To the surprise of many subscription holders, VPN provider ExpressVPN has suddenly decided to stop supporting PayPal. As its officialële reason, ExpressVPN gives that there is disagreement on the ideological level, which says as much as ‘no comment’. ExpressVPN Norge @ Globalwatchonline.dk is replacing Paypal for Dutch payment processor Adyen.

The first reports surfaced earlier this month, when users found out they could no longer pay with PayPal. Last week, subscribers who pay via PayPal received mail from ExpressVPN. In it, the company explained in few words that the partnership will cease to exist. To make up for this, the current users can continue their subscription with another payment method for a soft price. In a blog post, ExpressVPN elaborates on the choice.

Payments under your own control

ExpressVPN isn’t replacing PayPal for the least bit. Dutch company Adyen has been rapidly conquering the payments world since its founding in 2006. According to the blog, the move to Adyen allows ExpressVPN to be in control of their own payments. Payments through PayPal always go through PayPal’s own systems, and the VPN provider prefers to keep them in its own hands. Adyen does let the company manage their own payment system, so the choice was relatively quick for ExpressVPN. In addition to being able to keep all data in their own hands, Adyen also offers support for several regional payment options. ExpressVPN free trial @ Indonesia hopes to roll these out to users worldwide in the coming weeks.

Surprise among users

Online reaction to the decision is mixed. Many users on Reddit point out that they prefer not to pay directly with their credit card (to which a lot of personal information can be traced) at a VPN provider. On the other hand, there is also understanding for the decision, because PayPal is often at odds with their customers. Reference is made to the many conflicts between PayPal and users, where PayPal freezes the user’s account in the event of a conflict. These kinds of problems have previously caused other large companies to stop using PayPal, including Ebay, which previously owned the service. ExpressVPN is therefore replacing PayPal with a company that is clearly opting for a solution that gives the VPN provider more options like a Netflix VPN en France.