What a VPN changes and what it leaves
A VPN changes your network address and nothing else. Language, time zone and account details stay as they were, and a service comparing them notices the disagreement. Many services also block known VPN address ranges outright.
The reputation of a VPN as a universal key comes from a period when address was the only signal anybody checked. That period ended, and the tool is now partial rather than useless.
It changes the address only
Traffic leaves from the provider's server, so the address maps to that country. This is real and it is 1 signal. Everything else about your request is unchanged, which is what the other checks are for.
The other signals disagree
A German browser language and a Berlin time zone arriving from an address in another country is a visible inconsistency. Services that check more than the address treat it as one, and the more of them a service checks the less the address alone achieves.
Ranges get blocked
Commercial VPN address ranges are published and widely blocked, especially by services with licensing obligations. This is why a VPN works on one site and not on the next, with no pattern the user can see.
The honest summary
For a service that only reads the address, a VPN usually works. For one that reads several signals or blocks ranges, it usually does not. And where an institution blocks the network itself, the VPN traffic is often blocked before it starts, which is a different failure again.
Straight answers
Does a VPN make me anonymous to the service?
It hides your address from the service and shows everything to the VPN provider. That is a change of who sees it rather than a removal, and it is a separate question from access.
Are paid VPNs harder to detect?
Somewhat, and the largest providers are the most widely published. Detection tracks popularity more than price.
Is using one against the rules?
Often against a service's terms, which is separate from whether it works. Worth reading before relying on it for anything that matters.
Try a service that reads no address for a country in the first place.
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