from reading the proton website on payment, they offer an anonymous way to pay for their service with cash by just… mailing them cash.
i live in the us, so if i were to do this i would do so by usps international mail. however, is there any nuances to the legality of mailing cash or potential concerns i should know of before i do so? would really appreciate if someone from the us who has mailed proton cash before clear it up for me, thanks.
You could get a visa gift card with cash. Somehow they took a US only card. Other venders couldn’t accept it in that case you would need an international gift card.
Not many places sell the international ones.
Just doing a check on a search engine say places like Lowe’s carries them, maybe CVS and I think maybe Costco.
Just throwing some ideas out there in case you decide sending cash isn’t a good fit.
If you have a balance on the card, don’t mix it up with other payment methods (Other than cash) in a single transaction and use a VoIP number to check the balance or some other anonymous way if possible.
I have mailed cash. There is no prohibition against mailing cash in the US. I did not include a return address as I felt that would defeat the purpose since all mail in the US is scanned on the outside. I used a bifold greeting card I had available with my username written inside, make sure to calculate the number of stamps needed. I can’t remember if its 2 or 3 for Switzerland.
Edit: A Visa gift card is unlikely to work. AFAIK you end up having to register them to use online. You can’t use a visa prepaid gc online otherwise. Perhaps I’m wrong on this.
Post office sells international stamps. Just pick up a thank you card & envelope (already slightly heavier than regular mail) write account details within card, include cash, no return address. Proton will send a short email if it arrives and gets processed.
Obviously use a thank you card to show your appreciation of their service.
Just a little text to share my experience: I did it from France (i.e. bordering Switzerland). Here, putting money in a envelope is forbidden, even if it’s not very controlled for small amounts I suppose. To avoid losing too much money in case it didn’t work, I proceeded in two envelopes: 40% of the sum the first time and 60% the second time. I waited until the first envelope was received and credited to my account to send the second one. The delay was two weeks each time.
It’s a great way to guarantee your privacy, but you might want to think twice before doing this, especially from this far away. I think favoring crypto anonymously would be a safer way. Do Bank → new BTC wallet 1 → new XMR wallet → new BTC wallet 2 → Proton, I think you will reach a level of anonymity high enough for 99.9% of people.
That’s how my coworker paid for proton here in the US.
She said she bought with cash and I believe she also said she anonymously activated online.
She did say she tried other providers overseas and it didn’t work because it was a US only card. But it did work with proton.
Worst case scenario if it no longer worked, just use it for groceries or something. And all you lost was the initial 6 dollars to purchase it.
I tried doing this for a different VPN provider based in the EU. I’m in the US. I was instructed (by Fedex) to fill out a “U.S. Customs Form” which requires full name of both parties, email (to speed up the process but it seems optional), full address for sender and receiver, and a detailed description of what is inside. I wasn’t given the option to send without a sender (return) address. I didn’t do it. That defeats the purpose of paying with cash. For what it’s worth, I have never been able to send anything using USPS, UPS, or Fedex in the U.S. without a return address and showing my government ID. Not sure how you folks are doing it.
Are US folks just putting a piece of mail, no return address, in the post box with international stamps? Do you recommend doing the payments in increments or is sending $100+ going to get flagged by customs? I am fully prepared to lose whatever I send either way.
Yes. You can use domestic stamps or international. If using domestic the value of the stamps just needs to equal the international rate.
I don’t know of restrictions to mailing cash out of the US and into Switzerland. A search indicates these limits start around $10,000, but certainly double check.
I think Proton is anti-anonymity. They are hostile toward Monero and lack transparency with the ways that their products can deanonymize their users. Just because cash can be used anonymously, I don’t think that Proton would accept it if there weren’t other options or it wouldn’t look very bad for a privacy company to not accept private payments. Accepting cash without more convenient anonymous payment methods is a strong indication from them to not try to use their services anonymously.
Assuming you’re buying a year up front I would assume that wouldn’t be enough money to really trigger any red flags from either postal service.
If you’re just sending correspondence (no trading cards, bookmarks, stickers, etc.) or nonnegotiable documents (just paper; no cash, checks, or other items that have cash value), you don’t need a customs form.
The Step 1 on How To Send A Letter or Postcard: International | USPS has that no cash part. I’ll do what you guys did since it worked. I guess I’ll know what happened in like 6 weeks 
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