As VPN technology improves and providers proliferate, the downsides of a VPN are dwindling. That being said, one of the things you'll want to be aware of is that your surfing speeds may slow down a bit. Remember, when you use a VPN, your internet requests are encoded, sent through a server somewhere on the globe, forwarded to the internet and then the process is reversed. That takes time. It usually only takes seconds, but depending on where you're connected, the time of day and other factors, it can slow things down.You also need to know that some services can get a bit wonky when using a VPN. Let's say you are tunneled into a server in France, for example. If you head your favorite shopping site, you may suddenly find that all of the prices are in euros. Also, if you try to access online banking, certain streaming services or other types of sites, you may be blocked depending on the country you're tunneled into and the policies of the provider. In such cases, you would need to drop your VPN service temporarily, or connect to one in the right country.