Google starts cancelling cheap YouTube Premium obtained via VPNs
It might sound surprising, but YouTube Premium is not the same price in all regions. While Google is charging above $10 for a single account in the US, those in Africa and some parts of Europe are getting the services for less than $3. We can understand why some people are using VPNs to get a cheaper price, but Google has started cracking down on it.
Google has a subscription model for each region. Perhaps the reason why the company charges those in America $13.99/month for a single account and less than $3/month in Africa is because some features are not available in that region. However, some people would use a VPN to connect to these regions with cheaper pricing to get a YouTube Premium.
Getting a YouTube premium using a VPN and switching back to your country will allow you to enjoy all the premium benefits in your region without paying the full price. That seems to work, but not anymore, as Google has started canceling all subscriptions obtained using a VPN.
According to a YouTube Spokesperson:
To provide the most accurate plans and offers, we have systems in place to determine the country of our users. In instances where the signup country does not match where the user is accessing YouTube, we’re asking members to update their billing information to their current country of residence.
Meanwhile, some people have taken to Reddit to complain about their YouTube Premium suddenly getting canceled. Though YouTube did not comment on the cancellation email if it was due to faking their region, we believe that should be the case. Nevertheless, YouTube will not ban your account if you have used this loophole, but you have to use a credit card with an address of your current location before enabling YouTube Premium.
