YouTube is banning a money-saving trick that grants ad-free Premium subscription for cheap
The days of purchasing a cheap YouTube Premium subscription from a foreign country could be over.
After a bunch of Reddit users noticed that their “spoofed” YouTube subscription plans had been cancelled, the video platform has confirmed that it’s cracking down on people who fake their locations for a cheeky deal.
For years, wily YouTube users have been using a loophole to save a chunk of change on a Premium subscription, which lets you watch videos without adverts. The trick sees people changing locations with a VPN to a country where YouTube Premium is significantly cheaper.
How much is YouTube Premium?
Like many video services, the cost of a YouTube subscription differs drastically around the world. Brits have to pay £13 per month for a subscription, but it works out to less than £2 a month in places like Turkey and Argentina.
How will this affect YouTube users using VPNs?
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a software that is mainly used to browse the internet privately, but it can also change your location online to make it look like you’re in a country where YouTube Premium costs less.
After allowing the practice to go unchecked for years, YouTube is now actively preventing it. The Google-owned company told TechCrunch that it can detect when a subscriber is lying about their signup country and nudge them to update it.
“To provide the most accurate plans and offers available, we have systems in place to determine the country of our users,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “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, a customer support agent told PCMag that YouTube has “initiated the cancellation of premium memberships for accounts identified as having falsified signup country information.” The agent also mentioned that YouTube had begun a wave of cancellations recently and was informing affected users via email and in-app notifications.
Why is this happening?
The move is part of YouTube’s broader ban on entirely legal software that has an undesirable impact on its service. Earlier this year, it stopped users from using ad blockers to remove interruptive adverts from the platform.
As online video becomes the default mode of entertainment, more companies are clamping down on the money-saving tactics used by some viewers to avoid fees. For instance, both Netflix and Disney have banned account holders from sharing their passwords, much to the chagrin of affected users. They do this by tracking the IP addresses of devices that access the account within a subscribed household.
Despite the outcry from customers, Netflix’s decision led to a bump in subscriber numbers – a trend that YouTube is trying to emulate with its recent enforcements.
How to get YouTube Premium for free
While VPNs may be down and out, there are other ways to get YouTube Premium for free. A subscription plan is often bundled as a free add-on with other services, such as Vodafone’s Red mobile phone contracts.
Other platforms have also offered free YouTube Premium trials in the past, including Xbox Game Pass. Speaking of which, YouTube is currently letting new users sample the service for two months for zilch. Therefore, it’s always worth doing a quick search for deals online before signing up.
