It seems that among all US banks, online and brick & mortar, 30-40% no longer permit users to use VPNs when accessing online services or using a bank’s mobile app.
Does anyone know of an online bank that permits users to use VPN access? I’m in a jam and need to open an account ASAP.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Opening an account with a VPN sounds pretty suspicious and I’m not a bank.
You can open an account online with my local credit union. You can use a VPN, however once you deposit funds and want access to them, I’d be the one calling you to ask to provide proof that you are eligible for membership and to know what your intentions are in using your account. Credit unions are more invested in their members and want everyone to be happy and healthy including how they use banking services. So factually speaking, you can open an account online through a VPN, however if you’re wanting to deposit fake checks and get money out of it, you would be out of luck. Your urgency in needing to open an account raises red flags. You’ll have to elaborate and tell us your circumstances regarding the need for an account. The more you can explain, the better we can advise, speaking as a long term redditor with decades of banking experience.
Our bank will allow them, but you will get challenged too much and likely abandon using the VPN. If that range hits on a black list we have rules which will disabled the login for OLB, but also require you to either come to a branch for authentication or a lengthy process of manual verification which is not done through the contact center. A lot of times the authentication vendor (i.e. ThreatMatrix, Lexis Nexus, and others) are just going to score untrusted IPs high especially from a proxy/VPN egress.
I feel like this can also boil down to the VPN you use, where their exit nodes are, how many IPs you could reasonably exit from, and if they are blacklisted by the bank. Some VPN providers are small enough that they shouldn’t trigger any alerts from the bank, of course, it also depends on how much data your device is leaking
Bofa and wells allows it. I use Surfshark everyday and bank with the online iOS APP
The percentage of people who use VPNs who are using it for fraudulent reasons is just waaaaaay to high. It’s a massive red flag, and our bank just plain doesn’t want to deal with the risk.
I try to do all my work online with VPN. I’ve been dealing with cyber stalking for almost 2 years so I try to do everything via VPN.
Yeah, accessing and account I could see, I’d be skeptical in much of the world about logging into my bank, especially if on some public wifi somewhere, but opening an account I get the suspicion.
I totally understand. If you read my latest reply to another comment, you’ll see that I a legit banking customer that just waited until the last minute to open an account. My real estate team just told me that because I already closed on the sale of my condo, if I don’t give them account details for a 2nd account (because I can only out $250K in my primary account & sale proceeds are over that amount) asap, then my sale proceeds go into some kind of legal void that I’ll only be able to access with an attorney.
This. For me I could access Ally Bank via some servers on ExpressVPN and mullvad but I couldn’t find a way to access with ProtonVPN. And of course it blocked multiple servers on the two services that worked. Bank of America is also quite hard to get on a vpn. I think it blocked all but mullvad for me.
SoFi was pretty easy though. Created an account on mullvad and could access it easily. Even tried accessing it through Nord too and no problems. I created a Schwab account on mullvad too and no problems.
I get it. But if you have lived with the cyber stalking I’ve had to deal with in the past 2 years, you would always use a VPN too, even on LTE. The kind of hacking and stalking I’ve had to deal with has sometimes required the use of a private security service. So unless you’ve walked a mile in my shoes, please don’t make assumptions about me.
I just sold my condominium in CA and FDIC only insures up to $250K. The proceeds of the sale exceed $250K, so I need a secondary account, since I’ll only put $250K in the primary account. I’ve had a lot on my plate lately, so I didn’t think about opening a 2nd account until yesterday…bad planning on my part.
In the past 30 minutes I found an online bank that seemed to tolerate my VPN+LTE connection fine, so I’ll go with them.
My primary bank doesn’t allow VPNs, so I’m going to transfer that account to a VPN-friendly bank soon.
I understand the risks involved, but if the banks payed for better screening services, they’d be able to assess which VPNs were riskier, and which were harmless. The banks don’t want to pay for that level of screening because that would cut into their stockholders’ wallets.
Yeah I understand the appeal but opening an account with one just looks like fraud. What’s wrong with using LTE and toggling airplane mode when you want a new IP?
With this specific situation I highly recommend posting in r/personalfinance. When there is a possibility the situation involves an attorney, definitely ask there. And if it leads to attorney questions, ask r/legaladvice.
The proceeds of the sale exceed $250K, so I need a secondary account
No, you don’t. FDIC insurance only matters in the unlikely event that your bank completely fails and there’s no one to take on the institution. No depositor has ever lost a cent since the introduction of the FDIC.
Thank you. I just found out that my real estate team will do a wire transfer of $250K to my primary bank & send me a check for the remainder of the sale proceeds. Then I’ll deposit that check in an online savings account. So thankfully we reached a solution that won’t require an attorney.
In case you didn’t see above, I’m dealing with a cyber stalking situation, so they might take the $ out of my account. I have to plan my whole life around the activity of the cyber stalkers. If they take the $, then FDIC provides protection. If you’ve never had to deal with cyber stalking, then you might not understand what I’m dealing with right now.
I highly recommend going in person to a local credit union to open a savings account. Now also speaking as a fraud analyst, if you want to put the money into a savings account (you don’t need access to the funds right away) and you’re concerned about privacy/online hacking, it’s best to go in person to a branch.
It sounds like you’ve been through a lot, and are handling things smartly. I’m glad you found a solution.
Online banks that are not brick and mortar have many drawbacks when it comes to accessing funds and also securing your funds. I’m now speaking as someone who was once homeless with limited identification. Banks that are online only don’t follow the same US banking regulations and are (in my opinion) not a good option. Depending on your circumstances, it still sounds like you should take the check you receive to a physical branch of a financial institution and open an account in person.