jfchandler

There's also been a Lonely Planet forum thread on the same subject:

Interesting... The Downtown Inn seems to have been removed from the corporate website...

This Internet archive web site allows one to go back and view web pages as they existed at various past points in time... http://wayback.archive.org/web/

Empress Hotels June 2009

Empress Hotels today

http://www.empresshotels.com/

Downtown Inn June 2009

Downtown Inn today

dead link

http://www.empressho...wntown_inn.html

The Downtown Inn now seems to have its own separate web site as follows:

http://downtowninnchiangmai.com/

The Internet archives web site mentioned above shows no prior version of the above website, suggesting perhaps that it's been newly created.

Two thoughts here...

1. Curious to see a newspaper headline talking about the suspected find of 169 red shirt bodies when there's absolutely ZERO evidence presented in the newspaper report as to the basis for anyone thinking they are red shirts...

2. It's pretty obvious what the ultimate police investigation will conclude.... same as they always do.... Of course it will end up being a mass suicide.

PS - Now that the forensic team that couldn't figure out what killed the tourists in Chiang Mai has finished their work there, maybe they can travel south and assist with the Rayong case...bringing their considerable expertise to bear.

I think the housing loans idea is a good one....

But, I seem to remember a similar plan a few months back also offered under the prior govt. via Government Housing Bank....

And from the date applications started being accepted, the program opened and closed in like a week...or some very short time...

And if I recall, you had to have a finalized purchase in hand when you went to apply for the loan....

So if you blinked, you missed it....

Wonder how this one will operate.....

I never did hear any stats about how many loans were actually issued under the prior program.

A survey of 18 kids.... and that merits a newspaper article?

And a report by some supposed university academic based on those 18???

They gotta be joking...but unfortunately for Thailand, they're not.

Sad commentary on what passes for news here.

The deaths of a British couple were due to coronary heart diseases, lab tests suggested.

Another example of crappy, flawed reporting by The Nation... The above excerpt from their article is simply wrong and is not what the investigation report found regarding the British couple...

Yes, the report found that the couple had coronary blockages, not so surprising considering they were elderly... But it didn't attribute those as their cause of death, particularly given that they died at the same time as each other, and in the same hotel where other guests had died a short time before apparently from some toxin or chemical agent, the report said...

Rather, the report says re the British couple:

There is evidence of 40-80% occlusion in three coronary arteries in the man, and 30-60% occlusion in the coronary arteries of the woman, which might suggest death caused by a cardiac event or arrest.

It is not unusual for older people to die from cardiac arrest, however, it is uncommon for a couple to die of this cause at the same place and at around the same time.

As they also stayed at Hotel "C" albeit on a different floor to that of the women in Event 3, the possibility that the cause of this event is related to Event 3 cannot be excluded.

Then, after providing that information in the detail section of the report.... it makes the following finding in the conclusion section re the British couple:

4. Event 4: this event, involving the older English couple, is possibly related to Event 3 [which the report attributed to "exposure to some toxic chemical, pesticide or gas"] as they occurred in the same hotel but again laboratories could not establish a direct link or the specific cause.

That's hardly saying the underlying cause of the British couple's death was due to their coronary issues.Shame on The Nation for such shoddy reporting.

But their contribution does help perpetuate the false belief Thai authorities would like to have spread that these deaths were not caused by some chemical or toxic elements where these people were staying... when with the exception of the one French woman who apparently had a prior viral infestion...they clearly were.

The above quotes were from the final investigation update document... The accompanying FAQ document summarizes the findings as follows:

In summary, the investigation found that one person [the French woman] likely died of a virus. Three people likely died of exposure to pesticides. And the investigation could not fully determine the cause of death for two people [the British couple]. (see specific case findings in Update 5).

Actually, I'd rate Swampy and LAX in about the same league.... with some things better and some things worse between the two... But overall, both pretty unpleasant places overall....

Part of the problem with LAX is they've been rebuilding and expanding their international terminal buildings in recent years... still not finished, I believe. So stuff has been perpetually torn up and routes to and from places have been mangled.

But last time through there a couple months back, I had an outbound international flight on Delta and Delta's terminal and set-up there was pretty pleasant. It looked like the whole area had been newly done (though I hadn't flown Delta internationally out of LAX before, so I can't compare with how it was before).

I spent the time prior to my flight sitting at an airport outlet of the El Coyote Mexican restaurant in L.A. drinking a beer and chowing down on carne asada.

Thanks for that.... As I said before, I have no vested interest in Schwab. But the fact is, right now with their current set-up, they offer one of the best deals going for those who are ex-pats or who travel abroad a lot...

There are other banks and CUs that offer similar set-ups and come close... But few are as simple and uncomplicated (meaning no account requirements to meet in order to obtain various benefits) as Schwab.

If Schwab were ever to change their current policies, I'd certainly then recommend whatever would be the best available option(s) in that scenario...

Lastly, as has often been said here before, Schwab account holders traveling in Thailand, when they can, certainly should try to make use of the AEON fee-free ATMs, as opposed to having your own bank reimbursing you 150 baht for the ripoff Thai bank fee every time. By doing so, hopefully, you'll help preserve the Schwab benefits for a long time to come.

Korean Air had quite a bad safety and fatalities history up through around 2000....including getting banned in a variety of ways for its poor air safety record... But they seem to be doing much better in recent years.... See the New York Times article below for background:

New Standards Mean Korean Air Is Coming Off Many 'Shun' Lists

By DON KIRK

Published: March 26, 2002

When Korean Air brought in David Greenberg, a retired Delta Air Lines vice president, to run its operations two years ago, he was given a tall order: rescuing the airline from international disgrace.

Among major international carriers, Korean Air -- 13th largest in the world -- had become a pariah after a string of disasters that began in 1983 when Flight 007 strayed over Russian territory and was shot down with 269 people aboard.

One accident after another seemed to strike the airline after that. By late 1999, when two of its cargo jets crashed within weeks of each other at Shanghai and at Stansted Airport near London, a total of 750 people had been killed in accidents. The airline was also plagued with smaller mishaps on domestic flights that cost no lives but heightened worries about the company and its future.

(more)

I think Overhaul was being sarcastic... appropriately so... under the circumstances...

Especially considering how all kinds of farang deaths with suspicious circumstances routinely get classified as suicides by Thai police...

In trying to explain away the hotel deaths previously, the local authorities up there threw almost every conceivable explanation at the wall short of saying the deaths were all suicides... Frankly, it surprises me the locals didn't go down that road as well somewhere along the way.

Well, I talked at some length with an English speaking rep yesterday at True Move's Digital Gateway office about their Real Move or True Move H 3G service, and got a flyer with their current service plans and prices that I'll post here... The True Move H service is on the same 850 Mhz band that True Move has been using for its own trial 3G service, so no change there, as mentioned above...and no compatibility issues for their existing handset users...

However, what I heard from their rep didn't sound so good in this regard. I asked, what would happen if I, as an existing True Move subscriber, want to switch to the True Move H service. And his answer was, 1] I would need to fill out and complete an entirely new set of paperwork with copies of my passport, etc for an entirely new account because it's a separate company. 2] I'd also have to get a new SIM card with a new phone number (though I forgot to ask him about the possibility of doing a number portability transfer).

They have a web site for the new service, predictably located at: http://www.truemove-h.com/index.htm

And as has been often the case lately with True, the website is almost entirely built in Thai. Even though they have the little TH/EN icons on the page, choosing the EN icon right now doesn't lead to anything. And the pages are composed of images instead of text, making the usual online translation tools useless.

Right now, it sounds like their 3G service is available in BKK and several other of the larger city areas, with plans to eventually go nationwide. They're advertising speeds of up to 21 Mbps (local in Thailand of course), though the rep kind of laughed when I asked him what kind of "real" speeds would their service produce...

They also appear to be offering a 400 baht per month plan with 400 calling minutes, but no 3G or Wifi service. Not sure what the point of getting that kind of package would be on a 3G network. I asked the rep, and couldn't get any clear answer on that point.

On their web page and on their flyer, at the bottom, it does say... "A CAT reseller:.

Obviously, those folks picked the wrong hotel to die in... Someone should have told them who was in charge there...

Speaking from personal experience, after arriving late at night to BKK via an international flight, and then spending from midnight or 2 am until 6 or 8 am the next morning at Suvarnabhumi waiting for a connecting domestic flight to Chiang Mai (or elsewhere in Thailand) is not an appealing prospect.

The airport is pretty dead during those hours, a few cafes are open 24 hours, but the airline lounges are closed. The hours involved are kind of too short to go anywhere outside or even to sleep at the airport's Novotel, but long enough to be pretty boring -- especially after a long international flight.

So that's one issue to consider in deciding the best routing. Then another is what's the price of the all-international carrier flight you want vs. the cost of the international flight to BKK plus a domestic flight to CNX or wherever, adding in the layover time and potential domestic luggage overweight charges you'd face on a carrier like Air Asia.

I'd suggest the main result here is...the findings are sufficiently vague and non-specific that NO ONE will ever be held or found responsible for these various deaths, including the cluster that occurred at the one particular Chiang Mai Hotel owned by a very prominent local political family and that was never closed for one day throughout this entire process.

With these kinds of findings, even getting a civil judgment in the U.S. courts would be unlikely, I'd say. So you can forget it in terms of anything civil in the Thai court system... Not with this kind of report as the evidence at hand.

Something non-natural clearly caused the deaths of these people, But apparently, we'll never know who actually did it and who was responsible for it, since the authorities can't even say what specific chemical agent was responsible, though they do seem to be able to rule out the bed bug killing chemical that was the subject of the New Zealand TV report.

As others have pointed out above, I do hope everyone does remember the prior, patently silly claims by local authorities in Chiang Mai that the deaths were mere coincidence or from bad seaweed or food poisoning or whatever other un-supported theories they threw at the wall during all the ensuing months. That pretty much tells you just how much you can believe when those people go spouting off their mouths.

I'm a bit of a night owl so late night games aren't a problem.

The other problem I have with watching delayed is I always seem to stumble upon a spoiler. Oddly, Al-Jazera runs American sports scores on their ticker.

Ya, I understand about that... The first year I had NFL Game Rewind, they have a feature in their web player that allows you to display the scores of the already completed games on the video player's home page... So every time I'd sign in, I'd see the score of the game I was about to watch... Fortunately, as I discovered, that feature also has an on-off button in the player, so you can simply turn off the game scores and they never show up again.

I don't watch Al-Jazeera, so I never had a problem with that... But I did used to run into that problem with unofficial Internet streams of games where I'd catch a half-time report that would be giving out the score of an earlier game I hadn't watched yet.. I think I used to run into the same thing sometimes with ASN as well.

Now, I've gotten pretty accustomed to simply avoiding looking at or listening to anything that's going to give me the game scores before I've had a chance to see any game I'm planning to watch. And as I mentioned above, Game Rewind skips all of the network half-time reports, so no problem there.

Ahh... now I'm remembering... When I used to watch via ASN... sometimes toward the end of either the first half or the end of the game, if the current game was slow or uninteresting, there were a couple of game announcers who'd have the habit of suddenly wandering off in their commentary and beginning to talk about conference standings and who'd won or lost earlier in the day... It got to the point where I could mostly tell when those kinds of side tracks were coming, and I'd put the volume on mute until it looked like they'd finished.

Yeah but the beauty of watching a replay on ASN is you don't have to suffer all the BS ads. No halftime? Great. Bring it on. a 3 hour game in 2 hours. Manna from heaven.

Actually, that's an equally good feature of the NFL's Game Rewind service... They cut out all the commercial breaks, timeouts and even halftime... So the video stream/feed you just is just the game itself, with the brief intro and exit at both ends...

I know some people do like the actual U.S. commercials and some want to hear the half-time features and reports... I don't happen to be one of them, however...

But in contrast, this past season, I had the similar video on demand subscription for the NBA playoffs, and they did just the opposite...and probably the worst among bad choices. They included, in real time, all the delays of the commercial breaks and halftime.... But the didn't actually show any of the commercials or halftime features... Instead, every time one of those breaks came along, they went to a canned video message screen and the same boring music - over and over and over again -- saying it's game break time and they'll be back shortly... Now that... repeated endlessly game after game ...made me CRAZY!!

Here's what Netflix's current Terms and Conditions document says... The real "official" Netflix answer is in the Q. and A. item below...

Personal Computer Requirements and Device Limitations: To enjoy watching instantly via your personal computer, your equipment must satisfy certain system requirements. Click here to view the various system requirements. To see partners who offer Netflix ready devices you may use to access our service, click here. YOU MAY INSTANTLY WATCH ON UP TO SIX UNIQUE AUTHORIZED NETFLIX READY DEVICES. YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO INSTANTLY WATCH SIMULTANEOUSLY ON ONLY ONE SUCH DEVICE AT ANY GIVEN TIME. For certain membership plans in the United States, you may instantly watch simultaneously on more than one Netflix ready device within your household. Click here to view the number of devices on which you may simultaneously view movies & TV shows that are associated with your plan. The number of devices and concurrent streams may change without notice to you. For certain limited membership plans in the United States, your available Netflix ready device may be limited to personal computers.

https://account.netf...msOfUse#conduct

The "Click here" link re numbers of simultaneous devices leads to this Q. and A. on the Netflix website:

Q: Can I watch movies instantly on more than one PC or Netflix-ready device?

A: Some membership plans allow you to watch simultaneously on more than one personal computer or Netflix-ready device.

If you are on the Unlimited Streaming plan, the Unlimited Streaming + 1 DVD out-at-a-time plan or a limited streaming plan, you may watch only one device at a time.

If you are on the Unlimited Streaming + 2 DVDs out-at-a-time plan, you may watch on up to two devices at a time.

Members on the Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out-at-a-time plan may watch on up to three devices at a time. The maximum is four devices at a time -- available for members on the Unlimited Streaming + 4-or greater DVDs out-at-a-time plan.

The comments above about Netflix not being available in Thailand are simply wrong... Not officially available, yes... But nonetheless, easily available.

You do need a U.S. address and payment method in order to create a new account. But once that is done, it's easy to obtain the U.S. IP address that the Netflix streaming service will accept in order to deliver its content.

While TV member Negreanu is focused on HD (Hi-Def) content, I should say that regular SD (standard def) content from Netflix can stream perfectly fine here and display fine too, especially on non-big-screen TVs.... And, Netflix own delivery system has built-in scaling, meaning it automatically raises or lowers the stream rate and quality based on the Internet connection that's being used.

As for VPNs, I did an interesting test the other day. Using one of the paid VPN providers, I kept everything else the same and did one set of speed tests using a PPTP-type VPN connection, then disconnected and re-connected via the same provider with its Open VPN/SSL VPN connection. The PPTP-type VPN connection speed tested at almost the same speed as my non-VPN speeds to that USA destination (Los Angeles), while the Open VPN/SSL connection from Los Angeles consistently ran at less than half that speed.

I've tested it lately, so at least for my provider, the both the PPTP and the Open VPN/SSL connections (two different flavors/kinds of VPN) are accepted equally well by Neflix, Hulu and various others. However, at least in my case, I get substantially better speeds when I use the PPTP connection. So it obviously is better for video streaming. (I should note, my VPN plan and provider allows me to use either PPTP, Open VPN/SSL or both simutaneously for about $70 per year, or about $6 per month). Different VPN providers may handle that differently as each set their own plan configurations and pricing.

Working with a local 10 Mbps cable service, in the primetime evening hours, I speed tested to Los Angeles at between 1,500 and 1,800 Kbps download from Los Angeles using a PPTP connection also in Los Angeles, while I got only 400 to 600 Kbps download from Los Angeles using an Open VPN/SSL connection there.

But either way, if someone around these parts wants to stream from the USA, you ideally want to make a VPN server connection on the U.S. west coast, usually San Francisco or Los Angeles, as those not only will give you the necessary IP address but also will tend to have faster speeds than server locations further inland (and farther away from Thailand).

As for the question of whether a Netflix account can have two different people in two different places (or on two different devices) watching at the same time, I've seen different answers on that, and it may depend in part on what kind of Netflix account is involved: streaming only, 1 DVD at a time, or more than 1 DVD at a time. And of course Netflix has been changing their account setups lately to de-couple and charge separately for streaming vs mailed DVDs...

Although I can't personally confirm this, I've seen reports from people with streaming only accounts who says they can have more than one person streaming at the same time without any problem. Likewise, for people with the two or more DVDs at a time plan, I've seen reports saying they've likewise had no problem doing the same, multiple simultaneous streaming. But as I said, I've never personally tried that, so I can't confirm it.

One of the advantages I've found of the 12-15 hour time difference between the U.S. and Thailand is that the typical times for TV watching in Thailand are almost opposite (and different) from the typical TV watching times in the U.S., minimizing the potential for overlap.

I too think the $250 price tag for the NFL Game Pass is ridiculously overpriced... But then again, you've got to remember, it's aimed at an international audience... not Americans (as people might usually think about them).

On the other hand, Game Rewind (every regular season game on demand available in less than 24 hours after the completion of the live game, is a steal at $30 for the entire regular season.

The problem with watching NFL games live in Thailand, whether unofficial streams via the Internet or direct from the NFL, is that they're typically occurring in the midnight to 8 am timeframe Thailand time, when most people are or should be sleeping.

I used to try to watch the games live via those unofficial streams or via ASN on Truevisions cable... but invariably I'd end up falling asleep partway through one of the live broadcasts, and then end up having to watch a repeat on ASN/Truevisions anyway.

The advantage of Game Rewind over ASN and Truevisions, of course, is Game Rewind gives you access to every single game every week all through the season, whenever you want to watch them. ASN/Truevisions, by comparison, typically is carrying the three or so national network broadcasts and then maybe one or two other games as repeats, 5 or 6 different games per week. And those may or may not be whatever teams a particular person might be interested in.

Almost by surprise, the 2011 NFL football season has snuck up on us and we've already had the first week of preseason games. Hard to believe after all the off-season BS with the collective bargaining talks and lockout. But there are some good results from all that...

The NFL seems to be offering discounted rates on its combined live and video-on-demand online game viewing packages for those who can access the internet with U.S. IP addresses...

Here's how those are shaping up:

Right now, the NFL is offering its "Preseason Live" online video package for $19.99 vs. the regular price, and last season's price, of $39.99. The package, with some usual blackout and local market delays, offers the entire preaseason schedule of both live games as they occur, as well as the ability to go back and watch them afterward on demand thru Sept. 11.

As mentioned above, the "Preseason Live" package is only available (and viewable online) to those using U.S. IP addresses. Info and details can be found at:

https://preseason.nf...secure/packages

One un-advertised advantage I discovered when I signed up for the "Preseason Live" package is that once you've done so, in your online NFL account, they're currently offering their regular season NFL "Game Rewind" package for $29.99, $10 off the regular price of $39.99 for the Game Rewind package.

"Game Rewind" provides online video-on-demand access to every regular season NFL game, typically available in less than 24 hours after the conclusion of each individual game. In my experience, live games that start around midnight Thailand time are typically available online on the NFL site by the evening of the next day.

https://gamerewind.n...secure/packages

All of the above compares to the NFL's Game Pass live video and video on demand package for those with outside the U.S. IP addresses that's priced at a pretty hefty $249.96, but does include both the preseason and regular season games.

https://gamepass.nfl...secure/packages

Over the past weekend, I accessed the Preseason Live package via a 10 Mbps cable internet connection that worked just fine. But when my cable connection was running slowly on Sunday morning, I switched to my backup 6 Mbps DSL connection and the NFL video stream played just fine as well. The NFL continues to use Adobe Flash video to provide its streams.

So basically, a combined preseason and regular season package for those with U.S. IP addresses prices out at about $50 -- $19.99 for the preseason package and $29.99 for the Game Rewind package... Compared to almost $250 for the international Game Pass package, which does include the advantage of offering live access to the regular season games, whereas the Game Rewind service regular season games are delayed...

Do the Thai banks still charge you 150 baht? Is it a debit card? Can you direct deposit into it?

I'll look into it before I leave.

I still think you work for them.

In answer to your question, I don't and never have... Have absolutely no current or past business/employment or investment/economic relationship with anything to do with banking or finance... I'm strictly a consumer...

But in answer to your questions, I'm assuming you mean about the Schwab accounts....

The Schwab checking account comes with a Visa logo debit card.... If you use that card at a Thai bank ATM to withdraw funds from your Schwab checking account, the Thai bank ATM will assess the 150 baht foreign card fee...the same as with using any other non-Thai bank card.

The only difference is, Schwab at the end of each calendar month automatically reimburses you for any of those ATM fees you've been charged by other banks....whether they're other banks in the U.S., in Thailand, or anywhere else for that matter... No claim forms or receipts to submit... They just do it automatically as a month end credit to your account.

And, as I mentioned before, unlike most if not all of the major U.S. banks, Schwab doesn't charge any foreign currency exchange fee on ATM withdrawals or POS purchase transactions done outside the U.S. -- compared to the typical 3% surcharge tacked on by a lot of the other big banks.... Between those two features, it has the potential to save someone quite a bit of money.

As for your direct deposit question, I believe the answer is yes... It's just like any other bank checking account, so you'll have an account number and ABA/routing number... You provide those to whomever you want to be doing the direct deposit, and then it will show up in your account each month, with the funds accessible in the same manner as any other normal checking account.

The one limitation that I should mention, which really is a minor one, requires a bit of explaining... If you do this with Schwab, you'll have two linked accounts in their online banking setup, one the checking, and two the brokerage... And, with their online banking, you have the ability to move funds immediately back and forth between those two Schwab accounts as you might wish via electronic transfer... Nothing unusual there.

You also have the ability, the same with many other banks, to electronically link your Schwab accounts to your other accounts at other banks, so you can do free ACH (online electronic funds transfers) from your Schwab account to other external accounts you hold, or in reverse, pull funds from other accounts you hold into your Schwab accounts.

The one limitation is that Schwab, unlike most banks, still requires account holders to mail in a paper form to set up those kinds of links to their checking account, whereas most banks these days offer the ability to do that online via a process involving trial deposits.... I'm talking only about a one-time setup process here for any new linked account, and not about what's required for making online funds transfers...just to be clear.

But I said above this is a minor issue and it is, because, inexplicably, Schwab does allow online only linking (no mailed form required) between your external accounts and their Schwab brokerage account... So, you could always just push or pull funds into/out of your brokerage account and any online linked accounts there, and then do an immediate online transfer from your brokerage account into your Schwab checking account... Takes about 30 seconds and a few clicks to do online.

If you read through the many comments that others here on TV have posted in the banking forum on the value of banking with Schwab, that latter issue is pretty much the only negative comment that anyone here has had... So it's not just me who's offering that opinion and assessment. It's recognizing a good deal when you see it.

BTW, anyone interested in a Schwab account should open it from the U.S., not once they might already be abroad. It's much simpler and easier that way...

Just to clarify here, Shotime...

Taking advantage of Schwab Bank's checking account, which includes their ATM fee refunds feature and no foreign currency charges, doesn't in any way mean they're "managing your money."

The checking account comes automatically with a Schwab brokerage account. But the brokerage account has no minimums, no required use or balances, no trading requirements... If the account holder desired, it could sit there empty in perpetuity... all the while you're still using their checking account and enjoying its advantages.

I personally think greed is good, at least in so far as not wanting to give any of MY money to banks in the way of various fees and charges... That's the very nice thing about the Schwab checking account is that it's basically fee-free in every respect.

Wasn't Schwab one of those firms that had to be bailed out by the government? Wasn't it involved with scams that cost a lot of people their money? Didn't their executives take a lot of money for themselves in bonuses and retirements?

There are plenty of U.S. banks that might fit your comments above, but I'm not sure Schwab is one of them... They certainly didn't take any TARP funds.

From Forbes.com:

They Turned Down The TARP

Maurna Desmond, 01.23.09, 10:00 AM EST

Some 20% of major U.S. banks and thrifts have declined taxpayer money. Here's who, and why.

Not every bank in America wants to suckle at the taxpayer teat. Roughly one-fifth, or 123, of the major banks and thrifts in the U.S. have actually opted out of the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, according to data freshly compiled by SNL Financial. It's an odd lot of firms, from the Charles Schwab Corp. (nasdaq: SCHW - news - people ) and Hudson City Bancorp (nasdaq: HCBK - news - people ), with more than $50 billion in assets apiece, to Whittier, Calif-based Friendly Hills Bank and Bank of Napa and their $61 million in reserves.

But TARP decliners are similar where it counts. Most are stuck with crusty, old lending practices. They didn't get over-leveraged or loaded up with high-yielding investments that later turned toxic.

http://www.forbes.co...d_0123tarp.html

Shotime, I have no idea what your past history has been with Schwab...

But the fact is, for those who spend a lot of time abroad, they offer one of the best bank accounts available anywhere...including automatically reimbursing foreign ATM fees, no questions asked.

And in my experience as a customer of theirs (that's my only connection with them) along with many other posters here, Schwab's been nothing but great in recent years...

Sorry Pib... you're out of luck....

The deadline for filing claims in this litigation has long passed... No chance for anyone to file any claim now...

But back when the claim period was open a couple years ago, there were several different ways people could submit... ranging from simple to complicated.

One of the methods, I believe the one I ended up using, was not to use any kind of actual receipts, but instead to recount the number of days you were traveling outside the U.S. during the period covered by the litigation, which was pretty easy to do working from passport stamps... Then, I guess, they would end up applying some kind of per diem rate to those days when they ended up calculating the actual payments, depending on the number and value of the total claims filed...

Back then, they knew the amount of the proposed settlement, but didn't know how many claims would be filed... Today was the first time I saw their web site total that number... more than 10 MILLION claims... So anyone who filed a claim is only going to end up getting a fraction of their amount... But...it's better than nothing.