Finding Information On The Web Fast

Courtesy of Tom Hill Institute Eaglezine blog today, I know of a website called www.Refdesk.com which contains links to hundreds of tools to track down almost any information. For example, it links to dozens of encyclopedias, general ones like Britanica and specific ones like legal and technology encyclopedias. It contains links to “Ask the Expert” sites, all kinds of newspapers, specialty search engines, classic reference works such as The Elements of Style, and much, much more.  www.Refdesk.com    is like having the ultimate library reference desk at your fingertips, 24-7, free.

"The real world is much smaller than the imaginary." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I asked the Google option on RefDesk a question that came up today with a grandchild “which mammal sleeps the fewest hours per night?”  I knew the answer, and tried to find it on the Google search on this website.  It actually gave it to me on the very first hit.  But I noticed that this one is called Custom Google Search – wonder how that varies from the normal Google ?  I found valuable links all over the RefDesk website home page.  For example check out https://gethuman.com/  This one tells you the phone number to get quick and good support from many companies – avoiding their usually worthless main-phone-number they post on websites and such.  This one will tell you the real human line where (hopefully a smart) person will answer and give you help or direct you to the correct person quickly. 

PS == the sleep question answer is the Giraffe, sleeps only 2 hours a day (or night). 

What Is The Best Travel Reward Credit Card?

This question comes to my mind often, especially when I have to pay the annual fee on my two credit cards. I primarily use a card that is connected to my most often used airline, but have considering changing to get a better deal. There is a new website that advises individuals on the best ways to stretch their budget (www.wisebread.com) and I noticed today they had a nice article on choosing the most valuable (profitable) credit card.  All cards have good and bad aspects; however, this article spells out some excellent choices.

http://www.wisebread.com/top-5-travel-reward-credit-cards?ref=nav

I found it interesting that they came up with the same #1 choice as several other stories I have read in magazines of all types.  It is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred®  has a booking site and you get 20% off travel booked there if you have the card. The card offers double points for dining and travel transactions (1 point per $1 on other purchases). No foreign transaction fees. The annual fee of $95 is waived for the first year. You earn 50,000 bonus points when you sign up, if you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. That's $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Therefore, by switching cards you could pickup $625 in free travel the first year, not a bad deal. Will switching cards every few years hurt your credit rating?  Please comment below, especially if you have experience in this matter. I am curious.

PS – the Wisebread website appears to be new, and incomplete, not yet a great resource, so I can’t recommend it other than the reprinted credit card article.