As someone who’s a complete beginner to crypto, can someone please help me make this Monero payment for Mullvad VPN?

NatureFriends:

and when I try to do that it asks for my personal information such as street address and phone number, which feels like kt defeats the purpose of trying to maintain my privacy.

It depends. Buying Monero with KYC does not compromise your future Monero transactions. Consider it like withdrawing cash from your bank. Your bank knows that you withdrew cash, they know how much cash you withdrew. They don’t know where, what, who, when, why, or how you spent it. This is the same for Monero, and therefore, I think it’s acceptable for most people to complete KYC on a centralized exchange (Kraken, Binance, DFX.swiss, etc), and withdraw that Monero to their wallet.

The risks of using a centralized exchange are the same as with any banking, there is the risk of data breaches (breaches of your identity documents), they log everything, etc.

There is not a real privacy advantage in avoiding KYC for a crypto to fiat exchange when you are already using a KYCed payment method (Bank account, p2p app, checks, credit cards, debit cards).

My recommendation, since it seems to me you are in the EU. If you are somewhere where Monero is not delisted, then simply replace Litecoin with Monero in steps 1-5, and you are done.

1. Open a Kraken account, complete KYC procedures, don’t fake any info (remember, it doesn’t matter for your privacy once you get your Monero)
2. Deposit fiat money into Kraken through credit card or bank account
3. Purchase Litecoin on Kraken with your fiat currency you deposited
4. Create a Litecoin wallet on CakeWallet
5. Use the withdraw button on Kraken and enter a Litecoin address belonging to the wallet you just generated in CakeWallet
6. Now, go to https://trocador.app/en/ in your browser. I recommend doing this in Tor browser.
7. Enter your Monero address into Trocador and select the exchange you’d like to use
8. Scan the QR code given by the exchange and send that Litecoin
9. You will soon see the Monero arrive in your Monero wallet

I recommend Kraken because it is a reputable CEX and still lists Monero in some regions, unlike many other CEXs that chose to delist it, even when there is no law requiring them to.

I recommend Trocador because they have been around a while and it seems to be the easiest place to avoid high fees and feel safe with your transaction.

Cakewallet/Monero.com wallet are great and the company behind them has done a lot for Monero and they focus on security and adoption and are not scammy at all.

I have had good experiences with both.

I don’t think this section will be helpful for you right now, and I recommend ignoring it until your learn more. These are ADVANCED topics, and will just confuse you and introduce more friction. I highly recommend avoiding the topics discussed here until you understand more about Monero. Just follow my guide earlier in the post. (click for more details)