Although available in Japan where I live, there is literally no way to transfer money out of my bank. You may think it odd, but getting a bank account in a foreign country is actually hard. The bank I use is not my choice, but the choice of my former employer -- that's how I got the account. When I set up my own consulting company, I ended up using the same bank. I'm trying get out of it. I have an account with an offshore bank, but going through the paperwork to actually deliver my pay cheque into it is rather daunting (even though I own the company that pays me!). It will be dramatically easier when I get permanent residence status (which I probably can get whenever I get around to applying for it -- and I should do it sooner rather than later).

But anyway, there are other people in the same situation, where they literally can't pay for things online. I just wanted to indicate that I understood the situation. But thanks for the pointers. It looks pretty useful if I ever get in the situation where I could use it.

> all your personal emails are stored in [someone else's] servers.

Well, yeah. That's true for everything except for hardware you actually own.

They're saying it's better than storing it on Google's servers, not that it's bulletproof.

There really isn't a way to have impenetrable email. It's all about what type and level of risks you're willing to take.

E.g. are you concerned more about rubber stamps or software exploits? Are you more concerned about usage pattern profiles or someone actually reading the content of your messages?

Different people have different priorities and there is no one single best option.