Is paying for a PVN with a supported gift card even worth it? As Tom would put it, too tin-foil hat?
I was planning on paying cash for a GC but PIA has a sale I don’t want to miss out on so was thinking of online purchase of GC… ya dont think I’ll purchase online.
Thoughts?
Up to you, every layer moves you that more more towards anonymity
But what’s the point of it? Who pays for GC? If this is the same footprint as paying directly, then it probably doesn’t make sense. The three-letter agencies won’t have any problems finding out who stands at the source $
The only separation is between PIA and you. Then if you like paranoia, it makes sense.
If you want, you can send $ to me on paypal, and I will make a payment from you for vpn if PIA supports paypal.
I’ve always used GC’s to pay for VPN’s. I always figure the less the vpn knows, the better.
Next step find a store that sells gift cards that doesn’t have facial recognition cams… 
I think it was WP 133 of Mike Bazzell’s podcast where he talked about anonymous payment methods. If it’s not this one then let me know and I’ll check through my history to find it
Check mullvad VPN service they allow you to generate an account number and then you send an envelope with your account number and some money. Simple but probably illegal to send money by mail.
Only replying to the ‘send money by mail’.
It’s not illegal in the US to send cash by mail, however it is discouraged due to theft. You’re far safer using Postal Money Orders if you need to send ‘cash’ to someone as it’s protected against theft/loss, and any post office will gladly give you the value in cash for it without fees.
PIA is great. But go ahead and spin up your own Open VPN on a VPS. Then you control it. I am doing that now and it works quite well. Tom has a great video on it from a couple months ago.