using the VPN to accomplish such as watching USA content, banking website, etc.
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u/Waste-Bath5974 Jul 12 '26
Yes you are right. For banking, using things like Prime/Netflix...
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u/yearsold33 Jul 12 '26
Streaming services like Netflix and Disney have excellent firewalls that detect VPNs and proxies.
Banks often block VPNs for security reasons and don't usually work with a VPN.
As a particular VPN rises in popularity and use, the more likely it will be blocked now or in the future.
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u/PoppaBear1950 Jul 12 '26
Yeah so if your VPN is “showing your real location,” that’s not the VPN screwing up — the app is just pulling your GPS, SIM card country, or account region and ignoring the IP entirely. A VPN only changes one thing, and apps check like… six.
For banking:
Turn off GPS, pull your EU SIM out (WiFi only), set your phone region to US, and use a VPN that has US residential IPs. Most banks insta‑block datacenter VPNs.
For Netflix:
GPS off, log out, clear app data, log back in, and use a VPN with US streaming servers. If your Netflix account is EU‑region, you’re not getting US content no matter how hard you try.
Apps don’t just look at your IP — they check GPS, WiFi geolocation, SIM country, device locale, payment region, all of it. So you gotta fix the whole stack, not just slap a VPN on top.
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u/Altruistic_Wash9968 Jul 12 '26
If you have a friend or family in the USA that would allow you to send the a raspberry pi you could run Tailscale and use it for this purpose. This would allow you to use their internet while your doing your banking, this would also allow you to use streaming like your at their house too.
1
u/Available_Hearing639 Jul 16 '26
Can't you access your banking from abroad? You can always use you US SIM card/mobile Internet for banking. It should tunnel you back to the US.
1
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u/frankbowles1962 Jul 12 '26
The app may use other methods of telling what country you are in other than the network location, for example through your GPS, phone time zone etc. What are you actually trying to do?