I am on a river cruise, and I would like to transfer some money from one account to another. Is it safe to use the Viking River boat Wi-Fi to do the transfer, and then possibly use Quicken to update on the MacBook.

And would using a VPN make it any more secure?

Not sure I can use a VPN with my credit union or with Quicken on the Mac, however.

I’d check with my credit union. Seems to me that if you using browser on laptop to get to a website, you are more exposed then if you used an iOS credit union app (I’m assuming the app is encrypted end to end).

Nothing to do with the question, but how are you enjoying the river trip? Wife and I have been looking at those.

good question.

my experience with cases like this is the following. Banks use https protocol, so the communication back and forth should be encrypted. Most banks won't even let you access the web site if you don't meet the minimum security requirements. I doubt someone will be able to hack and steal your account. I am not saying it is impossible, I just don't think it is easy.

However, they will notice that you access from a foreign IP and the bank may lock your account. You may need to call them to explain that it was you and not some hacker from Europe.

That is my experience, and I don't take any responsibility for what happens to your account and your money.

Please let us know what you do, if you use a VPN and how it turns out.

Also if this is not mission critical, you may wait until you get back in the USA.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2022 08:54AM by gadje.

Windscribe VPN lets you choose a country to appear to be in. For the US, you can specify what partnof the country. In addition to being more secure, it may reduce the chances of having your account being locked for trying to access from outside the country.

I say just do what you need to and don’t worry

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Quote
MikeF
Nothing to do with the question, but how are you enjoying the river trip? Wife and I have been looking at those.

Let me jump in. We started with a Viking trip on the Rhine. It was great. We did the included air so Viking was responsible for us as soon as we got on the plane. It's really nice just unpacking once and being done. There are included excursions in every port and almost always paid ones that go farther/do different things. We do a lot of the extra cost ones. One downside for some people might be that there aren't any do-it-yourself options--you go where the ship goes. One trick about the Rhine is to start at Amsterdam and go south rather than the other way. If you get a plane that lands in Amsterdam in the very early morning you'll have an extra day to explore for free. On Viking it costs $100 to choose the flights you'll take. We have a trip planned for April that will start in Amsterdam and we recently got the flights. They're direct from Atlanta but were to land at 2pm. So, I called, paid the $200 for both of us and chose flights that arrived at 6am. So, we'll have a full day to tour away from Amsterdam on our own; we'll probably go to Haarlem on the train for the day. The official arrival time is 2pm on the ship but in the past Viking picked us up very early in the morning and took us to the ship. We were welcomed and offered breakfast and we were told our luggage would be held and put in our cabin when they were ready. And we spent the day exploring Amsterdam.

We've also cruised on the Danube and the south of France (Rhone River) and have done a Viking ocean trip around the Baltic. We're sold on cruises.

We've gone on Viking and on Avalon. I much prefer Viking because things are more transparent. The trips are the same and the Avalon ships/people are just as good as Viking. But, their back end isn't as good, in my opinion. We've decided we won't go on Avalon again.

A VPN you know is good would be better, but using your own computer should be fine. Make sure the secure certificate is legit. If there's any security errors, don't do it.

Although mentioned otherwise above, I'd prefer using a website over an app.

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