VPN'S

[roddavis]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

I am not an expert at all - just a duffer - in these things, so just sort of blundered through and found a solution that worked. So it seems okay now, but I would appreciate any suggestion or info any of you techno-geeks may wish to add...

Tommy T.  Had the same problem trying to access my USAA bank account in the US. Seems a lot of US company's do this to prevent malicious internet attacks from overseas. Especially financial institutions. I know most have been doing the last 5 years or more. If you use a cheap vpn, sometimes they don't work because well in the States because they leak your origin IP. So any IP address in the PI will fail access to some financial institutions. I use ExpressVPN, and never had an issue. So if you use a freebie or low cost vpn this will sometimes give issues. And important to select a location of the server thats closest to your old address in the States. A good VPN will let you access Netflix and other streaming services, even some news feeds. You won't get any "video not authorized from your location" 

[Heeb]

2 hours ago, roddavis said:

Tommy T.  Had the same problem trying to access my USAA bank account in the US. Seems a lot of US company's do this to prevent malicious internet attacks from overseas. Especially financial institutions. I know most have been doing the last 5 years or more. If you use a cheap vpn, sometimes they don't work because well in the States because they leak your origin IP. So any IP address in the PI will fail access to some financial institutions. I use ExpressVPN, and never had an issue. So if you use a freebie or low cost vpn this will sometimes give issues. And important to select a location of the server thats closest to your old address in the States. A good VPN will let you access Netflix and other streaming services, even some news feeds. You won't get any "video not authorized from your location" 

I haven't had any problem with USAA or NFCU, even the phone apps.

[Arizona Kid]

4 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

I am not an expert at all - just a duffer

If you don't have a bank account number, and routing number registered at the IRS. It's not going to happen. Good luck tho.

[manofthecoldland]

1 hour ago, roddavis said:

Tommy T.  Had the same problem trying to access my USAA bank account in the US. Seems a lot of US company's do this to prevent malicious internet attacks from overseas. Especially financial institutions. I know most have been doing the last 5 years or more. If you use a cheap vpn, sometimes they don't work because well in the States because they leak your origin IP. So any IP address in the PI will fail access to some financial institutions. I use ExpressVPN, and never had an issue. So if you use a freebie or low cost vpn this will sometimes give issues. And important to select a location of the server thats closest to your old address in the States. A good VPN will let you access Netflix and other streaming services, even some news feeds. You won't get any "video not authorized from your location" 

FYI :

A few years ago I started running into problems accessing my US based on-line banking system during the 6 months of the year that I live here. Despite pre-travel notification with local bank officers, I kept running into time-consuming frustrations...... until  I was wisely advised by Roddavis, to  get a VPN.  (Thanks again, Rod ! )  It was a real financial life saver ring.

Rod says he's using ExpressVPN  (their site offers diff. pricing options/ e.g. 12 months for $8.32/mo.) but I went with HideAll IP with a 1 year license for $29.00, ;which I renewed with carry over credit if renewed early. No problems during the 17 ;months of use so far.

I am having a VIP problem right now, since I was off-line for 2 weeks until a few days ago. Due to an accident that killed my computer.   We have a 4 year old, quarantine caught compulsory guest ( a '1 week visit' from a co-madre's grandaughter, turned into a 7 week stay with no end in sight. She lives in northern Iloilo.... which is the only Panay province still under EGQ, so her mother is unable to come an get her.) who....... had a little accident with her water bottle while I was foolishly allowing her to watch Pre-K  youtube programs.  The tech tried (P700) for 2 days to revive it, but except for a 1 hour brief revival, the mother board was damaged too much when it grounded.

So we have our egg-man co-padre hook us up with another friend, who has a computer sales and solutions shop.... and we order this replacement HP (P18,500) while we are still all under EGQ. The very day it arrives from MNL we happily went to General Q. , so now both the house delivery guy and our PLDT tech friend can come without breaking the law. I tip them both heavily since they have been without work since mid-March.

I go to my VIP site and discover that in order to transfer my license to my new computer, I am supposed to use the site on my originally licensed computer to disable it there, before I log the license into my new computer. (You have to buy a license for each  computer, separately at this place).  Well, that's an obvious impossibility, so I fire off a contact message on their web site. Nothing in 2 days, so I send another. Still waiting.  At worse, I will just fork out another $29/1 year for a new one, but I did have 8 months left on my orig. use license and if they are as good on their customer service as their site claims they are.......  Yeah, I know....... 

Fortunately, and it may be only a temporary blessing, for some reason..... I ACTUALLY  was allowed to log into my bank's online website and access my accounts WITHOUT my usual VPN use with this new computer.  I don't know how or why or for how long, but it sure beats paying the extra P250 I had to at the ATMs for the last 2 weeks without having the ability to transfer account to account.

Now that the stores are opening, the wife got us a new charcoal cook stove at the big market/ palengke. She was quite proud of the fact that she saved money by passing on the first vendor's price of P 570 and seeking another at P520 for the same steel and rebar local made type. Then she went to Jollibee and bought us some burgers and fries to celebrate with a merienda !

I sure hope that US $1200 arrives soon, since I did two more food handouts for the neediest in the neighborhood since the initial 2.   The last was only rice and dried fish. I also got talked into doing a separate donation for 17 of our elderly seniors here.  My wife's packet.... in case you hit the skids someday and want to know what to expect if stuck here..... was 3 kg. rice, 2 packets of adult (powdered) milk, and 2 packs of  biscuits.

I did read somewhere, that the US Treasury did have a priority system for the stimulus check/transfer distribution, that included the lower end income people on their direct deposit listings re tax refunds. That was supposed to take precedence of SSA recipients. For what it's worth to those of us who are still waiting for it to show up in our bank accounts. So keep the faith.

[Arizona Kid]

19 minutes ago, Heeb said:

I haven't had any problem with USAA or NFCU, even the phone apps.

NFCU has a very good security check. They even ask me what my best friends name in high school was.

[Arizona Kid]

6 minutes ago, manofthecoldland said:

I sure hope that US $1200 arrives soon,

I got it a few weeks ago. I deserve it tho. 20 plus years in the US Navy.

[Jollygoodfellow]

4 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

NFCU has a very good security check. They even ask me what my best friends name in high school was.

Because it would be a security check question you gave when first signing up.

[Mike J]

8 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

13 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

NFCU has a very good security check. They even ask me what my best friends name in high school was.

Because it would be a security check question you gave when first signing up.

Trick question.  In high school AK didn't have any friends.  

[Tommy T.]

18 hours ago, roddavis said:

I am not an expert at all - just a duffer - in these things, so just sort of blundered through and found a solution that worked. So it seems okay now, but I would appreciate any suggestion or info any of you techno-geeks may wish to add...

 

15 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

A few years ago I started running into problems accessing my US based on-line banking system during the 6 months of the year that I live here. Despite pre-travel notification with local bank officers, I kept running into time-consuming frustrations...... until  I was wisely advised by Roddavis, to  get a VPN.  (Thanks again, Rod ! )  It was a real financial life saver ring.

Here's an update to my bank access issues post yesterday...

Late yesterday I tried accessing my bank accounts again and, voila!, everything worked as usual without resorting to the VPN. So I don't know what the problem was, but it seemed okay yesterday and again today. However it didn't produce the much anticipated stimulus payment yet. Maybe the banks had simultaneous systems farts?

15 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

I got it a few weeks ago. I deserve it tho. 20 plus years in the US Navy

No way I would dispute that AK...

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

 

Here's an update to my bank access issues post yesterday...

Late yesterday I tried accessing my bank accounts again and, voila!, everything worked as usual without resorting to the VPN. So I don't know what the problem was, but it seemed okay yesterday and again today. However it didn't produce the much anticipated stimulus payment yet. Maybe the banks had simultaneous systems farts?

No way I would dispute that AK...

I have posted over the years about my issues with my brokerage / bank, Fidelity.  When I put my Philippines address into their system in 2012, they sent me a letter saying I could no longer trade, etc.  Fixing that was as simple as changing my address to my sister's house in California.  They did not bother me after that.

However, due to that I always use a VPN when I log into Fidelity or my other U.S. banks.  If you login to Fidelity from overseas without VPN, the first screen that pops up is their "International Usage Agreement" that you have to agree to.  My concern is, depending on who they have in charge at any given time, they may audit your logins and assume that if all your logins are from the Philippines, you live in the Philippines.  Then start the hassles again.

I am now using Express VPN and it is better than the PureVPN I was using.  One "issue" with Fidelity is that almost every time I login using E.V., it sees me as an unrecognized device and I have to answer a security question.  I asked E.V. about this and they said that is because their service constantly rotates ip addresses.

I tried to open an account with Schwab and they flat turned me down when I gave my address in the Philippines.  So, if I were you, I would use a VPN to login to Schwab.