PayPal is not in Egypt. If you are travelling or staying in the country on the Nile for a longer period of time, you may want or need to use PayPal anyway. I always have problems to log into PayPal when I am in Egypt. But with a little trick a login at PayPal works 100 percent and you can use the service as usual.
- Get yourself a VPN that works in Egypt. NordVPN (big discounts NOW)* and the obfuscated servers of the provider work great.
- Open the website of PayPal log in.
- That’s it, now you can use the financial service as usual.
Not just PayPal is blocked in Egypt
This statement is somewhat misleading, because in the case of PayPal I believe that the service itself blocks access if you are visiting from Egypt. So it should be enough if you connect to a VPN server somewhere in Europe. But there is a catch.
Egypt blocks VPNs, at least often. You can get around those blocks if you use a VPN with a stealth mode. NordVPN* for example has obfuscated servers, and they work. Also [AirVPN] has a stealth technology you get around the VPN blocks. The VPN protocol SSTP also works but not a lot of VPN providers offer it. [PureVPN] does. I mainly use NordVPN as this is working well in Egypt. Most free VPNs don’t work in Egypt by the way.
NordVPN – use PayPal everywhere!*
By the way, in Egypt you can easily get a sim card for tourists at the airport and the data permission is high. For about 30 Euro you can get up to 80 GB if you get a special offer. If not, you still get 40 GB. Not bad, right? You can even use it for streaming content from home, but you need a VPN that can bypass the blockade and geoblocking.
With the 3G/4G connections there are also problems with video telephony (VoIP) via WhatsApp, Viber or Skype, for example. Personally, I prefer to use Telegram anyway, but there is a similar problem. There are enough people who use other messengers. NordVPN offers very user-friendly apps for Android and the already mentioned obfuscated servers. With that, video telephony via Skype and other programs works.
CyberSec is a blessing in Egypt
Maybe you use public Wi-Fi in your hotel, in a café or even in a dive center. The problem at this point could be so called hijacked routers. I have seen that many times — no joke. This means that you will be redirected via DNS hijacking to harmful websites or you will see plenty of annoying ads.
NordVPN’s CyberSec protects against malware, harmful websites, trackers, hackers and also acts as an ad blocker.
Even if you are using a public Wi-Fi, you use the DNS servers of the VPN provider, and they are normally clean. Also, you are connected to your VPN server via a tunnel, and malware from the public Wi-Fi cannot attack you. This also applies to any hacker that may be on the same network.
Other advantages of a VPN, not only good for PayPal
By the way, it does not matter if you travel to Egypt or to different countries. You should always use a VPN or Virtual Private Network as soon as you use an unknown network like in an Airbnb or also on a train. They are untrustworthy!
If you use PayPal or any online banking, you don’t want the operator of the public Wi-Fi to snoop around. Prying eyes is the last you want to have while doing online banking. Of course, the connections to banks and financial service providers are encrypted per default, but when it comes to the money, additional protection can’t hurt. Especially not when so many routers and access points are compromised.
Modern VPNs encrypt your connection with AES-256 and NordVPN offers a feature called Double Encryption. It routes your data through two VPN servers. This is good for anonymity, but not quite so good for speed. In Egypt, it should be enough to use the obfuscated servers.
Protect your data with NordVPN!*
NordVPN is good, affordable and works with PayPal
NordVPN currently costs only about $3 a month if you choose a long-term subscription, making it one of the most affordable options on the market. You can use up to 6 devices simultaneously, so all devices should be protected while on vacation. Thanks to the user-friendly applications for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and also iOS, NordVPN is perfect for beginners. Get it just for your vacation and if it doesn’t suit you, take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee.
The VPN is known to be able to unlock streaming providers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer or Zattoo. I mean if you are on vacation you really shouldn’t watch too much TV. But it’s good to know that you could if you wanted too, right?
By the way, there are also extensions for the browsers Firefox and Chrome. You can use CyberSec in the browser extensions as well. In this case, however, not the entire traffic runs through the VPN, but only that of the browser. Basically it is a proxy — but it is faster.
The support of NordVPN is available 24/7. If there is an urgent problem, you can contact them via live chat. The support is fantastic. I once had a problem with the kill switch in an early version of the Linux client. I contacted the provider a got a solution on the same day. The kill switch is another feature I would like to point out. If the connection to the VPN is interrupted, the client will cut all network connections. This prevents unwanted data leaks.
Do you travel a lot or you are a digital nomad? In any case you should definitely have a VPN in your luggage. Not only Egypt, but also many other countries censor more or less strongly.
Scuba diving in Egypt is great — but don’t forget to pack a VPN
The Red Sea is really something special if you are a scuba diver or like snorkeling. Just the Thistlegorm with its history is always worth a visit. There are not many places on earth where you can shoot pictures like this in just 30 meters of depth.
Maybe you don’t have to use PayPal in Egypt at all and get along well without streaming and VoIP in your vacation. But everyone has an Internet-enabled device these days and most people use it to read or write messages.
I can tell you from my experience that I have seen and cleaned many compromised routers. Most of the time, even resetting to default settings doesn’t help because the firmware of the routers is outdated, and they are quickly attacked again. One option is to buy a new router. Another option would be to protect your guests with something like Pi-hole. The problem would be partially fixed now. But many don’t know even the project or have trouble setting it up.
But you have the option to take protect yourself and you can take a proactive approach. Get a trustworthy VPN. They are affordable now and a great travel companion.