If you are in the United States and want to use TC free, is it okay to do things like online banking, watch videos, etc or should you just browse the web for stuff like hobbies?
Yes. It will encrypt all of your communications. In fact I would recommend only using it for important things such as online banking, etc… because it does have a maximum amount of data that it will allow through it (10GB). That said, it should be safe to use for everything.
So then, its okay to use it to help check your banks online and watch videos. I thought that banking sites like Paypal didn’t smile upon it when they saw you trying to access your records via an international IP address because they would think that someone besides you is trying to access it.
It’s true that some sites will not let you log in because you’ll be trying to connect via an IP address known to belong to a VPN, but many sites will allow you to log in anyway. You’ll have to find out which will not allow you to connect and connect to those without TrustConnect enabled.